Anonymous hackers target US agency site

Hackers claiming to be from the activist group Anonymous have hacked a US government website in response to the death of Aaron Swartz.

Activists embedded a video statement on the homepage of the United States Sentencing Commission, an agency of the US government.

The statement referred to the death of Mr Swartz, an internet activist who apparently killed himself in January.

"Two weeks ago today, a line was crossed," the statement said.

"Two weeks ago today, Aaron Swartz was killed. Killed because he faced an impossible choice. Killed because he was forced into playing a game he could not win."

Mr Swartz, who was 26, was facing hacking charges and is believed to have taken his own life.

His federal trial was due to be held next month. If found guilty, he could have faced up to 35 years in prison.

Following his death, Mr Swartz's family released a statement blaming "intimidation" and "prosecutorial overreach" from the criminal justice system.

'Operation last resort'

The attack on the website was scheduled to begin at midnight eastern standard time, according to documents that appear to have been posted online by Anonymous activists.

Later on Saturday the website was not functioningThe USSC is responsible for issuing sentencing guidelines for US federal courts.

The hackers, who had labelled the attack "Operation Last Resort", said the site was chosen for symbolic reasons.

"The federal sentencing guidelines... enable prosecutors to cheat citizens of their constitutionally-guaranteed right to a fair trial, by a jury of their peers [and] are a clear violation of the 8th amendment protection against cruel and unusual punishments," the video statement said.

The statement also suggested the hackers had sensitive information relating to a number of US judges that may be made public.

There have been numerous attacks by hackers operating under the Anonymous banner in recent months.

On Thursday two British men were jailed after taking part in an attacks on payment services including Paypal, organised by Anonymous.

Government websites of the UK and other countries have also been the subjects of attacks.

Anonymous hacker group: Two jailed for cyber attacks

Two men who carried out cyber attacks for the Anonymous hacking group have been jailed.

Christopher Weatherhead, 22, of Northampton, and Ashley Rhodes, 28, of Camberwell, London, were jailed for 18 months and seven months respectively.

The two men carried out distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks which paralyse computer systems by flooding them with online requests.

The ones they attacked included payment site PayPal, costing it £3.5m.

Co-defendant Peter Gibson, of Hartlepool, was given a six-month sentence, suspended for two years.

Another defendant, Jake Birchall, 18, from Chester, will be sentenced on 1 February.

'You're being stung'

The sentences were handed down at Southwark Crown Court and are thought to be the first convictions for DDoS in the UK.

Weatherhead and Rhodes were found guilty of conspiring to impair the operation of computers between 1 August 2010 and 22 January 2011.

Gibson was deemed to have played a lesser role in the conspiracy and admitted his part, as did Birchall.

The websites targeted by the cyber attacks were chosen by Anonymous, as part of what it called Operation Payback, because the hackers did not agree with their views.Other companies hit by the attacks included Mastercard and Visa.

Southwark Crown Court had previously heard that PayPal was attacked after it decided not to process payments on behalf of the Wau Holland Foundation, an organisation involved in raising funds for the Wikileaks website.

Visitors to the affected websites in this case would be directed to a page displaying the message: "You've tried to bite the Anonymous hand. You angered the hive and now you are being stung."

Handing down his sentences, Judge Peter Testar said: "It is intolerable that when an individual or a group disagrees with a particular entity's activities, they should be free to curtail that activity by means of attacks such as those which took place in this case."

Prosecutor Joel Smith said theirs was a "persistent campaign" designed to "cause damage, financial losses and press exposure".

'Ideological twizzle'

The judge said the DDoS attacks had not been particularly sophisticated.

"What was sophisticated was the lengths taken to protect the identities of those involved," he said.

"The investigators are really to be commended for breaking down the wall of anonymity that was put up in order to prevent the activity of these conspirators being interrupted."

The Ministry of Sound estimated the cost of the attack on its sites as £9,000, while the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's costs were more than £20,000 and the British Phonographic Industry's more than £4,000.

The financial impact on MasterCard and Visa were not revealed to the court, although Weatherhead once boasted online at having caused £1m worth of damage to MasterCard.

Gibson suggested attacking the website of singer Lily Allen, now known by her married name of Lily Cooper, as a possible target to Rhodes at one point. He agreed with the idea but the attack never went ahead.

Judge Testar told the court: "They got themselves into a bit of an ideological twizzle.

"On one hand, they wanted to attack her because she had taken a stand against breach of copyright. But on the other hand, they didn't like the idea of attacking artists."