Anonymous Hits Websites in China, England in Protests

Anonymous hackers reportedly are putting the Chinese and British governments back into their crosshairs.

A person claiming to be part of the Anonymous China group that attacked hundreds of Chinese government and commercial sites and defaced many of them last week said the hackers are gearing up for similar efforts in the country in hopes of stirring unrest among Chinese citizens and taking apart firewall operations the country uses to block content from places like Google, YouTube and Facebook.

Speaking to Reuters and using the online name f0ws3r, a hacker said more attacks in the country are planned.

"First, we want to alert the Chinese government that we aren’t afraid, and we are going to show the truth and fight for justice," f0ws3r told Reuters.

Anonymous is a loose collective of hackers who have targeted government agencies and businesses around the world–including in the United States–for protests or in retaliation for something they view as wrong on unjust. In the recent attacks in China, the group hacked into and defaced hundreds of sites, railing against what they say is Chinese government oppression.

On some of the defaced sites, the hackers left a message, written in English: “Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible; today, Websites are hacked; tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall. So expect us because we do not forgive, never. What you are doing today to your Great People, tomorrow will be inflicted on you. With no mercy.”

The hacker f0ws3r, contacted by Reuters through the Anonymous China Twitter account, said the group was planning more attacks, a few at a time, with the hope of taking down the Great Firewall of China.

The hacker, who gave no personal details, said there are 10 to 12 people in the Anonymous China group–most of them not based in China, and who were working with hundreds of translators to help them break into the Chinese Websites.

A British branch of Anonymous reportedly was responsible for a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on the country s Home Office that also impacted England’s Downing Street Website, the site of the prime minister s office. Hackers were able to launch the attack April 7 despite announcing it was coming several days before, according to a report in The Telegraph.

The attack apparently was motivated by anger over England’s extradition treaty with the United States. The British branch first talked about its anger over the extradition situation April 2 at #OpTrialAtHome, with a photo of Gary McKinnon, Richard O Dwyer and Christopher Tappin, three British citizens sent to the United States for trial for crimes, including hacking into U.S. military and NASA systems, copyright infringement and selling missile batteries to Iran.

Anonymous hackers said they plan to conduct similar attacks on British government sites every week, and reportedly said on a Twitter account that what they were doing is “a digital protest which is different from hacking. UK want their government to listen. We can do it as long as it takes.”

Another Twitter message reportedly read: “You should not give UK citizens to foreign countries without evidence. If an offence happened in the UK, so should the trial.”

To read the original eWeek article, click here: Anonymous Hackers Take Aim Again at China, England