The Federal Trade Commission and the Bureau of Consumer Protection were attacked by AntiSec Thursday and into Friday, in response to their support and participation in ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and issues with Google’s recent privacy policy changes.
ACTA has been signed by several countries so far, but it has been met with strong and vocal protests online. After that, Google’s recent changes to their privacy policy have also come under fire online. In truth, recent events have left privacy advocates with no shortage of things to focus on.
In a statement, an FTC spokeswoman confirmed AntiSec’s claims of attack.
“The Bureau of Consumer Protection’s Business Center website and the partnership site NCPW run by the Federal Trade Commission were hacked earlier today. The FTC takes these malicious acts seriously. The sites have been taken down and will be brought back up when we’re satisfied that any vulnerability has been addressed.”
AntiSec listed several domains, including cosumer.gov, ncpw.gov, and several FTC sub-domains, in their announcement of the attacks. According to statements, they were completely wiped of any content.
“Even more bothersome than your complete lack of competence in maintaining your own f*****g websites and serving the citizens you are supposed to be protecting, is the US federal government’s support of ACTA,” AntiSec supporters said.
“If ACTA is signed by all participating negotiating countries, you can rest assured that AntiSec will bring a fucking mega-uber-awesome war that rain torrential hellfire down on all enemies of free speech, privacy, and internet freedom. We will systematically knock all evil corporations and governments off of our internet.”
Previously, the FTC was targeted in January when OnguardOnline.com was brought to its knees. This week’s attack also came with the announcement that AntiSec was sitting on “hundreds of rooted servers getting ready to drop all your mysql dumps.”
“Oh wait, what’s that? Your passwords? Addresses? Your precious bank accounts? Even your online dating details?! (yep, We know you’re cheating on your…well, we won’t get into that here. Yet.) Yep, we know all about you. All of your little secrets will be laid bare for the world to see. So, how does it feel to be the one spied on?”
