© 2024
NPR for Northern Colorado
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Group Accused Of Sony 'Hack' Disables Spanish Police Website

People wearing masks often used by a group that calls itself "Anonymous"  take part in a rally in Madrid on May 15, 2011.
Arturo Rodriguez
/
AP
People wearing masks often used by a group that calls itself "Anonymous" take part in a rally in Madrid on May 15, 2011.

We reported last week that Spanish authorities had arrested three people they said were members of the cyber activist collective Anonymous who were inovlved in the hacking of Sony's Playstation database.

Over the weekend, the group said it launched a Denial of Service Attack against the Spanish Police website in retaliation. The site, the BBC reports, was down for about an hour, last night.

In a press release posted on a website associated with Anonymous, the group issued a warning. "You are providing us with fuel, but you must expect the fire," the release read.

The release also defends Anonymous' actions, specifically DDoS attacks in which computers send out so many calls to a server that it overwhelms it and takes it offline. In the rambling post, they write:

First and foremost, DDoSing is an act of peaceful protest on the Internet. The activity is no different than sitting peacefully in front of a shop denying entry. Just as is the case with traditional forms of protest...

Regardless of how many times you are told, you refuse to understand. There are no leaders of Anonymous. Anonymous is not based on personal distinction...

The BBC adds that Spanish police could not confirm whether Anonymous was behind the attack.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.