The news broke very late Friday night.. Anonymous, the group blamed for historic hackings in the past, struck again. This time it was in response to the suicide of Aaron Swartz. REDDIT's Swartz's suicide was blamed by some on the government's overzealous crackdown on his operations. Today, USSC.GOV was taken down and replaced by this message:
Citizens of the world,Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the "discretion" or prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain."Family of Swartz and friends alike said he killed himself after the government hounded him for posting documents free online--documents the government accused him of downloading illegally..
The line has been crossed, said Anonymous..
Also included with the hack is a threat from the group: They intend on releasing 'sensitive information' about the Justice Department.. The FBI said it was aware of the threat and handling it as a 'criminal investigation'.. CNN also reported this in its dispatch today:
A YouTube video accompanied the message, and made use of images from Cold War nuclear scenarios and games of strategy. The letter contained nuclear metaphors to refer to chunks of embarrassing information.
The hackers said they have obtained "enough fissile material for multiple warheads," which it would launch against the justice department and "its associated executive branches."
It gave the "warheads" the names of U.S. Supreme Court justices, such as Thomas.Warhead1 after Justice Clarence Thomas or Ginsburg.Warhead1 after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
And at this time, 12:12 pm on the East Coast Saturday afternoon, USSC.GOV is still down for the count.