The NBI website as of 9:55PM, Monday, January 23, 2012 (Manila time)
MANILA, Philippines — A local hacking group appears to have taken down access to the website of the Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), just days after agency websites in the US suffered a similar attack.
In a post on its Facebook page, the Anonymous #OccupyPhilippines group posted a link to the NBI website, which was rendered inaccessible as of posting time.
The group’s post was accompanied by the text: “up down up down down down down.” attack was used to take down access to the site.
DDoS is a form of cyber attack used by hacking groups to take down particular websites, which involves overwhelming the website’s server by executing external commands from a number of terminals, subsequently crippling the server indefinitely.
It is not confirmed, however, if the group was directly responsible for the downtime at NBI’s website. The purported attack came just days after the attack of hacktivist group Anonymous on the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website following the shutdown of the file-sharing site Megaupload on Friday.
Aside from the FBI website, the websites of the Department of Justice, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Universal Music were also attacked on Friday.
Over the weekend, groups affiliated with the international hacking group appear to have launched a series of attacks on websites of entities supporting anti-piracy measures around the world.
On Saturday, the French presidential website was briefly hijacked by the group, along with a couple of Brazilian websites. On Monday night, another group took down the Polish government website.
The hackers were moving to protest the passage of critical anti-piracy laws that, they claim, would forever change the dynamics of the Internet, including the recently shelved Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) bills in the US, as well as the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
Related stories:
‘Anonymous’ hackers attack Polish state website
‘Anonymous’ hackers attack Brazilian websites
‘Anonymous’ hackers briefly hijack French Elysee website
FBI Website taken down by ‘Anonymous‘
