Anonymous, the hackavist group has launched a spate of DDoS attacks against many websites in retaliation for the deferral law enforcement agencies shutting down the popular file sharing website Megaupload. The details on how Anonymous carried out such a sustained and large scale attack is slowly unraveling.
The DDoS attacks against the U.S. Department of Justice website began just hours after it announced the arrest of four men associated with the Megaupload. The attacks soon spread to the websites of Universal Music, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and others. Anonymous, through a Twitter post claims it to be its largest operation till data, and reveals that 5,600 people collaborated to make the attack possible.
Anonymous used the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) tool, which it has deployed in earlier large scale attacks as well. Members of Anonymous supposedly used Twitter and other social media to distribute links pointing to PasteHTML.com, a free HTML code hosting site. When recipients clicked on the link, it executed a JavaScript that launched a Web version of LOIC directed at the designated targets. The modus operandi suggests that not all the 5,600 perpetrators may be willing accomplices. Such a method also allows genuine Anonymous members to argue that they clicked on the link inadvertently, without knowing it was part of a DDoS attack, when the law comes knocking.
Anonymous for its part is still recruiting people for the attacks, which it vows will continue. The links that trigger the DDoS attack spread through the social media at the rate of 10 to 18 times a minute.
JAN
