Computer Attacks – State Sponsored or Hacktivist’s?

Hactivism or Technojacks, the phenonemon of distributed denial of service DDoS is becoming more evident today in the spheres of both anti-government activism and anti-corporate anarchists but the message is clear…. If “hackers” can attack both the established government or economics powerhouses in the corporate world, WHAT is the potential for State sponsored attacks on nations, corporate espionage, or groups that they are targeting?  The “conventional” war is still a part of todays way of thinking but how far away is it from reality to destroy another nation without setting foot on the battlefield?

Recently the website of Reed Financial management was shut down with a DDoS attack and but for the saving grace of their Facebook page they would have been incommunicado with their customers,  The story below published in the SMH is about “Anonymous” who have published private data on AAPT customers to protest and highlight their concerns about the privacy issues surrounding storage of web data legislation.  What this really highlights for me however is the ease with which back-door entry into any aspect of society is possible……

For the full story in the Sydney Morning Herald click here

The image above is what Anonymous Australia used in a YouTube video explaining why it did the AAPT hack.

• Hackers steal AAPT customer data to protest web spying proposal

Hackers from the world’s most notorious hacking group Anonymous have begun publishing customer information they stole from Australian ISP AAPT last week – which in some cases includes client mobile phone numbers – to highlight the dangers of a proposal to force telcos to store every Australian’s web history for up to two years.

Some of the customer records posted online include the desk telephone and mobile telephone numbers of AAPT business customers, potentially giving away enough information to someone who wanted to steal a person’s identity.

Although most of the data published so far, which the hackers began putting online over the weekend, has been redacted, it shows federal, state and local government departments (among other business clients) as customers of AAPT.