Anonymous warns NZ government over File Sharing law

UPDATED:  Anonymous appear to have a Facebook page, a new channel for posting their videos, and a website, and Orcon CEO Scott Bartlett is calling claims that his company is disconnecting users protesting the Copyright (Infringing FIle Sharing) Amendment Bill "rubbish".

All three sites host the video pulled from YouTube yesterday, now available again with the title [NEW].

Mr Bartlett told NBR today that claims Orcon was disconnecting any users who were protesting the new bill, particularly those using the Facebook page mentioned below, were rubbish, and that Orcon had always been a strong opponent to the bill.

"Additionally I was personally involved in helping establish the original black out campaign."

He said disconnecting users for protesting was not just against the law, but against Orcon's principles.

Meanwhile the Anonymous Facebook page, called Anonops.tk, shares various Anonymous sites, bringing the group's name slightly into question.  In its 'Like' section is the Facebook page Opposing The Copyright (Infringing FIle Sharing) Amendment Bill. Also worth a watch is the Who Is Anonymous? video on the group's home page Anonyops.com for the world's most irritating voice, where Anonymous is described as "the art of being indignant".

The video also details the hacking of security firm HBGary Federal in February.  CEO Aaron Barr claimed to have infiltrated Anonymous earlier this year, and leaked emails revealed intentions to sell information about the identities of suspected Anonymous members to the FBI.  Mr Barr claimed to have gathered this information via social engineering, Facebook, Twitter and IRC.  In February, Anonymous hacked HBGary, copying documents and posting tens of thousands of emails online including some which incriminated the Bank of America in a dirty tricks campaign aimed at stopping WikiLeaks release of the bank's internal documents.  The group hacked Mr Barr's Twitter account, reportedly tweeting his social security number and home address.

Senior communications advisor for the Department of Internal Affairs Tony Wallace said today that there had been no outages on March 29, the day Anonymous said it would attack the department's website.  "There may have been technical problems with the website that day but we get those from time to time anyway."

There were intermittent outages in the weeks leading up to March 29, including the intermittent unavailability of the Civil Defence website for about two hours as news reached New Zealand of the Japanese tsunami.  The department said at the time that its web servers had run out of memory.

Mr Wallace said nothing specifically had been done to the department's systems before March 29 to prepare for the Anonymous attack, but that the department was "constantly monitoring and improving our systems so we that we can be resilient to any sort of attack".

"Our systems were fine, we've got no information that indicates that we've had a denial of service attack from Anonymous or anyone else."

#OpNZBlackOut is listed on the Anonyops home page as a current operation, as is #OpSony, which reports say might not be going all that well.

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The online collective Anonymous, which threatened to launch a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the Department of Internal Affairs, has posted a new video on YouTube warning the New Zealand government it now has the groups' "full attention."

The group posted a video in February threatening to bring down the Internal Affairs' website in retaliation for the deparment's voluntary internet filter. The department has said the filter is to prevent the proliferation and traffic in child sexual abuse images and videos, but many have argued that the filter is the start of a slippery slope.

The attack, threatened for March 29 at 11am, never went through - the department's website stayed up and running throughout the day, after reports from an open source developer, known to NBR, who had hunted the group's Internet Relay Channel (IRC) that she had been trying to make the members "see sense" in their apparent disregard for the Civil Defence website becoming collateral damage.

But before this the department's parent site, and daughter Civil Defence website, suffered intermittent outages in the lead up to March 29, which some said was the work of Anonymous.  The department said at the time that there was no evidence to suggest this.

Another video appeared today on YouTube from Anonymous, saying it had been re-uploaded.  It was removed within half an hour.  The message, read by an electronic voice, said:

"This is a message to the New Zealand government.  We are Anonymous. We have been watching the actions taken by you and your legislation. 

"The passing of the Infringing File Sharing Bill is both a form of censorship and an invasion of privacy.  Anonymous will not let this go by unnoticed.  Your beliefs that one is guilty until proven innocent is an unlawful and unjust policy. 

"We do not believe that one, when accused of copyright infringement should be questioned by their internet support provider and eligible to pay a $15,000 fine unless proven innocent. 

"We do not believe that one, when accused of copyright infringement should be sentenced to six months suspension of internet usage unless proven innocent. 

"We do not believe that one, when accused of copyright infringement shall be called a criminal in the eyes of the Government for the simple act of accessing information unless proven innocent. 

"Those opposing the copyright law via online protest - we are with you. 

"New Zealand, you now have the full attention Anonymous.  We are Anonymous.  We are legion. We do not forgive.  We do not forget.  Expect us."

Anonymous launched a series of DDoS attacks against the MasterCard, PayPal and Visa sites earlier this year after the companies refused to process payments to WikiLeaks, after the site leaked secret US diplomatic cables.