Intellectual Property Law

Hackers Deface Aussie Censorship Board's Website

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

Australia's official online censorship board's web page was offline Thursday, hours after hackers hijacked it to protest revelations the government was going to require ISPs to block public access to thousands of websites, many of which aren't obscene.

Anonymous hackers defaced the Censorship Board's homepage -- classification.gov.au -- and restated the board's public message in a chilling and humorous tone.

"We are part of an elaborate deception from China to control and sheepify the nation, to protect the children," one part of the five-sentence message read, according to a screenshot. "All opposers must hate children, and therefore must be killed with a (sic) large melons?."

The defacement, first reported by The Register, came a week after WikiLeaks exposed a secret blacklist of web pages the Australian government is considering permanently filtering from the internet.

The list of some 2,395 web pages includes the usual suspects of sites pertaining to child pornography, extreme violence and even bestiality. However, not all the sites are offensive, and include links to rank-and-file pornography, YouTube videos, poker sites, WikiLeaks entries and even URLs to a Queensland dentist and dog-boarding kennel.

See Also:

• Hacker Hijacks Website of Hacking Tool Maker
• Comcast.net Hijacked, Redirected
• ICANN and IANA Sites Hacked, Redirected
• Clues to Massive Hacks Hidden in Plain Sight
• Air Force Colonel Wants to Build a Military Botnet
• Comcast Hijackers Say They Warned the Company First
• IFPI Site Hacked to Protest Pirate Bay Trial

Full post as published by Threat Level on March 26, 2009 (boomark / email).