Anonymous Threatens Facebook Shutdown Jan. 28
Anonymous is planning to target Facebook in an attack Jan. 28 — at least that’s what a video uploaded to YouTube Monday is claiming in the name of the hacker network.
And you thought a day without Wikipedia was bad.
“An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people and the government of the United States,” the video begins. “While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from Congress, this doesn’t guarantee that our Internet rights will be upheld.”
Following the U.S. government shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload Friday, Anonymous attacked the U.S. Department of Justice’s website, among others.
Monday’s YouTube video calls on the American people to participate in the hack by downloading Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), the tool that was successfully used to target the Department of Justice. LOIC crashes websites by sending thousands of information packets to their servers.
The video gives instructions for downloading and running the program, as well as a time — 12 a.m. on Jan. 28 — to launch the attack. No time zone, however, is distinguished.
“Would you like to become part of the greatest Internet protests and first official cyber war?,” the video asks. “Operation Global Blackout is ongoing and everyone can be a part of it.
Facebook, of course, is one of the world’s largest websites, operating through thousands of servers located across the world. In the video, Anonymous acknowledges the difficulties of attacking such a large site.
“While it is true that Facebook has at least 60,000 servers, it is still possible to bring it down,” says the Anonymous voice. “Anonymous needs the help of the people.”
YouTube commenters have raised an important question, Why would Anonymous want to crash Facebook, after the site came out against SOPA and PIPA?
The video essentially equates the privately-owned company with the U.S. government, with no explanation for the linkage. CNET postulates that Zuckerberg took too long to voice his opposition, landing his social network a spot on the potential targets list.
We’ve heard this threat before from the global network of hactivists, who promised to shut down the site Nov. 5, 2011, over user privacy concerns. Ultimately, no attack was executed and the loosely-connected hacker network called the threat the work of peripheral members.
January 28th, 2012 (12 AM MIDNIGHT EASTERN STANDARD TIME UNITED STATES!!!)http://sourceforge.net/projects/loic/ http://rapidshare.com/files/436018600/Hoic2.1.zip http://www.torproject.org/download/download.html.en http://www.facebook.com and hit lock on... It will tell you facebooks ip address. Because there are different servers, there will be more than one ip address that will pop up on different instances, but they will all be similar. Next you will go to the box that says attack options. Change the threads to 1000. Then you will hit the button that says IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER... tHIS WILL NOT WORK if everyone does it at random times... This is why... I would like to conduct this operation at exactly 12 A M on January 28th 2012. A five day preparation... That way... We will have a stronger army built up to fight for our rights... Do not fear... There is no way you can get caught... Hundreds of thousands of us citizens and those of the anonymous idea will all be participating... They cannot take down that large of a group... This is your chance... Our chance... The fate of the internet... Rests in your hands... In owr, hands... Government Of The United States... Leaders of the new world order... You have been warned... Operation Global Blackout Part 2, Facebook. Engaged... We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. They should of Expected us... BONUS: A Brief History of Anonymous
