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June 18th, 2011 
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Hackers hit government websites in Malaysia to protest the country’s Internet restrictions, continuing its hacktivist campaign with full force.
The attack on the 91 Malaysian websites, over half of which were government pages, is being attributed to the leaderless hacking group Anonymous. Malaysian officials said all but 20 of the pages are back online, and since the exploit is a serious legal offence, law enforcement agencies are now actively looking for culprits.
While Anonymous did not officially lay claim to the attacks, it is likely a Malaysian branch of the loosely organized league is responsible, since the group warned Malaysian authorities it would strike to preserve Internet freedoms. In its warning, Anonymous said it was planning an attack in retaliation to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, or MCMC, block of 10 file-sharing websites, in an effort by the government to combat piracy.
Anonymous contended Malaysia violated its own 1996 pledge to allow uncensored online content by taking down the websites.
“We have seen the censorship taken by the Malaysian government, blocking sites like The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks,” the group said in a YouTube video that aired prior to the hacks. “These acts of censorship are inexcusable. You are taking away a basic human right. The Internet is here for freedom, without fear of government interference.”
Anonymous’ actions in Malaysia follow close on the heels of its other politically motivated hacks in Turkey and Spain. After Spanish authorities arrested three Anons who allegedly participated in distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks against Sony, Anonymous struck back by downing Spain’s police website.
Also Turkey’s plan to filter its Internet service starting August 22 angered Anonymous members, who fired DDoS potshots against governmental websites in response. Their online activities echoed public sentiment, as 50,000 people on June 6 gathered in the streets chanting “don’t touch my Internet.”
In response, Turkish authorities Monday arrested 32 Anonymous members for participating in the politically charged DDoS campaign.
As Anonymous mentioned in its Malaysian video, the group is irate that the government pulled the WikiLeaks site, a treasure trove of secret diplomatic cables and other such sensitive information collected in an effort to expose worldwide governmental corruption.
After the U.S. took the same action against the site in 2010, Anonymous caught the public eye when it targeted major credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard for denying payments to WikiLeaks.
Anonymous’ politically motivated hacks differ from other hackers’ approach. The group denied taking part in the massive data breach against Sony, saying it is not in the business of stealing credit card numbers.
Though Anonymous claims not to do such things, other unidentified hackers recently have freely broken into companies like Citigroup, the International Monetary Fund, Lockheed Martin and countless others.
Other hacker groups like LulzSec, believed to be an offshoot of Anonymous, have other motivations to hack: “for the lulz.” Its exploits, according to the website, are designed to create high-class entertainment by making slight of companies’ and even governmental websites’ poor security. For example, LulzSec recently downed the CIA and Senate websites, besides hitting Sony and other gaming companies multiple times.
They even posted a fake story on PBS saying rapper Tupac Shakur was alive and well in New Zealand.
Anonymous’ latest Malaysian move suggests the group intends to continue its activities so long as governments try to tame the online Wild West. Other hackers will likely keep up their DDoS attacks too, though for entirely different reasons.
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