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PM Tusk's web site hacked in anti-ACTA protest

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 23.01.2012 08:01
Though Anonymous has said it has suspended attacks over the weekend on Polish government web sites, other groups have joined in the action against the proposed anti-piracy ACTA legislation.

Tusk
Tusk web site hacked, Monday

At 07.00 CET, Monday morning, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's web site was still offline, following attacks by hackers protesting against Poland signing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), designed to combat internet piracy.

Earlier, the Prime Minister's Office web site appeared online but with a front page bordered in black with the slogan, “Hacked by the Polish Underground: Stop ACTA”, alongside video of a Donald Tusk-like figure dressed in dark glasses and army uniform, in the style of General Jaruzelski when he announced the beginning of the martial law crackdown against Solidarity activists in 1981.

On Sunday morning, government web sites, including the culture and defence ministries crashed as the Anonymous group of hacktivists tweeted that the “Polish revolution is beginning”.

On Monday morning, the Anonymous group said it had suspended its action against the government until after a meeting between Prime Minister Tusk and ministers of culture, digitalization and foreign affairs today to discuss Poland signing the international ACTA legislation, scheduled for 26 January.

Minister for Digitalization, Michal Boni, admitted last night that there had been, so far, a lack of public consultation on the ACTA legislation.

Boni said there is “a need for dialogue and consultation here in Poland”.

The Ministry of Culture has indicated that ACTA, already signed by the United States and other non-EU nations, must not violate freedom of expression in its fight against online piracy.

Other groups have appeared to continue the attack on government sites, however, this morning, using denial-of-service (DOS) attacks and other means, whuch bombard sites with requests until they crash.

With the US Congress suspending further work on the SOPA and PIPA draft laws after Wikipedia blacked out its pages for 24 hours in protest against the legislation, attention has now turned on ACTYA, which EU countries must sign before May 2013.

ACTA is essentially a trade agreement where nations coordinate laws to fight intellectual property theft over the internet, through file sharing networks, etc. (pg)

tags: ACTA, internet
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