CYBER VIGILANTES GO TO WAR AGAINST DOJ, FBI

Within minutes after the Department of Justice shut down the cyberlocker MegaUpload on Thursday, the “hacktivist” collective Anonymous managed to shut down the Department of Justice’s and the FBI’s own websites, as well as those of the MPAA and the recording industry’s publishing group BMI and Universal Music, using what is called a distributed denial of service attack, which floods traffic to a website, overwhelming it. CNN reported that the group had targeted Universal Music because that company was battling MegaUpload over a YouTube video featuring the record company’s own artists promoting the MegaUpload site. The attack came as Congress continues to debate two bills — the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) — that seek to toughen the rules against online piracy. A vote on the measures, which appear to be losing ground, is expected next week.