Aftermath Update: MegaUploads Take-down & Anon's Nuclear Response - Mastre Yoda (Political Correspondent)

As I mentioned yesterday in my SOPA Aftermath Commentary, the Federal Government bluntly took down the popular file-sharing site Mega Uploads. Was this a message to the protesters? Was this move a statement that the government can, and will, do what ever they want to do regardless of what we think? Or was this a possible misstep on their part, that they don't really need SOPA and PIPA to get the job done?
Not long after the government removal of the site, four execs were arrested on charges of racketeering and money laundering in Australia and are planned to be extradited to the US, the first time anyone will have been extradited for copyright related charges. Now rewind to Anonymous. They have been relatively quiet for quite a while, with a few attacks here and there. Then the Feds take down Mega Uploads. Anonymous then NUKES everyone. In a matter of a short while, very quickly assembled but very effective DDoS attacks take down several website including the FBI site, The Department of Justice site, RIAA, MPAA, Universal Music Group, and the US Copyright Office sites. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks are a very simple way that Anonymous takes out it's targets, or as Rob Rachwald puts it:


"DDoS is the internet what the Billy club is to gang warfare: simple, cheap, unsophisticated and effective," said Rob Rachwald, director of security strategy, Imperva. "But DDoS lends itself well to the Anonymous model which relies on crowd sourcing. During Operation Payback, Anonymous inspired an army of thousands in an attempt to bring numerous commercial sites. In this case, they’re boasting '5,600 DDoS zealots blasting at once.'"

But I digress. As referred to in my previous article, there was a lot of support by the internet community to stop SOPA and PIPA. I am proud to announce that as of today, the bills have been shelved. Now, it is true, that torrenting and file sharing is stealing and should not be allowed, however the freedoms that we enjoy over the internet should be preserved. Anonymous is a very loose organization that very certainly puts its views into practice. I think this is a good example in the fact that, they put their views out there and stand by them. However, what Anonymous does is illegal, and if they get out of hand it could spell disaster for a lot of people. I don't really recommend following in their footsteps.


Sources and Resources:


http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Anonymous-Megaupload-SOPA-PIPA-DDoS,news-13953.html
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/sopa_and_pipa_shelved_indefinitely
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/feds_take_down_megaupload_anonymous_nukes_everybody
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-236728.html