I wrote about the Anonymous attacks on the Parliament House website for Crikey as well as covering it in this week’s Patch Monday podcast.
In How I brought down the Parliament House website there’s a few quotes from c0ld blood, who was one of the attack’s organisers, as well as some of the other podcast participants.
The new angle is a few comments from the Secretary of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Alan Thompson, who runs Parliament House. He is not amused, and rightly so.
Is a DOS attack somehow equivalent or similar to a protest in the middle of the street or outside parliament house that stops people from getting past?
@yewenyi: It is interesting trying to make physical-world comparisons, no?
In this case, I suppose the physical equivalent is indeed crowding the entrance to Parliament House with so many protesters that the legitimate users — parliamentarians, their staff, journalists and any citizens who wish to watch democracy in action — can’t get through.
Except, of course, interfering with the operation of a computer system is specifically a crime, no matter what the motive. A physical protest only becomes illegal after certain actions have taken place — say a police officer asking them to move on and stop obstructing. Unless there are specific crimes related to disrupting parliament?
on the BBC today.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8513073.stm