Anonymous hackers take on the Church of Scientology [View All]

[Harper_is_Bush]

Source: CNET

A copyright violation claim by the Church of Scientology against the posting of one of its videos to YouTube has prompted a full-on assault by a group calling itself Anonymous.

The video, in which Tom Cruise proclaims, in part, that Scientologists are the only experts on the mind, was pulled by YouTube over the weekend at the request of the Church of Scientology as part of a long-standing effort to keep copyrighted material from appearing on the Internet. Other sites have since posted the Cruise video in full.

In response to the take-down of the Cruise video, a group of vigilantes--calling themselves Anonymous, or Anon--have retaliated against what they consider to be Internet censorship. The group includes computer experts capable of Internet mischief. In recent days, local chapter sites for the Church of Scientology have been defaced, and in some cases denial of service attacks have also prevented access to the same sites. Real-world attacks have included fax-spamming those same offices.

As an explanation for these attacks, Anonymous posted its own video to YouTube. In the video, a computer-generated voice speaks over a rolling cloudscape, effectively putting the Church of Scientology on notice:

Read more: http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9857666-57.html?tag=repblg

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This is a bizarre situation. Scientology is well-known for using bully-tactics to intimidate anyone why dares criticize them. Now the bully is being bullied. How will it play out? Interesting times....

The article has links to the action page that "ANONYMOUS" has set up. They certainly seem quite organized, and are engaging in "denial of service" attacks on various scientology websites, apparently with some success.

And no, I am NOT participating or condoning it!