First published: 03rd October 2014
Attackers claiming to be the Anonymous group of hackers defaced some Hong Kong websites and attempted DDoS attacks starting on Thursday 2 October, supposedly in support of the Occupy Central campaign for democracy in Hong Kong.
Their aim has been erratic, a few (some reports say eleven) websites belonging to small businesses with .hk domain names were defaced, including the site of Autism Partnership Hong Kong. Denial of Services attacks on the websites of Occupy Central civil disobedience movement, the Silent Majority for Hong Kong, and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) took the sites offline for parts of Friday. While the Silent Majority for Hong Kong and the DAB strongly oppose the civil disobedience, Occupy Central is the organisation that the attackers were claiming they supported.
HKCERT is working closely with the Office of Government Chief Information Officer and Hong Kong Police to tackle the attacks.
Allan Dyer, chief consultant of Yui Kee, commented, "The Anonymous group of hackers is, by its nature, anarchic and loose-knit. Anyone who wants to stir up trouble around the latest cause célèbre can hide behind the label and incite the uninformed to target innocent victims. This is in contrast to the Occupy Central protesters, who, over the past week, have earned themselves the reputation as the world's politest protesters, carefully cleaning up after themselves."
