NATO and the Chicago Police Department saw their fair share of protests over the weekend—both on foot and online.
The Chicago Police Department website was taken down twice in the last 24 hours, the first occurring in the early Sunday morning in what appeared to be a DDoS attack and hacking attempt. The hacktivist collective known as Anonymous, specifically a segment calling itself AntiS3curityOPS, is taking credit for the attacks on the CPD and attempted to take down the website again the following day.
The reasons given for the hack were alleged police brutality during the NATO protests and the “violation of human rights.”
“Chicago Police, come at us bro,” AntiS3curityOPS tweeted at 12:52 am. “We are gonna ruin as many of you cops as possible…#noNATO.#FuckCPD.”
AntiS3curityOPS elaborated by tweeting that it was going to release the personal details of specific officers, such as Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy on Monday morning, with the taunt “Hope he likes pizza.”
Besides the public statements on Twitter, AntiS3curityOPS also uploaded a video to YouTube, which has since been made private. The transcript of the video, however, includes AntiS3curityOPS’s observations of the protests, which they described as having “no skin color” and comprised of “everyday, average people fighting back and finally refusing to stand down.”
“We are actively engaged in actions against the Chicago Police Deptartment [sic], and encourage anyone to take up the cause and use the AntiS3curityOPS Anonymous banner. For those able, chicagopolice.org should be fired upon as much as possible. We are in your harbor Chicago, and you will not forget us.”
The takedown of the sites was viewed favorably by the protesters, who tweeted the news of the cyber disruption.
“[F]reedom of speech = no freedom at all when the police state restricts where & when you can speak – thanks for reminding them,” one protest supporter tweeted.
McCarthy told the Chicago Sun-Times he did not have specifics on the cyber attacks, calling them “technical difficulties.”
Both federal authorities and Chicago police are investigating the digital disruption and are in the process of determining if the attacks on the police website were related to a similar attack on NATO, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Photo by onderauvisuals/Flickr
