In a typically sinister protest against “the establishment”, hackers working under the banner of “Anonymous Portugal” managed to create cyber chaos over the weekend, blacking out numerous sites, including the homepages of the Public Ministry, PJ police and CDS political party.
Not content with what they termed the “National Blackout”, the faceless IT whizz-kids also went public with the personal phone numbers and passwords of as many as 2000 magistrates, including serious crime investigators at DIAP.
Posting the information online, the hackers also left a message in the Public Ministry’s information system saying words to the effect that “this is just the beginning”.
Featuring the signature Anonymous mask, alongside a red carnation (a symbol of the April 25 Revolution) was the more specific message: “This is the discontent for your inertia and cooperation with marginal issues that has plunged Portugal into poverty greater than that of 40 year ago”.
The attack – on the day the country was meant to be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the revolution – is now being investigated by PJ police as well as the Public Ministry.
24-hours after the attack and certain sites were still down.
Meantime, Portugal’s tugaleaks site (the so-called national equivalent to Wikileaks) announced that the Public Ministry is doing everything it can to face up to attacks like these.
According to the site, universities are being used in the strategy, with sophisticated training programs underway to train-up IT brains capable of taking on the country’s underground hacking fraternity.
