Anonymous hacks US agency website

Hacking group Anonymous has launched a successful attack against the United States Sentencing Commission’s (USSC) website allegedly in response to the recent and widely publicised death of activist Aaron Swartz.

Mr Swartz, who committed suicide in January, died at the age of only twenty six, and was a well known Internet freedom activist. He had been facing charges of up to 35 years in prison and had been actively pursued by US authorities.

The USSC establishes sentencing policies and practices for the Federal Court system, issuing guidelines to US Courts and US Federal agencies.

Anonymous has therefore targeted the USSC as a symbolic target and placed a very prominent video statement on the USSC website outlining their intentions for further actions under what they have named as ‘Operation Last Resort’.

At the time of writing the USSC website had been taken offline however Anonymous’s video statement is currently still available.

The BBC has further details on this story here.