Apparently some of the members of Anonymous aren’t going to let a little thing like an FBI investigation put a damper on the activities of Operation Payback. A new DDoS attack is planned to be carried out today against the Irish Recoded Music Association (IRMA).
IRMA has made themselves a target of Operation Payback’s digital wrath by pushing a “three strikes” policy for illegal file sharing in Ireland. While the organization has reached an agreement with one of the country’s internet service providers to enact the policy, their attempts to have it enacted throughout Ireland was shut down by a judge last month because there is no legislation to enforce it.
When the decision was passed down, IRMA’s chairman Willie Kavanagh told reporters, “We are extremely disappointed that the High Court today has effectively determined that the Irish State has failed to protect the constitutional rights of copyright holders, by failing to implement EU Copyright directives correctly".
Today could be another bad day for Kavanagh, as Operation Payback is poised to take down IRMA’s website with one of their signature DDoS strikes. The attack was scheduled to begin at 7PM GMT, but irma.ie was still accessible and running smoothly at 9PM GMT. It is possible that the strike may have been called off if the target was tipped off, as in past attacks, or there may not have been enough participants to make it an effective attack.
Operation Payback was supposed to be on a break for a while, but that was before the word got out that the FBI was investigating their activities. The attempt to carry out an attack this soon could be a not-so-subtle message to the FBI that they are undeterred.
The group still has quite a list of possible targets that they have yet to hit, most of which are outside of the United States. Where they will strike next is anyone’s guess.
