You're reading: ‘Anonymous’ attacks Ukrainian government websites and threatens with further action

The online activist group “Anonymous” has shut down three government websites in retaliation for last week’s government shutdown of the popular Ukrainian torrent site demonoid,” where users share pirated videos. 

In a video released ON Aug. 7, the
group accuses the Ukrainian government of pandering to US interests and
threatens the government with more attacks.

In the video released yesterday on
their blog, a female voice declares the
following: 

“This atrocity has been
carried out by the copywrong police of Ukraine, as their gift to the United
Fascists of America. We will not let this go unpunished. We will seek revenge
against all criminals responsible and their punishments will be severe. We can
no longer sit around and watch this censorship happen right in front of us.
Haven’t you, Ukraine, learned anything from the Anonymous ‘Collective?
(…)” 

The group managed to shut down the
websites of the Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association (APO), the Ukrainian Agency for Copyright and Related Rights (uacrr.kiev.ua) and The National
Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine (nrada.gov.ua) with a distributed
denial-of-service (DDOS). Only the www.nrada.gov.ua is up and running again.”

It is not the first time Anonymous
attacks websites because of Ukrainian government policy.

In June, unknown hackers took down a
website related to Euro 2012, because of the government’s decision to kill
stray dogs before the tournament, and in February the group attacked several
government websites after its decision to close down another popular torrent
site www.ex.ua, where people
could share pirated videos and other materials.

Kyiv Post staff writer
Jesper Larsen can be reached at [email protected]