Anonymous Hacks MIT In Aaron Swartz Tribute

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Publicated : 22/11/2024   Category : security


Anonymous Hacks MIT In Aaron Swartz Tribute


Hacktivist group leaves defaced Web page calling for reform of computer crime and intellectual property laws.



In the wake of the suicide of noted developer Aaron Swartz, who faced hacking charges many believed were excessive, hacking group Anonymous
defaced a Massachusetts Institute of Technology website
to denounce the charges against him and urge computer crime law reform and more support for open access initiatives.
The hacktivist group quoted
Swartzs call for open access
in the message left on MITs website: There is no justice in following unjust laws. Its time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
A spokeswoman for MIT confirmed that the university had been subjected to a denial of service attack on Sunday, but didnt immediately answer questions about how two of its servers -- rledev.mit.edu and cogen.mit.edu -- had been compromised.
[ Should DDoS attacks be protected under the First Amendment? Anonymous thinks so. Read more at
Anonymous Says DDoS Attacks Like Free Speech
. ]
Anonymous characterized its actions as a
little tribute
to Swartz.
Swartz, 26, was found dead on Friday in his Brooklyn, N.Y. apartment, having apparently hung himself. The co-creator of the RSS 1.0 specification, he also helped establish Reddit after his startup Infogami merged with the popular online discussion site. He was widely respected in the Internet community as an advocate for open access to information.
At the time of this death, Swartz faced the prospect of up to 35 years in jail. He was being tried following his 2011 arrest for
computer intrusion, fraud, and data theft
downloading and sharing academic journals from MIT and JSTOR, a non-profit academic archive.
JSTOR
reportedly
asked the U.S. government not to prosecute Swartz. MIT reportedly failed to do so. On Sunday, MIT president L. Rafael Reif
sent an email
offering condolences and asking for an internal investigation of Swartzs actions and of MITs role and decisions following Swartzs activities on the universitys network.
Swartzs online supporters have characterized the charges brought against Swartz as
complete garbage.
Swartzs family has responded similarly. Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy, his family said in
a statement
. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death.
The Justice Department has
reportedly withdrawn
the charges against Swartz, a standard practice following the death of a defendant. The U.S. Attorneys Office in Massachusetts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Recent breaches have tarnished digital certificates, the Web security technology. The new, all-digital
Digital Certificates
issue of Dark Reading gives five reasons to keep it going. (Free registration required.)

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Anonymous Hacks MIT In Aaron Swartz Tribute