ASIO, the national security intelligence agency for Australia, has been again the target of the attacks by Anonymous Australia as part of its OpAustralia in retaliation to the now-off-the-table data retention laws. Other sites include the South Australian Labor Party and the Attorney-General Nicola Roxon – both the government agency and MP’s personal website.
This is the second time this week that the ASIO website has been taken down.
Anonymous Australia posted this tweet at 10:15am, claiming that they have taken it down.
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/Op_Australia/status/233718148367536128″]
However, we managed to access the site at 12:21am – the time of writing. Technology Spectator have also reported that the site was accessible at 11:21am. ASIO, however, told the site that the “public website does not host any classified information and any disruption would not represent a risk to ASIO’s business.”
The Australian Government’s data retention scheme would see ISPs and websites forced to hold your entire web history for two years. It has attracted criticism from the Greens, with Scott Ludlam a staunch critics of such proposals – telling Computerworld Australia that the Australian Government “say they’re looking to strike a balance between people’s privacy and the ability of spy agencies to surviel people, but they haven’t even attempted to strike that balance.”
“It’s curious that they would try and pay it lip service while actually totally violating the principles of privacy.”
The Australian Federal Police, however, maintains that these new measures would make it easier to investigate cyber crime. AFP Assistant Commissioner, talking at a cyber-security event in Sydney, said, “Without data retention laws I can guarantee you that the AFP won’t be able to investigate groups such as Anonymous over data breaches because we won’t be able to enforce the law.”
Anonymous Australia has now stated that the attacks will stop at 10pm tonight – but also said “we will never stop watching”.