This week Anonymous, the notorious hacktivist group stepped up to take credit for an attack that took some Microsoft services offline for some time.  Found in a post on Pastebin, the group released how a DDoS attack had been launched at some Japanese Microsoft (Domain) Websites and Servers.  This probably translates to some sort of DNS target.  Nonetheless there was an unintentional affect as the operation “did not go down as planned”.  The attack caused a number of Microsoft’s online services at least in Japan to go down for some time.  Though the outage affected such a wide number of the company’s services, the amount of time it was down was said to be brief.

A couple days ago a DDoS attack was launched at Japanese Microsoft(Domain) Websites and Servers.

We are sorry to report that the Japanese Microsoft Websites and Servers did not go down as planned.
Although something did go down.
We took the pretty much the entire Microsoft domains down.
That includes sites such as:
Hotmail.com
MSN.com
Live.com
outlook.com
Microsoft.com

The DDoS attack was launched in response to Taiji…Operation KillingBay OR #OpKillingBay

Although We are sorry for any inconvenience We caused you Microsoft…It’s the thought that counts right?

For the record Microsoft, We love the “XBOX-One”  and the games it offers (CODGhost)

As you can see the attacks were launched and intended as a response to Taiji or Operation Killing Bay.  This protest is an objection to an interesting topic that calls for dolphin slaughter in the village of Taiji, Japan. This six-month long open season on dolphin slaughter started on September 1^st.  The cause against this slaughter has picked up a lot of awareness in recent years, but has been somewhat dwarfed this year in light of the continuing saga of the Fukushima meltdown.  Anonymous announced their intent in a previous PasteBin post:

1. We are Anonymous…
2.  Cruelty has existed since the beginning of the known World,
3.  But it has never existed so openly as it is in Taiji, Japan.
4.  Each year over 20,000 dolphins are slaughtered. The annual revenue from the slaughtered dolphins is            well into the the Million$$$.
5.  The Japanese Government would not allow the dolphins to be slaughtered, If it wasn’t supported other Organizations, Companies & Governments.

It also reads that despite the unintentional outage, the hacktivists will strike their targets again “It’s the thought that counts right”.

Anonymous’ targets when they do return could be any number of parties.  As they described in their statement –

The Japanese Government would not allow the dolphins to be slaughtered, If it wasn’t supported other Organizations, Companies & Governments.
These Organizations, Companies & Governments include:
IMATA
WAZA
SeaWorld
FedEx
Thailand Gov.
Turkish Gov.
Egyptian Gov.
Vietnam Gov.
UAE Gov.
This is only a small portion of the supporters of the Taiji slaughter: Not including the Millions of people who vist SeaWorld, Zoo’s, Aquariam parks and other parks and resorts…

DDoS attacks are a major threat and ongoing concern in cybersecurity, and something that can be projected to be a continued threat in 2014.  As we continue to talk to industry leaders about 2014 and beyond, DDoS figures to be a major element of discussion. 

photo credit: OneEighteen Thomas Hawk via photopin cc