Irish Opposition Party Website Hacked By Anonymous

The anti-censorship entity known as Anonymous has launched an online attack on the website of Ireland’s main opposition party Fine Gael, exposing the personal details of nearly 2,000 subscribers.

The data security breach took place on the evening of 9 January, when a group of hackers removed the web content and accessed its database of subscribers’ information including their names, telephone numbers, email addresses and constituency details.

Last week, party leader Enda Kenny launched the website, encouraging the public to share their views on how to improve Ireland.

However, the Anonymous group accused Fine Gael of censoring people’s comments and posted a message on the website, criticising the party:

“Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you. They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice. Wake up”.

Professional hacking

In a statement to eWEEK Europe UK, Fine Gael claimed its website was “professionally hacked” by internet vigilante group Anonymous.

Every subscriber who submitted their comments and contact details to the site has been sent an email by the party, notifying them of the incident.

The Fine Gael website, which is currently offline, will resume its operation as soon as the matter is resolved. It has reported the crime to the Data Protection Commissioner and the Gardaí, Ireland’s police force.

The FBI has also been called in to probe the web hack, according to reports.

Anti-censorship

Anonymous has been associated with several hacking crimes on companies that oppose WikiLeaks, including Visa, MasterCard and Amazon.

Last year, it took down the website of the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack – in revenge for the legal action against one of the world’s biggest free file-sharing websites, The Pirate Bay.

The cyber activists also vowed to attack the websites of those who are “a danger to freedom on the Internet” and every party that embraces censorship.