The hacker collective Anonymous took down the homepage of the Vatican, apparently in retaliation for a long list of alleged wrongs committed by the Catholic Church.
The
Vatican Website apparently is the latest victim of the hacker group Anonymous,
reportedly taken down March 7 in protest of everything from the Catholic Church's
doctrine and tenets to the sexual abuse of children by priests.
The
Vatican's Website, at
www.vatican.va, was
down for a while March 7, though appeared to be back up and running by 5 p.m.
ET.
A
Vatican spokesman confirmed with the Associated Press that the site was
down, but declined to speculate on the cause.
However,
Anonymous hackers are taking credit for the attack. In a posting on a blog that
reportedly is run by the group in Italy, the hackers railed against the
Catholic Church for a host of alleged offenses committed over the centuries,
from burning books and executing opponents to aiding the Nazis, opposing
abortion and crimes against children.
"This is
NOT intended to attack the Christian religion or
against the faithful around the world, but to
the corrupt Roman Apostolic Church and all its 'emanations,'"
according to a
Google translation of
the post, which was written in Italian.
Given
the leaderless nature of the group, it's difficult to verify the comments. At
the end of the blog, however, it reads: "We are Anonymous. We are Legion.
We don't forgive. We don't Forget. Expect us."
The
attack on the Vatican site comes the same day that hackers claiming to be with
Anonymous attacked the
PandaLabs
site of Panda Security, apparently done in retaliation for the security
software vendor's work in helping authorities in the United States and Europe
track down members of both Anonymous and LulzSec, another loosely organized
hacker group that went on a 50-day tear in 2011.
Investigators
on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have had some success over the past couple
of years arresting members of both groups, and on
March
6 scored a major coup with the arrests of five people who allegedly were
major players in LulzSec.
Two
of the men were from England, another two from Ireland and a fifth personwho
also allegedly had ties with Anonymousfrom Chicago.
Authorities
were helped by information given to them by the leader of LulzSec, a
28-year-old unemployed New York City man named Hector Xavier Monsegur, who went
by the online name "Sabu." Luis Corrons, technical director at
PandaLabs, lauded the arrests in a blog titled "Where is the Lulz
Now." The Anonymous hackers accused Panda Security of helping investigators
track down members of Anonymous and LulzSec, saying Panda's efforts helped lead
to the arrest of 25 Anonymous members.
Panda
Security officials downplayed the damage from the Anonymous attacks, saying the
hackers got into a server that was outside of the company's internal network
and that the server was primarily used for marketing campaigns and hosting blogs.
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