Members of the Ghost Squad Hackers team, one of Anonymous' former sub-divisions, have carried out DDoS attacks on CNN and FOX News as part of a new hacktivism campaign.
Called OpSilence, the campaign's goal is to attack all mainstream media that fails to report on the Palestine war or the true crimes happening in Syria, one of the hackers told Softpedia.
#OpSilence will take place during the entire month of June 2016
The operation will be run similarly to #OpIcarus, a month-long series of attacks that took place in the month of May against various banks around the world.
Any hacktivism group is welcome to join, and the campaign comes on the heels of OpIcarus, which ended just yesterday.
Ghost Squad Hackers didn't wait for June to start to launch their attacks, and they've already hit the email servers of FOX News and CNN. The group has been changing tactics lately, switching from DDoSing public websites to attacking mail servers, as they've done most recently against the Bank of England.
A member of Ghost Squad Hackers also told Softpedia of future recurring attacks on these targets, along with possible attacks on NBC.
Other hackers have taken a pro-Palestine stance before
Taking a pro-Palestine stance isn't something strange for hackers, as there are many others supporting this cause as well. The previous group that did so was CWA (Crackas With Attitude), whose hacked targets include CIA Director John Brennan's personal AOL email account, FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, US National Intelligence Director James Clapper, and President Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor on science and technology John Holdren.
The group is also responsible for hacking the JABS US national arrests database. They also leaked details for 2,400 US government officials, 80 Miami police officers, 9,000 DHS employees, and 20,000 FBI staffers.
Back in February, the group's leader, a sixteen-year-old boy, was arrested in East Midlands, England.
Read more: http://news.softpedia.com/news/anonymous-announces-opsilence-month-long-attacks-on-mainstream-media-504760.shtml#ixzz4CAxb0dfg