Anonymous targets NC government over bathroom law
Hackers associated with the group Anonymous are targeting the North Carolina state government in protest of the so-called bathroom law.
While the hackers were unable to take down the state’s main website, some domains — such as northcarolina.gov, governor.state.nc.us and ncgov.org — were inaccessible Monday, CNN reported.
{mosads}The campaign targets a controversial new state law that requires people to use the restroom corresponding with their biological sex assigned at birth.
“It is not only an operation against the bathroom bill — this is an operation against all the laws against LGBT. [The] reason for launching the attacks was making North Carolina aware that we are here to fight and ready to fight to the end,” the hacker behind the attacks told IBTimes UK.
The legislation has been pilloried as a civil rights violation and has sparked dueling lawsuits between the state and the Obama administration.
“F— you North Carolina main govt website http://nc.gov #TangoDown For making strong anti-gay laws!” a Twitter account announcing “OpLGBT” tweeted.
A state spokesperson told CNN that all of its government websites were operating as normal.
In the last year, the loosely affiliated hacktivist group Anonymous has waged a number of high-profile cyber campaigns with ostensibly political motivations. The group has targeted Donald Trump, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
But results have been mixed. While the group has taken credit for exposing KKK members and eradicating thousands of ISIS-related Twitter accounts, many have criticized the group for over-promising and leaking inaccurate information.
Most prominently, the loosely affiliated group initially identified the wrong policeman in the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown last year in Ferguson, Mo.
The group has no central leadership, and some of the criticism appears to be coming internally.
During the group’s ongoing anti-ISIS campaign, one of the more well-known Anonymous Twitter accounts chided what he or she characterized as attention-seeking hackers working under the Anonymous banner.
“Seriously, after #OpISIS there have been too many fame whores. It’s not about the follows or RTs. It’s about the truth. Have some integrity.”
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