Posted on August 15, 2017 at 3:37 PM
Daily Stormer Reportedly Hacked by Anonymous
Hackers have reportedly taken over the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, in response to an article published on the site in which they criticized a woman who died during a Charlottesville far-right rally that turned violent over the weekend.
A post appeared on the homepage of the website, stating that international hacking network Anonymous took control of the website. The Daily Stormer was founded and is edited by Andrew Anglin, a Trump supporter.
This Sunday, Anglin posted an article in which he spoke unkindly of Heather Heyer, the woman killed at a white supremacist march in Charlottesville the day prior.
In response, the web hosting company GoDaddy gave the Daily Stormer 24 hours to move the domain to another provider.
One of the biggest Twitter accounts linked to Anonymous, Your Anon News, stated on Monday that they do not think that the hack had anything to do with the network or if it had been a hack at all.
They stated that they have no confirmation of Anonymous’ involvement, and hinted that it might have been a stunt performed by the Daily Stormer itself.
We have no confirmation that "Anonymous" is involved yet. Looks more like a DS stunt. Wonder if they are having issues finding a new host. https://t.co/ikXXRBfC5p
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 14, 2017
The post appearing on the website, signed as Anonymous, says that the site will shut down in 24 hours, but considering the statement from GoDaddy, that was inevitable.
Your Anon News said that this looks more like a stunt performed by the Daily Stormer itself, possibly because the site can’t find a new host.
This Saturday, Heather Heyer was killed when a car went into a crowd of protesters who gathered to confront a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
The post published on Monday said that Anonymous had taken over the Daily Stormer site in the name of Heyer, saying she was a victim of white supremacist terrorism.
Apart from this, it seems that Anonymous did target the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists. Declared in a press release channeled through various anonymous text hosting services, the operation spoke directly to Charlottesville.
Signed as Anonymous members, people said that they are aware of the rally that happened in Charlottesville and the type of people that were at the rally itself and the hatred and intolerance they were spreading. They also said that it is the duty of citizens of Charlottesville to not allow these types of actions not to be punished. They spoke of taking steps to remove the websites of far-right extremists under the banner of #OpDomesticTerrorism.
Anonymous members also promised in another press release that they will list personal details of right-wing extremists and take their anonymity away.
A selection of KKK and white supremacist sites have been shut down, at least for a while, with some resorting to CloudFlare distributed denial of service protection to stay accessible. According to some sources, the Charlottesville city website has also been affected, but it is fully functioning at the time of writing.
Anonymous has been known for targeting the KKK, in the past leaking more than 350 members’ identities along with the links to their social media accounts back in 2015 with #OperationKKK.
The hacking collective came out of the internet forum 4Chan back in the late 2000s and has become known for their series of high-profile cyber attacks on organizations such as Islamic State, the Westboro Baptist church, PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, and Sony.
