Hackers attack AU websites to protest censorship

February 10, 2010 12:46 PM EST

A band of cyber-attackers have taken down the Australian Parliament House website and hacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's website in coordinated protests against government plans to filter the Internet.

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The group responsible, called Anonymous, is known for coordinated Internet attacks against Scientology and other groups in the past. It recently turned its attention against the AU government after it said in December that it would block access to sites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse.

"No government should have the right to refuse its citizens access to information solely because they perceive it to be 'unwanted'," said the email sent by Anonymous IBTimes.

"No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason," it said.

The government's recently-commissioned Cyber Security Operations Centr discovered Wednesday's attack was coming on February 5 but still couldn't stop it entirely.

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The attack came in the form of what is known as a denial of service - sites are bombarded with millions more communication requests than can possibly be handled.

Dubbed "Titstorm", the operation also sent a torrent of calls, fax spam and emails containing pornographic content directed against government offices.

While the initial attack was stopped about 9am (AEDT), further attacks continued throughout the day.

Anonymous could not immediately be reached for further comment.

This article is copyrighted by International Business Times, the business news leader