The shadowy Internet “hacktivist” collective Anonymous has struck again, this time calling for justice in the death of Mike Brown. The group, which has received worldwide attention for its famous cyber attacks revealing government secrets and exposing the personal lives of officials, warned the Ferguson, Missouri, police chief that if the truth was not more forthcoming on the investigation into the shooting of unarmed black teen, personal information regarding the police chief and the department would be released and their computer infrastructure would be attacked. The group carried through with its threats and a series of events have unfolded.
The Ferguson Police Department and city government computer and phone systems were hacked by the group, resulting in what is called a denial of service attack. City officials found that their email accounts were disabled because of a flood of spam messages, overloading the servers. In addition, Anonymous published the telephone number of the police department resulting in a huge influx of calls to their switchboard.
The most damaging thing done so far is the group’s release of the name of the alleged police officer who shot Brown. However, police sources have said that the person named is not an employee of the Ferguson Police Department. The group has also promised to release the picture and address of the alleged officer next.
