April 9 (Bloomberg) -- The hacker-activist group known as Anonymous led attacks on the websites of two technology trade associations for supporting cybersecurity legislation, the organizations said.
Anonymous claimed credit for denial-of-service attacks on the USTelecom and TechAmerica websites, the associations said in e-mails today. Such attacks typically involve flooding a website with traffic, causing it to crash.
Beginning yesterday, users couldn't connect to the USTelecom site, Anne Veigle, a spokeswoman for the group, said in an interview. Technicians were working today to restore service, and the site is "up and down," she said, adding that the site doesn't host sensitive company information. USTelecom represents telephone companies led by AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and CenturyLink Inc.
The website of TechAmerica, whose members include technology companies International Business Machines Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., wasn't loading today. The attack began yesterday and the association is working on getting the site back up, Stephanie Craig, a TechAmerica spokeswoman, said in an interview.
The Internet attacks were in retaliation for the trade groups' support of cybersecurity legislation introduced by Representatives Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, and C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, a Maryland Democrat, according to the associations.
Data-Sharing Legislation
USTelecom officials spotted a Web posting that said the trade group's website had been taken down by Anonymous members, Karn Dhingra, a spokesman, said in an interview.
The legislation, part of a series of cybersecurity bills under consideration by Congress, would encourage companies and government agencies to voluntarily share information about cyber threats. Rogers is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and Ruppersberger is the panel's top Democrat.
"By launching a cyber attack in an effort to coerce, intimidate and stifle speech, members of Anonymous are acting contrary to the very freedoms and Internet norms that they espouse," Walter McCormick, president of USTelecom, said in an e-mailed statement.
"These types of strong-arm tactics have no place in the critical discussions our country needs to be having about our cybersecurity, they just underscore the importance of them," Shawn Osborne, TechAmerica's president, said in a statement, adding his group will continue to push for the Rogers bill.
--Editors: Steve Walsh, Mark Rohner
To contact the reporters on this story: Eric Engleman in Washington at eengleman1@bloomberg.net.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/09/bloomberg_articlesM283AE1A1I4G01-M28AL.DTL#ixzz1rbcyrP4F
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