Hackers From Anonymous Join Protest Against Hawaii’s Thirty Meter Telescope

Hawaiian environmentalists are not easily discouraged. After their last week protests to bring down the Thirty Meter Telescope were left unanswered, the locals received unexpected help from hackers. The company’s website was the target of a cyberattack on Sunday that temporarily disrupted its activity. Caroline Witherspoon, a spokeswoman for the Thirty Meter Telescope, confirmed that the website was brought down for about two hours on Sunday, although she declined to make any suggestions about who the company suspects to have been behind the attack. However, Sandra Dawson, another TMT spokeswoman, pointed the finger at the infamous activist organization Anonymous, and labeled the attack “an unscrupulous denial of service.” Protests by Hawaii’s Big Island locals against the building of the large telescope on the sacred Mauna Kea reached a maximum last week, and Governor David Ige was forced to order construction works at the site to stop for the moment, in order to find a compromise that would appease Hawaiians. Mauna Kea is considered to be a sacred place by locals, and environmentalists also argue that the building of the facility on top of the mountain would disrupt its natural ecosystem. As the Thirty Meter Telescope website was getting back online, a group called Operation Green Rights claimed responsibility for the attack. Green Rights is believed to be an Anonymous affiliate, and posted images online presenting proof that both the sites of the telescope and of the Hawaiian government have been brought down. Cindy McMillan, a spokeswoman for Governor Ige’s office, refused to confirm that the website of the government was also targeted, but hinted so by ordering security personnel to take a look at the case. Anyway, government portals could not have been out of service for very long, as there are no reports confirming Anonymous’ claims. Thirty Meter Telescope is believed to be the most powerful optical instrument available to Earthlings for taking a look at the stars, and the project has been encouraged by many nations. Only recently it received no less than $240 million in funding from the Canadian government, and truth be told the company hasn’t shown any signs of backing down on its endeavor. Locals and climate activists have been constantly protesting since its construction began, although for slightly different reason. While Hawaiians quote the violation of the sanctity of Mauna Kea as their main objection, environmentalists fear how human activity in the area might disrupt the ecological balance. The latter seems to have also angered the hackers, as Anonymous posted a message on Twitter shortly after the attack, saying “The #ecosystem has the right to be respected #WeAreMaunaKea.”