wfn.org | Church federation warns of cyber attacks

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

>Queens Federation of Churches Warns
>of on-line vandalism of religious sites

New York, August 4, 2008  --  A group calling itself "Anonymous,"
specializing in on-line vandalism, obscenity, and harassment, has
stepped up its attacks on ethnic and religious minorities and individual
citizens  --  and church human rights groups, including the Queens
Federation of Churches, are sounding the alarm.

"These people are truly cyber-terrorists," said Rev. N. J. L'Heureux,
Jr., Executive Director of the Queens Federation of Churches, who serves
as the Moderator of the National Council of Churches Committee on
Religious Liberty. "Their manifestos and their campaigns are aimed at
creating as much destruction as possible."

Among those whose pain Anonymous laughs at, are those who suffer from
epilepsy. Wired.com reported that hackers, likely Anonymous, had
descended on an epilepsy support message board and used code and
flashing animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some
users. Anonymous responded, "The epilepsy raid was mostly win, but there
was one glaring failure, in that nobody died from our attacks."

When a Finnish Anonymous poster named Pekka-Eric Auvinen said online
that he was going to kill people at his high school, another Anonymous
member wrote, "DO IT, FAGGOT." On November 7, 2007, Auvinen killed nine
people including himself.

Most recently, June 27, 2008, as reported by MTV News, Anonymous hackers
defaced two popular Hip-Hop music websites, substituting fake headlines
and obviously photoshopped pictures saturated with racial slurs and
other offensive terms. The CEO of SOHH.com, one of the attacked sites,
issued a statement saying, "It appears that hackers are specifically
targeting Black, Hispanic, Asian and Jewish youth who ascribe to hip-hop
culture."

The New York Times Magazine (August 3, 2008) focused on "The Trolls
Among Us," examining Internet message boards which have spawned groups
such as "Anonymous."

In 2007, Fox News documented some of the crimes of Anonymous: destroying
websites, death threats and spreading lies about people's lives.

Anonymous posted their response on YouTube with a creepy synthetic
voice-over: "We are the face of chaos and the harbingers of judgment. We
laugh in the face of tragedy. We'll mock those who are in pain. We rush
the lives of other people simply because we can. Hundred die in a plane
crash. We laugh. The nation mourns over a school shooting, we laugh.
We're the embodiment of humanity with no remorse, no caring, no love, or
no sense of morality."

Meeting in Los Angeles on May 6th, a group of more than 100 law
enforcement and government officials, clergy and educators discussed the
rise of Internet hate crimes, with the activities like Anonymous
featuring prominently.

"Anonymous has even called themselves 'Legion,' a reference to the
demons cast out by Christ in Marc 5:9 and Luke 8:30," says L'Heureux.
"People of all faiths, working with law enforcement as necessary, should
see that this sort of cyber-crime is cast out of the Internet, and the
real world, both."

For more information, contact the Queens Federation of Churches at (718)
847-6764, www.queenschurches.org.

NCC News contact: Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228, NCCNews@ncccusa.org