Anonymous threatens China, Hong Kong authorities with website blackout

Anonymous, the nebulous online activist group that uses hacking to further causes it supports, has threatened a major blackout of Chinese and Hong Kong government websites, and to leak tens of thousands of government email address details. The group, under the banner of ‘Operation Hong Kong’ or ‘#OpHongKong’ and ‘#OpHK’ on Twitter, said on Friday it will launch a mass effort against Chinese government servers to bring down their websites via Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Saturday. DDoS attacks attempt to cripple networks by overwhelming them with Internet traffic.

Here’s your heads up, prepare for us, try to stop it, the only success you will have will be taking all your sites offline. China, you cannot stop us.

Anonymous in a statement

The threats come as thousands of protesters regrouped in central Hong Kong on Friday to push their call for democracy, a day after the government called off talks with students amid a two-week standoff that has shaken communist China’s capitalist hub. They arrived with tents, suggesting they were in for the long haul despite a call by police to remove obstacles that have blocked major roads in and out of the financial center.

I may have to go back to school during the day, but I will make every effort to come back.

Wong Lai-wa, 23, protester

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