RIAA, Universal Music & DOJ Sites hacked in Megaupload shutdown retaliation | News

Yesterday hacktivists Anonymous claimed credit for disabling the websites of the Department of Justice, the RIAA, Universal Music Group and others on Thursday in retaliation for U.S. prosecutors shutting down the popular Megaupload file-sharing site.

Universal Music have been in a legal battle with the site for several months, which heated up even more last month after a video hit the web that featured Kanye West, Swizz Beatz (who was recently appointed as CEO of Megaupload), Will.I.Am, Alicia Keys and many others endorsing the site.

A DOJ spokesperson told CNN, “We are having website problems, but we’re not sure what it’s from…” but Anonymous operative Barrett Brown is quite sure who was responsible for the site’s malfunction as he told told British website RT: “It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org.”

Anonymous also brought up the recent SOPA battle over online piracy into the air which a tweet referring to Wednesday’s SOPA blackout that saw Wikipedia and many other sites shutting down to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills in Congress in the U.S. The tweet read: “Let’s just say, for #SOPA supporters their #SOPAblackout is today. #Anonymous.”

Anonymous also took credit for knocking sites of the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America offline on Thursday. Universal Music have not yet commented on the reported attacks.