Information Technology Reference
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in September 2009 after it was revealed that the RIAA and MPAA had contracted
Aiplex to launch DDoS attacks on BitTorrent sites, including the Pirate Bay [77].
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A few months later, the focus of Operation Payback shifted to PayPal, Visa, and Mas-
terCard after they froze the transfer of funds from supporters of Julian Assange to
the WikiLeaks organization. The Web sites of all three of these financial institutions
were disrupted by DDoS attacks [78, 79].
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Anonymous played an active role in the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011. In Tunisia,
for example, Anons launched DDoS attacks on government Web sites, offered ad-
vice to dissidents on how to conceal their identities online, and helped local activists
upload videos of their protests to the Internet [80].
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After the US Department of Justice announced action against cybervault Megau-
pload in January 2012, Anons launched DDoS attacks on the US Department of
Justice, Universal Music Group, the RIAA, the MPAA, Broadcast Music Inc., and
the FBI [81].
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In April 2013, Anonymous launched a cyber attack on Israeli Web sites on Holo-
caust Memorial Day to protest the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians [82].
Dozens of people around the world have been arrested for their participation in
Anonymous cyber attacks, and many have spent time in prison. Dmitriy Guzner pleaded
guilty to the unauthorized impairment of a protected computer in his role in the DDoS
attacks against the Church of Scientology. He was sentenced to 366 days in a US federal
prison and ordered to pay $37,500 in restitution [83]. Brian Mettenbrink was sentenced
to a year in prison and ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to
participating in the DDoS attacks against the Church of Scientology [84]. Chris Doyon
was arrested for launching a DDoS attack on a Santa Cruz County, California, Web site.
He jumped bail and fled to Canada [85]. Briton Jake Davis pleaded guilty to participating
in attacks on Sony Pictures and the Serious Organised Crime Agency in Great Britain
and was given a 24-month sentence [86].
Throughout this chapter, we have seen many ways in which malefactors can breach the
security of networked computers, yet the convenience and low cost of completing many
tasks online are significant benefits. It should come as no surprise, then, that an online
solution is often proposed when there is a problem with a traditional process. In this
section we evaluate a proposal to conduct elections over the Internet.
The 2000 presidential election was one of the closest contests in US history. Florida
was the pivotal state; without Florida's electoral votes, neither Democrat Al Gore nor
Republican George W. Bush had a majority of votes in the Electoral College. After a
manual recount of the votes in four heavily Democratic counties, the Florida Secretary
of State declared that Bush had received 2,912,790 votes to Gore's total of 2,912,253.
