An Australian man, allegedly part of the local arm of international hacktivist group Anonymous, has been charged in relation to revenge-based hacking attacks on the websites of Australian security and intelligence agencies.
21 year-old Mathew John Hutchison faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court this week, standing accused of urging Indonesian hackers to carry out the attacks on ASIO, the Attorney-General’s Department, and Australian overseas spy agency ASIS.
Authorities claim that Hutchison urged the attacks on by threatening Indonesian hackers who were carrying out attacks on private Australian businesses as a means of registering their outrage and anger over the revelations that Australia had been using their Embassy in Jakarta for the purposes of spying on Indonesia, as well as the Presidential phone tapping scandal.
Hutchison threatened revenge attacks on the Indonesian hackers if they did not stop targeting private companies. The Australian Federal Police alleges that Hutchison posted a video that outlined his threats and directed the Indonesian arm of Anonymous to “more suitable” targets.
“You have defaced many innocent Australian websites in an effort to protest against the Australian Government and their spy agency, ASIO. Innocent businesses should not be attacked. We all bound together in an effort to bring down our tyrant governments to shape our world as a better place. We bid you, as a fellow brother to focus on your main target — governments and spy agencies and leave the innocent bystanders out of this. If you choose to disagree then you should feel the full wrath of our fellow legion.”
The AFP alleges Hutchison posted a subsequent video that was intended as being a “final warning” to the Indonesians, promising a cyber war if they did not cease their attacks on private businesses.
Hutchison has been charged with two counts of a Commonwealth Offence – the extremely puzzlingly worded “urging unknown person to commit an offence of causing an unauthorised impairment of electronic communication to or from a computer.“
Even more baffling, he’s also been charged with “possession of a laser pointer.“
He’ll appear in court to have the charges heard on April 8th.
It’s a weird, weird, weird world we live in sometimes, my friends.
Photo: Roslan Rahman via Getty Images.
