U.S. Shuts Down Megaupload File-Sharing Site, Anonymous Retaliates With DDoS Attacks

The battle is heating up:

A day after the Internet was abuzz with protests of the proposed SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills, the Department of Justice took a major action against many of the top executives of Megaupload, a popular file-sharing site that the government says was the basis for an “international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of numerous types of copyrighted works”. Prosecutors revealed indictments against seven people, all of whom are foreign nationals, as part of the case. As a result of the indictments and shutdown of Megaupload, Anonymous retaliated with a series of DDoS attacks against sites owned by Justice, Universal Music and the Motion Picture Association of America…

“According to the indictment, for more than five years the conspiracy has operated websites that unlawfully reproduce and distribute infringing copies of copyrighted works, including movies – often before their theatrical release – music, television programs, electronic books, and business and entertainment software on a massive scale. The conspirators’ content hosting site, Megaupload.com, is advertised as having more than one billion visits to the site, more than 150 million registered users, 50 million daily visitors and accounting for four percent of the total traffic on the Internet,” Justice Department officials said in a statement.

via U.S. Shuts Down Megaupload File-Sharing Site, Anonymous Retaliates With DDoS Attacks | threatpost.