The Net Offensive

The SouthSound Indymedia project in Western Washington was hacked by a pro-war group who spammed the site and deleted all the recent coverage on the Olympia port protests and other coverage. "They may try to censor people writing their own histories. We don't have to put up with it," the site administrators said. Whoever is responsible may or may not be caught and prosecuted, but this is a felony crime if it can be shown to cause at least $5,000 in damages under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Cyber-Crime Act of 2007.

This is information warfare. In an age when mainstream media cannot be relied upon to report fairly on sensitive subjects, independent media sources are often the only viable alternative. When rival factions begin silencing opposing narratives, this constitutes terrorism in the postmodern sense of the word. The content of SouthSound Indymedia is currently being restored. However, some information may be erased indefinitely, the administrators say.

Unfortunately, tacomasds.org -- the site for Tacoma Students for a Democratic Society -- was also attacked last night. The attack was not as serious, seeing as the attackers were unable to elevate their privileges and destroy content, but they did flood the site with hate-speech.