Anonymous Attacks Westboro Church Website During Live Interview (VIDEO)

Hacker-activist group Anonymous have openly struck against the Westboro Baptist Church after a week of rumors claiming that the hacktivists had brought down several of the Church's websites. One Anonymous member, who agreed to a live radio interview on Thursday with a WBC spokeswoman, spontaneously hacked one of the Church's websites while on-air.

The Topeka-based WBC gained recent publicity for picketing the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards in December and calling for picketing at funerals for victims of the Arizona shooting in January. According to ComputerWorld, someone claiming to be an Anonymous member threatened to take action against the WBC earlier this week, but Anonymous had dismissed the threats as a hoax. Later in the week, several of the Church's websites went down due to DDoS attacks, the kind Anonymous launched against PayPal and MasterCard for cracking down on Wikileaks last December. However, Anonymous denied involvement in these attacks against WBC.

The WBC, apparently convinced that Anonymous was behind the attacks, issued a statement calling the group "crybaby hackers" and telling them to "bring it," according to the Washington Post.

On Thursday, an Anonymous member went on the David Pakman Show for a live interview with Church spokeswoman Shirley Phelps-Roper. During the interview, the Anonymous member said that the group had tried to respond "maturely" to the Church's allegations, but that members had grown frustrated with the Church's response. Phelps-Roper chided the hacktivist and told him he was going to hell. As she said this, Anonymous apparently hacked Downloads.WestboroBaptistChurch.com and posted an official response.

Writes The Register, "The statement, headed 'This domain has been seized by Anonymous under section #14 of the rules of the Internet', derides the Church for attempting to 'goad' Anonymous into attacking it for describing them as 'crybaby hackers'. The statement went on to say Anonymous had bigger fish to fry, such as campaigns involving Libya and managing the fallout from its hack against HBGary." (Screenshot)

ComputerWorld reports that Phelps-Roper later responded thus: "What they did was break into one server. They tried mightily for four days. They got nothing."

Check out a video (below) of the radio interview, during which an Anonymous member purportedly hacks the WBC site while Phelps-Roper rails against the hacktivist group.

WATCH:

A previous version of this post attributed the Dove World Outreach Center's call for a "Burn a Koran Day" to the Westboro Baptist Church. We regret the confusion.

Comments

[NVEnvy07]

09:57 PM on 03/04/2011

Shirley Phelps on Exstasy.

[killamenjarro]

02:13 AM on 03/03/2011

That woman's face is entirely too happy.

[Frickett]

07:06 PM on 03/02/2011

It's a waste of time to try to teach a pig to sing -- you get dirty and it annoys the pig.

[yankeeairpirate]

06:32 PM on 03/02/2011

It's time to start taking away their funding by whatever means. You've gotta watch out, though, because these inbred folks are all lawyers.

Which raises another question entirely.......

[yankeeairpirate]

06:30 PM on 03/02/2011

I can't believe that the internet community (black hats and white hats alike) can't take these fools down. These people are making all of the internet community a "non-entity" in their scheme. They personally protest and personally sue people who disagree with them, but they haven't had to deal with the wrath of the internet community. It's time we stand up and call BULL$HIT to this group and to spread the word globally.

[eric donahue]

09:31 PM on 03/01/2011

I really, really hope that Anonymous turns WBC's website into a gay porn sight.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

10:26 AM on 03/02/2011

Yeah, that is the ticket.

If you disagree with someone you should destroy evidence of their views.

That is the American way...

[Gray J Collins]

08:17 AM on 03/01/2011

OMG who is the Freak? That lady! OMG what a joke!

[fourthestatepost]

06:57 PM on 02/28/2011

I wish I were studying hacking instead of journalism. The chaos I could have caused.

[mrJJ]

06:10 PM on 02/28/2011

Unrelated...New Orleans' infamous Pastor Grant Storms, who every year can be found shouting hellfire and brimstone at Southern Decadence attendees, has been arrested for masturbating in his van while watching children in a playground.

Storms told deputies that he was merely having lunch at Lafreniere Park, 3000 Downs Blvd., in his van when he decided to relieve himself using a bottle instead of using the restroom, an incident report said. But two witnesses said they saw Storms through the open windows of his van m@xxyz8ting himself while watching children on the playground, the report said. The two women flagged down a park employee who notified the Sheriff's Office.

The employee also detained Storms until deputies arrived. Bond for Storms was set at $5,000. But he was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on Sunday because of overcrowding at the jail.

Armed with bullhorns, Bibles and picket signs, Storms and a group of followers in 2003 protested against Southern Decadence, the gay three-day festival held over Labor Day weekend in the French Quarter.

Storms' efforts prompted the New Orleans City Council to ban megaphones and other amplification devices.

[LiberalFromDenver]

06:35 PM on 02/28/2011

Well, as someone who was in New Orleans this past Labor day weekend, I can tell you that if there is a ban on amplification devices, it is not being enforced. My GF and I got our ears shouted off by one of these maroons. Anything that puts Storms in jail is a good thing, too.

[Opening Shares]

03:56 AM on 03/01/2011

I'm thinking of a device that would electronically actively buffer or even redirect back to the source the energy of a sound cannon using noise reduction and big or many speakers. This same idea could be used on a small scale to annoy the heck out of someone with a megaphone. Or you could just stand there with a megaphone that has a mike and blast their own noise back at them

[mrJJ]

05:57 PM on 02/28/2011

OT:

HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr Steps Down

Embattled CEO Aaron Barr says he is stepping down from his post at HBGary Federal to allow the company to move on after an embarassing data breach.

The announcement comes three weeks after Barr became the target of a coordinated attack by members of the online mischief making group Anonymous, which hacked into HBGary Federal's computer network and published tens of thousands of company e-mail messages on the Internet. HBGary did not respond to telephone and e-mail requests for comments on Barr's resignation.

http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/hbgary-federal-ceo-aaron-barr-steps-down-022811

[Easy420forMe]

02:40 PM on 02/28/2011

they vote republican... go figure

[fourthestatepost]

06:52 PM on 02/28/2011

you bring up a good point. Funny how that party attracts those who represents the worst of our society.

[Opening Shares]

03:22 AM on 03/01/2011

It's the non-thinking man's, err I mean person's, version of the all inclusive ideology that is liberalism. Either that or it's an in group for the brain dead with the rest of the world and liberals as the essential out group. The conservative's secret handbook is called: "How to garner the popular vote while appearing to be an exclusive club."

[Opening Shares]

10:47 PM on 03/01/2011

Edit- make that "inclusive of all" instead of "all inclusive." Funny how terms can sometimes twist meanings once they become terms.

[Frickett]

07:10 PM on 03/02/2011

Disgusting they may be, but I'd bet you anything they don't vote at all. That's not where they're coming from. They would certainly consider voting ungodly. Render unto Caesar, and all that.

But if they did, yeah, it would be Repug. :^)

[Keyop]

12:03 PM on 02/28/2011

Keep up the good work hackers

[peegan]

11:09 AM on 02/28/2011

I wish G-d would render this woman mute, for the sake of those who aren't hearing impaired.

[SilentSolidarity]

02:41 AM on 02/28/2011

Probably wasn't that difficult.

[Mitch Craft]

04:41 PM on 02/27/2011

Good for Anonymous. These WBC people should just hurry and get to heaven already please.

[ProgressiveOregonian]

04:50 AM on 02/28/2011

Withwhat those people have done to grieving families, I feel pretty safe in saying they will not be going to heaven.

[Mitch Craft]

03:29 PM on 02/28/2011

yes if I believed in it they would not be going there, I was simply implying that they should no longer be on Earth either

[fourthestatepost]

06:55 PM on 02/28/2011

What are you talking about? They are Christians, afterall. Unlike the rest of you blasphemers and non-christians, they have a get into heaven free card, despite all the horrible things they have done. That's what being a christian is all about.

[Rena Nicole]

02:58 AM on 03/01/2011

Man I would love to be there on judgement day to hear what GOD says to them. Yeah, they'll go to heaven just long enough to see GOD and realize how wrong they were right before he casts them down to the place they THINK everyone else is going!

[Opening Shares]

04:03 AM on 03/01/2011

Imagine how ticked of Satan is going to be with them for spreading the message that the wrongs of this world are caused by God's hate and not Satan's handy work.