Anonymous Hacks Vatican Website In Cyber Attack On Holy See, Sources Say

A group of Italian hackers who claim to be members of the loose-knit international gang of cyber criminals known as "Anonymous" took down the Vatican's website for a number of hours Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune reports.

A statement posted on a website claiming to be the official homepage of the Italian branch of Anonymous said the takedown was orchestrated in protest of a number of alleged abuses by the Catholic Church including past execution of heretics, the selling of indulgences, and the recent child abuse scandals involving priests.

"Today, Anonymous has decided to put your site under siege in response to your doctrine, liturgy and the absurd and anachronistic rules that your profit-making organisation spreads around the world," the hackers wrote in the statement, according to Reuters. "This attack is not against the Christian religion or the faithful around the world but against the corrupt Roman Apostolic Church."

Just yesterday, five hackers in Britain, Ireland and the United States believed to members of the group LulzSec were charged in a series of cyber attacks after one member of the group turned out to be an FBI informant, according to the Agence France-Presse.

The crackdown followed a long line of hacking incidents attributed to Anonymous including attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment, the government website of several African nations and Nintendo.

Comments

[pittsburghunionguy]

02:21 PM on 03/13/2012

It's ironic that you illustrate this with a photo of people in Guy Fawkes masks. The English government executed Fawkes in 1604 as a Catholic terrorist. (He was the mastermind of the "Gunpowder Plot." He was hanged, drawn and quartered.)

[Blaze1111]

09:56 AM on 03/12/2012

A A A A AL-Righty-Then!

[treemeizer]

09:59 PM on 03/11/2012

Cheers! Nice job.

[Gay Iberian]

03:04 PM on 03/11/2012

Bravo Italian Anonymous, good job done!!!

[SueZbell]

12:22 AM on 03/11/2012

curious: how long were they able to keep it out of order?

[UnderEstimatedMe]

10:46 PM on 03/10/2012

taking down the vatican is a bit bush league for these guys; how about a really worthy target,fellas?
The financial records of the RNC, The Koch Brothers and ALL the current Republican Presidential candidates?
Up for a challange??

[Christopher Sudlik]

09:17 PM on 03/10/2012

Cyber Criminals? The people who took down 40+ child porn sites and are holding organizations accountable. They may use methods I don't agree with, but I have yet to see them do something to an innocent person.

The real criminals are the people in the FBI who work for whichever company pays them most, then go around ruining lives and creating fear to achieve their nasty goals. The Vatican repeatedly covered up thousands of cases of child sexual abuse and protected their preachers from the law by moving them always one step ahead of it. The church is one of the wealthiest organizations on earth and hides a great deal of knowledge in its vaults that could advance humanity greatly, and expose the history of religion and of the church in a way never before done. The vatican is a criminal organization. Anonymous is a protesting collective that resorts to less than savory means, after all, sit ins were illegal too, and we don't call the people who sat in in the 1950s and 60s criminals, do we? Hell no.

[ewalter899]

05:38 PM on 03/10/2012

Sombody is making a mint off these silly masks.

[1Maverick1]

06:12 PM on 03/10/2012

The church is making a mint, and then some, off of fear and silly myths.

[ewalter899]

09:05 PM on 03/10/2012

So two of a kind then.

[1Maverick1]

05:08 PM on 03/10/2012

Grazie mille!

[nonconformistmom]

11:20 AM on 03/10/2012

Annonymous is REALLY starting to annoy me...

[Galaxie]

09:43 AM on 03/10/2012

Gotta love these guys!

[trythetruthtoday]

02:18 PM on 03/10/2012

No, society does not, "gotta love these guys".
Put them behind bars would be a better choice.
Why are you "pumping up" criminals?
Don't worry--one day they will get their due reward, and all will get justice.

[carmenalex]

07:57 PM on 03/10/2012

You should save your anger for the real criminals.

[bkhart]

11:37 PM on 03/10/2012

Does that include the bushcheney bunch?

[mflorian]

02:00 AM on 03/10/2012

One man's criminal is another man's hero, Tribune.

[trythetruthtoday]

02:14 PM on 03/10/2012

Doing wrong does not make one right.
These guys are still criminals, working on the wrong side of the law.

[1Maverick1]

05:09 PM on 03/10/2012

Hey, that sounds just like the church!!

[mflorian]

02:46 AM on 03/12/2012

So were the Founders, once.

[Sheng Paule]

12:25 AM on 03/10/2012

Guess the Holy See didn't see this coming. Holy Sh#t

[elblanc0]

11:18 PM on 03/09/2012

God had a holy firewall.

[WykydRed]

10:11 PM on 03/09/2012

"A group of Italian hackers who claim to be members of the loose-knit international gang of cyber criminals known as "Anonymous".....

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA. Talk about hyperbole! They're still heroes! Church mobsters better hope they don't get a hold of the bookkeeping records and send 'em to Wilileaks!.....