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Updated, 12:32
A HACKER from the Anonymous ‘hacktivist’ movement has accessed website passwords of a number of government employees and officials, and posted them online this evening.
A user posted the details in an online chat room used by the collective for its ‘#OpIreland’ campaign, which targets the websites of Irish governmental agencies in protest at government plans to introduce new legislation reinforcing the rights of copyright holders in the sharing of online materials.
The passwords were then widely disseminated on Twitter through an account used by the Swedish arm of the international movement.
Subsequent tweets from the Swedish account specifically referenced Seán Sherlock, the junior minister behind the plans for the new legislation, urging him to “hear the good people of Ireland or expect us!”
The distributed data showed what appeared to be the passwords for 19 user accounts, 17 of which belong to the Department of Foreign Affairs, used by staff in the Department to edit the website for Irish Aid, the government’s overseas development programme.
The other two accounts appeared to belong to staff at Arekibo, a digital media company credited as having designed the site.
The chat room used by Anonymous later identified the website of the Labour party, of which Sherlock is a member, as another target. It is understood that access to the site was disrupted for periods overnight as a result of that attack, though the site itself was not compromised.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said there had been “some unusual activity” on the Irish Aid site, which has since between taken offline by the Department and remains inaccessible this lunchtime.
“We are aware of website user login information being posted online,” the spokeswoman said. “The website server has been taken offline as a precautionary measure and the matter is being investigated by our IT specialists.
“This is an external service and is separate to the internal Department servers; these have not been affected.”
The attack follows earlier activity by Anonymous, which had previously engineered attacks on Sherlock’s own personal website, as well as those of the Departments of Finance and Justice.
Those websites were the subject of DDoS attacks, where websites are deliberately flooded with traffic in order to make them inaccessible, almost exactly a week ago. On that occasion, however, no sensitive data was thought to have been compromised.
Sherlock yesterday told a Dáil discussion on his plans that he would not be changing the proposed wording of his statutory instrument, despite the fears of opposition TDs and businesses that its current format could allow the courts to grant injunctions blocking access to major websites like YouTube or Facebook.
An online petition against the legislation, launched nine days ago, had attracted just under 80,000 signatures at the time of publication.
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If my maths is correct the figures in the article add up to €3.08 billion of the 4. Is the rest going to house Ukranians / IPP? Funny the way they omit this.
@Daniel Broderick: I wonder would the Ukraine be as generous if the roles were reversed?
I sincerely doubt it.
@Daniel Broderick: the media are as bad as the government in their sly wording to minimise the 4 billon spent by year end on immigration measures.
And not a penny on housing?
@9QRixo8H: no. That would be turkeys voting for xmas seeing as they are nearly all landlords
@lWOk0fWf: Oh yeah,great plan….earn money on being a landlord(which they would anyway)vs bombing in the polls.why do people insist that they don’t’fix’ housing because they are landlords.
@uUleRhCu: Are you still in denial that we have a housing crisis ?
@Frank Cauldhame: I never denied that there was a housing crisis…where did you dream that up?…..The only thing I’m saying is it not as easy as people like you say it is to fix….we are at full building capacity/we have more people coming to our shores to work than we can handle(victims of our own success)…….We will find out when the next government takes over(and most likely make it worse)how difficult it actually is….because it’s people like you are in denial about the whole thing…..I bet also the next government will not be in anyway to blame,it will all be someone else’s fault.
Are they walking from Ukraine or something, those fleeing the war have long since moved to a safer zone, and more than welcome here but those arriving in the last 6 months really need to be examined. This is an election buster.
How many more billions are we giving to Ukrainians and others fleeing from “wars” in Albania and Zimbabwe?
@JagTune: How many more billions are we going to give Irish layabouts in housing/dole and everything else when there is full employment…..I’d rather the Ukrainians got it.
@uUleRhCu: Take a ‘kin hike with your poverty porn attacks on the poorest sections of society, you’re on this site 24/7 doing no work and have the gall to call social welfare recipients layabouts, you’re the layabout.
@Frank Cauldhame: Fair comment Frank. But you seem to have missed that the poster who JT responded to is an equal see you next tuesday, attacking the most vulnerable in society
@Frank Cauldhame: Rubbish.I make about 10 comments in here a day….you are the one on here all day with the ‘Everything is everyone else’s fault’….Zero responsibility fanatics like you are the reason people stay poor and blame others.You enable others to think sitting around is ok and you should be furnished with everything you need.
@Frank Cauldhame: looks like it is he’s full time job.
@The boot: Typical response to facts from people like you.
4B?
Is that even enough to finish the Children’s Hospital?
Ahh lovely, 1billion on health ? So the new children’s hospital gets a cloakroom too, nice one !
I presume this is going direct to the healthcare staff whom need it most?! Brilliant!
Finally some money for healthcare. We’re a rich country with a tiny population. The healthcare system should be peak.
@GVR: throwing money down the black hole that is HSE bureaucracy is not going to solve anything.
As a heavy drinker and smoker who lives on fast food and gets zero exercise, I welcome this development
@Jim Slip: oh how I wish we could all be as perfect as you.
1 billion on health for all the drunk and overdosed scrotes showing up in A&E.
@DavyDoDa: They may also use some of this for sick people. But yeah, moan away about whatever todays imagined problem is.
@DavyDoDa you’re some dooda alright
@The Kenn: You’re not allowed to be positive on comments. It’s the rules of The Journal.
@DavyDoDa: Jesus… I hope life treats you kind. Disingenuously.
“ An additional €960 will be spent on health “
Wow
@Argus Romsworth: it won’t be additional….. it will only cover the shambles from last year an so on and on it will go. It will be the same next year and years after that. Not one Minister for health in the past 25 years has got on top of this mess. They will all promise the sun moon and stars but deliver f all eventually. Seriously did anyone who voted for him think Donnelly would make a difference.
have your say