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Visitors to www.finegael2011.com were this evening presented with this message, posted by members of the Anonymous collective.

Fine Gael website defaced by Anonymous 'hacktivists'

The leaderless online activists deface Fine Gael’s controversial new website, advising users that the party ‘censors their voice’.

Updated, 13.37, 10/1/11

FINE GAEL’S NEW WEBSITE was last night defaced by the anonymous hacker group ‘Anonymous’, which replaced the party’s new ‘tell us what you think’ campaign with a holding page telling visitors that the party was censoring submissions.

The site – launched amid much fanfare on Tuesday – had loaded as usual for web users, before users saw its content disappear and be replaced with a message issued by two members of the Anonymous collective, reading:

Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you.

They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice.

WAKE UP!

Furthermore, the page’s title changed to read: ‘The problem with politicians is they lie’ – a play on the party’s own message, that politicians talk too much and listen too little.

Examination of the site’s HTML code suggested that the malicious code appears on the site when it tried to display a user’s comments about how Ireland could be ‘fixed’, loading a string of JavaScript code which when made the Anonymous-branded page appear in place of the intended site.

The malicious code was housed on a server in Samoa, under a domain registered anonymously. The Anonymous group is more widely known for its occasional campaigns against Scientology, and more recently for orchestrating attacks on the websites of companies that had withdrawn funding services to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The site has now been removed altogether; visitors now are instead presented with a holding page which indicates that the site’s webmasters have temporarily deactivated the site entirely.

On Monday afternoon the party confirmed that the details of 2,000 of its users had been compromised by the attack.

Fine Gael’s ‘traditional’ site, which had remained active at finegael.org, also remains offline at the time of writing; this also appears to have been a reactive move from within the party itself.

On Friday TheJournal.ie reported that the new website was based on servers in Miami, meaning that none of the Dáil’s political parties had their main websites based within Ireland.

The site’s US-based hosting had also raised concerns within the blogosphere about the party’s compliance with the Data Protection Acts, and whether their transfer of personal data to a host outside of the EU was being done on a compliant legal basis.

The website was amended later in the week, allowing users to opt-out of party communications.

2,000 users’ details taken in Fine Gael website breach >

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 5:09 PM

    A excellent piece: nicely done, Gavin.

    Diogo Jota was an intelligent, humble and hard-working young man. The news today was shocking and hard to take in. May he and Andre rest in peace.

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    Mute Mary Linton
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 5:17 PM

    YNWA

    R.I.P Dioga & Andre

    A beautifully worded eulogy—- ‘ try not to make sense of this tragedy— there simply is NO SENSE In today’s tragedy’

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    Mute Dan The Man
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 5:40 PM

    Retire the number 20

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    Mute Buster Lawless
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 5:54 PM

    @Dan The Man: I’ll ” second” that !!!

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    Mute Fergus O'Donnell
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 5:24 PM

    So terribly sad. May they RIP.
    A father of three. Heartbreaking.

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    Mute Setanta O'Toole
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 8:28 PM

    Great article, and a sobering reminder of the precariousness and fragility of life. It’s heartbreaking for everyone concerned, for Diogo’s family, his wife and the 3 kids who must now grow up without their Dad, but also the one he grew up in who’s parents have lost both their sons at once. Life can be unbelievably cruel at times. Hopefully they can all look back on their good memories and find some solace in them in time. RIP Diogo and Andre.

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    Mute Dave Connolly
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 5:48 PM

    RIP YNWA

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    Mute Dominic Leleu
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 6:40 PM

    Liverpool star Diogo Jota and his younger brother Andre are understood to have been driving in an acid green £180,000 Lamborghini Huracan when they crashed

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    Mute Stephen Heffernan
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 8:14 PM

    @Dominic Leleu: And?

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    Mute John Lillis
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 8:18 PM

    @Dominic Leleu: So what? Is this relevant?

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    Mute Joe Beirne
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 8:34 PM

    @Dominic Leleu: What value does this comment add, the value of the car they were in doesn’t lessen the fact that three children are without a father and an uncle and his newly married wife is now a widow and his parents have lost all their children in one senseless accident. Have a look in the mirror and have a long think.

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    Mute Dominic Leleu
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    Jul 3rd 2025, 10:00 PM

    @Joe Beirne: I doubt the accident happened at low speed. and no it does not. still …

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    Mute Billy Joe
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    Jul 4th 2025, 12:52 AM

    @Dominic Leleu: What’s your point?

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