The hacker group Anonymous has claimed that it has hacked into Reliance Communication’s broadband filtering servers. Several users of Reliance Broadband were redirected to a page created by the group, when trying to open sites like Twitter and Facebook. The group stated that it hacked Reliance’s servers as a protest against the suspension of its Twitter account by the Indian government. On the other hand, some file sharing websites like Piratebay, which are blocked as per court orders, could be accessed by Reliance Broadband users. The hacker group apparently unblocked these sites from Reliance’s servers. In due course, the group’s banner was removed by Reliance. However, torrent sites were active at the time of writing this.
A spokesperson for Reliance said, “We have investigated the matter and confirm that all Reliance Communications servers and websites are intact and are putting in place preventive measures to check intrusions.” Recently, the Madras High Court issued a John Doe injunction blocking access to all torrent websites and some video sharing websites like Vimeo. Anonymous hackers said they were protesting internet censorship. The hacker outfit also came down heavily upon the government saying, “it was blocking websites just because of a corporate order.”
On the banner put up on Saturday, the group said, “We tried to stage a non-violent protest and the government decided to cover our mouths. We will not sit idle while our freedom is taken away.” The group claimed it had retrieved a list of websites blocked by Reliance from its servers. It claimed some of the sites were blocked by the company in its own interest.