Hackers retaliate by attacking public websites

Vocal critics of the US Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and Protect IP Act (PIPA), quickly showed their opposition to the shutdown of Megaupload.com, with hackers attacking the public websites of the Justice Department, the world's largest music company Universal Music, and the two big trade groups that represent the music and film industries said Reuters in its report.

"The government takes down Megaupload? 15 minutes later Anonymous takes down government & record label sites," a member of Anonymous said via Twitter.

Representatives with the Justice Department and Recording Industry Association of America declined comment on the attacks. Officials with Universal Music could not immediately be reached.

Motion Picture Association of America spokesman Howard Gantman said his group was working with law enforcement to identify the attackers.

'Anonymous' hackers briefly hijack French Elysee website.

Meanwhile according to an AFP report, a shadowy online hackers group Anonymous briefly hijacked the French presidential website on Friday in apparent retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload.

The slogan "We Are Legion," the group's online rallying cry, was inserted into the navigation bar of the official Elysee site's (www.elysee.fr).

Before the end of the day, the site had been restored to normal.

The group's action appeared to be linked to France's stance on the US clampdown on file-sharing.

It also reported that Anonymous attacked websites of Brazil's federal district Saturday as well as one belonging to a Brazilian singer.

Anonymous posted messages on Twitter describing attacks against hundreds of Brazilian sites that share the URL 'df.gov.br,' which are owned by the government of the federal capital in Rio de Janeiro.

The Federal District press office denied Saturday that the hackers succeeded in shutting down the websites.

The Internet news site G1, owned by television network Globo, confirmed the early morning computer attacks but said the Federal District's 24-hour-a-day information technology team was able to stop them.

However, the hackers did succeed in shutting down the website of popular Brazilian singer Paula Fernandes. They posted the image of a grim-faced joker with a message saying, "If Megaupload is down, you are down too." It was signed "GhostofThreads."

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