Hackers bring down MPAA, RIAA sites

If you had trouble accessing the Web sites for the MPAA and RIAA earlier today, you’ve got 4chan to blame.  

The infamous Internet imageboard (and hangout of film piracy advocates) launched a coordinated DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack on the industry sites Monday – allegedly in a retaliatory move for the trades’ moves to squash filesharing Websites.

The MPAA site was down for about 18 hours as hundreds of users (who collectively go by the name ‘anonymous’) used specialized software called “Low Orbit Ion Cannons” to flood its server with massive amounts of traffic – making it inaccessible. The RIAA was targeted next.

Both sites have since gone back up.

What rallied the 4chan users to action was an Indian anti-piracy company called AiPlex Software that has admitted using similar DDoS tactics to take down major filesharing sites, such as The Pirate Bay. That company was quickly brought to its knees – and then 4chan decided to target the MPAA, which had reportedly hired it to assist in the fight against piracy.

The attacks may not be over, either. Security company Panda Labs reports the group plans to once again attempt to shut down the MPAA’s servers tomorrow at noon PT.