Just this week b:Secure and Netmedia published the novel of accusations, threats and denials between both organizations.
It all started with an alleged letter issued in which the hackers threatened WBC members to "completely" end all their hate campaigns and propaganda immediately, or else they would face consequences.
"Anonymous cannot continue to tolerate their behavior any longer. The time in which we have acted as mere spectators has ended, and the time has come to take action on the matter. We give you only one caveat: cease and desist all your protests during 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, and shut down your websites," the letter, purportedly published by the digital activist group, was quoted as saying.
The WBC, known for its strong campaigns against gay groups, immigrants in the United States and American soldiers, responded to Anonymous by calling them "bad hackers and crying, cowardly babies."
"We challenge them to attack our sites," the WBC responded to Anonymous' ultimatum.
The allegation became more dramatic when, several members of Anonymous reported on their news channel that the ultimatum against the WBC had not been issued by the group and that it was all a hoax, "surely from the Church itself", to be able to sue those who attacked their dot-com with DDoS.
Just this week, journalist David Pakman invited two spokespersons from both organizations to his radio program to clarify the situation.
In the video (placed below) is notorious the discussion between Shirley Phelps-Roper, spokeswoman for the WBC and the hackvistas.
Phelps-Roper repeatedly calls the group a series of "criminals" and "criminals who will be punished and kicked in the butt by God."
While warning that "no one, you can never throw away or silence the words or messages that are distributed", particularly on their websites godhatesfags.com and godhatesthemedia.com.
However, during the same interview the Anonymous member invites the journalist and the WBC spokeswoman to visit the website http://downloads.westborobaptistchurch.com/ (now deactivated), on which the group carried out a Defacement or deface attack.
Defacement attacks are executed when criminals modify the website (your face) with some image, message or any content without permission or authorization.
These types of attacks are not new to Anonymous, as at the end of last month the hacker group used a defacement attack against the security firm HBGary Federal.
"Their disobedience of not continuing to bite the hand of Anonymous has made them creditors a sueva and slight slap , in the form of this message. Although we can hack your site easily we decided not to do it and we answered in a mature way, but you (the WBC) have not been able to respect this deal," read the message placed by the hackers.
According to members of the same group, hackers hit the Deface attack, thanks to a zero-day vulnerability detected in the network infrastructure of Westboro Baptist Church.
At the end of the message Anonymous warns that it will not continue to play with the religious congregation. "Take this defacement as a simple warning: go away."
For those interested here is the full video of the interview and the timing of the attack on WBC websites.
Source: bSecure
