The elusive hacker movement known as Anonymous has carried out Internet attacks on well-known organizations like Sony and PBS. In August, the group went after its most prominent target yet: the Vatican.

The campaign against the Vatican, which did not receive wide attention at the time, involved hundreds of people, some with hacking skills and some without. A core group of participants openly drummed up support for the attack using YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. Others searched for vulnerabilities on a Vatican website and, when that failed, enlisted amateur recruits to flood the site with traffic, hoping it would crash, according to a computer security firm’s report to be released this week.

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emperorbma   |2012-02-27 19:44:23 A little after the fact, but it's the first I had heard of it...

laika  - Italian Intrigue   |2012-02-27 21:16:57 emperorbma wrote: ...but it's the first I had heard of it... Search "Vatileaks" for what are thought to be strategic leaks from inside the Vatican. First I'd heard about that was yesterday, but it's big news in Italy, apparently. One wonders if these outside attacks and inside leaks are co-ordinated in some way? edit: Who’s Behind the Leaked Letters Roiling the Vatican?

emperorbma   |2012-02-27 20:52:44 For the interests of fellow searchers, I suspect you didn't include the first result from Google, for "vatileaks.com," which appears to be anti-Christianity claptrap. (and demonstrably false given the existence and persistence of Eastern Orthodoxy and other early non Roman Catholic sects of Christianity, I might add...) Yeah the financial scandal is pretty interesting and a bit disturbing. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of that.

laika   |2012-02-27 21:05:39 emperorbma wrote: For the interests of fellow searchers... Thanks for that; I had no idea. emperorbma wrote: ...given the existence and persistence of Eastern Orthodoxy and other early non Roman Catholic sects of Christianity... And a shout out to the Church in Britain, whose representatives were mentioned as attendees at an early council. "And did those feet in ancient time..."

emperorbma   |2012-02-27 22:00:43 Kind of blindsided me, too. I was like oh... oh... wait, wait just a cotton-pickin' minute. I bet this site is paying Google for that rank so they can capitalize on the real scandal to push their books.

laika   |2012-02-27 19:45:51 Quote: "The Vatican declined to comment on the attack. In an email intended for a colleague, but accidentally sent to a reporter, a church official wrote: “I do not think it is convenient to respond to journalists on real or potential attacks,” adding, “the more we are silent in this area the better.”

PineHall  - Smart!   |2012-02-27 22:40:19 I think it is smart of the Vatican not to publicize the attack. Anonymous seems to like the publicity so denying them that is a good idea. Of course had the site gone down, the publicity would have been there.

whitemice   |2012-03-02 06:03:55 Whats' the scandal there? The vatican official is correct. If you are attacked either (a) nobody cares (b) people over-react or (c) the people who hate you rub their hands together in giddy joy. I.T. attacks are complicated and even when successful don't typically reveal much of anything. If there was a substantial breach of confidential information you need to go public; otherwise just hang up the phone. The press doesn't understand I.T. and does little but make inaccurate generalizations.

laika   |2012-03-04 21:18:46 PineHall wrote: I think it is smart of the Vatican not to publicize the attack. whitemice wrote: Whats' the scandal there? The vatican official is correct. I wasn't thinking of the I.T. attack when I pulled that quote from the article.

emperorbma   |2012-03-22 12:32:04 Looks like the Vatican is opening investigations on the Vatileaks thing.

laika  - The Roman Shuffle   |2012-03-22 18:31:12 Quote: Becciu told L'Osservatore Romano that those "disloyal" and "cowardly" officials who leaked the documents would similarly face penal and administrative sanctions. He said a full-scale internal investigation across all levels and departments of the Holy See was underway, with the Vatican prosecutor heading up the criminal probe and the Secretariat of State handling administrative sanctions. Uh-oh. Maybe they'll be (gasp!) relocated.

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