Finnish Anti-Piracy Group Says Anonymous Sent Bomb Threat

Hackers claiming to be part of hacktivist collective Anonymous have been accused of issuing a bomb threat and launching a campaign of cyber attacks against a Finnish anti-piracy group.

The actions were made in protest against the Finnish government’s decision to force Elisa, one of the country’s largest ISPs, to block access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay.

Escalating measures

Elisa was ordered by the local district court in Helsinki to prevent its customers from accessing the site, prompting numerous Twitter accounts linked with Anonymous to voice discontent, with some even appearing to threaten the government. “To the Finnish government: Stop censorship or deal with the consequences,” one Twitter user wrote.

Elisa said that it would appeal the decision, but the non-profit anti-piracy group, Copyright, Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC), which took the website to court on behalf of the Finnish Recording Association told the police that it received an email signed by Anonymous which stated that its office in downtown Helsinki would be bombed later this week.

In the UK, BT has been asked to ban The Pirate Bay and another file-sharing site Newzbin, while other countries, including Spain and Ireland have been put under pressure to enact tough anti-piracy legislation. The founders of the Pirate Bay themselves have been subject to legal action, with the three founders of the site found guilty of being accessories to copyright violations by a Swedish court in April 2009.

Online freedom is one of the few shared beliefs among every cell of Anonymous, who has consistently threatened and carried out attacks on governments or organisations seeking to censor the internet, as well as a number of other targets.

It has been linked to attacks in Finland before, including one which stole personal data from 16,000 people. It also hacked into a Finnish neo-Nazi site and has created a website designed to expose neo-Nazi sympathisers and website members, while it also shut down 40 child porn sites and published details of more than 1,500 paedophiles in a hack in October.