Vigilante Hacker Is On A Mission Against Homophobic And Racist Websites

Aaron Mamiit, Tech Times 22 October 2015, 07:10 am

A vigilante hacker that goes by the name of Amped Attacks is taking on homophobic and racist websites one by one, shutting them down through distributed denial-of-service attacks.

DDoS attacks are usually launched by hackers against websites and services that many other Internet users rely on, such gaming networks and banking websites. However, Amped Attacks is launching these attacks on websites that are oppressive in nature.

A DDoS attack is a commonly used method by hackers to shut down websites. The attack takes down a server through an overload of requests directed at it, and with a certain amount of requests, a network resource or machine would become unavailable, shutting down a website or service.

Amped Attacks tweets about the attacks that are carried out on homophobic and racist websites, sometime using the hashtag #tangodown to mark the takedown. While the hashtag is often used by the hacktivist group Hacktivist, it does not mean that Amped Attacks is associated with the group. None of the Twitter accounts held by Anonymous have indicated that Amped Attacks is working under the direction of the group.

KKK and all RACIST i have a question.. how does it feel knowing one man is taking you all down one by one?

— Amped Attacks (@sgtbilko420) October 21, 2015

At the time of writing, KKK website kuklosknights.com is the next target of Amped Attacks, as posted on the Twitter account.

https://t.co/9rHGua2EVN you are my target for tomorrow you have been warned :) — Amped Attacks (@sgtbilko420) October 21, 2015

Scrolling down his Twitter page would allow users to see the various websites that Amped Attacks has targeted. However, DDoS attacks do not cause websites to be shut down permanently, with the targets being able to go back online after a certain period of time. Some have argued that the actions of Amped Attacks, instead of discouraging the homophobic and racist websites, are only drawing attention to them. While this may be true, having the Internet community notice that such websites still exist in today's forward-thinking world could be the cause of Amped Attacks.