Who 0\/\/nz the WWW?

I have written previously about the saga of BlueFrog, who took a legal product up against the world’s worst cyber criminals and lost.

I said at the time that the World Wide Web is inhabited by a criminal element, and it is more like the Wild Wild West in that rogue network operators are paid in cash to commit or assist in crimes against other internet sites.

In this instance, ThePirateBay.Org, a web site that facilitates the exchange of pirated media such as movies and songs, and likely running an illegal operation, was raided by the Swedish Police in an effort to put an end to illegal file sharing. You can read about all of the details at Wikipedia.

In retaliation, hackers launched a Distributed Denial of Service attack against the Swedish Government Website and the Swedish National Police Department. The Swedish Intelligence service has now waded into the cyber-fray, acting surprised that anyone would object to the removal of a criminal enterprise, and awed that criminals would perform a criminal act like a DDoS.

From Reuters here:

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s domestic intelligence agency said it would probe why the government’s Web site crashed on Sunday amid reports hackers had sought revenge for a crackdown on alleged online piracy.

The government Web site went off line in the early hours of Sunday. The Internet home page of the national police crashed in similar fashion on Thursday.

The police Web site problem came a day after the Pirate Bay Internet page, which the recording industry calls a major source for downloading pirated music and films, was shut by police.

“They (the government) contacted us and wanted to make a police complaint that something has happened with their home page and it is now a question for us investigate if it is a crime or something else,” said Anders Thornberg, a spokesman for the Security Police intelligence agency.

Local media said hackers attacked both sites, now functioning again, after the clampdown on Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay is also up and running again.

Until cyber criminals and spammers are brought to justice, the WWW will continue to stand for wild wild west.