After Aaron Swartz’s death, a lot of hacktivists and activists that agreed with Swartz ideals and found the over-the-top sentencing to be a government problem with hackers, have taken matters into their own hands.
Swartz trial was very odd and now that details have been added that FEDs took over after no charges were added, it makes it all the more sad. Carmen Ortiz has been hit hard with this, many say she sought to make “an example” of Swartz by hitting him with 35 years in jail.
More to the problem, this isn’t the first time Ortiz and her team has sentenced a well-known public face for hacking and they have committed suicide. Some friends of Swartz have blamed his death partly on the inability of Ortiz and her team to prosecute properly, and partly on the US government for admitting her to punish Swartz that harshly.
Already Anonymous hackers have placed their message on MIT website, with a tribute to Swartz. Now the unlinked group have attacked the US Sentencing Commission website with a lengthy message and YouTube video. Anonymous has claimed to have obtained various U.S Justice Department files.
This is just one of the cyber attacks we’re seeing now on a daily basis. Whenever Anonymous wants to make a point, they can. FBI have announced they are investigating the crime as a criminal offence, although we doubt that the Anonymous hackers have left much, if any, possible evidence of their identity.
We suspect that with Swartz’s death, many will look to have the laws changed, so that departments like Carmen Ortiz’s cannot press so hard for the life sentence. Both MIT and JSTOR online resource, the place Swartz hacked into, had dropped charges, but Ortiz seemed fit to take him down.