Hacking for the Environment - Tar Sands in the Crosshairs

The international hacking group Anonymous has launched Operation Green Rights.   Their first target was Monsanto, a company the group called "corrupt, unethical and downright evil."   Anonymous claims to have given Monsanto a rough time.

"We blasted their web infrastructure to s*** for 2 days straight, crippling all 3 of their mail servers as well as taking down their main websites world-wide.  We dropped dox on 2500+ employees and associates, including full names, addresses, phone numbers, and exactly where they work. We are also in the process of setting up a wiki, to try and get all collected information in a more centralized and stable environment.  Not bad for 2 months, I'd say."

The group has announced it's next target, Tar Sands companies.   They're calling it Operation Green Rights; Project Tarmaggedon. Here's their manifesto:

"Anonymous' Operation Green Rights calls your attention to an urgent situation in North America perpetuated by the boundless greed of the usual suspects: Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Canadian Oil Sands Ltd., Imperial Oil, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and many others.

This week, activists are gathering along U.S. Highway 12 in Montana to protest the transformation of a serene wilderness into an industrial shipping route, bringing "megaloads" of refinery equipment to the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada (see Tar Sands FAQ Sheet below).

Anonymous now joins the struggle against "Big Oil" in the heartland of the US. We stand in solidarity with any citizen willing to protest corporate abuse. Anonymous will not stand by idly and let these environmental atrocities continue. This is not the clean energy of the future that we are being promised.

We will, over the course of the next few days, use the powers we posses [sic] to spread news about this scenario and the corporations involved. We are actively seeking leaks to expose the corruption that we all KNOW is beneath this. Anonymous will support the activists on July 13-14 when they initiate civil disobedience and direct action to confront this dire issue. We urge you to get involved. Montana and Idaho citizens, we ask you to join local protests and attend the Highway 12 rally if you are close enough! If you're not, join us in the IRC listed below for our own good times.

 
The continued development of the tar sands is a major step backward in the effort to curb global warming. Anonymous will not suffer this without a fight, and Operation Green Rights will always support the rights of the people to live in an unpolluted world, and aim to help safeguard it for the future. One way or another."

Anonymous can attack Big Oil where it hurts most - their secrecy.  It can expose their activities to public scrutiny.   Sure it's illegal but so was WikiLeaks when it was created.  Yet they're right, we're long overdue for plenty of civil disobedience.   That's something Harper is going to discover if he tries to run Enbridge's bitumen pipeline across British Columbia.  Maybe that's why he's building those new prisons.