Just days after the prolific and shadowy Anonymous hacking group announced that it was setting up its own social network, a new hacking group has emerged and defaced it.
On July 18, after getting booted off Google's new social network, Google+, for violating Google's terms and conditions, Anonymous set up AnonPlus, "a social network where there is no fear … of censorship … of blackout ... nor of holding back," the group declared.
Anonymous' fearless, arrogant stance was enough to stir other hackers to action.
A hacking group presumably based in Turkey defaced AnonPlus.com, replacing Anonymous' well-known masked-man logo with an image of a dog wearing a suit, The Register reported.
Below the picture is a message in Turkish whose translation reads, "We Are Turkiye We Are Akincilar. This logo suits you more … How dare you rise against to the World … Do you really think that you are Ottoman Empire?" ("Turkiye" is the Turkish spelling of the country's name, and "Akincilar" means "Raiders.")
The message ends by telling Anonymous' members to "go to your doghouse."
It's unlikely any personal data was taken during the website hack, The Register said, because although the AnonPlus.com website was live, Anonymous had not yet officially launched its social network.
Anonymous has a strong presence in Turkey; in early June, Turkish police arrested 32 suspected Anonymous members in 12 cities following the hackers' June 9 attack on Turkey's Telecommunications Communication Presidency website. That attack was part of "Operation Turkey," Anonymous' online protest against what it believed to be Turkey's long-standing practice of Internet censorship.