Man charged in 2011 Anonymous attack on Koch Industries

Man charged in 2011 Anonymous attack on Koch Industries

Brittany Hillen, Mar 27th 2013

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In the summer of 2011, it was revealed that Koch Industries was one of several big-oil-and-coal names shoveling out money to climate change skeptic Dr. Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, something that made his research seem more than a tad questionable. Shortly before this, however, were attacks on Koch Industries’ website by the hacker collective Anonymous, with one Wisconsin man being indicted yesterday for helping them.

The accussed man is Eric J. Rosol, aged 37, hailing from Black Creek, Wisconsin. According to charges made yesterday by the Witchita attorney’s office, Rosol was took part in the late February attacks on two of Koch’s websites: Kochind.com and Quiltednorthern.com, something that eventually took them offline.

As you may have suspected, the attacks were of the DDOS variety. Rosol is the only individual who has been indicted in the attacks, and has been charged with one count of damaging a protected computer, and another count of conspiracy to damage a protected computer. If the book is thrown at him, the participant could face a total of ten years in prison and a half a million dollar fine.

Although the website attacks came during a time when Koch and his brother came under fire for their support of union cutbacks in Wisconsin, it is possible that Koch Industries’ hand in climate change research could also have been a motivating factor for Roscol. According to the LA Times, the day the attack took place, Rosol linked on his blog the Greenpeace report that shined an unpleasant light on the business.

Man charged in 2011 Anonymous attack on Koch Industries - SlashGear