Anonymous takes down state website in protest at cheating claims

ISTANBUL

A Japanese Anonymous member looks on during an anti-copyright laws demonstration in Tokyo, Japan, 07 July 2012. EPA Photo

Cyber-activist group Anonymous hacked Turkey’s Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM) website following claims of cheating and corruption during the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS), daily Hürriyet has reported.
 
Allegations of cheating surfaced even before the KPSS ended but were denied vigorously by authorities as “baseless.” The KPSS educational sciences section was canceled following allegations of cheating in 2010 as well.
 
The group also hacked Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek's personal website, earning gratitude from the Turkish hackers group RedHack, who expressed their gratitude to the international organization on Twitter.
 
"We thank all our Anonymous brothers for their support of operation #OpSupportRedHack," the group tweeted. "Melih Gökçek, who had sworn to get us, couldn't do so, but it looks like we got his website first."
 
RedHack has staged several cyber protests in Turkey, hacking state and private websites for causes that are often anti-government and anti-capitalist.
 
A prosecutor has demanded that RedHack be recognized as a "terrorist organization" after the group hacked into Turkish Foreign Ministry databases on July 3. The prosecutor based the request on the fact that the socialist hacking group used a hammer-and-sickle logo and had a political manifesto.