Hackers attack Scientology

An Internet-based protest against the Church of Scientology is underway by a group known as “Anonymous.” The protest, dubbed “Project Chanology,” started on January 16 in response to the Church of Scientology’s attempt to remove information from the Internet. Anonymous has organized a series of denial-of-service attacks against Scientology websites, prank calls, and black faxes to Scientology centers (which waste toner).

Recently, Scientology has enjoyed considerable publicity because of several of its high-profile celebrity members including Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, and John Travolta. While Scientology may have become a common term because of its increased use in supermarket magazine headlines, many do not know what it actually is. The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and promotion of the Scientology belief system. Science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard developed Scientology in 1952 and the Church of Scientology in 1953. Scientologists believe that a person is an immortal spiritual being with a mind and body. They believe in the notion of reincarnation and that through “auditing” people can free themselves of ethical transgressions and bad decisions. They also believe that psychiatry and psychology are harmful practices.

The activities of the Church of Scientology have been controversial since its onset. Early in its history, the Church of Scientology’s founders were convicted of infiltrating and stealing from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies, and consults to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. They were imprisoned for five years.

Claims have been made that Hubbard discussed his intent to start a religion for profit. There are also claims that the church has used confidential records used during the church’s “auditing” process to harass and intimidate its members. More seriously, in 1995 a 36-year-old woman died while under the care of the church. To avoid allowing the women to be put into psychiatric care, the church would not take her to the hospital after she showed signs of having a serious infection. She eventually died. Recently, the church has attempted to legally force search engines to omit webpages that criticize Scientology. Sophomore mechanical engineering major Michael Schoumacher states, “There are too many people who don’t know how dangerous Scientology is: the stories of how they financially ruined the lives of people who joined the “religion,” the mysterious deaths at their retreat of people who were trying to get out, the misuse of the government’s tax clause for religions for their wealthy followers. What started as a joke religion made by L. Ron Hubbard has grown into an extremely dangerous cult. It’s going to take a lot of people getting angry about them to bring them to justice, and the first step is getting the word out.”

On January 16, 2008, a video was leaked to the internet and uploaded to YouTube that was produced by the Church of Scientology and featured Tom Cruise. In the video, Cruise makes many claims about the Church of Scientology. He states that after passing a car accident he knows that he, as a Scientologist, is the only one that can help and that Scientologists are the authority on getting addicts off drugs. After a threat of litigation, YouTube removed the video; however, it can still be found on other websites.

A group of users of the imageboards 711chan.org and 4chan, the associated partyvan.info wiki, and several Internet Relay Chat channels have banded to collectively be known as Anonymous. Anonymous formed “Project Chanology” after the Church of Scientology issued copyright violation claims against YouTube. Anonymous claims that the Church of Scientology’s actions are a form of internet censorship. Senior computer engineering major Kenneth Alexander explained, “So far, their primary attack has been using Distributed Denial of Service attacks or DDoS. Security analysts who have monitored the attack have been surprised by the unsophisticated nature of the attack, brute force is the tool of choice they used. Others have included ordering pizza’s and taxi’s for scientology churches, or faxing solid black pages to try and run them out of ink. Many people find their position and tactics humorous. While others believe it is childish.” On January 29, a Google bomb techniques was implemented to make the Scientology.org main website the first result in a Google search for “dangerous cult.” Anonymous claims their goal is “to enlighten the Church of Scientology (CoS) by any means necessary.”

In response to Anonymous’ attacks, the Church of Scientology has hired a group to protect their websites from attack. Yvette Shank, a spokesperson for the Church of Scientology stated that she felt that Anonymous members were a “pathetic” group of “computer geeks.”

On February 10, Anonymous plans to hold an international protest outside Church of Scientology centers. Sophomore applied biology and software engineering major Robert Williamson stated, “I don’t necessarily condone all of the actions of various people in the name of Anon, but I am interested in the whole situation. The various protests, that remain peaceful, like the ones planned for February 10 at various Scientology Headquarters, I think are a good idea. I think the public and members of the CoS who do not know about various court cases and deaths should be at least informed.” Williamson continued, “Which all comes back to the main issue, freedom of speech, which is the initial reason Anon decided to begin this war on Scientology. They are far too secretive, and that just breeds fear in the masses. The attacks on the Scientology websites, faxes, and hotlines are funny; however, they do not really help get the point across. It just makes Anon look like a group of ‘internet terrorists’ with no legitimate issues they are trying to bring up.”

While the effort by Anonymous seems substantial now, many do not think it will last. Alexander explained, “I think that “Anonymous” will be short lived anyway, their message and purpose doesn’t have a deep enough following among the general public to cause a revolution of thought. People will continue to not like Scientology, and will continue to do nothing about it. Anonymous will definitely resurge after they regroup, but I can’t see this issue going beyond this year.”