The collective of hackers known as Anonymous attacked numerous government and recording industry websites this evening, shutting the sites down for hours as of this posting.

The attacks stem from a two year investigation into content sharing website Megaupload.com.  The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment today (after waiting an extra day to avoid coinciding with the SOPA protests), shut down the Megaupload website and arrested up to eight people in connection with the bust, including Megaupload founder Kim “Dotcom” Schmitz.  The actions provoked anger and triggered retaliation from Anonymous, according to Twitter accounts that regularly tweet news related to the collective of hackers.

The list of affected targets includes the Department of Justice, the FBI, Recording Industry Association of America, UniversalMusic.com, and others.  There are also reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office may have been targeted as well.

From the Washington Post:

Federal authorities Thursday indicted two firms and shut down one of the Web’s most popular sites for sharing illegally pirated material, triggering a quick response from hackers who claimed credit for taking down the Web sites of the Justice Department, Recording Industry Association of America and other media companies in retaliation.

The grand jury indictment, which caps a two-year investigation, charges seven people and Megaupload.com and other related sites with running an international organized criminal enterprise. Investigators said the group generated more than $175 million in income and cost copyright owners more than $500 million.

Justice Department officials said yesterday that the timing of its indictment was coincidental and had nothing to do with a debate on Capitol Hill over a bill that took aim at piracy online.

“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States,” the Justice Department and FBI said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the federal action angered hackers, escalating the growing battle between the Web’s powerbrokers, both legitimate and illicit, and Washington, which has been seeking ways to clamp down on pirated content.

The Department of Justice released a statement on its website tonight, stating in part (since the DoJ site is down, portions of the statement are available at Mercury News, Silicon Valley):

“The Department of Justice web server hosting justice.gov is currently experiencing a significant increase in activity, resulting in a degradation in service,” the agency said in a statement. “The Department is working to ensure the website is available while we investigate the origins of this activity, which is being treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause of the disruption.” (more…)

Rep. Anthony Weiner’s comments today and yesterday raise new questions, and emphasize the urgent need for a full, official, and independent investigation of the allegation that one or more of his account(s) were “hacked.”

A new theory suggests that it would have been possible for someone with Weiner’s private yfrog email address to send a picture to that address which would then appear on his Twitter feed as if Weiner himself had sent it.

That means someone other than Weiner, who had “hacked” or otherwise obtained his yfrog email address, could have “pranked” him.

Yet the same result would have occurred if Weiner had emailed an image to his own yfrog account, and only would have occurred once he had authorized yfrog to use his Twitter account. Weiner appears to have had no knowledge or understanding of the yfrog feature.

The yfrog feature, in other words, proves nothing–it only suggests that Weiner could have been both “hacked” and “pranked.” And again, he could simply have sent the link to the offending yfrog image himself, from his mobile device or another source. The conflicting theories cry out for investigation.

Weiner said today that he did not send the photograph, and that a reference to Seattle in one of his tweets was a “terrible coincidence.” We are prepared to take him at his word. Yet he repeated his initial claim that his account had been “hacked”–an allegation that calls for an official, not a private, investigation.

And even if we assume everything Weiner has said is true, he still has not given a clear or credible answer about whether the image is of him; he has not explained why other images were deleted from his yfrog account; and he insists on an internal investigation that will report to him alone.

Hacking into private accounts, impersonating a federal elected official, and deleting evidence that may be subject to federal investigation are each criminal offenses. Failure to report suspected cybercrime is also a breach of House of Representatives rules.

The American people deserve to know whether these violations, having been alleged or described, actually occurred.