Tuesday, November 3, 2009

The Church of Scientology’s European website was hacked and defaced earlier today by hackers claiming to be members of Anonymous. Anonymous proponents previously hacked Scientology’s main website, www.scientology.org. The group also protested the church in February 2008.

Another website run by the church, freedom-belgium.org, was also hacked and defaced. The hacked websites contain content taken from .whyaretheydead.info, a website critical of Scientology which lists members of the Church who are alleged to have died while in its care. Anonymous has stated that whyaretheydead.info was not involved in the hacking, but the hackers merely used content from their website.

This is not the first time hackers have defaced Scientology websites. In January 2008, ‘Anonymous’ hacked the Church’s international website by using a denial-of-service attack. The attack caused the website to be inaccessible for nearly 24 hours.