Indiana government website under siege by 'hacktivists'
CHICAGO -- The main government website in Indiana has been attacked by "hacktivists" protesting the state's divisive new religious freedom law.
Indiana has been under attack from the left, center and right and now there is an onslaught by anti-Hoosier hacktivists.
The state's main government website, under siege since late last week, was hit again Tuesday afternoon by computer attackers angry about Indiana's new religious freedom law. As quickly as the attackers' social media site was switched off, the hacktivists resurfaced under a new name.
"It will be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that this law does not give businesses the right to deny services to anyone," Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said at a press conference.
Even as Indiana's embattled governor was talking about one kind of denial of service, over on the state's website, another denial of service was underway. Hacktivists operating under the name YourVikingdom2015 told Indiana officials, "Enjoy your website being offline."
For about a half hour on Tuesday afternoon, IN.gov was basically inaccessible. State website services, including emergency and social service links, were mostly unavailable to the public.
Hacktivists apparently responsible for the attack were quickly taken down by Twitter. Their was account suspended, but just as fast they were back up and operating under a new name, RedVikingdom. Their description said that suspending them won't do any good; they've been destroying the world since 2011.
Indiana has been hammered by protests from groups on the street, corporations, and even other states now boycotting government travel to Indiana, saying that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act legalizes discrimination by protecting business owners, allowing them to turn away gays, lesbians and other customers if they feel that serving them infringes on their religious beliefs.
Some Indiana Democrats now say the governor's plan to clarify the law's wording falls short of meeting the demands to "fix this now."
"The most clear, decisive and understandable thing we can do is to repeal the statute," said Scott Pelath, Indiana House Minority Leader.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says that Indiana and 11 other states now have similar bills in the works and 19 states already have laws in place like Indiana's, so there are numerous other targets for the hacktivists to consider.
