Who crashed Planned Parenthood's website?
NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – Planned Parenthood, reeling from a third undercover video exposing its practice of selling aborted fetal tissue to finance its operations, claimed July 29 a disruption in the operation of its website was the result of "an extremist attack."
Under the header explaining that the abortion provider's site was unavailable, it said "200,000 people a day are now being blocked from information and care by this attack."
Planned Parenthood did not specify what so-called extremist group was attacking its website, but the group did not waste the opportunity to use the incident to raise cash for its operation. On its Facebook page, the group described "a new low" for the opponents of abortion.
"Today, anti-abortion extremists briefly blocked any traffic from going to plannedparenthood.org— a site that 200,000 people count on every day for health info and services," the group said on social media.
"If it wasn't clear that these attacks are an attempt to cut people off from care, an attack on the PP website makes it CRYSTAL clear. If you have a few bucks, please help PP fight back: ppact.io/helpfightback."
Obviously what [Planned Parenthood] does is a very ominous practice. It'll be interesting to see what surfaces when [Planned Parenthood] is stripped naked and exposed to the public.
The link provided by the abortion provider dumps supporters onto a donation landing page where they are encouraged to give $35, $60, $100, or $200. Ironically, the first two figures are near those mentioned in the recent abortion videos as prices for aborted fetal tissue.
"Planned Parenthood has been the target of hackers seeking to intimidate and silence us," the website claimed.
"The attacks on Planned Parenthood are an attempt to cut people off from care, plain and simple. We can't let that happen, and we won't. Please chip in what you can to help make sure patients can get the care they need — and ensure that Planned Parenthood can't be silenced."
According to Reuters, the Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Action websites were both hit with a "DDoS" or a wide-scale "distributed denial-of-service" attack. In the attack, a web server is inundated with data, slowing and sometimes crashing the server.
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the sites were restored, but the abortion provider preferred to keep them offline until they were sure the attack was over. This is the second time in a week hackers have attacked the website.
According to the Daily Dot, a news outlet that monitors happenings online, hackers gained access to the names, addresses and other vital information of employees of Planned Parenthood last week. Now, the news site claims one of the hackers, known only as "E," told its writers that the hacking was politically motivated and morally necessary.
"Trying to mold an atrocious monstrosity into socially acceptable behaviors is repulsive," "E" told the Daily Dot. "Obviously what [Planned Parenthood] does is a very ominous practice. It'll be interesting to see what surfaces when [Planned Parenthood] is stripped naked and exposed to the public."
Another one of the hackers, known as "J," also revealed to news sources that the hackers were four individuals in four separate countries. They claimed to have been supportive of the attack on Planned Parenthood because one of the members of their group – 3301 – is virulently anti-abortion.
They also claim, however, to have no particular interest in any specific target. "J" claimed each member of the group "loves to hack" and will do so until they are caught. He said they were also responsible for the attack on Sony Play Station and Malaysia Airlines recently.