Starting next week two of Australia’s largest ISPs, Telstra and Optus, will voluntarily implement an Internet filter that censors some 500 websites.
At least, that was the plan.
It now appears that the recent accomplishments of LulzSec and Anonymous have changed the minds of Telstra’s top executives.
With the threat of becoming the prime target of these Internet vigilantes in the back of their minds, the Government blocklist is no longer that appealing.
The Australian reports:
“It is understood Telstra was last night still grappling with the decision as to whether to commit to the voluntary filter because of fears of reprisals from the internet vigilantes behind a spate of recent cyber attacks.”
“It is understood the unstructured collective of hackers that identifies itself as Lulz Security, which has an agenda to wreak havoc on corporate and government cyber assets, claiming this is to expose security flaws, is one of Telstra main concerns.”
“The other main concern is a group that identifies itself as Anonymous, another unstructured hacker collective that claims to be opposed to any form of internet censorship, and has carried out attacks on Australian government websites because of Canberra’s support for an internet filter on child pornography.”
Aside from LulzSec and Anonymous many other parties including the Aussie Pirate Party have criticized the Internet filter.