Akamai’s Real-time Web Monitoring site is still reporting a 24% above normal, on IP based Attack Traffic worldwide, as the fallout from SOPA/PIPA and the US Government seizure and shutdown of megaupload.com continues to enrage the Anonymous hacktivists.  As much as a sustained attack on the networking infrastructure of the FBI, Department of Justice and Motion Picture Association among others, is exciting for the mainstream media. This latest spat of large Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) is just going to land some kids in jail. This display of stupidity on the part of Anonymous and sympathisers, also moves the US legislative agenda forward which seeks to put Al-Qaeda terrorists next to Hackers as threats to the national security and economic interest of the US.  Under the US PATRIOT and DMCA act, things were extremely challenging for independent security researches, the legislative agenda that will result from this internet vandalism will  exacerbate the challenges.  This full on cyber attack by anonymous is a harbinger of things to come.  Had these attacks been directed at critical, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA) based infrastructure, life in the US and Europe would have been severely disrupted.  This latest “State of the SCADA” article (below) indicates to me, the nature, escalation and massive inconvenience the world may face in the months ahead.

 http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/researchers-lay-bare-woeful-scada-security-worrying-government-and-industry-012012