Recently 20% of the dark web websites have been taken off by a hacker claiming to be from the very famous Vigilant group know as 'Anonymous'. The dark web is associated with the illicit content, illegal businesses, online drug market Silk Road and often criminal activities.
According to the reports the attack targeted around 10,000 dark websites which were accused of selling and sharing child pornography. Every website that hacker took down was left with a message of warning. While the hacker claims to be from 'Anonymous' group, the twitter handle of 'Anonymous' account denied the claims.
Anonymous is an informal group of activist and hacktivist entities from around the world.
A website that is associated with the group describes it as 'an internet gathering' with a free and decentralized structure that is operated on ideas rather than rules.
The group has come to lights after their hack attacks on government websites, extremist groups, and corporate websites.
The hacker who took down the websites containing child pornography left a message with a warning on their server after hacking each of the websites. parts of the message read 'We are disappointed','We found while searching that your server is more than 50 per cent child porn','Moreover you host many scam sites, some of which are evidently run by yourself to cover hosting expenses'.
After hacker found ten child pornography sites hosted on Freedom hosting 2, they took off the whole network.
After the attack, the hacker leaked information including all the claimed child pornography images, information personal data that was for sale. It also included all of the websites system files information from the databases that included the data from the websites containing thousands of unverified US government email addresses, which hacker made as a free download.
While hacker claims to be from 'Anonymous' group , the believed twitter handle of Anonymous group @YOurAnonNews, which has 1.7 million followers has denied the claims. Clarification against the claim reads 'Since it has come up more than once, this account is not taking credit for this,'Let credit go where it's due if it's so desired.