This is the image visitors to the alleged Anonymous post on You Tube now see
The Anonymous threat against Habersham County has been removed from You Tube and county officials are hopeful that’s a good sign. The online hacktivist group – or someone posing as Anonymous – posted the threat on the popular video-sharing website Sunday. They threatened to shut down the county’s computers and steal money from its bank accounts if the county refuses to pay medical expenses for a child injured in a drug raid on a house in Cornelia last May.
18-month old Bounkham Phonesavanh Jr. (nicknamed Bou Bou) was critically injured when officers mistakenly threw a flash grenade into his crib during a ‘no knock’ raid on the house where he and his family were staying. His parents say his medical bills are now over one million dollars.
Near the end of the You Tube recording the automated voice delivered this threat:
“Anonymous will seize your bank assets and take any money we can find from your corrupt government entity and we will pay for the child’s medical bills with your money. Within this attack on your organization will be many viruses and worms that will completely cripple your government. You want to throw flash grenades in toddler’s cribs. We will deploy virus after virus after virus into your computer systems and networks and we will refuse to pay to have them fixed and decrypted. Anonymous now commences Operation Shutdown. We are anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”
Habersham County Manager Phil Sutton says the county takes the threat seriously but it can not, by law, pay the child’s medical bills. “We have to follow the law,” Sutton says. “There is no discretion. The law is as clear as it can be. The county commission does not have the discretion to pay medical bills. That could only be done by a court order. It’s not a county decision.”
Since the threat surfaced the county has worked overtime to secure its computer network. “It’s always been secure,” Sutton assures, “but we’ve tightened it up.” He says all of the county’s banks have been notified and law enforcement and county IT personnel are closely monitoring the county’s network activity.
Ironically, Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Brian Rickman just returned from computer forensics training last week. When the threat surfaced, Sutton says county officials immediately contacted Rickman. He calls it a “happy coincidence” that Rickman had just met many of the officials they needed to talk with. He put Habersham County officials in touch with the Secret Service which, in turn, referred them to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sutton says the FBI is now handling the case. Now Habersham reached out to the FBI and is waiting to hear back from the agency as to the status of its investigation.
Meanwhile, Sutton insists the county has done everything it can at this point to avoid a potential computer systems shutdown. “We’ve restricted some computer access but nothing that anybody would notice. We’ve tightened some things up that could have been potential openings in the system, but nothing that has diminshed our service.”
Sutton’s understanding of the Anonymous hacktivist group is that they’re extremely aggressive. He refuses to speculate as to the extent of damage and potential cost that a computer systems shutdown would cause but says, “it could be very serious. From our banking standpoint, I don’t think those threats are very realistic.” He says he’s confident that the county’s money is safe and emphasizes it’s not just that the county won’t pay Baby Bou Bou’s medical bills…it can’t. “You can’t threaten a county to take action that’s illegal.”
