Anonymous answers Sri Lanka’s call. Should Sri Lanka worry?

Following weeks of protests against president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his government, citizens have been actively pleading for international support in various forms ranging from procuring medicine to financial assistance for vulnerable communities. Among these include regular pleas for hacktivist groups such as Anonymous to get involved by exposing evidence of corruption and theft of public funds. Now, a video circulating the internet alludes to Anonymous coming after the president and the current administration.

The Ghost Squad

The video was posted by a channel calling itself the “The Ghost”, also known as The Ghost Squad, on April 9. The first half revolves around a now-viral Facebook post centered around an incident involving 102 metric tons of printed material to Uganda. Back in February 2021, Sri Lankan Airlines chartered three consecutive flights carrying 102MT of “printed material”. According to a report by the Sunday Times, the airline had refused to provide details regarding the flight following an RTI filing.

Then it goes on to talk about the Avant Garde controversy before ending with, “Gotabaya Rajapaksa, you have 12 days to step down.” While the warning may be cryptic, the implications could potentially turn out drastic for Sri Lanka. Especially considering the Ghost Squad’s track record.

For those wondering, the Ghost Squad is a politically motivated hacktivist group tied to the larger Anonymous collective. Its list of government and organization attacks includes defacing Ethiopian government websites, Donald Trump’s website, banks in the UK, and more. Whether Sri Lanka will be the group’s latest entry, time will tell.

On the other hand, one could question the authenticity of it all. Yes, the video did get mentioned on Anonymous Twitter. But the Ghost YouTube channel is barely a week old and the content featured is exclusively on the Sri Lankan crisis. The channel’s location is listed as Sri Lanka and the linked Twitter account is only a few months old. So there’s every chance that this could be an attempt by a few locals on capitalizing on the growing demands for Anonymous to get involved with the country’s situation. Then again, literally, anyone can claim to be part of Anonymous and carry out cyberattacks.

Anonymous and Sri Lanka: Treading dangerous waters

Nevertheless, growing calls for international hacktivism aren’t all that surprising given the current situation. For one, the rising pile of politically facilitated corruption allegations from the many highway projects to the Pandora Papers scandal continues to take the spotlight amidst the backdrop of #GotaGoHome.

Further, international coverage of the protests and the country’s economic crisis has left citizens much to be desired. Even the conduct of Sri Lanka’s own state media and related entities hasn’t helped as of late. For instance, the Department of Government Information initially denied the medicine shortage in the country along with state media channel Rupavahini framing the recent wave of protests as “mostly from Muslims”.

In such a context, it can be tempting to appeal to the likes of Anonymous to step in. But an attack on Sri Lanka’s digital infrastructure could do more harm than good. The country’s digital infrastructure is vulnerable as it is, particularly at the national level. Comprising these government websites and systems would essentially cut effective means of communication and services, limited as it may seem in Sri Lanka’s digital space. Additionally, any restoration or rebuilding of such web services would come at the expense of the public.

But what makes matters worse is that Sri Lanka’s cybersecurity resilience has rarely been good. Back in April 2014, Anonymous hackers’ #OpSriLanka attack took down 129 websites in Sri Lanka. About three years later, the president’s website got hacked by a 17-year-old. In February 2021, the LK Domain Registry itself was compromised. So clearly, Sri Lanka isn’t ready to weather a wave of cyberattacks.

Now, amidst another wave of calls for #OpSriLanka from Anonymous, the question is if Sri Lankans have bit off more than they can chew?