Hackers block Slovenian largest bank NLB's website | Bangkok Post: tech

Online hackers' group Anonymous blocked temporarily on Saturday the website of Slovenia's largest bank NLB, while thousands protested in Ljubljana against an anti-piracy pact.

Online hackers' group Anonymous blocked temporarily the website of Slovenia's largest bank NLB, while thousands protested in Ljubljana against an anti-piracy pact.

"More attacks against Nova Ljubljanska Banka's (NLB) website follow during the day," Slovenian news agency STA quoted an alleged member of Anonymous as saying when assuming responsibility for the attack that blocked the website for almost two hours.

"During the morning our website was the target of an attack consisting of an extraordinary increase in the number of visit requests to its services," NLB said in a statement.

Anonymous had announced an attack against state-owned NLB's website on Saturday and also warned it could also target the government's website depending on the results of a public debate on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) scheduled for February 17.

Several governments have come under attack from hackers this week after 22 out of 27 members of the European Union, Slovenia among them, signed the pact on January 26.

Some 2,000 citizens gathered in Ljubljana on Saturday to protest against the signing of ACTA by the government and demanding a freeze on the ratification of the controversial international online anti-piracy accord.

Protestors marched through the capital, stopping in front of government headquarters, the stock market and the US embassy.

Poland's prime minister Donald Tusk said Friday that Warsaw would put on ice plans to ratify ACTA after massive off-and-online protests in his country.

Tusk's decision followed protests mostly by young Poles who fear the agreement -- aimed at creating international standards for intellectual property protection -- could significantly curtail online freedom.

ACTA was negotiated between the 27-nation European Union, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States.