It seems locals aren't the only ones upset about the construction of one of the world's largest telescopes near the summit of Mauna Kea, which is already home to not one but 13 large telescopes. The Thirty Meter Telescope will be one of the largest in the world when completed, but today, those opposed to the project received help from cyber protesters as they hacked the Thirty Meter Telescope website bringing it down for about two hours.
Thirty Meter Telescope spokeswoman Caroline Witherspoon confirmed that the company's website suffered the disruption, but could not say who was responsible. She said as a result of the attack the website was unavailable for about two hours.
"TMT today was the victim of an unscrupulous denial of service attack, apparently launched by Anonymous," said Sandra Dawson, a spokeswoman for the project. "The incident is being investigated."
Why all the uproar over a telescope? Native Hawaiians consider the land on top of Mauna Kea to be sacred and have opposed the telescope project from the very beginning. Recently, the protests have become so strong Hawaii Governor David Ige arranged to halt its construction in order to further discuss the matter with all those involved.
Operation Green Rights is a group that has been cyber protesting the TMT and has stated that it is affiliated with the hacker group Anonymous. On Sunday, Operation Green Rights posted images on its page Sunday claiming responsibility for the attack. The page included screen grabs of both the Thirty Meter Telescope website as well as the main website of the Hawaii state government indicating that both had been attacked.
Cindy McMillan, Ige's director of communications, could not confirm whether or not the government's sites were disrupted but had asked security personnel to investigate.
So why build telescopes there at all? The placement of the TMT was chosen for many of the same reasons people are protesting. By placing the telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea, it is far away from any type of civilization in an area that is secluded and simply well suited for a telescope such as the TMT.
However, the people of Mauna Kea do not want another telescope dotting their landscape, so the protests continue. Construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope is predicted to take between eight and ten years and the TMT organization seems pretty set on the location. But so do the locals and with the support of groups such as Operation Green Rights, could be prepared for a longer battle than many expect.
