Hacker collective to act on November 5th, unless Zynga drops plans to cut staff
Hacking group Anonymous has threatened to attack Zynga following the social gaming company announcing a spate of layoffs.
Zynga has proposed to close several of its worldwide operations, including its Boston and Austin offices, following its quarterly earning call last week.
Now the hacker collective Anonymous has threatened to released “confidential” documents and copies of Zynga games taken from the social games company, unless it abandons plans to layoff 800 jobs and outsources it development to Bangalore, India, according to te hacker group's website.
Anonymous has given Zynga a deadline of November 5th to respond before they carry out their offensive, which has been titled #OP MaZynga.
A video posted on anonnews.org – the news site for the organisation – details, in broken English, what Anonymous sees as the “end of the US game market as we know it as all this jobs will be replaced in other more convenient financial countries.” (The video has since been pulled by YouTube for depicting “harmful activities”.)
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I can't say i'm the greatest fan of Zynga, but this is ridiculous. And it's not so much the threat of being attacked if they make the 5% cuts (although it is their prerogative to do so), as this is almost honourable. It's the "and outsources it development to Bangalore, India" line. Is this a first glimpse of what the Anonymous crew are to become? Please correct me if i'm wrong, but generally, Anonymous 'campaigns' have been in protest to an entity doing something that impinges on the wellbeing or freedom of people. This latest campaign seems to start out honourable enough (saving the 5%), but then begins to instruct Zynga on where it should outsource it's development. Suddenly things seem to suspiciously resemble extortion to me.
