City of Denver

Summary

Anonymous hackers, operating under the New World Hackers division, conducted distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the City of Denver's official website and later the Bank of Denver's site, causing extended outages. The cyberattacks were retaliation for a fatal police shooting of an unarmed man during a SWAT team operation near the Denver Art Museum, where officers attempted to serve an arrest warrant related to a robbery investigation. The victim's wife publicly stated he had no weapon, while police acknowledged uncertainty about whether he fired at officers. The incident drew significant social media attention, with activists using campaign hashtags to amplify calls for accountability, mirroring previous Anonymous operations targeting law enforcement agencies over alleged misconduct.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

On April 22, 2016, members of the New World Hackers (NWH), a division of the hacktivist collective Anonymous, launched distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against the City of Denver’s official website (denvergov.org). The attack began Friday afternoon and rendered the government portal inaccessible for the remainder of that day. The following day, April 23, the hackers shifted focus to the Bank of Denver’s website (thebankofdenver.com), executing a similar disruption. NWH members publicly claimed responsibility for both attacks, stating they were retaliation for the fatal police shooting of Dion Avila Damon on April 12, 2016. The group’s actions aligned with their historical pattern of targeting law enforcement entities following controversial use-of-force incidents.

The shooting occurred near the Denver Art Museum at the intersection of 14th Street and Bannock Street. Police attempted to serve an arrest warrant on Damon, a robbery suspect, as he dropped off his wife and child. According to witness accounts reported by Unicorn Riot, officers fired at least seven shots through Damon’s vehicle windshield shortly after exiting their SWAT vehicles, killing him at the scene. His wife, present during the incident, later told FOX31 Denver that Damon had declared he was unarmed. Denver police confirmed Damon’s suspect status in a press conference but did not verify whether he possessed a weapon or fired at officers. Anonymous amplified the case through social media campaigns using hashtags like #OpDionAvilaDamon, mirroring prior interventions such as their February 2016 leak of Cincinnati officers’ personal data and doxxing of a Miami officer. The DDoS attacks temporarily disrupted municipal and financial services while drawing national attention to the unresolved questions surrounding Damon’s death.

Sources

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