Silicon Republic has reported that hacker collective Anonymous has recently taken down the websites of the Irish Department of Justice and the Irish Department of Finance along with some other affiliated websites. The Anonymous hackers also published the phone numbers of the departments’ respective ministers.

According to Irish security expert Brian Honan, the attacks by Anonymous are just a warning shot ahead of Ireland’s decision to pass a statutory instrument that has already been labeled by critics to be an Irish version of the US’s SOPA bill. The instrument itself is intended to cover perceived gaps in Ireland’s copyright laws and would give Irish courts the power to grant injunctions against internet service providers (ISPs) based on the suspicion that their customers are illegally downloading copyrighted materials.

Nevertheless, Brian noted that such hacking attacks by Anonymous usually just fade away as members loose interest or move on to other targets. He also pointed out that the attacks are likely to draw attention away from the real issues and concerns surrounding the new instrument and instead focus the attention of both the media and the government on the fact that Ireland is being subjected to attacks from Internet hackers.

In fact, about half the Silicon Republic article covered ways to prevent such attacks rather than the reasons behind them and why the statutory instrument may or may not be needed. In other words, the hacking attacks by Anonymous are probably not helping the cause of preventing SOPA-like bills from being passed in other countries like Ireland.