Anonops #10: Stop SOPA

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Peace Officers Union pushes for legislative probe into Anonymous hack

SACRAMENTO, CA - Members of a Peace Officers Union are demanding a legislative probe after Anonymous hackers accessed the information of more than 2,500 members of the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association.

On New Year's Day, hackers exposed the private home addresses, phone numbers, and in some cases, the credit card information of many CSLEA members.

On Tuesday, the Peace Officers of California, a rival subset of the CSLEA, sent a letter to lawmakers. They want a full investigation into the security breach.

"We want to know why we weren't notified if this was going on since April," said Victor Sanchez, a CSLEA member and president of the Peace Officers of California.

On Tuesday CSLEA's president Alan Barcelona did not answer phone calls made by News10.

A letter sent to members Tuesday from the CSLEA explains why its board didn't notify all members of a previous hack in November.

"It was decided no generalized publication of the hack would be made in order to prevent any anxiety on the part of the those who had not had their personal information compromised," the letter stated.

CSLEA also stated it doesn't appear that any additional breach of information has occurred.

Read the whole letter from the CSLEA below:

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Vlak voor Kerstmis nam Kammarkollegiet beslissing om de missionaire Kopimistsamfundet als een religieuze gemeenschap te registreren. Dit betekent dat Zweden het eerste land ter wereld dat kopimismen herkent als een religie.

De zendeling Kopimistamfundet hebben geprobeerd om te worden erkend door de staat door de Administratieve Services Agency voor meer dan een jaar.

- We moesten er drie verzoeken aan de Administratieve Services Agency is voorzichtig geweest met de formaliteiten, zei vandaag een gelukkige Gustav Nipe, voorzitter van de gemeenschap. Ik denk dat het zou kunnen zijn omdat het in het openbaar bestuur geïnfiltreerd een sterke copyright extremisme, met een scheve uitzicht op het kopiëren, Gustav verder.

Informatie is heilig voor de missionaris Kopimistsamfundet, en kopieer het avondmaal. Informatie heeft waarde, zowel op zichzelf en in de inhoud ervan, en deze waarde stijgt met het kopiëren. Zo, het kopiëren van de kern van alles in de gemeenschap.

- Er is een grote stap voor kopimismen dat ons geloof is erkend door de Zweedse staat. Hopelijk betekent dit dat we eindelijk kunnen beginnen met ons geloof te oefenen, zonder dreiging van represailles, zei Gerson Isaac missie manager en chief spiritueel leider van de gemeenschap.

De zendeling Kopimistsamfundet is een kerkgenootschap opgericht in de 2010e Kopimistsamfundet formaliseert een gemeenschap die vandaag de dag goed is verspreid in de gemeenschap. De kopimistiska Gemeenschap vereist geen lidmaatschap. Het is voldoende dat men een roeping om de heiligste van alle aanbidding voelt: informatie. Voor dit doel, op voorwaarde dat religieuze diensten geregeld binnen de gemeenschap kader, waarin de gelovigen te delen informatie met elkaar en ook verfijnt deze informatie.

Gekopieerd en gedistribueerd.

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File-Sharing Recognized as Official Religion in Sweden

Since 2010 a group of self-confessed pirates have tried to get their beliefs recognized as an official religion in Sweden. After their request was denied several times, the Church of Kopimism – which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols – is now approved by the authorities as an official religion. The Church hopes that its official status will remove the legal stigma that surrounds file-sharing.

All around the world file-sharers are being chased by anti-piracy outfits and the authorities, and the situation in Sweden is no different. While copyright holders are often quick to label file-sharers as pirates, there is a large group of people who actually consider copying to be a sacred act.

Philosophy student Isak Gerson is such a religious file-sharer, and in an attempt to protect his unique belief system he founded The Missionary Church of Kopimism in 2010. In the hope that they could help prevent persecution for their beliefs, the Church then filed a request to be officially accepted by the authorities.

After two failed attempts, where the Church was asked to formalize its way of praying or meditation, the authorities finally recognized the organization as an official religion. The Church’s founder is ecstatic about this news, and hopes that it will motivate more people to come forward as ‘Kopimists’.

“I think that more people will have the courage to step out as Kopimists. Maybe not in the public, but at least to their close ones,” Isak tells TorrentFreak. “There’s still a legal stigma around copying for many. A lot of people still worry about going to jail when copying and remixing. I hope in the name of Kopimi that this will change.”

Although the formal status of the Church doesn’t mean that copyright infringement is now permitted, the Church’s founder hopes that their beliefs will be considered in future lawmaking.

During the last half year the Missionary Church of Kopimism tripled its members from 1,000 to 3,000 and it’s expected that the recent news will cause another surge in followers. Official member or not, Gerson encourages everyone with an Internet connection to keep on sharing.

“We confessional Kopimists have not only depended on each other in this struggle, but on everyone who is copying information. To everyone with an internet connection: Keep copying. Maintain hardline Kopimi,” Gerson concludes.

Prospective followers who embrace the same calling are of course welcome to join the movement, free of charge.

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Iran clamps down on internet use

Restrictions on cybercafes and plans to launch national internet prompt fears users could be cut off from world wide web

Iran is clamping down heavily on web users before parliamentary elections in March with draconian rules on cybercafes and preparations to launch a national internet.

Tests for a countrywide network aimed at substituting services run through the world wide web have been carried out by Iran's ministry of information and communication technology, according to a newspaper report. The move has prompted fears among its online community that Iran intends to withdraw from the global internet.

The police this week imposed tighter regulations on internet cafes. Cafe owners have been given a two-week ultimatum to adopt rules requiring them to check the identity cards of their customers before providing services.

"Internet cafes are required to write down the forename, surname, name of the father, national identification number, postcode and telephone number of each customer," said an Iranian police statement, according to the news website Tabnak.

"Besides the personal information, they must maintain other information of the customer such as the date and the time of using the internet and the IP address, and the addresses of the websites visited. They should keep these informations for each individuals for at least six months."

In recent weeks, users in Iran have complained of a significant reduction in internet speed, reported the reformist newspaper, Roozegar, which has recently resumed publication after months of closure. The newspaper said it appeared to be the result of testing the national internet.

"According to some of the people in charge of the communication industry, attempts to launch a national internet network are the cause of disruption in internet and its speed reduction in recent weeks," Roozegar reported.

Some government websites, however, cited other reasons for the drop in speed.

"If the national internet comes into effect, the internet in the country will act like an internal network and therefore visiting the websites needs permission from the people in charge. Users outside Iran also need permission to visit websites running from inside the country," Roozegar's report said.

Speaking to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, an Iranian IT expert with close knowledge of the national internet project, which he described as a corporate-style intranet, said: "Despite what others think, intranet is not primarily aimed at curbing the global internet but Iran is creating it to secure its own military, banking and sensitive data from the outside world.

"Iran has fears of an outside cyber-attack like that of the Stuxnet, and is trying to protect its sensitive data from being accessible on the world wide web."

Stuxnet, a computer worm designed to sabotage Iran's uranium enrichment project, hit the country's nuclear facilities in 2010. Iranian authorities initially played down the impact of the Stuxnet but eventually admitted the nuclear programme had been damaged by the malware.

"At the same time, Iran is working on software robots to analyse exchanging emails and chats, attempting to find more effective ways of controlling user's online activities," said the expert.

A blogger in Tehran said recent news was of significant concern to the country's online community. "I'm addicted to the internet and can't imagine a day without the global internet," said the blogger. "But Iranians have always found ways to bypass the regime's censorship, for example by using illegal satellite dishes to watch banned television channels, and I'm sure in the 21st century we should be able to find alternatives should they opt to pull out of the world wide web."

The authorities have said for some years that Iran should have a parallel network which would conform to Islamic values and provide "appropriate" services. In April, a senior official, Ali Agha-Mohammadi announced government plans to launch "halal internet".

For Iranian officials, the need for such a network became more evident after the disputed presidential elections in 2009, when many protesters used social networks.

Less than two months before the parliamentary elections,- Iran's first national election since 2009, the regime warned against any online efforts to organise a boycott of the vote and said they would be considered a crime. Iran's bloggers have been prohibited from publishing any satirical materials about the elections or encouraging others to participate in a boycott.

In June, the US was reported to be funding plans to facilitate internet access and mobile phone communications in countries with tight controls on freedom of speech, such as Iran, through a project called "shadow internet" or "internet in a suitcase". Iran responded to the move by stepping up its online censorship by upgrading its filtering system.

Iran is suspected to have sought the support of China for its online censorship campaign but Huawei, a leading Chinese telecoms company, which has been accused of supplying Iran with equipment to enable censorship, denied any wrongdoing. More than 5m websites are filtered in Iran, but many Iranians access blocked addresses with help from proxy websites or virtual private network services. An Iranian official said last year that more than 17 million Iranians have Facebook accounts, although the site remains blocked in Iran.

twitter:

Anarchymous twitterde op donderdag 05-01-2012 om 20:25:40 Theres a trust fund established for the daughter of a fallen #anonymous comrade. Please consider donating #anonFamily https://t.co/4pyvufHY reageer retweet

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Symantec Confirms Norton AV Source Code Exposed

Infosec Island was provided with a file by an unidentified hacker going by the handle YamaTough which after preliminary analysis appeared to contain source code for the 2006 version of Symantec's Norton antivirus product.

Infosec Island provided Symantec with the file for analysis, which has now been completed.

Cris Paden, Sr. Manager for Corporate Communications at Symantec emailed Infosec Island editors with the following statement concerning the exposure of source code for the company's Norton antivirus product:

"Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code has been accessed. Symantec’s own network was not breached, but rather that of a third party entity."

"We are still gathering information on the details and are not in a position to provide specifics on the third party involved."

"Presently, we have no indication that the code disclosure impacts the functionality or security of Symantec’s solutions. Furthermore, there are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time."

"However, Symantec is working to develop remediation process to ensure long-term protection for our customers’ information. We will communicate that process once the steps have been finalized."

"Given the early stages of the investigation, we have no further details to disclose at this time but will provide updates as we confirm additional facts."

Though the code is for an older version of the Norton antivirus product, the impact of the exposure is still as of yet undetermined, and several questions remain:

. As the file provided to Infosec Island and passed on to Symantec was merely a sample of the material YamTough claimed to be in possession of, does that mean that code for more recent editions have not been compromised as well?
. What was the "third party" - presumably some entity related to the Indian government - doing in possession of the source code for the Symantec product?
. How much information would source code from 2006 provide to malware authors assuming that the entire product has not been reinvented from scratch since the time this code was produced?

Symantec officials have indicated they will be providing more information as they continue their investigation, and certainly more will be known if the entirety of the compromised data YamaTough claims to be in possession of is finally released to the public as has been threatened.

Stay tuned for more as this story develops into what could be one of the biggest data loss events of 2012, and just less than one week into the new year.

Previous coverage:

https://www.infosecisland(...)AV-Code-Exposed.html
https://www.infosecisland(...)rus-Source-Code.html

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Twitter, Facebook, Google endorse alternate online piracy bill

^{By Gautham Nagesh - 01/05/12 03:50 PM ET}

Eight of the largest Web companies have endorsed an online piracy bill offered by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) as an alternative to the unpopular Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, Protect IP.

The OPEN Act would direct online patent infringement claims against foreign websites to the International Trade Commission (ITC), which would be authorized to order online ad networks and payment processors to sever ties with the rogue foreign sites.

That approach drew praise from the Web firms, many of which oppose the provisions in SOPA that would require search engines and other sites to delete links to sites deemed to be "dedicated" to copyright infringement. The online community argues such a requirement would result in censorship online.

"[The OPEN Act's] approach targets foreign rogue sites without inflicting collateral damage on legitimate, law-abiding U.S. Internet companies by bringing well-established international trade remedies to bear on this problem," wrote AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga in a letter to Issa and Wyden last month.

The OPEN Act has attracted strong support from Silicon Valley, but criticism from the entertainment industry, which claims it wouldn't effectively prevent piracy. The content industries have argued the ITC moves too slowly and its rulings often favor tech companies over content providers.

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Sony hacked again by Anonymous

Sony has once again fallen victim to hacker collective Anonymous, which has this time targeted Sony Pictures. The move comes just months after Sony recovered from a devastating series of attacks that shut down much of its online network for months in 2011.

The attack is believed to be in retaliation against Sony's support for the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act.

A hacker by the name of s3verver.exe claimed responsibility for the attack.

Videos showing how the attack was accomplished appeared briefly on YouTube and Facebook but have been removed.

It is understood the hacker boasted that while the hack wasn't big, the servers were vulnerable and they were able to access server admin.

The biggest coup for hackers in 2011 was the devastating attack on Sony's PlayStation Network and its Online Entertainment network, which saw the online services shut down for weeks and hackers compromise the accounts of millions of gamers.

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Anonymous Spoofs Stratfor Head George Friedman, Sends Blast Email To All Clients

Looks like the Anonymous hackers continue having fun at the expense of Stratfor's George Friedman... and its clients. In an mass email sent out earlier spoofing the account of Friedman and blasted to all the Stratfor clients, the hacked account stated that going forward all Stratfor premium content would be free, and further, would "like to hear from our loyal client base as to our handling of the recent intrusion by those deranged, sexually deviant criminal hacker terrorist masterminds." Unfortunately, now that the email addresses of thousands of highly placed individuals are out in the open, we believe this is merely the start of comparable spoofing, which will likely end up with disturbing results. In the meantime, Stratfor's website continues to be down.

Full email below:

Anonymous Warns Dutch TV: NOS, RTL & SBS ( + Dutch Subs )

SPOILER

Om spoilers te kunnen lezen moet je zijn ingelogd. Je moet je daarvoor eerst gratis Registreren. Ook kun je spoilers niet lezen als je een ban hebt.

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BlackBerry, Nokia and Apple have provided the Indian Military with backdoor access to cellular surveillance

On January 6th reports of Symantec (makers of Norton Anitvirus) being hacked surfaced. The group of hackers behind the attack behind the attack were from India. In a statement issued by a member from the Lords of Dharamraja group (badass name!), the guys said:

. As of now we start sharing with all our brothers and followers information from the Indian Militaty (sic) Intelligence servers, so far we have discovered within the Indian Spy Programme (sic) source codes of a dozen software companies which have signed agreements with Indian TANCS programme (sic) and CBI

Ignoring the typing error, gaining access to Indian Military’s Intelligence servers is pretty damning for the agency. The hack got covered since the hackers claimed to have acces to Norton’s source code. Earlier today I came across scans of a set of documents that are internal communications between the Indian Military. The documents claim the existence of a system known as RINOA SUR. While I did not find what SUR stands for but RINOA is RIM, NOkia and Apple. And this is where things start to get very interesting, according to the set of documents, the RINOA SUR platform was used to spy on the USCC—the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Let’s take a moment for that to digest. Here’s an image from the documents underlining the relevant part:

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Internet - Israel: Israel droht internationalen Hackern mit Vergeltung

Tel Aviv (dpa) - Israel hat internationalen Hackern wegen der Veröffentlichung geheimer Informationen von Kreditkarten mit einem Gegenschlag gedroht.

«Wer Israel im Cyberspace Schaden zufügt, ist nicht immun gegen Vergeltungsmaßnahmen», sagte der stellvertretende Außenminister Danny Ajalon am Samstag in Beerscheva. Ein Mitarbeiter Ajalons bezeichnete Angriffe von Hackern als Terrorismus.

Internationale Hacker hatten im Netz geheime Informationen zu tausenden israelischer Kreditkarten veröffentlicht. Nach Medienberichten wurden Namen, Adressen, Telefonnummern sowie Identitätsnummern von 26 000 Israelis preisgegeben.

Die Identität der Hacker ist bislang noch nicht gelüftet. Zuerst hieß es, die Spuren wiesen nach Saudi-Arabien. Dann erklärte eine Person mit dem Namen OxOmar, er sei Mitglied der internationalen Hackerorganisation «Anonymous».

Ein israelischer Student behauptete dann am Freitag, er wisse, wer hinter OxOmar stecke. Der Hacker stamme nicht aus Saudi-Arabien, sondern sei in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten (VAE) geboren worden. Er lebe jetzt in Mexiko. Die israelische Nachrichtenseite «ynet.com» berichtete daraufhin, in der Redaktion habe sich ein Mann gemeldet, der behauptet habe, er sei OxOmar und seine Identität sei noch nicht gelüftet worden.

Erst im November war es in Israel zu einer schweren Computerpanne gekommen. Die Websites mehrerer Regierungs- und Sicherheitsorganisationen waren nach einem Totalabsturz stundenlang lahmgelegt. «Anonymous» hatte der israelischen Regierung vorher mit einem Angriff gedroht. Die israelischen Behörden dementierten jedoch damals Berichte über eine Hacker-Attacke und erklärten den Vorfall mit einem technischen Fehler.

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Hackers expose defence and intelligence officials in US and UK

Security breach by Anonymous 'hacktivists' reveals email addresses of 221 British military staff and 242 Nato officials

Thousands of British email addresses and encrypted passwords, including those of defence, intelligence and police officials as well as politicians and Nato advisers, have been revealed on the internet following a security breach by hackers.

Among the huge database of private information exposed by self-styled "hacktivists" are the details of 221 British military officials and 242 Nato staff. Civil servants working at the heart of the UK government – including several in the Cabinet Office as well as advisers to the Joint Intelligence Organisation that acts as the prime minister's eyes and ears on sensitive information – have also been exposed.

The exposure of the database came after hackers – who are believed to be part of the Anonymous group – gained unauthorised access over Christmas to the account information of Stratfor, a consultancy based in Texas that specialises in foreign affairs and security issues. The database had recorded in spreadsheets the user IDs – usually email addresses – and encrypted passwords of about 850,000 individuals who had subscribed to Stratfor's website.

Some 75,000 paying subscribers also had their credit card numbers and addresses exposed, including 462 British accounts.

John Bumgarner, an expert in cyber-security at US Cyber Consequences Unit, a research body in Washington, has carried out an analysis of the Stratfor breach on behalf of the Guardian. He has identified within the data posted by the hackers the details of hundreds of UK government officials, some of whom work in highly sensitive areas. Many of the email addresses listed are not routinely made public, and the passwords are all encrypted in code that can quickly and easily be cracked using off-the-shelf software.

Among the leaked email addresses are 221 Ministry of Defence officials identified by Bumgarner, including army and air force personnel. The breach echoes a much larger group of military personnel contained in the database from the US armed forces, where some 19,000 email addresses ending in the .mil domain for the US military were posted.

In the US case, Bumgarner has found, 173 individuals deployed in Afghanistan and 170 in Iraq can be identified. Personal data from the former vice-president Dan Quayle and Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state, were also released.

Other UK government departments have been affected: seven officials in the Cabinet Office have had their details exposed, 45 Foreign Office officials, 14 from the Home Office , 67 Scotland Yard and other police officials, and two employees with the royal household.

There are also 23 people listed who work in the houses of parliament, including Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, Lady Nicholson and Lord Roper. Corbyn said that he had been unaware of the breach, adding that, although his email address was very public, he was disturbed by the idea that his password could be cracked and used to delete or write emails in a way that "could be very damaging".

Nicholson, speaking on a phone from Irbil in Iraq, said that she too had no idea that her personal information had been hacked. As a politician, she said, she was used to her privacy being sacrificed and she "rolled with the punches".

But she was very unhappy that private individuals had had their fundamental right to privacy violated. "To expose civil servants is monstrously unfair," she said. "Officials in sensitive areas like defence and the military could even be exposed to threats. Guarding data like this is extremely difficult, but it's not impossible, and we should do a great deal more."

The hacking into Stratfor has had a big impact because the consultancy offers expert analysis of international affairs, including security issues, and attracts subscribers from sensitive government departments. The British victims include officials with the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO) responsible for assessing intelligence from all sources, including MI6 secret agents.

A former deputy head of Whitehall's strategic horizons unit is listed. The unit is part of the JIO based in the Cabinet Office and was set up four years ago to give early warning of potential serious problems that might have an impact on the country's security or environment.

Other email addresses point to employees of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre, a UK agency responsible for training all military personnel in intelligence, security and information support. Among the civil servants listed are a political adviser in the British embassy in Azerbaijan, an adviser to the House of Commons defence committee and an official serving the parliamentary intelligence and security committee.

The extent of the security risk posed by the breach is not known. Bumgarner said that officials who did not take extra precautions in securing passwords through dual authentication or other protection systems could find email and other databases they used being compromised. "Any foreign intelligence service targeting Britain could find these emails useful in identifying individuals connected to sensitive government activities," he said.

British officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were aware of the hacking, but that it did not pose a risk to national security. Passwords for their communications within Whitehall would be different from any of those used to access the Stratfor sites. Whitehall communications would also be protected by extra security walls, officials said.

However, they added that their personal communications could be at risk if individuals used the same password as they used to access Stratfor for their bank accounts and other personal communications.

Unusually, Whitehall spokesmen declined to comment at all on the record about the hacking and any impact it had on the British government. This suggests that the issue is particularly sensitive and that UK security and intelligence agencies are as yet unsure about its full significance.

Stratfor has removed its website from the internet while it investigates the security breach. The company says it is "working diligently to prevent it from ever happening again".

This is just the latest action to hit the headlines by hackers associated with Anonymous. The group, whose loose collection of members are scattered around the world and linked through internet chatrooms, has previously targeted Visa, MasterCard and PayPal in protest at the companies' refusal to accept donations for the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

Suspected members of the collective have been arrested in the UK, US and several other countries.

twitter:

AnonOpsSweden twitterde op maandag 09-01-2012 om 15:17:12 @anon_finland is not alone, you have #anonymous by your side, and we are just getting started. Expect Us! #antisec #antipiracyfi #elisagate reageer retweet

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Elisagate: Anonymous Hackers Launch Finland Cyber War

Hackers synonymous with the Anonymous collective have begun a campaign of cyber attacks against the Finnish government to protest against its decision to block access to the PirateBay website.

Elisa, one of Finland's largest internet providers, has been ordered to block access to the PirateBay website. According to the service provider's press release, it had been ordered to instigate the ban by the local district court in Helsinki. Elisa said it would attempt to overturn the decision in supreme court.

Numerous Twitter accounts linked with the Anonymous collective erupted with messages of discontent and - at times - threats of action against the Finnish government.

"Do you not find it f**king ridiculous that FINLAND of all places is going hard with censorship? bit.ly/yqdrpr," read a tweet from Sabu, one of the most prominent members of Anonymous. "We will not sit idle and allow our governments to censor us. F**k that! Next they will tell us what to eat and think. Cliche? Reality."

Later adding, "To the Finnish government: Stop censorship or deal with the consequences."

The sentiment was later mirrored on the collective's main AnonymousIRC Twitter feed, when it reiterated Sabu's sentiment tweeting, "sexually deviant #Antisec terrorist hackers readying The Flying Dutchman, set to sail to #Finland. #ExpectUs #Anonymous #TPB."

Since the call to arms, a tweet went up from Twitter user Killmwithlazers publicising a distributed denial of service attack on the ifpi.fi website. The message was subsequently re-tweeted by Sabu with a follow-up tweet following from AnonymousIRC.

"TANGO DOWN the mind behind the block of thepiratebay in finland! #finland #elisa" read the original tweet. "Let's help our fellow Finns against censorship! Target: ifpi.fi #Anonymous @Anon_Finland" AnonymousIRC soon followed up.

Anonymous' anger towards the block comes as a part of the collective's ongoing insistence in absolute online freedom. One of the few common aspects recorded between every cell of the collective, Anonymous has consistently threatened and enacted attacks on governments or organisations seeking to censor the internet.

As well as its activities in Finland, Anonymous is also actively combating the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act. Designed to combat online piracy, since being announced the SOPA bill has come under wide-spread criticism, with numerous groups voicing concerns about the new powers the act could grant U.S. law enforcement. A common concern is the suggestion that the act will allow police to arrest, fine and potentially jail individuals for seemingly minor offences, such as uploading a copyrighted video onto YouTube.

Anonymous initially issued threats of possible "retribution" against companies supporting the bill in December when it announced "OpBlackOut" - a website defacement campaign that would see it target law enforcement agencies and companies vocally supporting SOPA. The collective has since continued to issue threats to any group or company actively supporting the bill.

At the time of writing the ifpi.fi site was still down.

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: a.stevenson@ibtimes.co.uk

To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.co.uk

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Blitzkrieg tegen Duitse neo-nazi’s

Onder de titel “Operation Blitzkrieg’ hebben Duitse hackers van Anonymous de aanval geopend op een aantal extreem-rechtse sites. Op een speciale website, nazi-leaks, hebben ze een hele reeks gegevens gepubliceerd die afkomstig zijn van gehackte sites en op de een of andere manier te maken hebben met (voornamelijk Duits) extreem-rechts. Dat kunnen de e-mails van mensen zijn die bij Thor Steinar kleren hebben gekocht die populair zijn bij neonazistische groepen, contactinformatie van het rechtse weekblad Junge Freiheit, of e-mails van de site van de Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschland.

Net als bij WikiLeaks, duidelijk een bron van inspiratie, is het resultaat een enorme hoeveelheid gegevens, met rijp en groen door elkaar heen. Soms zijn naam, adres en telefoonnummer van mensen op het web gezet. Ook medestanders in de strijd tegen neo-nazi’s hebben daar kritiek op, constateert de Deutsche Welle, de Duitse BBC:

. Simone Rafael from the anti-Nazi Web forum, netz-gegen-nazis.de, said it was good “to remove the (Nazi) filth from the Net for few days.” But he criticized the move to publish personal data on the Internet without permission. “If some extreme right-winger were do to this, we’d be furious, too”.

Sommige rechtse sites hebben meteen gereageerd. Zoals het rechtse forum Altermedia. De site was de afgelopen dagen regelmatig offline, maar volgens de Frankfurter Rundschau heeft de site de jacht geopend op de hackers. Beloning voor tips: een paar afgehakte vingers.

. Wie linke Websites berichten, befindet sich auf Altermedia ein Kommentar, “daß Hinweise auf die Identität der Pseudo-Anonymus-Zecken dankend entgegen genommen werden und gerne mit Prämien wie z.B. abgeschnittenen Fingern belohnt werden”. Ob der Kommentar authentisch ist, ließ sich nicht nachprüfen, da Altermedia zum Zeitpunkt der Recherche offline war.

De actie was deze zomer al aangekondigd – zie bijvoorbeeld deze video in het Engels, waarin hard wordt uitgehaald naar neonazi”s.

. You intimidate people that go on the streets protest for their ideals, and attack your political opponents, thus you deny them the right of free speech. Yet you hypocriticaly demand this exact same right of free speech for yourself, and throw the dirt in the form of agitations and “art around you “. You attack journalists and the media in general, you attack members of the opposing parties and equally you attack refugees and immigrants, who live and work in your “home country”. This people simply had to leave their native countries because of suppression and misery. This behaviour can no longer be tolerated.

Anonymous - Operation Blitzkrieg

Al eerder heeft een Finse Anonymous groep een vergelijkbare actie uitgevoerd. Op 31 oktober werd de website gehackt van Suomen Kansallinen Vastarinta (SKV, de extreem-rechtse Beweging van Nationaal Verzet). De namen van alle sympathisanten die van de site konden worden gehaald, werden op het internet gezet. In een verklaring schreef Anonymous Finland:

. We have seen a massive increase of racism among large layers of the population and national politics, as well as of violent verbal and physical actions towards foreigners. We have seen the birth of groups and political movements and apparition of political figures who support racist ideologies and foster and encourage racial hatred through flamboyant rhetoric, people and movements who – and We are absolutely sure of it – would switch from words to extreme violent action towards foreigners if they had the means to do so and a massive support at their back. As history has showed too many times, the step from words to horrible crimes is very easy and can happen any time and anywhere.

De actie had een bescheiden succes. Een paar dagen later moest een medewerker van een parlementslid van de Ware Finnen aftreden omdat haar naam op de lijst van sympathisanten stond.

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Elisagate: Anonymous Sabu in Flame War with Finnish Security Expert Mikko Hypponen

Following the Anonymous collective's declaration of war against Finnish online censorship, prominent Anon Sabu has entered into a flame war with F-Secure's Chief Research Officer Mikko Hypponen.

The flamewar began on Twitter after Sabu directly tweeted Mikko asking him what he was doing to combat a recent court ruling blocking access to the PirateBay website in Finland. Initially reasoned, the twos' interactions took a turn for the worse after Mikko declined a request by Sabu to work with him to combat the country's online censorship.

"@mikko Message me on IRC. Perhaps we can help each other with this situation in .fi. #elisagate #f[**]kcensorship #anonymous" read Sabu's tweet. Mikko soon replied; "@anonymouSabu I'll pass thanks."

Following the comments the conversation turned hostile with Sabu tweeting back attacking Mikko's alleged disinterest in "serving the people." Specifically Sabu charged Mikko of caring more about selling his company's products than stopping online censorship.

"@Mikko has in interest in feeding his pockets, not serving the people. His connections to the government of Finland come before his people" read one of Sabu's tweets. "@TPB_Stun @mikko Same s[**]t with every other whitehat. They are cowards. And have to watch every word they say as it affects their contracts," added another.

Sabu later called for a boycott of F-Secure claiming the company supported online censorship. "Anyone using F-Secure products should boycott immediately. They are in accordance with the Finnish government to censor their web. @mikko."

Mikko subsequently challenged Sabu's accusations reporting that he and F-Secure in no way supported the Finnish block clarifying: "Despite what Mr. @anonymouSabu tries to tell people, F-Secure does NOT support online censorship. Quite the contrary."

Since tweeting his response at 4.40pm Mikko's account has gone silent, though Sabu has continued tweeting against Mikko and as a result several other Twitter users have also weighed-into the debate.

F-Secure is a Finnish online security company with 18 offices and a presence in more than 100 countries. Mikko Hyppönen has worked with F-Secure since 1991 and is currently the company's Chief Research Officer. He has a track record of assisting law enforcement across the world deal with cyber-criminality and has advised several governments on cyber-policy.

Living up to the collective's namesake, little is known about Sabu past that he is a prominent member of Anonymous. In the past, despite there being several groups claiming to have discovered his identity, there is next to no official data on Sabu. His recent flame war with Mikko is not the first he has publicly had on Twitter. Earlier in 2011 Sabu had a similarly heated exchange with the UK Guardian's Technology Editor Charles Arther after he requested the Anon explain certain details regarding data he was claiming to possess.

At the time of writing the debate between Mikko and Sabu supporters was ongoing.

AMENDMENT: This article was changed 8:04am 10/01/2012 After Guardian Technology Editor Charles Arthur contacted the International Business Times UK clarifying he had not requested an interview from Sabu.

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: a.stevenson@ibtimes.co.uk

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HACKER GROUP ANONYMOUS TAKES DOWN OVER 40 CHILD PORN SITES

(NATIONAL) -- The group of computer hackers known as Anonymous has turned its attention from corporations long enough to attack and take down over 40 child porn websites run by pedophiles.

Included in the takedowns was one of the largest known such sites, "with account details of its 1589 users being posted online as evidence,” said Time.com and another report in artstechnica.com.

The attacks on the websites were reportedly an operation the group is calling “Operation Darknet,” a move by the hackers to eliminate child pornography on the Tor network.

Tor, which was originally developed as a way of protecting government communications by the U.S. Navy, now describes itself as “a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet.”

But according to Anonymous, the privacy and anonymity it offers has been abused by child pornographers.

In its statement about the attacks and takedowns of the porn sites, Anonymous says that the group “identified [hosting service] Freedom Hosting as the host of the largest collection of child pornography on the internet…(and) by taking down Freedom Hosting, we are eliminating 40+ child pornography websites, among these is Lolita City, one of the largest child pornography websites to date containing more than 100GB of child pornography. We will continue to not only crash Freedom Hosting’s server, but any other server we find to contain, promote, or support child pornography.”

The group’s statement also demands of web hosting services that they “Remove all child pornography content from your servers. Refuse to provide hosting services to any website dealing with child pornography. This statement is not just aimed at Freedom Hosting, but everyone on the internet. It does not matter who you are, if we find you to be hosting, promoting, or supporting child pornography, you will become a target.”

Tor is based on a secure networking technology originally developed by the US Navy. It routes traffic through a collection of volunteer servers scattered across the Internet, making monitoring of what is being viewed or where communications are coming from very difficult.

Because of its anonymity, Tor is widely used by individuals and groups seeking to communicate without being surveilled by authorities, employers, or “eavesdroppers watching packets on public WiFi networks,” as well as those wishing to visit websites anonymously without having their IP address recorded.

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Bewaarplicht dreigt ook voor sociale media

Sociale netwerken krijgen mogelijk een bewaarplicht, zodat opsporingsdiensten toegang kunnen krijgen tot data die in het verleden via die netwerken is uitgewisseld.

De Europese Commissie maakt op dit moment plannen om het Data Retention Directive te herzien, de Europese richtlijn voor de bewaarplicht. Providers zijn verplicht gegevens van hun klanten, zoals ip-adressen en andere metadata, voor een bepaalde tijd op te slaan. Die data is bedoeld voor opsporingsdiensten. En diezelfde opsporingsdiensten blijken nog veel meer wensen te hebben.

In het kader van de herziening van de bewaarplicht heeft de Europese Commissie de meningen gevraagd van lidstaten en opsporingsdiensten over de tot nu toe geldende richtlijnen. Dat leverde onder meer het verwijt op dat de bewaarplicht zo moeilijk is te verklaren en te rechtvaardigen door lokale politici en opsporingsdiensten. Aan de Europese Commissie is gevraagd met betere argumentatie te komen om de bewaarplicht beter te beargumenteren.

Intern stuk gelekt

Dat wil de EC wel, zo blijkt uit een intern stuk dat gelekt is en in handen is van de Oostenrijkse tegenhanger van Bits of Freedom: q/uintessenz. Daarnaast leverde de respons van de opsporingsdiensten op dat zij zich belemmerd voelen doordat zij geen wettelijke basis hebben om toegang te krijgen tot historische en metadata van sociale netwerken. De Europese Commissie lijkt in het interne document begrip te tonen voor de behoefte van de opsporingsdiensten en gaat onderzoeken of zij die wens kan faciliteren.

De opsporingsdiensten zeggen "technologische neutraliteit" te willen hebben om te weten te komen wie met wie, wanneer, waar en hoe communiceert. Die term betekent dat het niet moet uitmaken of dat via e-mail, videoconferencing (skype), telefoon, WhatsApp, Twitter, sms of Facebook gebeurt.

Ook voor illegaal downloaden

Niet alleen willen de opsporingsdiensten dat de bewaarplicht voor meer communicatievormen wordt gebruikt, ook zou het voor meer soorten van criminaliteit moeten gelden. Nu mag het grazen in de historische data alleen in geval van zwaardere criminaliteit en terrorismebestrijding. Maar er is grote druk vanuit sommige lidstaten om dat uit te breiden naar opsporing van mensen die zich bezig houden met piraterij en illegale downloads, en in de speurotcht naar cybercrime, bijvoorbeeld naar hackers.

Bits of Freedom heeft de gelekte memo onder de loep genomen en zegt dat de Europese Commissie zonder enige vraagtekens de mening van de opsporingsdiensten lijkt te volgen. "Als het aan de opsporingsdiensten ligt wordt de bewaarplicht zelfs uitgebreid. Die vragen om het bizarre concept "technological neutrality", zo blijkt uit het document. "

Politie neust in krabbels

"Dat zou betekenen dat niet alleen je telefoongesprekken, maar ook al je Facebook updates, je Gmail e-mails, je Hyves krabbels en je up- en downloads een half jaar of langer bewaard moeten worden", schrijft Rejo Zenger namens BoF. Om over de uitbreiding naar copyrightschendingen op te merken: "Function creep to the max!"

Zenger vervolgt: "De Europese Commissie kan nog altijd niet bewijzen dat de bewaarplicht écht nodig is. Laat staan dat het deze enorme inbreuk op onze privacy rechtvaardigt. Hoogste tijd dat de Commissie stopt met het grootschalig bespieden van onverdachte Europese burgers."

Het onderzoek naar de voorstellen van de opsporingsdiensten moet in mei zijn afgerond. Waarna ze in juli besproken worden door de Europese Commissie.

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SOPA becoming election liability for backers

To the ranks of same-sex marriage, tax cuts and illegal immigration, add this to the list of polarizing political issues of Election 2012: the Stop Online Piracy Act.

The hot-button anti-piracy legislation that sparked a revolt online is starting to become a political liability for some of SOPA’s major backers. Fueled by Web activists and online fundraising tools, challengers are using the bill to tag its congressional supporters as backers of Big Government — and raise campaign cash while they’re at it.

Among the fattest targets: SOPA’s lead author, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and two of its most vocal co-sponsors, Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has also felt the wrath of SOPA opponents.

Even GOP presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were asked by voters recently to weigh in on the bill (neither gave definitive answers, though activists have interpreted Santorum’s response as more sympathetic to SOPA than Romney’s).

It’s a stretch to think SOPA will cost any of the longtime incumbents backing the bill their seats. The legislation would give government new powers to shutter websites that peddle counterfeit products and pirated copies of movies and music.

But there are signs the issue, long the domain of think tanks and intellectual property lawyers, could become a real factor in some races.

Prominent conservative blogger Erick Erickson, for one, has promised to make life miserable for any GOP lawmaker who gets behind the bill. His first target: Blackburn.

“I love Marsha Blackburn. She is a delightful lady and a solidly conservative member of Congress,” Erickson wrote on his widely read blog, Red State. But “I am pledging right now that I will do everything in my power to defeat her in her 2012 re-election bid.”

Erickson went on to implore the left and right to “unite and pledge to defeat in primaries every person named as a sponsor” of SOPA and suggested that both sides create a fund dedicated to supporting challengers running against SOPA supporters.

“Killing SOPA is that important,” Erickson wrote.

In Ryan’s case, critics pounced after the powerful congressman issued a vague statement that they interpreted as supportive of the bill. Using the social news site Reddit, they launched an online campaign— dubbed “Operation Pull Ryan” — to unseat him.

Ryan’s Democratic opponent, Rob Zerban, seized on the uproar. After lambasting the bill during an interview on Reddit, Zerban raked in about $15,000 in campaign donations, according to campaign manager Lisa Tanner.

The uproar wasn’t lost on Ryan. On Monday, he issued a statement opposing SOPA in no uncertain terms. While the bill “attempts to address a legitimate problem,” Ryan said, it would open the door to “undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse.”

SOPA is making waves in other House races, too.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/n(...)4.html#ixzz1j5hRDo9Z