Anonops #11: Stop ACTA

Its Over 9000!!! [Original Video and Audio]

LOLPRAH: OVER 9000 PENISES!

Tom Cruise Scientology Video - ( Original UNCUT )

Message to Scientology

Operation Payback - Anonymous Message About ACTA Laws, Internet Censorship and Copyright

Anonymous Hacks Westboro Baptist Church Website During Live Confrontation

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http://www.thinq.co.uk/20(...)persecute-anonymous/
NATO leaders have been warned that WikiLeaks-loving 'hacktivist' collective Anonymous could pose a threat to member states' security, following recent attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce and defence contractor HBGary - and promise to 'persecute' its members.

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From a single hashtag, a protest circled the world

(Reuters) - It all started innocuously enough with a July 13 blog post urging people to #OccupyWallStreet, as though such a thing (Twitter hashtag and all) were possible.

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Gabriella Coleman Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication

Trained as an anthropologist, Gabriella (Biella) Coleman examines the ethics of online collaboration/institutions as well as the role of the law and digital media in sustaining various forms of political activism. Between 2001-2003 she conducted ethnographic research on computer hackers primarily in San Francisco, the Netherlands, as well as those hackers who work on the largest free software project, Debian. Her first book, "Coding Freedom: The Aesthetics and the Ethics of Hacking" is forthcoming with Princeton University Press and she is currently working on a new book on Anonymous and digital activism. She is the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships, and awards, including ones from the National Science Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and the Institute for Advanced Study.

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Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action

^{Gabriella Coleman, April 6 2011}

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Our Weirdness Is Free

The logic of Anonymous—online army, agent of chaos, and seeker of justice.

_{by Gabriella Coleman, [01.13.2012]}

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Anonymous And The War Over The Internet

This article is the first in a two-part series tracing the development of the amorphous online community known as Anonymous, pranksters who have become a force in global affairs.

^{The Huffington Post, Saki Knafo. Posted: 1/30/12 12:20 PM ET | Updated: 2/1/12 07:36 PM ET}

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Anonymous And The War Over The Internet

This article is the first in a two-part series tracing the development of the amorphous online community known as Anonymous, pranksters who have become a force in global affairs.

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Op maandag 30 januari 2012 20:28 schreef picodealion het volgende:
Nog maar eens een bedankje voor dit topic, ik volg het al een tijd met plezier .

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Op maandag 30 januari 2012 20:26 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
The Huffington Post:

[..]

TIMELINE: The Evolution Of The 'Anonymous' Internet Hacktivist Group

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Sometimes the jokes went to harsh extremes, and that hasn't changed. In 2010, an 11-year-old girl nicknamed Jessi Slaughter issued a YouTube threat against "haters" who had started an Internet rumor about her. She said she'd "pop a Glock in your mouth and make a brain slushy." As a Gawker account put it, "Ha ha."

Unfortunately, as Gawker went on to note, the response went beyond "ha ha." People found her real name, address and phone number. They passed the information around. A bomb squad showed up to her school after a suspicious package arrived in the mail. Encyclopaedia Dramatica, a website that chronicles the lore and pranks of the Internet in the fuck-you-it's-funny style of the Internet itself, published an item on how to troll her. "Tell her dad that we are going to beat her up." "Tell her to kill herself."

Jessi responded with another video. In this one, she was seen crying and whimpering while her father crouched in the background, screaming at the camera and shaking his fist. His awkward threats would become memes. A year later, he was arrested for punching Jessi in the mouth, and six months after that, she posted a video saying she'd been institutionalized and was living in foster care. Last summer, her mother wrote on Facebook that the father had died of a massive heart attack. Someone posted a screenshot of the message on FunnyJunk.com.

twitter:

ArturasCEO twitterde op maandag 30-01-2012 om 22:38:30 #Anonymous - Fucking Dumbasses - Get A Life - Get A Job - Show Success http://t.co/3xNeu1Ku reageer retweet

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Op dinsdag 31 januari 2012 00:07 schreef viagraap het volgende:

[..]

Waarom hoorde ik meteen Ewan McGregor in mijn hoofd?

[..]

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Is Anonymous our future?

The enigmatic Internet-driven collective Anonymous, thank goodness, has an anthropologist in its midst. For a few years now, Gabriella Coleman has been arduously participant-observing in IRC chat rooms, watching Anonymous turn from a prankster moniker to a herd of vigilantes for global justice. In an extraordinary new essay at Triple Canopy, “Our Weirdness Is Free,” she summarizes what Anonymous is all about this way:

. Beyond a foundational commitment to anonymity and the free flow of information, Anonymous has no consistent philosophy or political program. Though Anonymous has increasingly devoted its energies to (and become known for) digital dissent and direct action around various “ops,” it has no definite trajectory. Sometimes coy and playful, sometimes macabre and sinister, often all at once, Anonymous is still animated by a collective will toward mischief—toward “lulz,” a plural bastardization of the portmanteau LOL (laugh out loud). Lulz represent an ethos as much as an objective.

The more I learn about Anonymous, especially in light of the offline, on-the-ground praxis of the Occupy movement, the more I’ve been wondering whether we’re seeing a glimpse of the future for all of us.

Here’s why.

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FDA hacked into private Gmail accounts of its own whistleblower scientist using covert spy technology

The criminal tendencies of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were on full display today when it was revealed the agency installed spy software and illegally hacked into the private Gmail accounts of at least half a dozen of its own top scientists. Those scientists, it turns out, were the very same whistleblowers who warned Congress about the FDA’s approval of dangerous medical devices that threatened the lives of patients. In response to them taking action to protect the lives of the innocent — something the FDA is supposed to do but has long since abandoned — they were instead subjected to illegal hacking and having their employment contracts with the FDA terminated.

Those six scientists and doctors have now filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court which claims that they were subjected to FDA internal harassment and unjustified job termination. The lawsuit also describes how the FDA hacked into the private email accounts of these scientists, then intercepted their “whistleblower complaints” intended to be seen only by members of Congress.

“The complaint details how the FDA targeted its employees with a covert spying campaign that lasted for two years,” reports Whistleblowers.org (http://www.whistleblowers(...)nt&task=view&&hellip. “The [FDA] installed (or activated) spyware on their workplace computers and used other technology that to monitor their password-protected Gmail-to-Gmail communications. Managers used the collected information to learn the identities of confidential whistleblowers and to obtain the details of the public health and safety concerns the whistleblowers intended to disclose to the Office of Special Counsel, Congress and the Agency’s own Inspector General.”

More importantly, documents reveal that the FDA’s own lawyers engaged in a criminal cover-up of evidence in order to obstruct justice and retaliate against the FDA scientists:

. “The managers who spearheaded the surveillance efforts were the same managers involved with the wrongdoing and corruption that the whistleblowers were seeking to report. Lawyers at the FDA and HHS Offices of General Counsel, who should have understood that the program breached the employees’ confidentiality, helped FDA managers with their obstruction and retaliation.”

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Can Reddit Write Legislation, Too? Proposes The 'Free Internet Act'

I have to admit that one of the more fun aspects of watching what has happened over the past few months with the SOPA/PIPA debate is watching the Reddit community jump on this issue... and evolve with it. The thing with the Reddit community isn't just it's sheer power as a large group of people who are more than willing to stand up for what they believe in, but their willingness to take on big challenges that most people would back away from. Not all of them work out, but as a community, they like to really jump into things and aim high. Such is the situation with the proposed plan to write a piece of legislation, The Free Internet Act, on Reddit. As an observer of these things, a reasonable first reaction is to chuckle a bit at what seems like a combination of both hubris and naivete that an online community (mostly of political novices) can create a reasonable piece of legislation. But... then you think of what else Reddit has done, and you begin to realize that if it can somehow pull this off -- or at least influence the debate in a positive way, this could be amazing (even if it's a long shot).

A specific sub-Reddit has been set up, where different people are discussing different thoughts on what such a bill might include and other issues related to the bill's central concept: guaranteeing a free internet.

Again, there's a big hill to climb here to make this into any sort of reality, but there's something really amazing and compelling about this self-forming group taking the initiative to try to not just drive the debate, but to actually craft legislation that would protect internet freedom. As much as I've been impressed by the process of the Wyden/Issa proposed OPEN bill, in which they put it up on a platform that allowed the public to crowdsource thoughts on a bill, they still started with a bill suggested in Congress. What happens when a bill is crowdsourced from scratch? Possibly nothing at all, but as an experiment, it will be fascinating to watch...

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New York prosecutors ask Twitter to reveal Occupy Wall Street man's tweets

Twitter agrees not to comply with subpoena from district attorney's office while protester's lawyer prepares rebuttal

Prosecutors have subpoenaed the Twitter records of an Occupy Wall Street protester who was arrested in October during a mass protest on the Brooklyn Bridge.

The 26 January subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney's office seeks "user information, including email address," along with three months' worth of tweets from @destructuremal, the Twitter handle for Malcolm Harris.

Harris, 23, a freelance writer and editor who lives in Brooklyn, said on Tuesday that Twitter sent a copy of the subpoena to him on Monday. He posted it on Twitter.

"When you get an email from Twitter Legal, you assume it's a phishing scam, trying to get your password," he said. "It turned out that it is a phishing scam, but it's from the prosecutors."

It is not clear what specific evidence prosecutors are after. But the subpoena is an example of posts on social media sites posing potential legal problems for authors.

Harris said his lawyer, Martin Stolar, would file a motion to quash the subpoena. Twitter has agreed not to comply with the subpoena while Stolar prepares the motion, Harris said.

A spokeswoman for the district attorney's office declined to comment.

The subpoena seeks Harris's tweets from 15 September – two days before the Occupy Wall Street movement began – to 15 December.

Harris is not sure what tweets could be fodder for prosecutors; Twitter's interface does not allow him to review all of his old tweets. Stolar was not available for comment.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on the case but confirmed that the San Francisco-based company's policy is "to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so", in order to protect users' rights.

Harris is one of hundreds of Occupy-related defendants whose cases are still winding their way through American courts.

A special courtroom has been set up to handle more than 1,800 cases in New York, the vast majority involving misdemeanour charges.

He was charged with disorderly conduct and is due back in court on 29 February.

Like a number of Occupy protesters, he has vowed to take the case to trial rather than accept a deal from prosecutors.

The National Lawyers Guild is representing many of the arrested protesters.

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Union of Arab Banks hacked by #TeamAnarchyhttp://www.pastebay.org/306750 #Anonymous #AntiSec

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YOUR PERSONAL AND LOGIN INFORMATION IS CLEARLY NOT SECURE….
MAKES ME WONDER HOW SECURE YOUR BANKS ARE….

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'Anonymous' hacker speaks about SLC PD website takedown

SALT LAKE CITY—
A hacker believed to be part of the online collective known as "Anonymous" said in comments to FOX 13 that it has obtained more information than what Salt Lake City police previously said was accessed during a hack attack on their website.

"Contact info for job applications, details into drug operations with names addresses license plate numbers, supplier names, locations times," the hacker known as @ItsKahuna said in an interview with FOX 13's Ben Winslow over Twitter.

"We entered their admin control panel which linked to a lot of revealing confidential information, this was a poorly designed site," @ItsKahuna wrote.

Police had previously said e-mail addresses for press releases were accessed. Then they said tips from the public for potential crimes had been taken. Late Wednesday, the police department urged members of the public who submitted information over slcpd.com should change their passwords for their personal e-mails, etc.

@ItsKahuna, who alongside @CabinCr3w have claimed responsibility for the hacking, provided FOX 13 with a sample report of a drug crime that included a redacted e-mail address. The Salt Lake City Police Department confirmed its legitimacy and other things that the hacker had claimed were accessed.

The hacker told FOX 13 it would not be releasing any other information that had been accessed. A massive e-mail list and the redacted drug report were posted on a website.

Anonymous has expressed displeasure at a bill currently in the Utah State Legislature that would make possessing graffiti tools, such as spray paint cans, a potential crime. The bill is being sponsored by Sen. Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City. Mayne's bill died on the Senate floor Thursday morning after an 11-17 vote. Mayne said she will bring the bill back in the 2013 legislative session.

"Has your Senator Karen Mayne watched 'Minority Report' too many times?" Anonymous said in a posting. "A law prohibiting ownership and use of purchased products based on suspected intent? Is she kidding? The purpose of the law is not to prevent crime, but to manage it. The public gets the benefit of the doubt. A little too zealous wethinks."

Why the Salt Lake City Police Department's website?

"The police are the foot soldiers of this government controlled police state, this op will target them and spread that we will not stand and let this oppression continue," @ItsKahuna wrote to FOX 13's Ben Winslow.

The hacker said that no other website, including the Utah State Legislature's, had been attempted as part of the ongoing "#OpPiggyBank."

The FBI confirmed to FOX 13 it has begun investigating the attack on slcpd.com, which was still down as of Thursday afternoon.

Asked if Anonymous wished to say something to Sen. Mayne, @ItsKahuna replied: "Tell her that this won't be the last she hears from us if this legislation passes. We don't support crime based on "assumption" and our Voices will be heard, she can expect us."

twitter:

AnonymousIRC twitterde op vrijdag 03-02-2012 om 09:22:32 #Anonymous #AntiSec intercepts #FBI comms. Conference call [mp3] http://t.co/FcXNYb5Y #LulzSec #OWS #FFF reageer retweet

FBI Conference Call - #FFF.

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China cut off internet in area of Tibetan unrest

Internet connections and mobile phone signals were cut for 30 miles around scene of clashes in Sichuan, state media reports

Chinese officials cut off mobile phone and internet connections to areas where Tibetans were shot dead amid unrest last month, state media has reported.

Officials say security forces fired in self-defence after mobs of rioters attacked police and official buildings in the south-western province of Sichuan, resulting in two deaths.

Tibetan exiles and campaign groups say police fired at peaceful protesters and killed at least three people.

It has been impossible to verify accounts of the unrest. Foreign reporters attempting to visit the region have been turned back, with officials blaming bad weather and the state of the roads.

Friday's English-language edition of the Global Times newspaper published a report from the region titled Monks Run Amok. The police chief of Luhuo in Ganzi – a county known to Tibetans as Drango – said police first tried to disperse rioters with high-power water guns and rubber bullets, but failed.

"Rioters continued to attack and tried to grab the guns from the police," he told the paper. "[Officers] first shot in the air as a warning, but it was completely ignored, so we had no other choice but to open fire."

The newspaper said the incident began with a protest that became violent. It said other Tibetan-populated counties had quickly tightened security, allowing police to quickly control the next day's unrest in Seda, known to Tibetans as Serthar, where another Tibetan was shot dead.

"After the riots, internet connections and mobile phone signals were cut off for over 50km [30 miles] around the riot areas. Police believe external forces played a part in the riots," the newspaper said.

In 2009, China cut off internet and text messaging services across the north-western region of Xinjiang after ethnic riots in the capital, Urumqi, left almost 200 dead.

Officials blamed "trained separatists" for instigating the events in Ganzi. They have also sought to blame outsiders for a string of self-immolations by Tibetan clergy and laypeople over the last year, mostly in Sichuan.

China appears to have stepped up security across other Tibetan areas, with the top party official in Lhasa urging security forces to increase surveillance of monasteries and main roads in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Qi Zhala ordered all people entering Tibet to carry identification cards from March, the state news agency Xinhua reported. He urged officials to strive for "no big incidents, no medium incidents and not even a small incident".

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1:42 p.m.: Anonymous's next target: A law firm representing Frank Wuterich, whose name you may recognize as the only Marine convicted of a crime in the Haditha massacre in Iraq in 2005, and who didn't get any prison time. The website for the law firm Puckett and Faraj now looks a lot like that of the Boston Police Department, with red writing on a black background and KRS-One's Sound of the Police playing incessantly. But this attack also includes a massive data dump, with a link to a torrent containing "nearly 3 gigabytes of email correspondence belonging to his attorneys," Russia Today reports. In its screed on the Puckett and Faraj site, Anonymous promises more releases having to do with that recent awful video of Marines urinating on Afghan corpses:

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10:17 a.m.: The hackers at Anonymous promised a big release of hacked information on Friday, and at least part of it is a recording of FBI agents on a conference call with Scotland Yard talking about their mutual investigation into Anonymous. The audio recording (below) contains about 16 minutes of agents chatting about what evidence they've got on already-arrested hackers including Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis (aka Topiary) and Kayla. They also talk about their investigation into a guy named Tehwongz, who apparently hacked into the servers of the gaming platform Steam and got about 30,000 logins.

The call's release means Anonymous has access to the emails of somebody in the FBI involved with the Anonymous investigation, and in the spirit of thumbing their noses at the agency, the hackers also posted to Pastebin the email with login data from the call. A clearly annoyed FBI says it's hunting down those responsible for breaking into the call, but from the sound of things so far, the hackers are a step ahead.

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Door Peter Rietveld, Senior Security consultant bij Traxion - The Identity Management Specialists -

twitter:

BarrettBrownLOL twitterde op zaterdag 04-02-2012 om 06:31:10 The #Haditha leak goes way, way beyond that massacre, touching upon every aspect of the military/industrial complex. #FFF #Anonymous reageer retweet

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Syracuse PD site hacked, Anonymous claims attack

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse police say the department's website has been hacked in an attack claimed by the online collective Anonymous, one of a number this week targeting police.

Sgt. Tom Connellan, the department spokesman, says names and passwords of people authorized to alter the site were lifted Wednesday and posted on Twitter.

He says the site featuring public news is maintained by an outside company and wasn't linked to department systems with private information about officers or citizens.

It remains shut down Friday while the FBI and state police investigate. An online posting attributed to Anonymous says it hit the department in part because of what is says was a failure to aggressively pursue child abuse allegations against formed Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine.

Also hacked this week were police in Boston and Salt Lake City.

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Gabriella Coleman Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication

Trained as an anthropologist, Gabriella (Biella) Coleman examines the ethics of online collaboration/institutions as well as the role of the law and digital media in sustaining various forms of political activism. Between 2001-2003 she conducted ethnographic research on computer hackers primarily in San Francisco, the Netherlands, as well as those hackers who work on the largest free software project, Debian. Her first book, "Coding Freedom: The Aesthetics and the Ethics of Hacking" is forthcoming with Princeton University Press and she is currently working on a new book on Anonymous and digital activism. She is the recipient of numerous grants, fellowships, and awards, including ones from the National Science Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and the Institute for Advanced Study.

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Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action

^{Gabriella Coleman, April 6 2011}

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Our Weirdness Is Free

The logic of Anonymous—online army, agent of chaos, and seeker of justice.

_{by Gabriella Coleman, [01.13.2012]}

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Anonymous And The War Over The Internet

This article is the first in a two-part series tracing the development of the amorphous online community known as Anonymous, pranksters who have become a force in global affairs.

^{The Huffington Post, Saki Knafo. Posted: 1/30/12 12:20 PM ET | Updated: 2/1/12 07:36 PM ET}

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Op zaterdag 4 februari 2012 21:20 schreef sp3c het volgende:
goed??

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ZionOps

The following are brief profiles of some of the hackers involved. They were identifiedby press reports or by the content of hacker websites as being the most active or highprofile hackers in the anti-Israel campaign.

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Anonymous’ Latest Release Includes Private Info About Sexual Assault Victims and Guantanamo Lawyers

Earlier today, Anonymous announced what sounded like an awesome caper: The group had compromised the email of a law firm that represented Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the Marine squad leader who got a slap on the wrist for his role in the Haditha massacre. Trouble is, the hack had a lot of collateral victims, including people that Anonymous might normally be aligned with. Like a lawyer for Guantanamo detainees.

In announcing the hack, Anonymous stressed that it was attempting to expose and combat the failures of the military justice system, which let a murderer off the hook. Included in the release are "detailed records, transcripts, testimony, trial evidence, and legal defense donation records pertaining to not only Frank Wuterich but also many other marines they have represented."

Well, yes. But a very cursory examination—we've only been able to peruse a tiny percentage of the data released—has turned up a wealth of information about, for instance, sexual assault victims. Puckett and Faraj, the targeted law firm, represented a Marine accused of rape in 2007. So among partner Haytham Faraj's emails are witness statements from the victims—whose names have not been reported in the context of the sexual assault—recounting how one awoke from a drunken stupor to realize "her tampon was pushed deep inside her." Another recalls only "flashes": "My next flash is I am lying on my back on the bed near the bathroom...and there is a man in boxer-like shorts straddling me." It's hard to see how the public release of that information accords with Anonymous' self-described "ongoing effort to expose the corruption of the court systems and the brutality of US imperialism."

One of Puckett and Faraj's former partners is Eric Montalvo, a lawyer who represented Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohamed Jawad. Jawad was accused of attempted murder for throwing a grenade at U.S. forces in 2002. Depending on who you ask, he was either 12 or 17 years old at the time. He spent nine years without a trial in Guantanamo before Montalvo succeeded in getting him a habeas corpus hearing.

Among the hacked emails is an attachment with 9 months' worth of Montalvo's cell phone records. Every call, in or out. It's an unlikely reward for taking on a case like Jawad's. There's a wealth of data in the release that absolutely should become public, and I will eagerly pore over it. But there are unintended consequences to the approach.

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more puckett & faraj lulz

"This may completely destroy the Law Firm."
The information contained in this electronic message is confidential, and is intended for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are hereby notified that any use, distribution, copying of disclosure of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you received this communication in error, please notify Puckett & Faraj, PLLC at 703-706-9566 or via a return the e-mail to sender. You are required to purge this E-mail immediately without reading or making any copy or distribution.

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From: Micah Johnson <info@chiefingredient.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2012 10:55:08
Cc: MARCY Atwood <marcy@puckettfaraj.com>,
Haytham Faraj <haytham@puckettfaraj.com>
To: "Neal A. Puckett" <neal@puckettfaraj.com>

Hi Neal,

This was done by someone who clearly knows what they are doing. Anonymous is one of the largest, if not THE largest group of hackers in the world at this time. They've taken down Sony, DoD and many others in recent months.
I've replaced their hacked version with a blank screen for right now (it's the quickest thing to get theirs off of there). I've also updated the FTP password.
This isn't like the previous hack where one file was replaced and it redirected. In this case Anon was able to gain FTP access directly to the server and remove ALL files to your site. We're working on restoring the backups now, and looking to see how far this attack went.
At this time, it only looks like the web files were removed, but the database was left intact and untouched.
We're going to have to lock down not only the front end (as done previously), but we are going to have to limit the IP addresses that can access anything to do with the server.
Unfortunately, there are a couple things to consider with this one:
- This was clearly not a random attack.
- If this truly is anon, it may not be limited to just your site or just this one attack. Currently, your domain is on a web server that hosts some of our other sites and clients as well. It may be a good idea to host your site on a fully secured private web server. This can run from $400 - $2,000 per month. On a shared server, the other domains could be vectors for possible access to your site as well.
- Anonymous is a little out of my league. Since you are being targeted, I would suggest hiring a specialist for this type of matter. I'd be more than happy to help you select one, but it seems that someone dedicated to ensuring the security on an ongoing basis and can have 100% control over the server and site may be the direction needed at this point. RackSpace and similar companies offer managed solutions that may cover what is required.
As far as reporting this, and to who, I must admit that I'm not exactly sure. I believe it would be the FBI. Here's a government resource I was able to find on the matter: http://www.cybercrime.gov/reporting.htm

Please feel free to give me a call on my cell phone to discuss further.
619-618-9994.

With Best Regards,
Micah

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How did Anonymous hack the FBI?

The latest, astonishing feat has put the internet hackers back in the public eye - and the authorities on the back foot.

In the last twelve months it has attacked government websites in Syria, declared cyber war on a brutal Mexican drug cartel, and exposed an anti-WikiLeaks "dirty tricks campaign" allegedly plotted by a prominent US security firm. But on Friday, Anonymous, a diffuse network of internet hackers, reached a new level when it intercepted and leaked a conference call between FBI agents and Scotland Yard detectives.

The astonishing feat - confirmed as genuine by the FBI - was apparently carried out after the hackers breached email accounts belonging to the authorities. In doing so, they were able to snoop on communications being exchanged between forces involved in a joint international anti-hacking operation across England, Ireland, Holland, France, Denmark, Sweden and America. In a piece of surreal real-life theatre, the tables were embarrassingly and dramatically turned. The investigators became the investigated; the watchers became the watched.

The call in question, which lasts around 16 minutes, is one of the boldest leaks ever produced by the hackers, and it may also be one of the most revelatory. A fascinating glimpse into a highly classified world, it shows the extent to which the Metropolitan police is willing to collaborate with its foreign counterparts as part of cyber-crime investigations, even if doing so means interfering with the British judicial process. At one point during the call, for instance, one of the Scotland Yard detectives tells his FBI colleagues that they secretly delayed an ongoing court case involving two UK-based suspected hackers - Jake Davis and Ryan Cleary - at America's behest.

"Following some discussion with the New York office, we're looking to try and build some time in to allow some operational matters to fulfil on your side of the water," the Scotland Yard detective is quoted as saying. "We've got the prosecution making an application in chambers, i.e. without the defence knowing, to seek a way to try and factor some time in, that won't look suspicious." He goes on: "Hey, we're here to help. We've cocked things up in the past, we know that."

The FBI has previously declined to comment on whether it would pursue extradition of Cleary or Davis, both of whom are facing a series of charges in Britain for their alleged involvement with Anonymous and its affiliated offshoot, LulzSec .

The call suggests, however, that the US could indeed be building its own case against the hackers. Davis in particular, who stands accused of being the audacious LulzSec spokesperson known online as "Topiary", would no doubt be wanted by the Americans. Over a two-month period in 2011, LulzSec perpetrated a series of high-profile attacks on the websites of US-based multi-national corporations and state agencies - including the CIA and the US senate - making it a prime target for cyber-crime investigators within the FBI.

Prior to the leaked call, it was clear that Davis's legal team already suspected US involvement on some level. This was made apparent last month, during a short hearing at Southwark Crown Court, when Gideon Cammerman, Davis's lawyer, expressed concern about outside interference, asking prosecutors that any "letters of request from a foreign jurisdiction" are presented to him when evidence is formally exchanged on 30 March, prior to Davis and Cleary entering pleas on 11 May. (A letter of request is a method used by a foreign court to seek judicial assistance, such as to obtain information or a witness statement from a specified person.)

Responding to concerns raised by Cammerman, a source within the Crown Prosecution Service said that they could not officially comment on the matter of foreign involvement until after 30 March, but stressed both prosecution and defence had a "common interest in the case being tried here [in the UK] effectively," hinting that any possible US extradition request could hinge on the outcome of the British trial.

In the meantime, the key question is whether Anonymous is sitting on more hacked information as explosive as the conference call, which, depending on its content, could have potentially massive repercussions.

To some extent, the authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have now been put on the back foot. Likely rattled and aghast that their own private conversations were hacked by the very hackers they are paid to investigate, they will be apprehensive about what could come next.

Cleary's lawyer, Karen Todner, has starkly warned that "whole cases could be blown apart" as a result of future security breaches; Anonymous, as ever, has promised more revelations are yet to come.

"You think we're done? Fuck no," tweeted one of its most prominent hackers, Sabu, on Friday. "Truth is we're still in the agents (sic) mailbox right now."

quote:

We have discovered, as a result of the passage of time and our own investigation, chilling facts about the case that will never be briefed by the prosecution team but which ought, in the best interests of the Marine Corps, to be considered at your level.

twitter:

anonymous_RSA twitterde op zondag 05-02-2012 om 23:46:41 One of our Anon Brothers @LuLzWarfare was killed at a protest in Suez #Egypt Feb 3. RIP Bro. #Anonymous..With... http://t.co/GrYJAeMD reageer retweet

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A member of the Occupy Wall Street group contacted me this weekend and notified me
that Thomas Ryan of ProvideSecurity was endangering U.S. members of Anonymous
who have had their names made public via a probable false flag operation aimed at the
Zetas Cartel.

Ryan has a history of subterfuge – specifically the creation of the Robin Sage persona
which invaded the privacy of many members of the intelligence community. He has also
engaged in various infiltration schemes aimed at Occupy Wall Street, which have been
reported on Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.

This was a clumsy operation, in which he disclosed all his FBI and NYPD contacts, as
well as a relationship with former HBGary CEO Aaron Barr. I’ve attached a brief about
HBGary and their Team Themis project which was circulated to House and Senate
staffers last spring. It provides a quick overview of that situation.

quote:

Google and Facebook block content in India after court warns of crackdown

Judge tells 21 companies to bar access to material deemed religiously offensive, or face China-style action

Google and Facebook have removed content from some Indian websites after a court warned that India would crack down "like China" if they did not take steps to protect religious sensibilities.

The two are among 21 companies ordered to develop a mechanism to block material considered religiously offensive after private petitioners took them to court over images deemed offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

Individuals have brought two cases against internet companies in India, fuelling fears about censorship in the world's largest democracy.

"[Our] review team has looked at the content and disabled this content from the local domains of google search, YouTube and Blogger," said a Google spokeswoman, Paroma Roy Chowdhury.

At the heart of the dispute is a law India passed last year making companies responsible for user content posted on their websites, and giving them 36 hours to take down content if there is a complaint.

Last month, the companies said it was impossible for them to block content. Roy Chowdhury declined to comment on what had since been removed, and a Facebook representative said only that the company would release a statement later.

A New Delhi lower court hearing one of the cases, a civil suit brought by an Islamic scholar, told the companies on Monday to put in writing the steps they had taken to block offensive content, and submit reports within 15 days.

"Microsoft has filed an application for rejection of the suit on the grounds that it disclosed no cause of action against Microsoft," a spokesperson for the company said. "The matter is sub judice and no further comments can be given."

That suit was brought by a scholar, Mufti Aijaz Arshad Qasm, who runs a website called fatwaonline.org, which gives answers to moral questions.

Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft have appealed in the Delhi high court against a separate criminal case successfully brought by Vinay Rai, a journalist.

The high court has yet to rule on their appeal, but the sitting judge warned in January they were responsible for content on their websites and said he could, "like China", block sites if the company failed to put its house in order.

In the Rai case, the court ordered the companies to stand trial for offences relating to the distribution of obscene material to minors, after being shown images it said were offensive to the prophet Muhammad, Jesus and various Hindu gods and goddesses as well as several political leaders.

"If the companies have actually removed some content, they should put in place a mechanism to do it regularly, instead of waiting for a court case every time," Rai said.

Fewer than one in 10 of India's 1.2 billion population have access to the internet, but that still makes the country the third-biggest internet market after China and the US. The number of internet users in India is expected to almost triple to 300 million over the next three years.

Despite the new rules to block offensive content, India's internet access is still largely uncensored, in contrast to the tight controls in place in neighbouring China. But, like many other governments around the world, India has become increasingly nervous about the power of social media.

While civil rights groups have opposed the new laws, politicians say posting offensive images in a socially conservative country with a history of violence between religious groups presents a danger to the public.

quote:

In other Anonymous related news, hackers operating under the auspices of the collective have reportedly compromised Syrian government networks and extracted memos, documents and emails advising President Bashar al Assad on how to handle the fallout over his bloody crackdown against protestors demanding regime change.

One alleged e-mail cited by Sky News appeared to advise Assad on how to approach his interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, who spoke with the leader late last year.

"Mentioning 'armed groups' in the interview is extremely important and we can use American and British articles to prove there are armed gangs," the adviser writes.

"American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are 'mistakes' done and now we are 'fixing it.’"

The president was also advised to emphasize how protests are sometimes handled in western countries, adding that "Syria doesn't have a policy to torture people, unlike the USA... We can use Abu Ghraib in Iraq as an example.”


quote:

Since the beginning of the Anonymous movement’s gaining critical mass and bearing the AntiSec fruit, I have been wondering if there is indeed a master plan here. Anonymous claims that they are autonomous, amorphous, a swarm, but I think that is a generalization that only fits when you look at the whole.

When you start to bore down into the cells out there, you can readily see that there are pockets of cohesive groups. One of these groups is of course AntiSec. This group I think has acquired a certain amount of play within the Anonymous circle and thus would be a leadership cell.

Recent posts of the “Coming Insurrection” on sites that have been hacked by AntiSec have lead me to believe that there is a fair amount of Anarchist belief and activity within this cell of Anonymous. In fact, there seems to be from information sources, that AntiSec is in fact running the show now or would like to.

quote:

Anonymous releases Symantec code

HACKTIVIST GROUP Anonymous has lived up to its promise and released Symantec source code.

The group has danced with Symantec for some time, but now that dance is over. "Symantec source code #Anonymous #AntiSec #OhIthinkSymantecGotButtraepd" says a tweet from the @AnonymousIRC account that links to Pirate Bay and Pastebin releases.

The Bittorrent link takes users to a download of PCanywhere source code for remote login software from Symantec, and the statement, "Symantec has been lying to its customers. We exposed this point thus spreading the world that ppl need" - #AntiSec #Anonymous. Spread and share!"

The Pastebin post is a set of emails apparently sent between hacker Yamatough and Symantec, in which the latter apparently was ready to pay $50,000 to retrieve its data.

This was also suggested by long term Anonymous mouthpiece Anonymousabu, who said, "Update regarding Symantec: Stay tuned for the f*cking lulz. Let's just say Symantec tried to give us 50,000 reasons not to release sources!" before the release went live.

"We are not in contact with the FBI. We are using this email account to protect our network from you. Protecting our company and property are our top priorities," says an email apparently sent from a Symantec representative that explains why the firm initially dropped out of the deal.

"We can't pay you $50,000 at once for the reasons we discussed previously. We can pay you $2,500 per month for the first three months. In exchange, you will make a public statement on behalf of your group that you lied about the hack (as you previously stated). Once that's done, we will pay the rest of the $50,000 to your account and you can take it all out at once. That should solve your problem.... Obviously you still have our code so if we don't follow through you still have the upper hand."

Symantec's official line is that no customer data is affected and that it has fixed any vulnerabilities that its code might have.

"Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code has been accessed. Upon investigation of the claims made by Anonymous regarding source code disclosure, Symantec believes that the disclosure was the result of a theft of source code that occurred in 2006," it says in a statement on a page dedicated to the attack.

"Since 2006, Symantec has instituted a number of policies and procedures to prevent a similar incident from occurring. Furthermore, there are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time."

We have asked Symantec to comment on this latest update.

Update
Symantec told us that the emails are genuine but were part of a law enforcement investigation into the attack. It added that the case is ongoing and it would like to stay quiet on the details.

"In January an individual claiming to be part of the Anonymous' group attempted to extort a payment from Symantec in exchange for not publicly posting stolen Symantec source code they claimed to have in their possession. Symantec conducted an internal investigation into this incident and also contacted law enforcement given the attempted extortion and apparent theft of intellectual property," said a spokesperson.

"The communications with the person(s) attempting to extort the payment from Symantec were part of the law enforcement investigation. Given that the investigation is still ongoing, we are not going to disclose the law enforcement agencies involved and have no additional information to provide." µ

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15zMo)
Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15zMo)

quote:

'Anonymous' hacks personal info of Oakland officials

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- 'Anonymous' has just released the personal information of some of Oakland's top city officials online in response to clashes between Occupy Oakland and the police.

Anonymous said they are disgusted and shocked by the behavior of Oakland city officials. So they have released the personal information of city officials including the mayor, the city council and the city administrator and the police chief. The details they have made public include home addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and email addresses.

The group posted a statement addressed to the people they targeted saying "we have been actively monitoring your behavior. You tear gassed us and arrested us and beat us. The people on this list are supposed to represent the best of what the city of Oakland has to offer. If they are the best why is there so much trouble within the police department and the city of Oakland?" They end the statement by saying "you should have expected us."

Anonymous is an internationally known hacking group tied to computer attacks on the Pentagon, the White House and other government organizations.

This story is still developing. ABC7 News will bring you reaction from Oakland city officials as soon as possible.

quote:

Brazilië daagt Twitter voor de rechter om verwijdering accounts

Brazilië wil dat Twitter ervoor zorgt dat accounts die politiecontroles doorgeven verwijderd worden. Doet het bedrijf dat niet, dan stapt het land naar de rechter, meldt persbureau AFP.

Voor elke dag dat Twitter niet aan de eis voldoet eist Brazilië een dwangsom van 200.000 euro. Brazilië is bang dat dit soort accounts verkeersveiligheidscampagnes en opsporingsacties ondermijnen.

In januari maakte Twitter bekend dat het berichten gaat blokkeren als de inhoud in strijd is met lokale wetgeving. De sociale netwerksite heeft zijn technologie verfijnd, zodat het berichten en accounts kan censureren per land.

Twitter heeft nog niet op de Braziliaanse klacht gereageerd.

Dit bericht wordt bijgewerkt.

twitter:

AnonymousIRC twitterde op dinsdag 07-02-2012 om 19:52:33 LOL!! press doesn't seem to understand #Symantec got trolled. Code was always set for public release since beginning #Anonymous #AntiSec reageer retweet

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 februari 2012 21:47 schreef YazooW het volgende:

Anonymous en Undercover op pedojacht (promo)

ra ra waar zal dit toch over gaan...
Volgende week zondag bij Undercover in Nederland.

quote:

Op dinsdag 7 februari 2012 22:17 schreef YazooW het volgende:

[..]

Heeft Anonymous die dan?

quote:

Hacked emails allege Russian youth group Nashi paying bloggers

Pro-Kremlin organisation reportedly pays hundreds of thousands of pounds to network of internet users to help political cause

The Russian youth group Nashi has paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to a vast network of bloggers, journalists and internet trolls to create flattering coverage of Vladimir Putin and discredit his political rivals, according to a haul of thousands of emails allegedly sent to and from the group that have been released by Russian hackers.

The mass of data appears to show evidence of the sinister tactics used by Nashi, and includes:

• Price lists for pro-Putin bloggers and commenters which indicate that some are paid as much as 600,000 roubles (£12,500) for leaving hundreds of comments on negative stories about Putin.

• Plans to pay more than 10m roubles to buy a series of articles about Nashi's annual Seliger summer camp in two popular Russian tabloids.

• Calls for paid Nashi activists to "dislike" anti-regime videos posted on YouTube.

• Ideas for smear campaigns against what one activist calls the "fascist" Russian opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, such as a cartoon video likening him to Hitler and a suggestion someone dress up like the blogger to beg for alms in front of the US embassy.

The group of Anonymous hackers told online news portal Gazeta.ru in an interview that they carried out the hack, planned since spring of last year, "as a sign of protest against the government's actions in the public internet sphere".

Opposition leaders have accused Nashi of being behind a series of attacks, including repeated scuffles with the liberal youth leader Ilya Yashin and an incident in which ammonia-laced cola was thrown in the face of the former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov. Nashi denied being involved in the latter.

Navalny told the Guardian: "These strategies, what they do on the internet and how they gather protests, are very similar. [Nashi's] main problem is that they don't have real people who are ready to say something in support of them. They don't have one person who supports them for free. So they pay."

The current leader of Nashi, Nikita Borovikov, said: "For several years, I've got used to the fact that our email is periodically hacked. When I heard the rumours that it had been hacked, I wasn't shocked, and have paid no attention to this problem. I'm a law abiding person, and have nothing to fear of hiding, so I pay no attention."

Tracking the Internet Trolls

quote:

The BBC tracks down a notorious Internet troll. Catch the full episode here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/pan(...)_9693000/9693594.stm

quote:

KPN slachtoffer van computerhack

KPN is vorige maand slachtoffer geworden van een geslaagde hackaanval. Dat heeft het bedrijf vanmiddag gemeld. De hacker(s) slaagden erin toegang te krijgen tot servers met klantgegevens van particulieren en bedrijven zoals adressen, telefoonnummers en bankrekeningnummers.

De hack werd op 20 januari ontdekt, aldus een woordvoerder van KPN tegen de NOS. Het bedrijf heeft naar eigen zeggen “onmiddellijk” maatregelen genomen om de gegevens van klanten “maximaal” te beschermen. Een week later bleken de hackers echter nog steeds toegang tot de servers te hebben. Met behulp van internetbedrijf FoX IT lukte het KPN uiteindelijk een aantal dagen later om het probleem op te lossen.

Het is niet duidelijk van hoeveel klanten de hackers de gegevens hebben kunnen inzien, maar volgens KPN zijn er geen gegevens gestolen. KPN heeft alle “relevante” instanties, waaronder justitie en het het Nationaal Cyber Security Centrum, geïnformeerd over het hack en belooft “alle medewerking” om de hackers op te sporen. Het Landelijk Parket van het OM heeft inmiddels een onderzoek lopen. KPN belooft te onderzoeken hoe de servers in de toekomst “nog beter” tegen digitale aanvallen kunnen worden beschermd.

quote:

Ex-U.S. spy chief says may take crisis for new cyber law

(Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies have unique capabilities that can help protect American companies from cyber espionage and attack, but it will probably take a crisis to change laws to allow that type of cooperation, a former spy chief said on Monday.

Intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency are authorized to operate abroad but generally are restricted from working within the United States,

"Until we have a banking collapse or electric power goes off in the middle of a snowstorm for eight weeks, or something of that magnitude, we're likely just to talk about it and not do much," Mike McConnell, former director of national intelligence, said.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate have separate efforts under way on legislation aimed at improving cybersecurity.

The House intelligence committee in December approved a bill that would allow U.S. spy agencies to share cyber-threat intelligence with private companies. Some critics worry that could lead to government surveillance of private data.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate will take up "comprehensive" cybersecurity legislation this year.

"There are unique things that the government can do. For example code-breaking. The private sector out there does not do code-breaking," McConnell, a former National Security Agency director, told Reuters in an interview.

"How would you harness that capability and then make it available to the private sector in a way that their infrastructure could be better protected?"

A U.S. intelligence report last year pointed the finger at China and Russia as using cyber espionage to steal U.S. trade and technology secrets.

McConnell gives an example that if NSA, which conducts electronic eavesdropping to detect foreign threats, observed a cyberthreat against the U.S. private sector, "NSA is powerless to do a thing other than issue a report."

He said in the area of cyber exploitation, such as reading an adversary's mail without leaving fingerprints, the United States, Britain and Russia are probably the best.

The United States also has the ability to conduct cyber attacks, which would be to degrade or destroy an adversary's computerized system, and has used it.

Has the United States used its cyber attack capability? "Yes," McConnell said. Did it work? "Yes."

McConnell, now vice chairman at the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting firm in charge of cyber activities, did not elaborate on the use of a cyber attack capability.

"Do we have the ability to attack, degrade or destroy? Sure. If you do that, what are the consequences? That is the question," he said.

McConnell said the priority is to protect the country's critical infrastructure such as the financial sector, the electric power grid and transportation from cyber attack and stop the theft of intellectual property through cyber espionage.

"There will be a thousand voices on what is the right thing to do," and it will probably require a crisis to reach consensus, he said.

"All I'm arguing is the government has unique capability, figure out a way to harness the capability in the defense of the nation."

quote:

Remember all that talk of how the supporters of SOPA/PIPA were "humbled" by the protests of January 18th, and how they had learned their lessons about trying to push through a bill without actually involving the stakeholders? Remember the talk of how they hoped a new tone could be found in the debate? Yeah. Apparently someone forgot to send that memo to RIAA boss Cary Sherman, who has taken to the pages of the NY Times to lash out at those who fought against SOPA/PIPA, chalking the whole thing up to a massive "misinformation" campaign by Google and Wikipedia. The whole thing is chock full of ridiculous claims, so we might as well go through it bit by bit.

quote:

Senate sneaks in SOPA under a new name

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) launches a second round of attacks in an attempt to censor the Internet.

After trying to adopt Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), both pieces of legislation turned out to be a disaster, causing outrage among Internet giants and ordinary users alike. Congress had to retreat. However it's determined to get what it wants this time.

After the shelving of SOPA and PIPA back in January Reid stated,“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved.”

As RT reported last month, Senator Reid added that lawmakers will“continue engaging with all stakeholders to forge a balance between protecting Americans’ intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the Internet.”

The vote on the anti-piracy legislation was postponed from its January 24date after Wikipedia and other popular websites went dark to protest the draft law.

Now the battle for online freedom continues.

The rebuttal to push Internet-regulating legislation has transformed into a new cybersecurity bill. The particulars of the latest attempt by senators to censor the Internet have not been disclosed to the public.

However some leaks suggest that the bill will grant the authority to crack down on the Internet to the executive branch of power, namely the White House. It looks highly possible taking into consideration that the legislation has to come out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman.

The same Lieberman who earlier co-sponsored the so called Kill Switch bill that could allow the president of the United States to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," and practically shut down the Internet.

After outrage from Internet advocacy groups, Kill Switch never made it in the Senate. This time it may be back under a new name.

quote:

Op donderdag 9 februari 2012 11:40 schreef picodealion het volgende:

[..]

Iemand dit gezien? De moeite waard om te kijken?

quote:

KPN sloeg groot alarm na hackaanval

De hackaanval bij KPN vorige maand had grotere gevolgen kunnen hebben voor klanten dan eerder gecommuniceerd. De hacker(s) slaagden erin toegang te krijgen tot servers met klantgegevens van particulieren en bedrijven zoals adressen, telefoonnummers en bankrekeningnummers.

Na de ontdekking van de hack op 20 januari werd zelfs de hoogste alarmfase, code Rood, afgekondigd. Dat meldt de NOS. Omdat de software van het KPN-computersysteem niet up to date was konden hackers gemakkelijk toegang krijgen.

Na de ontdekking van de hack zou het bedrijf “onmiddellijk” maatregelen genomen hebben om de gegevens van klanten “maximaal” te beschermen, toch bleken de hackers een week later nog steeds toegang tot de servers te hebben. Met behulp van internetbedrijf FoX IT lukte het KPN uiteindelijk een aantal dagen later om het probleem op te lossen.

De NOS meldt vanavond dat KPN heeft toegeven dat de hackers de mogelijkheid hadden om alarmnummer 112 voor klanten met een abonnement met telefonie en internet onbereikbaar te maken. KPN had door het lek genoodzaakt kunnen worden het hele netwerk uit te schakelen om gegevens en klanten te beschermen.

In een reactie laat de KPN vanavond weten dat er “voor zover” zij nu “kunnen overzien” geen gegevens zijn gestolen en dat het telecombedrijf. KPN:

. “KPN begrijpt dat mensen zich mogelijk zorgen maken over hun gegevens. Voor zover we nu kunnen overzien is er van onze klanten niets gestolen of kapotgemaakt. KPN heeft meteen actie ondernomen en is met een team van meer dan 100 man aan het werk gegaan om ervoor te zorgen dat mensen kunnen blijven bellen, internetten, zaken doen. En zijn extra maatregelen genomen om systemen en gegevens nog beter te beschermen.”

Volgens KPN heeft het zoveel mogelijk geprobeerd “klanten zolang als dat mogelijk was niet actief op de hoogte te stellen van de inbraak in het IT-netwerk van KPN door een inbreker”. Daarvoor geeft het bedrijf drie redenen:


. 1. onze dienstverlening voor onze klanten (internetten, bellen, TV, websites, zaken doen via het internet) veilig te stellen en onnodige onrust in de samenleving te voorkomen
. 2. te voorkomen dat de hacker(s) in de gelegenheid is om gealarmeerd door de melding – snel grote schade aan te richten bij ons en onze klanten
. 3. de opsporing van de hacker(s) niet te verstoren
Na zorgvuldige afweging en overleg met de autoriteiten heeft KPN besloten tot een daadkrachtige aanpak in stilte.

KPN kondigde vanavond eveneens een “diepgaande analyse” aan naar de hack.

quote:

Op donderdag 9 februari 2012 20:17 schreef DjinN het volgende:

[..]

En waaruit maak jij op dat Anonymous achter de hack zat ?

quote:

Hackers target iPhone manufacturer to protest harsh working conditions

Hackers protesting harsh working conditions at iPhone manufacturer Foxconn dumped what they said were megabytes of private data belonging to the outsourcing giant.

"Note: The passwords inside these files could allow individuals to make fraudulent orders under big companies like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Intel, and Dell," a group calling itself Swagg Security wrote in a message posted to Pastebin. "Be careful." The purported contents were made available in a torrent on The Pirate Bay.

The group said Foxconn's network was protected by "an appropriate firewall, but fortunately to our intent, we were able to bypass it almost flawlessly." Over several days, the hackers claimed, they were able to access most data of significance. It didn't take long after the dump for images such as this one to circulate that suggested Foxconn systems were configured in ways that revealed key information about its internal topology.

Several Foxconn servers were reportedly taken offline over the past day.

The stunt coincided with protests planned at a half-dozen of Apple retail stores around the world by demonstrators opposing the conditions of workers who manufacture iPhones and other Apple hardware. A recent series carried by The New York Times documented long hours, low pay, and an explosion that killed several workers at Foxconn, which also makes hardware for Cisco, Dell, Sony, HP, and others.

quote:

http://www.embassyhomepage.com/ Embassy in London UK hacked and data leaked via pastebin.com/)
http://www.un.org/ (Official United Nation Website hacked by anonymous via pastebin.com )
http://www.police.uk/ (DOWN 12:30AM GMT)
http://www.mos-partya.ru/ (DOWN 4:01PM GMT)
http://www.astalavista.com/ (IT news and security community Hacked and DB leaked via http://pastebin.com/wSUSxpPx)
http://www.astalavista.net/ (IT news and security community Hacked and DB Leaked)

Source: http://cylaw.info/?p=420

quote:

US government losing 'hearts and minds' social media battle

Other governments and some companies are using social media to address dissent, a DARPA program officer said

The US government is losing a race in cyberspace - a social-networking race for the hearts and minds of internet users - a computer security expert said yesterday.

Other countries - and many companies - are using social-networking tools to their advantage, while the US government has taken tiny steps forward, said Rand Waltzman, a program manager focused on cybersecurity at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The Chinese government pays citizens to patrol social-networking sites and dispute negative talk about all levels of government or any aspect of Chinese life, and companies such as Dell and Best Buy are training workers to respond to complaints on Facebook and other social-networking services, Waltzman said at the Suits and Spooks security conference in Arlington, Virginia.

US regulations prevent the government from undertaking similar campaigns, he said. "Any time you want to go to the bathroom, you need presidential approval," he said.

The US will not be able to protect its residents if it cannot engage in its own covert social-media operations, Waltzman said.

Waltzman told about a US special forces unit in Iraq in 2009 that attacked an insurgent paramilitary group, killed 16 of the members of the group and seized a "huge" weapons cache. As soon as the US unit left the scene, the Iraqi group returned, put the bodies on prayer mats, and uploaded a photograph from a cheap mobile phone, he said. The group put out a press release in English and Arabic.

The insurgent group "made it look like someone had come in and murdered these guys in the middle of prayer, unarmed," Waltzman said.

Meanwhile, it took the US soldiers three days to get approval to post their video of the fighting, he added. "In social media time, three days is forever," he said. "The damage has already been done, and there's no way to take it back."

When Waltzman recently asked one US Department of Defense official why the agency doesn't use social media more, the official said the agency needed to gain knowledge before putting ideas into practice. "To do what he's suggesting, it will take forever," he said. "The Chinese, on the other hand, their concept is called practice to practice. Practice makes perfect."

American politicians seem to be conflicted about using social media covertly, Waltzman said. Some denounce China for its social-media propaganda efforts, yet there are several examples in the 2010 congressional election campaigns of astroturfing, of using fake grassroots campaigns to support candidates, he said.

While US companies and politicians use social-media in a variety of ways, there's public outcry when US intelligence and law enforcement agencies consider monitoring social media or look into covert uses of social media, Waltzman said.

"What you see is this entire social-media space is absolutely filled with hypocrisy and contradiction," he said. "While we have our hands tied, our adversaries - nation states, terrorist organisations, criminal organisations, any kind of nutcase group you want - have completely free hands, and are going ahead full speed."

quote:

Tribler is vrij en opensource-P2P-programma voor onder meer Windows, Mac en Linux. In 2007 bestond het ontwikkelaarsteam uit 20 Nederlanders, personen van zowel de TU Delft als de Vrije Universiteit uit Amsterdam. Tribler zou de mogelijkheid bieden videocontent (van bijvoorbeeld YouTube) met een BitTorrent-methode te doorzoeken wat dan bekeken kan worden via internet. Het zou ook geschikt gemaakt worden voor settopboxen.

quote:

'The only way to take it down is to take the internet down,' says Dr Pouwelse of Delft University of Technology.

quote:

Anonymous threatens cyber crusade against Israel

International hacker group accuses Israeli gov't of "crimes against humanity," vows revenge in YouTube video.

International hacker group Anonymous released a video on YouTube overnight Thursday threatening to launch a crusade against the Israeli government, who it accused of committing "crimes against humanity."

The release of the clip came amid an internet feud between Israeli and Arab hackers, which began in early January when a Saudi hacker published tens of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers on the Internet. Anonymous, a loosely organized international group of hackers who seek anarchy through disrupting government and law enforcement networks, threatened to shut down the Knesset website in June, but failed to carry out the threat.

In the video released overnight Thursday, Anonymous accuses Israel of bettering "the lives of a select few, while carelessly trampling the liberties of the masses."
Related:

The group charges the Israeli government with circulating propaganda through political lobbying and the mainstream media.

"Your Zionist bigotry has displaced and killed a great many. As the world weeps you laugh while planning your next attack," the video states, making reference to talk of a potential Israeli military strike against Iran. "You label all who refuse to comply with your superstitious demands as anti-Semitic and have taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust...we will not allow you to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies."

Anonymous threatens in the YouTube clip to wage a three-step campaign against the Israeli government's "reign of terror."

"Step one will be initiated after the release of this video and will be comprised of systematically removing you from the internet. Step two will be later disclosed and is already in initiation; and, as for step three, well, think of this one as a present from Anonymous to you - we will not stop until the police state becomes a free state. We are Anonymous, we are legion, we do not forgive, we do not forget. Israeli government expect us," the video warns in its conclusion.

Anonymous Message To The State of Israel

quote:

On Saturday protests are planned across the world against Acta - the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The treaty has become the focus of activists associated with the Anonymous hacking network because of concerns that it could undermine internet privacy and aid censorship.

quote:

500 persoonsgegevens KPN klanten online – maildienst KPN offline


De maildienst van KPN is vanmiddag niet bereikbaar nadat er een groot aantal accountgegevens met wachtwoorden van KPN-klanten online zijn gezet. Deze zouden bij de hack die woensdag bekend werd zijn buitgemaakt, schrijft Tweakers.net.

Webmail.kpnmail.nl en pop3.kpnmail.nl zouden sinds vrijdagmiddag niet meer bereikbaar zijn. KPN heeft de mailservers uit voorzorg offline gehaald na de publicatie van wachtwoorden van mail-accounts van klanten. Volgens Webwereld.nl zouden er meer dan 500 persoonsgegevens gelekt zijn. Volgens Webwereld zou de lijst authentiek zijn.

Afgelopen woensdag claimde KPN nog dat er na de hack geen gegevens gestolen zouden zijn. De hack zou het gevolg zijn geweest van achterstallig onderhoud van KPN, dat verzuimde nieuwe software te installeren.

Dit bericht wordt bijgewerkt.

quote:

Anonymous took down cia.gov

Traditionally known as FuckFBIFriday, this weekend's eve turned into FuckCIAFriday, as hacktivists downed the official website for the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States cia.gov.

­At approximately 3:10 p.m. Eastern time one of twitter accounts related to the hackers' group announced "cia.gov DOWN. #UMAD?#Anonymous."

The CIA website became the latest victim in a series of attacks conducted by the elusive group of hackers against US law enforcement agencies and copyright holders. As RT reported earlier, Anonymous took credit for crashing the websites of the US Department of Homeland Security, which was quickly revived, and the FBI.

The CIA seems to be less prepared for fighting Anonymous than other agencies. If the work of dhs.gov was revived in mere minutes, the CIA's site is still down even more than two hours after the attack. One of the twitter accounts affiliated with Anonymous explained the reasons of the attack: "We do it for the lulz," referring to the popular online abbreviation "for laughs."

In previous occasions Anonymous has orchestrated humiliating assaults with massive distributed denial of services attacks.

The technique also known as a DDoS, is a concentrated effort by multiple individuals to make a network busy to its intended users. The end results in a server overload

Even though DDoS attacks are a violation of the Internet Architecture Boards’s proper use policy, it has become an effective tool for Anonymous to spread online mayhem.

Two weeks ago, the online group also released the audio of a conference call between the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Britain’s Scotland Yard counterpart targeting members of the largely untraceable group. It was done as part of the FuckFBIFriday campaign.

Along with the secret audio leak, numerous sites fell prey to Anonymous’ crippling assault including several entertainment industry giants and government sites.

The websites for the US Department of Justice and Universal Music Group were among the first to go, with the sites for US Copyright Office, Warner Music, BMI, and RIAA following suit shortly after.

These attacks were in retaliation for a raid on Megaupload, where the feds raided the file sharing service site which led to more than 20 warrants being served and several arrests internationally.

This is not the first time Anonymous takes down cia.gov. In June, as part of a 51-day-long hacking spree, the Anonymous affiliated group LulzSec took down the CIA's site for a few hours. The reason was the same as today: "For the lulz."

We will bring you more details as they develop.

twitter:

FredrikNilsson4 twitterde op zaterdag 11-02-2012 om 02:58:32 2 MINUTES LEFT! 92.123.68.25 & 50.56.116.239 #Anonymous #Chanology #OpChanologyReborn reageer retweet

quote:

Op zaterdag 11 februari 2012 07:24 schreef Nemephis het volgende:

[..]


_{dat heeft niks met ACTA te maken... en die CIA-"hack" ook niet -- no offence}

[..]

_bron

quote:

http://www.asmaassad.com/ (Official websites of Syria’s First Lady Hacked)
http://www.parliament.go.ug/ (DOWN)
http://www.cosmomedia.es/ (DEFACED)
http://hernandococinas.com/ (DEFACED)
http://cirugiaplasticalinares.es/ (DEFACED)
http://cityguia.es/ (DEFACED)
http://www.estheticinternacional.es/ (DEFACED)
http://canalformativo.es/ (Defaced)
http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/ (Texas Department of Public Safety HACKED and db leaked via pastehtml)
http://www.mobilepd.org/ (City of Mobile Police Department Hacked and db leaked via pastehtml.com)
http://www.alabama.gov (hacked major data leaked over 40k citizens personal info more details via pastehtml.com)

Source: http://cylaw.info/?p=420

twitter:

Anon_Central twitterde op zaterdag 11-02-2012 om 05:49:27 Commander X has escaped into exile in Canada. Ok.. grow a weed farm there braw. good luck. reageer retweet

twitter:

PLF2012 twitterde op zaterdag 11-02-2012 om 05:27:51 "I will return to my native USA when I get my Pardon and a fucking apology. Until then, FUCK the FBI and the USA!" ~~ Commander X reageer retweet

quote:

Op zaterdag 11 februari 2012 13:45 schreef borisz het volgende:
Maxime Verhagen gebruikt nu het kinderpornoargument ivm ACTA. Vreselijk.

twitter:

YourAnonNews twitterde op zaterdag 11-02-2012 om 17:14:14 Another #anonymous down n #Egypt. VerbalAnon shot to death by police sniper. #RIP and know you will be missed. via @LuLzWarfare reageer retweet

quote:

Update 19.26 uur: Gelekte gegevens van 500 KPN-klanten afkomstig van Baby-Dump.nl
De gelekte persoonsgegevens van meer dan 500 KPN-klanten zijn afkomstig van de webwinkel Baby-Dump.nl. Eerder werd gedacht dat de hackers persoonsgegevens van KPN-zelf in handen hadden gekregen, maar IT-journalist Brenno de Winter ontdekte dat dat niet het geval is. Dat meldt nos.nl.

Baby-Dump is een grote website voor baby-artikelen. Verscheidene mensen die op de lijst staan bevestigen tegenover de nos dat ze bij die webwinkel artikelen hebben besteld. Veel mensen gebruikten de naam van de winkel ook als wachtwoord.

De hackers publiceerden op internet een lijst met daarin alleen klanten van KPN. Het lijkt erop dat ze de klantenlijst van Baby-Dump filterden op e-mailadressen van KPN.

quote:

Along with CIA takedown, information compromised at Dept. of Homeland Security in Anonymous attack

The pace of attacks by cyber vigilantes seems to be increasing in 2012. Yesterday news broke that the website of the CIA was down, an attack for which Anonymous claimed responsibility. Today CNN is reporting that attacks also hit government agencies in Mexico and Alabama, and that “information was compromised” at Alabama’s Department of Homeland Security.

In a release, Alabama Department of Homeland Security Director Spencer Collier said that his agency was conducting a forensic analysis to determine what information might have been obtained by the hackers.

The ties to Anonymous come from claims on the groups Twitter and Tumblr feeds. As usual with the hacktivists, the attack was linked to a political protest. A page from the hacked site bore the tag line of the group and stated that this was a response to, “recent racist legislation in an attempt to punish immigrants as criminals.”

The Guy Fawkes masks worn by the group have become the symbol of their movement. They are a reference to the comic book series V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore and first published in 1982. That story chronicles a masked man’s attempts to take down the British government.

Writing in The Guardian earlier this week, Moore said he approved of the movement which has borrowed his trademark mask. “Today’s response to similar oppressions seems to be one that is intelligent, constantly evolving and considerably more humane…As for the ideas tentatively proposed in that dystopian fantasy thirty years ago, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that whatever usefulness they afford modern radicalism is very satisfying.In terms of a wildly uninformed guess at our political future, it feels something like V for validation.”

quote:

Op maandag 13 februari 2012 02:46 schreef Dhalsim het volgende:

[..]

Papierversnipperaar,

1000 kudo's 2 u voor de inzet, informatie, vasthoudendheid van uw topics.

Was getekend, een fan...

quote:

COMBINEDSYSTEMS DEFACED AND RM'D BY ANONYMOUS ON ANNIVERSARY OF BAHRAIN UPRISING

So you war profiteering all crazy, selling mad chemical weapons to militaries
and cop shops around the world, thinking you will get away unscathed by the
rising tides of insurrection? Think again, assholes. Combined Systems, lay down
your arms: you just lost the game. In the past we have marched on your offices
in Jamestown, Pennsylvania: now it is time to march on your websites. All your
"less than lethal" arms were simply no match for our 9000 cocks and mad black
hat technique. We came, we saw, we rooted and rm'd your website. Umad?

From the streets of Oakland to Tahrir Square, to Palestine, Greece, Bahrain and
Syria, your sinister instruments of torture and brutality have been used by the
vile swine enforcers of the rich ruling classes to repress our revolutionary
movements. You shot and gassed protesters, running them off public parks in the
US. Several dozen died because of your tear gas used in Egypt. You wave the
Israeli flag outside of your offices, while just two months ago your tear gas
cannisters fired by the IDF killed a man in the West Bank. Did you think we
forgot? Why did you not expect us?

In addition to dumping name, address, phone and password information for dozens
of CSI employees and clients, our tag team of mayhem went the extra mile by
dumping email for some of the pigs ordering anti-protester gear off their shitty
website. We also hit sur-tec.com, some shitty CCTV surveillance company owned by
former FBI director Clarence M. Kelley (their password was 'government'). Do you
think they will appreciate the irony of being owned due to buying "security"
products from a compromised website? How long do you think we had your website
backdoored, capturing all incoming customers registrations and orders? 42? If
you ever get your website back up, do you think you will be anything more than a
shadow of your former self? Will your clients ever trust you again?

Unfortunately, some random paypal phisher also hacked and abused the server.
This noob was reported to the sysadmins by google, forcing us to move forward
with our plans ahead of schedule. To the system administrators and web
developers who aided and abetted CombinedSystems.com, we got something for your
asses too (and it's more than getting pounded with 9000 dildos at maximum
vibration speed): if you so much as lift a finger to support CSI in rebuilding
their websites, we will post all your mail on you and all your clients (aka The
Lolcaust). Any other brave whitehats want to step up to CSI's defense?

To our hacker allies, our fellow occupiers, our militant comrades all around the
world, the time for talk is over: it's time to hack and smash, beat and shag.
Each and every #FuckFBIFriday we will make war on the infrastructure of the
military prison industrial non-organic complex, targeting all war profiteers,
corporate executives, white hats, snitches and pigs. We're coming to loot,
plunder, and make all their base belong to us.

You really think you can crush the spirit of the Arab Spring, the Occupation
Movement, and Anonymous with tear gas and subpoenas?! Mothafucka, our mad skills
iz bulletproof. Now let's bust out that hacklog! <3

#Anonymous' Blackbook http://mir.cr/12XRSILE

quote:

Anonymous Hackers Punish US Weapons Maker

On the anniversary of the Bahrain uprising, Anonymous hackers have targeted Combined Systems, defacing the US weapons maker's site.
Credited as a being part of both the HackVDay Valentines Day rampage and a wider protest commemorating the Bahrain uprising's anniversary, news of the attack broke on Tuesday.

As well as defacing Combined Systems' website, the hackers also posted a statement under the Anonymous moniker on Pastebin.
In it the Anon - the word Anonymous members use to refer to themselves - cited law enforcement and military forces' use of the company's weapons as its primary motivation for the attack.

. "So you war profiteering all crazy, selling mad chemical weapons to militaries [sic] and cop shops around the world, thinking you will get away unscathed by the rising tides of insurrection? Think again, assholes.

"Combined Systems, lay down your arms: you just lost the game. In the past we have marched on your offices in Jamestown, Pennsylvania: now it is time to march on your websites." Read the statement.

Within the Pastebin statement the hackers also posted data allegedly taken in the raid. This included names addresses, phone numbers and password information of a number of CSI employees and clients.
Combined Systems is a weapons maker that produces tear gas canisters, it has contracts with several law enforcement and military agencies and forces across the world.

. "You shot and gassed protesters, running them off public parks in the US. Several dozen died because of your tear gas used in Egypt. You wave the Israeli flag outside of your offices, while just two months ago your tear gas cannisters [sic] fired by the IDF killed a man in the West Bank. Did you think we forgot? Why did you not expect us?"

The Bahrain uprising began in February 2011 when thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets. Since the protest began there have been numerous clashes between protesters and Bahrain authorities, many ending with tear gas and stun grenades being used against demonstrators.
To date, official numbers remain vague; reports suggest at least 60 people have been killed since the uprising began. Further violence is expected around Pearl Roundabout since protest leaders pledged to re-take the area.

quote:

Hackers loyal to Anonymous claim attack on US tear gas company, website taken down

LONDON Hackers loyal to the Anonymous movement say theyve broken into the website of a U.S. tear gas company whose ammunition has been used against demonstrators in Egypt and elsewhere.

In an Internet statement, the hackers alleged Combined Systems are war profiteers who sell mad chemical weapons to militaries and cop shops around the world.

The hackers also claimed to have stolen and published personal information belonging to clients and employees of the Jamestown, Pennsylvania-based firm.

The claims couldnt immediately be verified.

The website for Combined Systems Inc. was down Tuesday. Messages to the sites administrative staff were not immediately returned ahead of business hours.

Anonymous has claimed a series of Web attacks worldwide.


Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

quote:

'Internet is kraamkamer voor jihadisten'

Steeds meer mensen uit steeds meer landen raken via internet in contact met radicale jihadisten. Internetfora waarop deze jihadisten actief zijn, vormen voor een belangrijk deel de dreiging tegen het Westen. De AIVD zegt in een rapport dat dinsdag is gepubliceerd dat het internet zich de afgelopen 10 jaar heeft ontwikkeld tot een kraamkamer van jihadisten.

Wereldwijd zijn circa 25.000 jihadisten, afkomstig uit honderd landen, actief op radicale websites die niet zijn terug te vinden zijn via zoekmachines. De AIVD heeft geen beeld van hoeveel Nederlanders deze fora bezoeken, maar het gevaar van deze websites wordt in Nederland onderschat door onder anderen politici en wetenschappers.

Op de internetfora worden bezocht door jihadisten die bereid zijn aanslagen te plegen, maar ook door zogenoemde 'schreeuwers' die niet tot actie overgaan, maar wel het radicale gedachtegoed aanhangen.

Op de websites vinden discussies plaats die uiteindelijk oproepen en toewerken naar geweld tegen de 'ware vijanden van de islam'. Deze zogenoemde kernfora worden overigens niet beheerd door jihadistische organisaties als al-Qaeda, maar dergelijke organisaties zijn wel actief op deze websites.

De AIVD stelt ook dat tientallen aanslagen zijn verijdeld, doordat daarover op internet informatie voorhanden was. Het gaat daarbij onder meer om informatie over het plannen van aanslagen, doelen, maar ook de handel in middelen om aanslagen te plegen. De inlichtingendienst kan echter niet ingaan op specifieke gevallen.

quote:

Security expert reveals cyberweapon fears as Anonymous attack CIA

Online security expert Eugene Kaspersky has revealed his fears of cyberweapons and cyberterrorism, after Anonymous attacked the CIA website last weekend.

In the interview, Kaspersky explains that military weapons such as stealth fighters are already connected to the internet, and that the Stuxnet worm had set a precedent for the use of cyberweapons by a national government.

In spite of the risks, Kaspersky points out that there is no international treaty governing the use of cyberweapons, and claims that it may take a "cyber-Hiroshima" before complacent governments begin taking the national security risks of cyberwarfare seriously.

During the interview, Kaspersky also expresses concern that members of online "hacktivist" group Anonymous might grow up to be cyberterrorists if not monitored closely, and points out that cybercrime already has a negative impact on the world economy.

The interview comes after Anonymous took credit for attacks on the CIA website over the weekend.

quote:

'Niet Anonymous maar politie moet servers hacken'

Het CDA wil Anonymous betrekken bij de opsporing van kinderporno. Niet wenselijk, volgens IT-beveiliger Ronald Prins. "Het is beter om de politie te laten inbreken op servers."

"Als wij mensen kunnen pakken door de hulp in te roepen van Anonymous dan gaan wij ervoor zorgen dat wij deze mensen naast ons trekken om deze strijd aan te gaan", zegt Madeleine van Toorenburg, Tweede Kamerlid CDA, zondag in een uitzending van Undercover in Nederland. In het programma hielp een vermeend Anonymouslid de journalist Alberto Stegeman bij het opsporen van online pedofielen op het Tor-netwerk.

De hulp inroepen van Anonynous bij het opsporen van kinderporno en pedofielen noemt Ronald Prins, directeur van beveiligingsbedrijf Fox-IT, onwenselijk. "Als je dat toestaat dan geef je als overheid aan dat je het internet niet snapt. Je creëert een soort Wilde Westen door te zeggen 'los het zelf maar op'." Ook Wim de Bruin, woordvoerder Openbaar Ministerie, wijst hulp van Anonymous af. "Je gaat geen boeven vangen met boeven."

Politie mag niet hacken

Prins pleit voor uitbreiding van wetgeving, zodat de politie zelf mag inbreken op servers waarop kinderporno staat. "Nu is dat wettelijk niet geregeld en mag de politie niet hacken. Natuurlijk moet je dat zorgvuldig inzetten met bijvoorbeeld toestemming van de rechter-commissaris."

"Als je kan inbreken op een server kan je de pedofielen achterhalen", aldus Prins, die erop wijst dat de politie na het inbreken op een server in het Tor-netwerk het echte ip-adres kan achterhalen. "En daarmee heb je een spoor in de normale wereld. Waar staat de server fysiek en wie betaalt ervoor? En in die zin kan je ook zien of de admin inlogt van bijvoorbeeld zijn huisadres."

Gebaat bij uitbreiding

De uitspraak van Prins is voor de stichting Bits of Freedom (BoF), die opkomt voor digitale burgerrechten, te kort door de bocht. Het is volgens de stichting logisch dat Prins dat zegt omdat zijn bedrijf zulke hacksoftware verkoopt en dus gebaat is bij uitbreiding van politiebevoegdheden.

Prins reageert dat zijn uitspraak meer uit het hart komt dan financieel gedreven is. "We verkopen helemaal geen hacksoftware, we kunnen politie daarbij wel ondersteunen. We hebben echt veel meer werk dan we aankunnen en zitten hier commercieel gezien echt niet op te wachten."

Te weinig personeel?

BoF ziet de uitbreiding van politiebevoegdheden echter als inbreuk op de privacy van burgers. "Door meer bevoegdheden kan de internetgebruiker steeds minder dingen doen zonder dat de politie het in de gaten houdt", zegt Rejo Zenger tegen Webwereld.

Zenger betwijfelt of het tekort aan bevoegdheden werkelijk het probleem is. "Voordat aan uitbreiding gedacht moet worden moet eerst goed gekeken worden welk probleem de politie werkelijk heeft en wat daar een goede oplossing voor is", vindt hij. "Misschien kampt de KLPD wel met een kennisprobleem of te weinig personeel om actiever strijd te voeren tegen kinderporno online".

Spierballen tonen

Volgens Prins moet de politie een duidelijker signaal afgeven aan online pedofielen. Hij wijst op de uitspraak van een Belgische pedofiel in de uitzending die stelt zich veiliger te voelen met de geanonimiseerde Tor-software dan in de fysieke wereld.

"De politie moet af en toe online zijn spierballen laten zien door er pedofielen weg te halen. Een pedo heeft namelijk geen morele bezwaren, die kijkt alleen of hij veilig is. De politie moet in staat zijn om een pedo van het netwerk af te halen, zodat het andere pedofielen afschrikt en ze weten dat ze niet ongezien blijven", vertelt Prins tegen Webwereld.

Op afstand betreden

Zenger ziet complicaties en wijst op eerdere acties waarbij de politie ook toegang tot servers met kinderporno had. Hij vraagt zich af of een vrijbrief om te hacken wel nodig is. "Vorig jaar haalde het Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (KLPD) ook al kinderporno-bestanden offline van een server op Tor. Kennelijk beschikken ze dus al over dat soort bevoegdheden en kennis."

Het OM reageert dat de rechter-commissaris daarvoor toestemming gaf, ondanks het ontbreken van een wettelijke grondslag. "De rechter-commissaris maakte een afweging tussen de privacy-schending en de ernst van de strafbare feiten." Overigens noemt woordvoerder De Bruin het liever "op afstand betreden van een computersysteem", dan "hacken".

Meer moeite

Sinds 2010 pleit het OM al voor een uitbreiding van de bevoegdheden. Maar of wetgeving tot stand komt is afhankelijk van de minister. De Bruin: "Het is echter niet zo dat wij hangende die ontwikkeling geboeid met de armen op de rug staan." Hacken is dus wel degelijk mogelijk. Het kost volgens hem alleen meer moeite om de rechter-commissaris te overtuigen dan bij een verankering in wetgeving.

Volgens Prins is het in ieder geval beter dat er over de bevoegdheden van de politie gedebatteerd wordt, dan de vraag of de politie in zee moet gaan met "criminelen", zoals Anonymous, voor de opsporing van online kinderporno.

Anonymous rectificatie

Inmiddels is er ook onenigheid ontstaan binnen het losvaste collectief Anonymous over de oprechtheid van de pedo-klokkenluider. Het Anonymouslid dat problemen aan de kaak stelt in het SBS-programma wordt afgevallen door andere anoniemen. Een lid van Anonymous verklaart in een bericht gericht aan Stegeman: "Je zegt dat je gesproken hebt met een woordvoerder van Anonymous, terwijl we geen woordvoerder hebben".

De hackers dreigen met acties als Stegeman die "fout" in zijn volgende uitzending niet rectificeert. Dat deel van Anonymous benadrukt ook niet gezien te willen worden als pedojagers of hackersgroepering, maar eerder als een legioen dat zich verzet tegen "valse mensen".

quote:

Tweede Kamer wil nu niet instemmen met ACTA

Een meerderheid in de Tweede Kamer heeft vanmiddag voor een motie gestemd die oproept voorlopig niet te stemmen voor het ACTA-verdrag. Dat is een internationaal verdrag dat piraterij op internet moet voorkomen, maar tegenstanders vrezen een verregaande beperking van de vrijheid van het internet.

Een motie van GroenLinks die minister Verhagen van Economische Zaken oproept voorlopig niet namens Nederland in te stemmen met het verdrag, werd gesteund door D66, PvdA en SP, en door kabinetsgedoogpartner PVV.

De Kamer wil voordat het verdrag getekend wordt zekerheid dat ACTA niet in strijd is het met Grondrechtenhandvest van de Europese Unie en met het Europees Verdrag voor de Rechten van de Mens. Volgens Verhagen is dat overigens niet het geval.

Afgelopen weekend werd op verschillende plekken in Europa gedemonstreerd tegen ACTA. Ook in Amsterdam werd er geprotesteerd.

quote:

'Kinderlijk eenvoudig om vanuit huis sluis te bedienen'

Veel sluizen, gemalen, rioleringspompen en bruggen blijken slecht te zijn beveiligd. Dat constateert EenVandaag.

Het programma laat vanavond in een reportage zien hoe eenvoudig het is om de rioleringspompen en gemalen van de gemeente Veere via internet op afstand te bedienen.

De Nationaal Coördinator Terrorismebestrijding heeft al eerder gewaarschuwd voor de kwetsbaarheid van de Scada-systemen die gemeenten gebruiken. Soms is er zelfs geen wachtwoord nodig om bij zulke systemen binnen te komen.

Eric Luiijf van TNO benadrukt dat het gevaar nog niet eens van hackers hoeft te komen. 'De echter hacker, die denkt nog na over welke schade hij aanbrengt. De eerste de beste 13-jarige die binnenkomt en pompen uitzet veroorzaakt behoorlijke schade'.

quote:

'Hacker steelt e-mailadressen uit database Philips'

Een hacker claimt dat hij toegang had tot een Philips-server waarop marketingsites werden gehost. Hij zou onder meer 200.000 e-mailadressen en telefoonnummers hebben verkregen. Philips bevestigt dat de beveiliging is 'aangetast'.

De hacker heeft een deel van de inhoud van de Philips-database online gezet, waaronder een lijst e-mailadressen en twee dumps met onder meer e-mailadressen en telefoonnummers. Hij zegt niet alle e-mailadressen online te hebben geplaatst, omdat hij de rest wil verkopen. Op de zwarte markt worden grote lijsten met e-mailadressen aan spammers verkocht. Groot was deze lijst zeker; hij bestond uit 200.000 e-mailadressen, waaronder e-mailadressen van Nederlanders.

De hacker plaatste ook een eigen pagina op de server, als bewijs dat deze gekraakt was. Tweakers.net heeft geverifieerd dat die pagina maandag toegankelijk was. Inmiddels is de kwetsbare server offline gehaald. Opmerkelijk is dat de MySQL-versie op de webserver al sinds 2006 niet meer is bijgewerkt. Het gaat om MySQL-versie 5.0.26, die in oktober 2006 uitkwam.

Woordvoerder Steve Klink van Philips bevestigt dat de beveiliging van de webserver maandagavond is 'aangetast'. Dat correspondeert niet met de datum die uit de database-dumps blijkt; die wijst op 7 februari.

Volgens woordvoerder Klink van Philips bevatte de server zogenoemde microsites: websites voor reclamecampagnes en andere speciale acties. Of en waarom mensen op die pagina's persoonlijke gegevens moesten of konden achterlaten, is onduidelijk. Klink wil niet bevestigen of er gegevens toegankelijk zijn geweest. "We zijn nog bezig met ons onderzoek", zegt hij.

quote:

Trip to Syria

Maybe you do agree with us that action is necessary and wondering how you can help us. There is much you can do!

Spread us!
By spreading ourselves, we can get more help and more support, you also help us to spread information about what is happening in Syria.

Medical Equipment and other financial support!
It is for us big costs to take us away, if you want and can help us in any way check the list below.

We need to find disposable tourniquets or cheap Combat Applicable tourniquet’s!
If you have a better source, please send an email!

We will buy up to 8 medical kit http://bit.ly/AgNYfn 379 SEK each
We will buy up to 8 small medical kit http://bit.ly/zRKaXz 49 SEK each
We will buy up to 20 water purification tablets http://bit.ly/y5Jg0C 129 SEK each
We will buy at least 5 Pharmacy washcloths http://bit.ly/xxVzGg 35 SEK each
We will also buy antibiotics and painkillers for an unknown cost.
Want to help us go beyond this, just do it and are gratefully received! (Note that the “General Purpose”)

The easiest way to contribute is http://samlain.se/insamling/insamlingar/triptosyria/
If you want your money used for something special, mark it in the message.

Would the trip for any reason be canceled or that there is an excess, money will be donated equally between Amnesty, Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Red Cross.

Encourage us!
Give us a happy mention on twitter or anything else, it’s needed!

// Trip to Syria – triptosyria@hushmail.com

quote:

This paper is from the SANS Institute Reading Room site. Reposting is not permitted without express written permission.

quote:

Anonymous Hackers target Nasdaq website

Websites of exchange operators Nasdaq and BATS have been attacked by hackers over the last 24 hours, causing ongoing disruptions for those trying to use the sites. Sites was down because of distributed denial-of-service attack from a group of Anonymous hackers.

L0NGwave99,a online hacktivist, is claiming to be responsible for the attack. In a release issued Tuesday, an operative writes "This DDoS Operation over NASDAQ is done in support of the great and rooted 99% movement, whom the L0NGwave99 Group has decided to give a present."

"The website wasn't hacked, nobody got any information. What they did was try to block access for our users," NASDAQ spokesman Joseph Christinat adds to the agency. Trading in Nasdaq stocks has not been affected by the attacks.

According to reports, the attacks have also affected the NasdaqTrader.com site, although it seems to be fine at the moment. "The website wasn't hacked, nobody got any information. What they did was try to block access for our users," said Nasdaq spokesman Joseph Christinat.

BATS spokesperson said the company was affected by a denial of service incident. "Our trading systems were not affected and there were no exchange customer disruptions associated with the incident," the exchange said in a statement. Hackers also briefly took down the CIA's website last week.

quote:

Anonymous leak 400 Mb Documents from US Army Intelligence Knowledge Network

Anonymous claim to hack Intelligence Knowledge Network (IKN) Portal of United States Army - ikn.army.mil. Hackers dump around 400 Mb of Data on Rapidshare in two parts :

https://rapidshare.com/files/665225777/Documents1.zip
https://rapidshare.com/files/2204410673/Documents.zip

AnonymousIRC also tweeted few part of leaked documents ,here and here. IKN is a Knowledge Management tool and dynamic portal that enables Intelligence Soldiers all over the world to communicate, collaborate and investigate. IKN serves as the Intelligence Warfighter Forum and hosts discussion forums, a single point of entry to access Intelligence Community websites, and provides a variety of public and private web applications that support the Intelligence Community and the Warfighter.IKN Public Sites

quote:

Twitter geeft toe: ze slaan je adresboek op

Twitter gaat door het stof. De site geeft toe dat het hele adresboeken downloadt van gebruikers via hun app op de iPhone. Namen, emailadressen en telefoonnummers die in je adresboek op de iPhone staan worden maandenlang opgeslagen.

In de voorwaarden voor het gebruik van de officiële app voor Twitter op de iPhone staat niet expliciet dat Twitter adresboeken binnenhaalt en opslaat. Het bedrijf, zo schrijft de LA Times, belooft die voorwaarden snel aan te passen.

Het lijkt op grasduinen, maar het is downloaden

Op het moment staan de voorwaarden als volgt online:

. “You may provide us with additional information to make public, such as a short biography, your location, or a picture. You may customize your account with information such as a cell phone number for the delivery of SMS messages or your address book so that we can help you find Twitter users you know. We may use your contact information to send you information about our Services or to market to you.”

Twitter maakt het in de app mogelijk vrienden te zoeken die je nog niet volgt, maar wel van de dienst gebruik maken, zoals veel apps dat doen. Nu lijkt het alsof de iPhone app van Twitter, ‘Twitter for iPhone’, enkel door je adresboek grasduint naar mensen die ook twitteren, maar allerminst is duidelijk dat Twitter je adresboek meteen downloadt en opslaat. Die data staat vervolgens voor niet minder dan achttien maanden op servers van de microblogdienst.


‘We willen helder communiceren’

Een woordvoerder van Twitter laat aan de LA Times weten dat er een update aankomt voor de app:

. “We willen helder en transparant zijn in onze communicatie met gebruikers. In dat licht komt er in onze volgende app-updates, die er snel aankomen, een aanpassing van de taal die wordt geassocieerd met Find Friends – om het explicieter te stellen. In plaats van ‘doorzoek je contactpersonen’ gebruiken we ‘upload je contactpersonen’ en ‘import je contactpersonen’ (in respectievelijk Twitter for iPhone en Twitter for Android).”

Het bedrijf stelt ook dat gebruikers via deze pagina hun contactgegevens kunnen laten verwijderen, door op het knopje ‘remove’ te drukken.

De berichtenservice is niet het eerste bedrijf dat toegeeft data op te slaan die het niet zomaar zou moeten opslaan. Eerder kwam Path met zo’n zelfde opbiechting, waarna de populaire foto-app Instagram gebruikers meteen meer controle gaf over de privacyinstellingen.

Twitter gaat tweets per land censureren

Twitter kwam onlangs al in zwaar sociaal-media-water nadat het bedrijf bekend maakte tweets per land te willen censureren. Daar heeft de netwerksite z’n technologie voor aangepast.

Critici vrezen dat Twitter, dat zich altijd heeft ingezet voor vrijheid van meningsuiting, deze vrijheid ondergeschikt maakt aan de eisen van landen als China. De censuurmaatregel komt juist nu het bedrijf uitbreidt naar nieuwe landen in een poging om zijn publiek te verbreden en meer geld te verdienen.

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Hacked e-mails reveal Mexico manipulating climate change facts, destroying Indian sacred lands

The hacked e-mails of Mexico’s mining industry of Camimex exposed by Anonymous reveal that the government of Mexico is manipulating climate change facts in order to protect coal mining and other dirty industries from taxation.

The e-mails expose the government of Mexico is engaged in the corporate rape of the environment, with total disregard for the air, water and land of Mexico. The e-mails reveal there is no consideration or protection, by Mexico or mining corporations, for Indigenous sacred lands and ceremonial places.

In the Camimex member e-mails, First Majestic Silver Mining of Canada is exposed in the state of Durango, Mexico. The company is now targeting the sacred lands of the Wixarika, Huicholes, with silver mining. The Wixarika's sacred place is where Wixarika pray for all mankind to keep the world in order and balance.

The hacked e-mails reveal the destruction to lands in Sonora, Mexico.

O’odham, who live on both sides of the Arizona/Mexico border, are fighting Silver Scott Mines, based in South Carolina in the US, which has targeted their ceremonial community of Quitovac, a place of annual pilgrimage, with gold mining. The mining of Quitovac, about 30 miles south of the Arizona/Mexico border in O’odham territory, would destroy the land and poison the water.

Further, the emails reveal that the University of Guanajuato is assisting mining corporations that are now destroying Mexico and Indigenous sacred lands. The university offers courses which promote and secure mining by professor Juan Jose Cervantes Silva. The university's promotion of mining also reveals the role of US universities in the exploitation and destruction of Indigenous lands, since Cervantes was trained at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The University of Arizona has taken a lead in the militarization of Indigenous border lands, by designing drones and offering courses that target people of color on the border. Further the University of Arizona has taken the lead in the destruction of Native sacred lands in Arizona, including placing telescopes on sacred Mount Graham over the objection of Apaches and other Native Americans. Further the university has engaged in global spying of activists in its global cyber spy program and partnered with both Homeland Security and the US Border Patrol in its programs.

Anonymous hacked Mexico’s mining industry in defense of Indigenous Peoples struggling to protect their sacred lands, and their fellow campesinos who are victims of Mexico’s mining industry. Anonymous sent a clear message to the global mining industry targeting Indigenous Peoples and their lands with abuse, violence and exploitation, that their private communications will no longer be private.

Anonymous hactivists said they were robbing the e-mails because the mining industry is robbing the miners.

“You only took out our minerals, exploiting our miner brothers,” said the statement of Anonymous posted online. So far, 730 MB of e-mail accounts and the data base of Camimex were exposed.

Anonymous said the mining companies in Mexico and the mining syndicates are together “only to steal our minerals.” Anonymous said the value is $200,000,000 and miners are forced to work in extremely dangerous conditions. Anonymous said the leader Napoleon Gomez Urrutia “stole more than 55 million of dollars,” which was for mine security. It resulted in the tragedy of “Pasta de Conchos,” where 65 miners died due to the insufficient security measures, Anonymous said.

quote:

Op donderdag 16 februari 2012 11:38 schreef sinterklaaskapoentje het volgende:

[..]

A challenger appears

quote:

UPDATE 16/02/2012 10:53am: The owner of the exotz@hushmail.com email address has contacted the IBTimes UK clarifying Team Matrix AnonyOps claim is false: "I am mad about how 'TeamMatricHacking' [sic] claimed that they defaced the anonyops. They DID NOT. Exotz and 'ONE MAN ARMY' has been written there for reason," read the email.

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The Internet strikes back against Tory surveillance bill

As Prime Minister Stephen Harper began backing off on his own online surveillance bill Wednesday, one of his ministers is learning a lesson that should be common adage by now -- don't anger the Internet.

After a vicious online backlash, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews indicated the government will consider amendments to Bill C-30 -- the proposed legislation that would give authorities greater access to citizen's private data without needing a warrant.

The proposed bill has gone over so poorly with Canadians that even some Tories suggested they couldn't vote for it.

New Brunswick Conservative MP John Williamson said he had concerns about the bill as it is now.

"It's too intrusive as it currently stands and does need to be looked at. There's a lot of concern, I think, across the country," he told reporters Wednesday. "It'll go to committee and we haven't had a frank discussion on it yet in caucus, so that will come."

There's little doubt the Conservatives are noting the bill's unpopularity with Canadians, many of whom have gone online to air their grievances.

Toews' aggressive defence of the bill has led to the debate getting personal as details of his messy divorce went online and went viral.

An anonymous Twitter account has been publishing excerpts of what are purportedly affidavits from his 2008 divorce. In less than 24 hours, it gathered about 5,000 followers.

"Vic wants to know about you," says the description for the account. "Let's get to know about Vic."

Toews has neither confirmed nor denied that the Twitter feed is accurate.

"I won't get involved in this kind of gutter politics," he said on his own Twitter account.

Details of Toews' divorce have been available online for years and are displayed prominently on his Wikipedia page.

Earlier this week, Toews said in the House of Commons that those who oppose the bill -- which would give authorities greater access to citizen's private data -- "can either stand with us or with the child pornographers."

The next day when CTV Power Play host Don Martin paraphrased Toews' statement back to him, the minister responded "I didn't say exactly that . . . in fact it was a far cry from that."

Part of the bill would allow authorities access to Internet subscriber information, such as names and addresses, before even getting a warrant.

NDP MP Charlie Angus has been a vocal critic of Toews throughout the week, but refused to address the Twitter account.

"I have absolutely no interest in Vic Toews' private life," Angus told reporters Wednesday. "I've got enough on this guy's public statements to say this man has some explaining to do to Canadians."

However, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau was hardly so kind.

He sent out at least two tweets to his 100,000-plus followers in mock support of Toews, linking to the Toews divorce Twitter account several times.

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews(...)20215/#ixzz1mYjoEfyX

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EU-hof: geen gedwongen filter op sociale netwerken

Sociale media en webhosters kunnen niet worden gedwongen om bestanden te filteren die gebruikers uploaden en met elkaar delen. Dat heeft het Europese Hof van Justitie vandaag bepaald.

De Belgische auteursrechtenorganisatie SABAM, die de rechtszaak had aangespannen, wilde het gebruikersmateriaal van de socialenetwerksite Netlog kunnen filteren om zo de verspreiding van illegale bestanden tegen te gaan.

Persoonsgegevens
Maar het hof oordeelde dat dit de vrijheid van ondernemerschap van Netlog ernstig aantast, want verplicht filteren zou het bedrijf op heel veel extra kosten jagen. Bovendien wordt het recht van bescherming van persoonsgegevens voor de gebruikers aangetast, alsmede de vrijheid om kennis van informatie te nemen en te geven, aldus het hof. Netlog heeft ongeveer 95 miljoen gebruikers in Europa.

Het Europees Hof had in november al een soortgelijke uitspraak gedaan in een zaak die SABAM had aangespannen tegen de Belgische provider Scarlet/Tiscali. De uitspraak van vandaag is echter veel breder, en geldt dus ook voor hosters en de bedrijven achter de sociale media.

Pirate Bay
Voor uitspraken over bijvoorbeeld het blokkeren van downloadsite The Pirate Bay heeft de uitspraak niet direct gevolgen. Het hof oordeelde vandaag namelijk over een breed algemeen filter met een preventieve werking en voor onbepaalde tijd, en die door de hoster wordt bepaald. Bij andere omstandigheden kan de afweging anders zijn, zo schrijft Webwereld.

De rechtbank in Den Haag oordeelde onlangs dat de blokkade van The Pirate Bay door providers Ziggo en XS4ALL niet in strijd is met richtlijnen van Europees Hof. In dat geval gaat het namelijk over specifieke site die al eerder door de rechter is veroordeeld.

quote:

‘We respectfully ask all activists, bloggers, and other journalists to immediately remove all of these documents and any quotations taken from them, especially the fake “climate strategy” memo and any quotations from the same, from their blogs, Web sites, and publications, and to publish retractions.

The individuals who have commented so far on these documents did not wait for Heartland to confirm or deny the authenticity of the documents. We believe their actions constitute civil and possibly criminal offenses for which we plan to pursue charges and collect payment for damages, including damages to our reputation.’

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RIAA: The Pirate Bay is The Worst of The Worst

The RIAA has responded to The Pirate Bay’s decision to change its domain name from .org to .se. The torrent site made the switch to prevent a seizure by US authorities, and according to the music industry group this is a clear indication that tougher laws are needed to deal with “rogue websites.”

riaaTwo weeks ago The Pirate Bay redirected the site to a Swedish .se domain, safely outside the reach of US authorities.

This change hasn’t gone unnoticed by the RIAA, as Vice President Mitch Glazier just published a scathing reply. Describing The Pirate Bay as one of the worst offenders, the RIAA boss argues that the industry needs better tools to topple such ‘rogue’ websites.

“Talk about Exhibit A for addressing rogue websites in a meaningful manner,” he writes.

“A blatantly illegal file-sharing site, proud that it’s an online bazaar of every conceivable U.S. copyrighted work, found criminally responsible by its own country’s legal system and who has been ordered by courts in at least seven European countries to be blocked by ISPs, has publicly acknowledged changing its domain name to escape U.S. laws.”

“It is motivated by its brazen philosophy of thumbing its nose at the basic rights of America’s creators. It is, in a phrase, one of the worst of the worst.”

The RIAA boss then seizes the opportunity to call on lawmakers to pull sites like The Pirate Bay offline before it does more damage to the entertainment industries.

“It is one of the most clear and obvious examples of why meaningful tools are needed to target foreign rogue sites that steal American jobs. Responsible leaders in the tech community should come to the table with constructive ideas and work with us and others to address this blatant theft before more damage is done to our economy and the creative community.”

Although the punchline above is expected from the music industry group, the response does raise an interesting point. Apparently the RIAA also realizes that domain seizures are completely useless as websites can simply switch to foreign domains. If that is the case, then why risk breaking the Internet by baking it into law?

The Pirate Bay, meanwhile, is seriously offended by Glazier’s writing. They decided to respond with a rebuttal, describing the RIAA as a delusional outfit that has to be stopped.

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Pirate Bay: The RIAA Is Delusional and Must Be Stopped

The Pirate Bay is not happy with a recent article published by the RIAA, where the torrent site is portrayed as the prime example of why tougher anti-piracy laws are necessary. In a rebuttal, The Pirate Bay argues that the RIAA is delusional, behaving like a spoiled kid that has lost touch with reality.

The Senior Executive Vice President of the RIAA (wow, what a long title), Mitch Glazier, has published a blog post on why TPB is one of the worst of the worst. The piece gives us ample information on just how delusional the recording industry really is, and shows why they must be stopped.

In the very first sentence Glazier uses the phrase copyright theft. Its an interesting concept if anyone in history ever stole copyright, it must be the record industry. At least they tried, as in the Swedish TPB case where they sued over a record they did not have the copyright to.

A small lesson to Mr Glazier: If someone steals something, you dont have it anymore. If you copy it, both have it. This means: If someone steals your copyright (aka copyright theft) you dont have the copyright anymore. Im having a hard time to see that happening though, since copyright isnt really physical.

The jobs that you say are being stolen in the US are somewhat physical though. And if someone steals them where do they go? Maybe they just arent needed anymore! Thats what technology does! Sorry, its 2012 not 1912 do you want to forbid robots as well, since they steal jobs?

Let me quote the title of Peter Sundes latest piece in Wired: Its evolution, . If you search for it, youll find the rest of the title for that piece. It might be illegal for me to put that in print since a new censorship law was passed in Syria. Since you apparently think that US law should control people around the world, shouldnt we follow laws in Syria as well?

Yes, Glazier is upset that TPB moved away from a US-controlled domain name. He doesnt seem to understand that there is a worldwide problem when one single country tries to take control over a global infrastructure. TPB has no connections to the US so why should the US be able to control it?

Its a very undemocratic procedure which obviously the RIAA is supportive of. Apparently escaping US laws means not being born in the US, not living there, not working there or not wanting to kiss your ass.

And Mr. Glazier, talking about the countries in the EU that you have forced ISPs to block TPB (and other sites) is interesting, as the European Court has just decided that these types of censorship are just that censorship, and should be treated as illegal. Could we see your view on the matter, as the RIAA is clearly supporting illegal censorship?

The RIAA wants the tech industry to sit down and talk to them. Fuck that. Youre not in charge. If you want the help of the tech industry, ask for it. Youll probably get it since most tech people are nice. Youre not in charge anymore and thats probably why youre pissed off.

Plz stop calling yourself the creative community. Youre not a community, youre a coalition of some of the richest companies in the world. And the only thing you seem to be creative with is your accounting procedures.

The recording industry is like a kid screaming for candy. The problem is that the kid has diabetes.

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US Returns Jotform.com Domain; Still Refuses To Say What Happened

There's been a lot of interest in the story of the Secret Service completely shutting down Jotform.com through a request to GoDaddy. It appears that the suspension is now ending, though it hasn't fully propagated. What's amazing is that no one in the US government (or at GoDaddy) seems to be willing to explain what happened. When GoDaddy completely shut down JotForm.com with no notice, the folks at JotForm had to inquire as to what the hell happened to their entire website. They were merely told to contact a Secret Service agent. That agent then told JotForm she was too busy to respond to them and would get back to them within a week.

Think about that for a second. The US government completely takes down a small business' website and then is too busy to explain why.

JotForm noted that it was willing to cooperate fully if there were specific users that were a problem, but the Secret Service did not seem to care that it had almost destroyed an entire startup's business:

. When I contacted the Secret Service, the agent told me she is busy and she asked for my phone number, and told me they will get back to me within this week. I told them we are a web service with hundreds of thousands of users, so this is a matter of urgency, and we are ready to cooperate fully. I was ready to shutdown any form they request and provide any information we have about the user. Unfortunately, she told me she needs to look at the case which she can do in a few days. I called her many times again to check about the case, but she seems to be getting irritated with me. At this point, we are waiting for them to look into our case.

So far, the Secret Service still isn't talking, returning a bland and meaningless statement to press requests:

. "We are aware of the incident and we're reviewing it internally to make sure all the proper procedures and protocols were followed."

GoDaddy, similarly, appears to be staying almost entirely silent.

All of this is completely unacceptable. Almost everything about this sets off alarm bells about over aggressive (and potentially illegal) censorship by the US government of protected free speech. We've been seeing a much more aggressive and overreaching effort by US officials against websites over the past 18 months or so, and at some point, they're going to get smacked down by a court who will explain to them the nature of the First Amendment and the fact that you can't unilaterally take down entire websites without recognizing the collateral damage on legitimate web businesses.

quote:

Chris-Mouse (profile), Feb 17th, 2012 @ 6:26am

The government may get smacked down by a court, but only if it ever gets to a court. The government seems to be doing a very good job of delaying things until their victims either give up or run out of money.

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The seizure came two weeks after Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it had seized 307 domains allegedly engaged in unauthorized live sports streaming and for selling fake professional sports merchandise.

Tank speculated in a Hacker News forum that the investigation surrounds an e-mail phishing program being run by a customer using a hosted JotForm form.

quote:

Even if the forms were being used for some illegal purpose, Masnick said, I still cant fathom a reason why it should lead to everyone else getting censored and an internet startup facing a massive hardship wherein tons of users have had their service disrupted with millions of useful forms being suddenly disappeared.

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SOCA speaks out about music web site takedown

THE UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has spoken out about its takedown of the Rnbxclusive web site yesterday, saying the arrested individual is suspected of alleged "fraud".

SOCA's revelation comes after SOCA put a splash page on the web site after taking it down, warning users that they faced 10 years in prison for visiting the web site. The splash page has now been removed and replaced with something less alarming, and SOCA is claiming that the takedown and arrest was a 32 hour operation.

A SOCA spokesman told The INQUIRER that the individual arrested in conjunction with the music blog is suspected of fraud, rather than copyright infringement. He confirmed that the operation has a name designation but would not reveal the name or elaborate on the details.

He claimed that the web site had music that had been obtained "by data breach" and in some cases had been "stolen directly from the artist" before it was released.

When asked to explain the somewhat dramatic threat of 10 years in prison for those who visited the web site, the spokesman said, "If you download music that has been illegally obtained, you can be accused of fraud, if you are deemed to be part of the conspiracy to defraud."

We put it to him that most users would have unknowingly downloaded the allegedly illegal content anyway, and he admitted that the web site splash page was aimed at "warning people about how they use the internet".

A statement on SOCA's web site yesterday said, "A warning has been directed at users frequenting a music download site which was taken offline on 14 February by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The action has prompted wide-ranging responses from website users, the general public, and other sites.

"The targeted SOCA activity, which lasted 32 hours, was part of an operational programme aimed at protecting UK businesses and the wider economy.

"The website in question specialised in RnB and enabled access to music obtained by hacking, including some which had not yet been released.

"SOCA has monitored responses since 08.30 on 14 February when rnbxclusive.com was taken offline following the arrest of a man for suspicion of conspiracy to defraud. He has now been released on bail pending further enquiries.

"Responses to the takedown have included action by three more music sites. One has taken itself offline voluntarily, one claims to be considering taking itself offline, and another has posted a claim on its home page to now only be dealing in legal music files following the activity. A number of site users have deleted their download histories. Commentary on Twitter and other social media has been global.

"SOCA's holding message to users who had been frequenting the website was taken offline at the conclusion of the first phase of the operation on 15 February."

Pirate Party leader Loz kaye told The INQUIRER, "The SOCA press release raises more questions than it answers. What was the purpose of the 32 hour operation? Was it really to monitor people visiting the site? In which case, they will have an excellent set of journalist contacts now.

"It should simply not be the job of a serious crime agency to 'warn' us about how we use the Internet. I'm sure if you ask voters whether they are more worried about gun crime or music blogs, it won't be RnB that is seen as the major threat.

He added, "In a broader sense, this whole episode is a chilling warning of what the post-ACTA Internet could look like." µ

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15Iv0)

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Facebook hacker jailed for eight months

Glenn Mangham claimed he was an 'ethical hacker' who wanted to show how Facebook could improve its security

A student who hacked into Facebook in the "most extensive and grave" case of social media hacking to come before a British court was jailed for eight months on Friday.

Glenn Mangham, 26, admitted infiltrating the website from his bedroom in his parents' house between April and May last year.

His actions were said to have risked destroying "the whole enterprise" and sparked fears among American authorities of industrial espionage.

Mangham, a software development student from Cornlands Road, York, had previously shown the search engine Yahoo how it could improve its security and said he wanted to do the same for Facebook.

But prosecutor Sandip Patel rejected his claims, saying: "He acted with determination, undoubted ingenuity and it was sophisticated, it was calculating."

Facebook spent $200,000 (£126,400) dealing with Mangham's crime, which triggered a "concerted, time-consuming and costly investigation" by the FBI and British law enforcement.

"He said he wanted a mini project and chose Facebook because of its high-profile internet presence," Patel said.

"The prosecution does not accept that the defendant's actions were anything other than malicious."

He told Southwark Crown Court in London how Mangham had "unlawfully accessed and hacked into Facebook and had stolen "invaluable" intellectual property, downloaded on to an external hard drive.

"This represents the most extensive and grave incident of social media hacking to be brought before the British courts," Patel said.

Passing sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath told Mangham his actions were not harmless and had "real and very serious potential consequences," which could have been "utterly disastrous" for Facebook.

"You and others who are tempted to act as you did really must understand how serious this is," he said.

"The creation of that risk, the extent of that risk and the cost of putting it right mean at the end of it all I'm afraid a prison sentence is inevitable."

Mangham, a Sherlock Holmes fan described by his lawyer as a "computer nerd", targeted multiple servers, bypassing Facebook's security.

As part of his ruse, he hacked into the account of a Facebook employee and through it obtained restricted internal data while the staff member was away on holiday. He later tried to delete the electronic footprints to cover the hacking. The breach was discovered in a routine security review by the website. On 2 June FBI knocked on Mangham's door. His home was raided and he was arrested.

Mangham insisted financial gain was not his motive and vowed he was willing to explain to Facebook how he had compromised their servers, the court heard.

Tony Ventham, defending Mangham, said he was an "ethical hacker" who had described himself as a security consultant.

"He saw this as a challenge," he told the court. "This is someone who in previous times would have thrown everything aside to seek the source of the Nile.

"It was common currency within the community of computer nerds or geeks, if I may refer to him as that, where there was this interesting relationship between companies and people who ethically point out vulnerabilities."

He had not tried to sell any of the information he obtained or pass it on to anyone else, Ventham said.

He added: "He was in his own world, his own bedroom, his own mind, his own project and certainly his intention throughout was to contact Facebook in due course when he had rectified their problems."

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MI6 attacks al-Qaeda in 'Operation Cupcake'

British intelligence has hacked into an al-Qaeda online magazine and replaced bomb-making instructions with a recipe for cupcakes.

The cyber-warfare operation was launched by MI6 and GCHQ in an attempt to disrupt efforts by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular to recruit “lone-wolf” terrorists with a new English-language magazine, the Daily Telegraph understands.

When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom” by “The AQ Chef” they were greeted with garbled computer code.

The code, which had been inserted into the original magazine by the British intelligence hackers, was actually a web page of recipes for “The Best Cupcakes in America” published by the Ellen DeGeneres chat show.

Written by Dulcy Israel and produced by Main Street Cupcakes in Hudson, Ohio, it said “the little cupcake is big again” adding: “Self-contained and satisfying, it summons memories of childhood even as it's updated for today’s sweet-toothed hipsters.”

It included a recipe for the Mojito Cupcake – “made of white rum cake and draped in vanilla buttercream”- and the Rocky Road Cupcake – “warning: sugar rush ahead!”

By contrast, the original magazine featured a recipe showing how to make a lethal pipe bomb using sugar, match heads and a miniature lightbulb, attached to a timer.

The cyber attack also removed articles by Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and a piece called “What to expect in Jihad.”

British and US intelligence planned separate attacks after learning that the magazine was about to be issued in June last year.

They have both developed a variety of cyber-weapons such as computer viruses, to use against both enemy states and terrorists.

A Pentagon operation, backed by Gen Keith Alexander, the head of US Cyber Command, was blocked by the CIA which argued that it would expose sources and methods and disrupt an important source of intelligence, according to a report in America.

However the Daily Telegraph understands an operation was launched from Britain instead.

Al-Qaeda was able to reissue the magazine two weeks later and has gone on to produce four further editions but one source said British intelligence was continuing to target online outlets publishing the magazine because it is viewed as such a powerful propaganda tool.

The magazine is produced by the radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, one of the leaders of AQAP who has lived in Britain and the US, and his associate Samir Khan from North Carolina.

Both men who are thought to be in Yemen, have associated with radicals connected to Rajib Karim, a British resident jailed for 30 years in March for plotting to smuggle a bomb onto a trans-Atlantic aircraft.

At the time Inspire was launched, US government officials said “the packaging of this magazine may be slick, but the contents are as vile as the authors.”

Bruce Reidel, a former CIA analyst said it was “clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the US or UK who may be the next Fort Hood murderer or Times Square bomber.”

In recent days AQAP fighters have capitalised on chaos in Yemen, as the country teeters on the brink of civil war.

Tribal forces marching towards the capital, Sana'a, clashed with troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh for a third day running yesterday.

quote:

Piotr Czerski
We, the Web Kids.
(translated by Marta Szreder)


There is probably no other word that would be as overused in the media discourse as ‘generation’. I once tried to count the ‘generations’ that have been proclaimed in the past ten years, since the well-known article about the so-called ‘Generation Nothing’; I believe there were as many as twelve. They all had one thing in common: they only existed on paper. Reality never provided us with a single tangible, meaningful, unforgettable impulse, the common experience of which would forever distinguish us from the previous generations. We had been looking for it, but instead the groundbreaking change came unnoticed, along with cable TV, mobile phones, and, most of all, Internet access. It is only today that we can fully comprehend how much has changed during the past fifteen years.

We, the Web kids; we, who have grown up with the Internet and on the Internet, are a generation who meet the criteria for the term in a somewhat subversive way. We did not experience an impulse from reality, but rather a metamorphosis of the reality itself. What unites us is not a common, limited cultural context, but the belief that the context is self-defined and an effect of free choice.

Writing this, I am aware that I am abusing the pronoun ‘we’, as our ‘we’ is fluctuating, discontinuous, blurred, according to old categories: temporary. When I say ‘we’, it means ‘many of us’ or ‘some of us’. When I say ‘we are’, it means ‘we often are’. I say ‘we’ only so as to be able to talk about us at all.

1.
We grew up with the Internet and on the Internet. This is what makes us different; this is what makes the crucial, although surprising from your point of view, difference: we do not ‘surf’ and the internet to us is not a ‘place’ or ‘virtual space’. The Internet to us is not something external to reality but a part of it: an invisible yet constantly present layer intertwined with the physical environment. We do not use the Internet, we live on the Internet and along it. If we were to tell our bildnungsroman to you, the analog, we could say there was a natural Internet aspect to every single experience that has shaped us. We made friends and enemies online, we prepared cribs for tests online, we planned parties and studying sessions online, we fell in love and broke up online. The Web to us is not a technology which we had to learn and which we managed to get a grip of. The Web is a process, happening continuously and continuously transforming before our eyes; with us and through us. Technologies appear and then dissolve in the peripheries, websites are built, they bloom and then pass away, but the Web continues, because we are the Web; we, communicating with one another in a way that comes naturally to us, more intense and more efficient than ever before in the history of mankind.

Brought up on the Web we think differently. The ability to find information is to us something as basic, as the ability to find a railway station or a post office in an unknown city is to you. When we want to know something - the first symptoms of chickenpox, the reasons behind the sinking of ‘Estonia’, or whether the water bill is not suspiciously high - we take measures with the certainty of a driver in a SatNav-equipped car. We know that we are going to find the information we need in a lot of places, we know how to get to those places, we know how to assess their credibility. We have learned to accept that instead of one answer we find many different ones, and out of these we can abstract the most likely version, disregarding the ones which do not seem credible. We select, we filter, we remember, and we are ready to swap the learned information for a new, better one, when it comes along.

To us, the Web is a sort of shared external memory. We do not have to remember unnecessary details: dates, sums, formulas, clauses, street names, detailed definitions. It is enough for us to have an abstract, the essence that is needed to process the information and relate it to others. Should we need the details, we can look them up within seconds. Similarly, we do not have to be experts in everything, because we know where to find people who specialise in what we ourselves do not know, and whom we can trust. People who will share their expertise with us not for profit, but because of our shared belief that information exists in motion, that it wants to be free, that we all benefit from the exchange of information. Every day: studying, working, solving everyday issues, pursuing interests. We know how to compete and we like to do it, but our competition, our desire to be different, is built on knowledge, on the ability to interpret and process information, and not on monopolising it.

2.
Participating in cultural life is not something out of ordinary to us: global culture is the fundamental building block of our identity, more important for defining ourselves than traditions, historical narratives, social status, ancestry, or even the language that we use. From the ocean of cultural events we pick the ones that suit us the most; we interact with them, we review them, we save our reviews on websites created for that purpose, which also give us suggestions of other albums, films or games that we might like. Some films, series or videos we watch together with colleagues or with friends from around the world; our appreciation of some is only shared by a small group of people that perhaps we will never meet face to face. This is why we feel that culture is becoming simultaneously global and individual. This is why we need free access to it.

This does not mean that we demand that all products of culture be available to us without charge, although when we create something, we usually just give it back for circulation. We understand that, despite the increasing accessibility of technologies which make the quality of movie or sound files so far reserved for professionals available to everyone, creativity requires effort and investment. We are prepared to pay, but the giant commission that distributors ask for seems to us to be obviously overestimated. Why should we pay for the distribution of information that can be easily and perfectly copied without any loss of the original quality? If we are only getting the information alone, we want the price to be proportional to it. We are willing to pay more, but then we expect to receive some added value: an interesting packaging, a gadget, a higher quality, the option of watching here and now, without waiting for the file to download. We are capable of showing appreciation and we do want to reward the artist (since money stopped being paper notes and became a string of numbers on the screen, paying has become a somewhat symbolic act of exchange that is supposed to benefit both parties), but the sales goals of corporations are of no interest to us whatsoever. It is not our fault that their business has ceased to make sense in its traditional form, and that instead of accepting the challenge and trying to reach us with something more than we can get for free they have decided to defend their obsolete ways.

One more thing: we do not want to pay for our memories. The films that remind us of our childhood, the music that accompanied us ten years ago: in the external memory network these are simply memories. Remembering them, exchanging them, and developing them is to us something as natural as the memory of ‘Casablanca’ is to you. We find online the films that we watched as children and we show them to our children, just as you told us the story about the Little Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks. Can you imagine that someone could accuse you of breaking the law in this way? We cannot, either.

3.
We are used to our bills being paid automatically, as long as our account balance allows for it; we know that starting a bank account or changing the mobile network is just the question of filling in a single form online and signing an agreement delivered by a courier; that even a trip to the other side of Europe with a short sightseeing of another city on the way can be organised in two hours. Consequently, being the users of the state, we are increasingly annoyed by its archaic interface. We do not understand why tax act takes several forms to complete, the main of which has more than a hundred questions. We do not understand why we are required to formally confirm moving out of one permanent address to move in to another, as if councils could not communicate with each other without our intervention (not to mention that the necessity to have a permanent address is itself absurd enough.)

There is not a trace in us of that humble acceptance displayed by our parents, who were convinced that administrative issues were of utmost importance and who considered interaction with the state as something to be celebrated. We do not feel that respect, rooted in the distance between the lonely citizen and the majestic heights where the ruling class reside, barely visible through the clouds. Our view of the social structure is different from yours: society is a network, not a hierarchy. We are used to being able to start a dialogue with anyone, be it a professor or a pop star, and we do not need any special qualifications related to social status. The success of the interaction depends solely on whether the content of our message will be regarded as important and worthy of reply. And if, thanks to cooperation, continuous dispute, defending our arguments against critique, we have a feeling that our opinions on many matters are simply better, why would we not expect a serious dialogue with the government?

We do not feel a religious respect for ‘institutions of democracy’ in their current form, we do not believe in their axiomatic role, as do those who see ‘institutions of democracy’ as a monument for and by themselves. We do not need monuments. We need a system that will live up to our expectations, a system that is transparent and proficient. And we have learned that change is possible: that every uncomfortable system can be replaced and is replaced by a new one, one that is more efficient, better suited to our needs, giving more opportunities.

What we value the most is freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of access to information and to culture. We feel that it is thanks to freedom that the Web is what it is, and that it is our duty to protect that freedom. We owe that to next generations, just as much as we owe to protect the environment.

Perhaps we have not yet given it a name, perhaps we are not yet fully aware of it, but I guess what we want is real, genuine democracy. Democracy that, perhaps, is more than is dreamt of in your journalism.



___
"My, dzieci sieci" by Piotr Czerski is licensed under a Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Na tych samych warunkach 3.0 Unported License:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

quote:

Syrian government blocks live video streaming site Bambuser

Bambuser chief executive says Syrian activists are working around attempted blackout to continue to post videos

The Syrian government has blocked a premiere live stream website a day after one of its users broadcast images of a bombing believed to have been carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Bambuser – a mobile live stream service based in Sweden – has been in close contact with activists on the ground in Syria for over eight months. The dissidents use the service to broadcast streaming video of conditions in their country in real time. With foreign media blocked, online citizen journalism has become a crucial medium for telling stories from within Syria's borders. Bambuser's executive chairman, Hans Eriksson, says approximately 90-95% of the live video coming out of Syria is streamed through Bambuser.

"The prime purpose of it is to get pictures out of the country, and show the world what's going on, both in terms of the violence but also of the determination of the citizens," Eriksson told the Guardian.

On Thursday, a number of those citizens informed Eriksson and his colleagues that Bambuser was no longer accessible. While the site has been blocked by the Assad regime before in a limited capacity, Eriksson says this time the government has attempted to eliminate access nationwide.

"From yesterday morning we heard that you couldn't access Bambuser.com and you couldn't use the Bambuser mobile application to stream live video," Eriksson said. Syrian activists have managed to work around the attempted blackout and videos are still emerging, Eriksson noted.

The blackout came after a Syrian citizen using Bambuser streamed video of the aftermath of a pipeline bombing in the besieged city of Homs. Archived footage from the scene shows a massive cloud of smoke billowing over the neighborhood of Baba Amr while gun shots and shelling can be heard in the background. Activists claimed the government was responsible for the bombing. The live stream was picked up by several international news organizations including al-Jazeera, CNN, the BBC and Sky News, who referred back to Bambuser.com.

"We can only assume that some people from the Syrian government were watching those pictures as well," Eriksson said. He believes the blackout was a concerted effort on the part of the regime to stifle any similar broadcasts. "We're just assuming that's the rationale behind it and we would be very much surprised if someone else had taken an action and blocked Bambuser."

It's not the first time an authoritarian regime has imposed a nationwide blackout on the site. Shortly before his ouster last year, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak blocked Bambuser. Bahrain, meanwhile, has been preventing access to the site for at least seven months.

According to Eriksson, "between 50 and 200" Syrian activists use Bambuser on a given day. He says the individuals Bambuser works with in Syria are highly organized and well aware of the potential risks they face. Last week a Syrian broadcaster filming from a rooftop was shot at. While he escaped unharmed, his partner was hit in the leg, Eriksson said.

"They're taking risks, but they know what risks they are taking," he said. "When it gets on every TV channel in the world, it means a lot to these guys down there being shot at, being arrested, being tortured, being killed."

Eriksson stresses that Bambuser is not in the live streaming business to make a profit, but are operating in the interest of free speech. "We've been watching live video now for 11 days in a row from Homs. Pretty much 10, 12 hours a day and it's basically constant gunfire and shelling," he said. "As a human being you understand that this is a situation that is not acceptable."

quote:

News and info about Anonymous Hackers from #antisec and other groups.

quote:

Ever wonder who has been DDOSing you? chances are they are bragging about it somewhere on some forum. this could be on IRC, facebook, twitter, or blasted all over PasteBin.

I'm not sure how Pastebin is still allowed to operate. They welcome the hacking community (mainly anonymous with antisec and lulzsec) with open arms and encourage the posting of confidential information.

If you're wanting to see if anyone is talking about you, try using the search option on www.pastebin.com for your name, business name, or government agency.

chances are very good that something will come up where some group is either planning to attack your servers, or they have already been there and released your private data.

Congress needs to act now on shutting these websites down, and stop allowing such a easy free flow of illegal information. make it harder on them, force them to host their own leak data, and increase the risk of getting caught.

quote:

Both businesses and Government underestimate what hackers are willing to do so they can get what they want. There are some people who are willing to get a job as a business so they can spy on the company or government facility next door.

In the picture above, you have a simple parking lot. notice the red car in the front row facing the business. the parking lot behind is a nuclear research lab. because the driver of this red car works for the business they are parked at, they have a reason to be parked there. the placement of the car is not random. they parked so their antennas are aimed at the lab behind them.

quote:

The House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Intelligence was not pleased. (Insert "angry" emoticon here.)

At a Congressional hearing this morning that veered into contentious arguments and cringe-worthy moments, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spilled the beans on their social media monitoring project.

DHS Chief Privacy Office Mary Ellen Callahan and Director of Operations Coordination and Planning Richard Chavez appeared to be deliberately stonewalling Congress on the depth, ubiquity, goals, and technical capabilities of the agency's social media surveillance. At other times, they appeared to be themselves unsure about their own project's ultimate goals and uses. But one thing is for sure: If you're the first person to tweet about a news story, or if you're a community activist who makes public Facebook posts--DHS will have your personal information.

The hearing, which was held by the Subcommittee on Counterintelligence and Intelligence headed by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), was highly unusual. Hacktivist collective Anonymous (or at least the @AnonyOps Twitter feed) sent a sympathizer to the visitor gallery to liveblog the proceedings under the #spyback hashtag.

Interactions between the DHS officials and representatives were often strained--both Chavez and Callahan were scolded and chastised by Representatives from both parties. Reps. Billy Long (R-MO), Meehan, Jackie Speier (D-CA), and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) all pointed out issues relating to what they variously saw as potential First Amendment violations, surveillance of citizens engaged in protected political speech, the fact that an outside contractor handles DHS' social media monitoring, DHS' seeming inability to separate news monitoring from disaster preparedness, and a massively unclear social media monitoring mandate on the DHS' part.

Meehan Asks Additional Questions of Witnesses at Hearing on DHS Social Media Monitoring

quote:

Dutch businesses were blindsided by ACTA

Treaty negotiated in secret is rejected

THE DRACONIAN Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is suffering from the fact that it was negotiated in secret.

Business in Holland have expressed dissatisfaction with the trade agreement, and half admitted that they had never heard of it before, suggesting that negotiation of the treaty that is supposed to protect 'intellectual property' involved insufficient opportunities for industry discussion.

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce has published the results of its study of business perceptions about the agreement. Where there are opinions, they are not in favour of it.

A 55 per cent majority of Dutch entrepreneurs said that they did not know what had "prompted ACTA", and only 40 per cent said that they had heard of it. Just five per cent of the small businesses that ACTA was supposedly written to protect know what it is.

The Dutch Chamber of Commerce is pondering whether to approve the agreement, a decision that other countries have wrestled with.

Of the entrepreneurs surveyed, 22 per cent said they thought that the Netherlands should not approve ACTA and should instead consider other methods such as technology for protecting their intellectual property.

Only 14 per cent of businesses in Holland surveyed support the agreement as it stands. µ

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15Jq3)

quote:

Anonymous Promises Regularly Scheduled Friday Attacks

Anonymous, a group not known for discipline, is giving itself a weekly deadline, a new attack every Friday.

Following the Tuesday compromise of the website of tear gas maker Combined Systems, Inc., the Antisec wing of Anonymous struck a Federal Trade Commission webserver which hosts three FTC websites, business.ftc.gov, consumer.gov and ncpw.gov, the National Consumer Protection Week partnership website.

Claiming this hack in opposition of the controversial international copyright treaty known as ACTA, which had been widely protested around the world for its potential to curtail freedom of expression on the internet, Anonymous continued the political messaging that has marked much of its recent high-profile actions.

Anons claiming responsibility for the attack spoke to Wired.com in an online chat just as it happened, freely admitting that there was nothing technically remarkable in this hack. As one remarked, “own & rm and move on.” (rm being a unix command to delete data.)

But this week’s attacks came with a promise, first articulated in the defacement of CSI, and restated on the FTC websites: Every Friday will bring a new attack against government and corporate sites under the theme of #FFF, or Fuck the FBI Friday.

“We are already sitting on dozens of unreleased targets,” said an Antisec anon, who went on to describe an inventory of already compromised servers that could fill five months or more of #FFF releases.

“Yes, each and every Friday we will be launching attacks… with the specific purpose of wiping as many corrupt corporate and government systems off our internet,” the anon continued.

The choice of the FTC is an odd one, given the independent agency has no role in ACTA negotiations. Instead, it’s tasked with fighting unfair business practices, sanctioning companies like Google and Facebook for privacy violations, and running the Do-Not-Call list – hardly the stuff of Big Brother stomping on online rights forever.

While many attacks are likely to be simple defacements like the FTC website, Antisec claims to also be going through mail spools, SQL databases and password files on dozens of corporate and government servers which are unaware of their presence.

The anon speaking to Wired described the string of hacking as having “no foreseeable end in sight,” going on to say “the more we own, the more we steal credentials to even more targets.”

They’ve decided try to balance between protest defacements like the two this week, and sifting through the data for material that can damage firms and agencies. “It’s more than just delivering a message or speaking truth to power… we are trying to disrupt their ability to operate and do business or exist at all on the internet,” the same anon said.

Jerry Irvine, a member of the National Cyber Security Task Force told the New York Times last week that attacks would become more frequent, describing the amorphous collective as “unstoppable,” because of the poor state of security online.

In an environment of heightened political tensions around protest movements like the Arab Spring and moves to restrict the internet like ACTA, those vulnerabilities are likely to play more of a role in Anonymous’ political dialogue.

“We’ve been saying it for the longest (time),” the Antisec anon explained, “this is war.”

Agent Smith - Me too

twitter:

Furbybrain twitterde op vrijdag 17-02-2012 om 21:27:54 #OpAbandonShip !!! It's time to leave Twitter and Facebook and have a look at Diaspora... https://t.co/dXiwBygJ reageer retweet

quote:

Why Anonymous is interested to the Great Firewall of China?

The Chinese government is fomous for the high level of monitoring implemented on internet and in the specific on all the new social media, that is the moder form of censorship, a model that several countries all over the worls are taking for example. Nothing is changed, government plans to continue censoring social networking sites according the declarations of the Communist Party and State Council regarding China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) on cultural reform and development.

The outlook is very bad, they are violating human rights in this way being censorship used also for the purpose to persecute opponents of the government. The “Violated Freedom” is the new cyber threat as I wrote in an article some months ago.

What is worrying is that also in those countries where the level of monitoring / censorship is high we observe an high perception of corruption. Corruption and censorship, two sisters who walk hand in hand regardless of human rights.

Chinese government will increase regulation of domestic social networks and of other social media platforms including blogging, but it is only the beginning because it will also be implemented more restrictive measures to protect private information online and improving the country’s system assess to online security.

Obviously that a so oppressive policy is to the center of a heated debate, inevitable that groups like Anonymous hacktivist may be interested in planning their intervention because the Chinese government, this is the genesis of OpChina campaign. Anonymous hackers, a group named RevolutionSec, have attacked Chinese government websites on Wednesday 15th, posting the stolen data online.
The group has announced to have successfully breached a Chinese government trade site. Following the fashion of the moment the information was published on Pastebin and via the tweetter platform with the message “ ”Bring down the great firewall of China”.

More over 8,000 accounts have been compromised exposing the usernames and encrypted passwords.Are we assisting to a true call to arms of the several group linked to Anonymous?

According to experts, the group is determined to hack the “Great Firewall”, a term that indicates the project of Internet monitoring by the Beijing government called The Golden Shield. Thanks to this systems the chinese authorities are able to block the access to a number of websites accused of being opponents of the regime or to be outlaw.
The Chinese government on more than one occasion has been accused of having sponsored attacks made by hacking groups against foreign industries and governments with the dual intention of offending the cyber adversaries and steal sensitive information of varying utility.

While I understand the choice to attack what is the symbol par excellence of censorship, The Great Firewall, I am surprised that this happens at this historical moment. Why has not happened before? Why Anonymous has noticed the Great Firewall right now?

I illustrate some cases hoping that you can give me your point of view on the subject.

The escalation of Anonymus operations has somehow increased awareness of their skills and it has given the proof that the group wants to compare with more challenging objectives.
To this we add that the targets hit and the followed time line of the attacks has certainly provided great visibility to the group, visibility and consensus used to encourage the involvement of a critical mass to involve attacks.

Another hypothesis is that for some reason the group was directed against the cyber as part of a cyber strategy defined by Western governments. Hypothesis possible if one accepts that the structure may have been infiltrated in some way.

Third hypothesis is very plausible, Let’s think that someone is using the name Anonymous to conduct undercover operations and to be able to attack hostile governments like that of Beijing. Professing itself as members of Anonymous today means having huge acclaim and can count on a critical mass to recruit in cyber attacks. These operations may be used as diversions for further operations of western intelligence in the cyber space.

The mystery is dense but I believe that in the coming months we will have a clearer picture of the situation.

Pierluigi Paganini

quote:

Computer spyware is newest weapon in Syrian conflict

(CNN) -- In Syria's cyberwar, the regime's supporters have deployed a new weapon against opposition activists -- computer viruses that spy on them, according to an IT specialist from a Syrian opposition group and a former international aid worker whose computer was infected.

A U.S.-based antivirus software maker, which analyzed one of the viruses at CNN's request, said that it was recently written for a specific cyberespionage campaign and that it passes information it robs from computers to a server at a government-owned telecommunications company in Syria.

Supporters of dictator Bashar al-Assad first steal the identities of opposition activists, then impersonate them in online chats, said software engineer Dlshad Othman. They gain the trust of other users, pass out Trojan horse viruses and encourage people to open them.

Once on the victim's computer, the malware sends information out to third parties.

Othman is an IT security "go-to-guy" for opposition activists. He resides outside of Syria for his own safety.

Since December, he has heard from dozens of opposition members who say their computers were infected. Two of them recently passed actual viruses to Othman and a colleague with whom he works. They checked them out.

"We have two malwares -- first one is really complex," Othman said via Skype chat. "It can hide itself more."

The U.S. analysis of one of the viruses -- the simpler one -- would appear to corroborate the time of its launch around the start of the year.

The virus has two parts, said Vikram Thakur, principal security response manager at Symantec Corporation, known to consumers for its Norton antivirus software. He said one of them points to December 6 and the other to January 16.

Thakur has dubbed the simpler virus "backdoor.breut."

It was the more complex virus that the former aid worker unwittingly downloaded during a chat. Since she travels to Syria, she has requested that CNN not name her for security reasons and instead refer to her as "Susan."

In one Syrian town, full-throated cries of defiance

To get a picture of the humanitarian needs on the ground in Syria, "Susan" contacted opposition members via the Internet. In January, she received a call via Skype from someone she believed was a regime opponent.

It was an imposter and a regime supporter, she claims.

"They called me actually and pretended that it's him -- this activist that I didn't know, because I'd been talking to him only two times and only in writing."

Days later, other opposition members told Susan and Othman that the activist she thought she had spoken with was in detention. Activists accuse government forces of coercing him to reveal his user name and identity and of then going online to impersonate him.

Othman says additional activists, who say they were detained and released, tell of being forced to turn over their passwords to Syrian authorities.

CNN cannot independently confirm the accusations, because the Syrian government strictly limits international media coverage within its borders.

Calls for Syrian government comment to a spokeswoman for al-Assad on Friday were not answered or did not go through. Friday is the weekly special day of prayer in the Muslim world.

The man chatting with Susan via Skype passed her a file. She recalled what he said to her to coax her to open it: "This makes sure that when you're talking to me, it's really me talking to you and not somebody else."

She clicked on the file. "It actually didn't do anything," she said in a baffled tone. "I didn't notice any change at all."

No graphics launched; no pop-up opened to announce to the user that the virus was being downloaded. The link appeared to be dead or defected, said Othman.

The second virus, backdoor.breut, which was e-mailed to him by an activist inside Syria for analysis, launched the same way. "Download, open, then nothing," Othman said.

It contains a fake Facebook logo and was passed off in a chat room as a Facebook security update, he said.

At CNN's request, Othman forwarded that virus to an IT security expert in California for an independent analysis.

Othman removed the more complex malware on Susan's computer but made an image of the infected hard drive beforehand. At more than 250 GB, it would have to be sent on an external hard drive by regular post -- snail mail -- for any independent scrutiny.

The U.S. expert confirmed the invisible nature of the backdoor.breut Trojan horse download.

"Nothing would actually show up," said Thakur. "The only thing that the Trojan actually does -- it copies itself into one of the temporary locations, but that would not be visible to the regular user."

The malware launches when the user reboots the computer.

The Syrian cyberactivist and the California IT security manager pointed out that the lack of fanfare during download helps to conceal the viruses from their victims.

"Most of them will say 'it's a damaged file,' and they will forget about it," Othman said.

Susan did just that.

She was not aware she had been hacked until she lost her Facebook and e-mail accounts a few days after clicking on the file.

"I didn't click on any kind of new link or something, so they must have known about the password," she said, referring to the loss of her Facebook account.

She handed over her laptop to Othman and his colleague, who told her that the Trojan horse had logged her key strokes, taken screen shots, rummaged through her folders. It hid the IP address it sent its information to, Othman said.

Othman found a screen shot the Trojan horse took of Susan's online banking home page. He told her to change all her passwords, Susan said.

"You don't want your money to be stolen by some of the Syrian security guys," she quipped.

The other virus -- backdoor.breut -- sends the information it pillages from infected computers to the IP address: 216.6.0.28 and does not hide this.

"We checked the IP address that our engineer referenced and can confirm that it belongs to the STE (Syrian Telecommunications Establishment)," a Symantec representative wrote to CNN. The STE is the government telecommunications company.

This does not necessarily mean that someone at STE is doing the hacking, Thakur stresses.

"Whether it's a home user behind that or it's actually a company or an organization, which has been allocated that IP address, we just have no insight from where we sit."

But the Syrian government has access to all activity through that server "absolutely without any doubt," Thakur said. Anyone not wanting the government to see what they are up to would not use that server.

Skilled Syrian opposition activists avoid government telecom servers when online.

The simple virus, backdoor.breut, acts like a bull in a china shop, Symantec's Thakur said.

"It did not look like it was written by any sophisticated hacker," he said after examining it. "It was just kind of put together -- slapstick functionality."

Simple malware is readily available for download on underground forums in the Internet. Hackers can repurpose it and hand it out. Othman believed the second software to be such an off-the-shelf product because of its amateurish construction, but the California expert disagrees.

"It's not something that somebody just went out there, copied code from an Internet website and just pasted it in. It was definitely coded for its current purpose."

The name "backdoor.breut" derives from the virus' behavior.

"We sort of took the word 'brute' just because of what it was actually doing and kind of changed a couple of characters to b-r-e-u-t," Thakur said.

"Brute -- meaning that it is using brute force -- it's just going in smash-and-grab -- I'm going to try to get anything that I can and get the hell out of there."

Backdoor.breut attempts to give the hacker remote control of the victim's computer, according to the analysis. It steals passwords and system information, downloads new programs, guides internal processes, logs keystrokes and takes shots with the webcam.

It also turns off antivirus notification, but that does not completely conceal it from detection. "Some of the good software can detect it in the same day," Thakur said.

The nature of its use may make backdoor.breut and other new Syrian malware hard to defend against. Antivirus makers need to know the virus to be able to assign it a signature and make the file detectible to block the download, according to Thakur.

The more widely a new virus spreads around the world, the more likely it is to land on an antivirus maker's radar. The smaller the region the virus is located in, the less likely virus vigilantes are to notice and combat it.

"Looking at this Trojan and the telemetry that we've gathered the last five or six days since we did the analysis, this is not targeting people across the complete globe. So, it could be days before some antiviruses actually create signatures for the file," Thakur said.

More complex antivirus software can detect malware that does not yet have a signature, because of how it behaves after infecting the computer, Thakur said. If the antivirus does not have this 'behavior' component, it may not defend against a new virus "for a substantial amount of time."

On a Facebook page named "Cyber Arabs," Othman warns activists of the danger of downloading the virus and reminds users to keep their antivirus software updated.

Download.com, CNET's software download website, offers antivirus software, some of which includes a "behavior" component and is free of charge.

But that is still no guarantee for not contracting a new Syrian cyberbug, "Susan" reminds.

"It was up-to-date," she said. "The problem is that they sent me a ... file, and I was totally stupid -- like, it's an EXE file -- and I opened it."

quote:

Internet Freedom Fighters Build a Shadow Web

Governments and corporations have more control over the Internet than ever. Now digital activists want to build an alternative network that can never be blocked, filtered or shut down

quote:

Just after midnight on January 28, 2011, the government of Egypt, rocked by three straight days of massive antiregime protests organized in part through Facebook and other online social networks, did something unprecedented in the history of 21st-century telecommunications: it turned off the Internet. Exactly how it did this remains unclear, but the evidence suggests that five well-placed phone calls—one to each of the country’s biggest Internet service providers (ISPs)—may have been all it took. At 12:12 a.m. Cairo time, network routing records show, the leading ISP, Telecom Egypt, began shutting down its customers’ connections to the rest of the Internet, and in the course of the next 13 minutes, four other providers followed suit. By 12:40 a.m. the operation was complete. An estimated 93 percent of the Egyptian Internet was now unreachable. When the sun rose the next morning, the protesters made their way to Tahrir Square in almost total digital darkness.

quote:

The Internet was designed to be a decentralized system: every node should connect to many others. This design helped to make the system resistant to censorship or outside attack.
Yet in practice, most individual users exist at the edges of the network, connected to others only through their Internet service provider (ISP). Block this link, and Internet access disappears.
An alternative option is beginning to emerge in the form of wireless mesh networks, simple systems that connect end users to one another and automatically route around blocks and censors.
Yet any mesh network needs to hit a critical mass of users before it functions well; developers must convince potential users to trade off ease of use for added freedom and privacy.

twitter:

A3nigmus twitterde op zaterdag 18-02-2012 om 23:40:35 http://www.meldpuntoosteuropeanen.nl/ is TangoDown!!! #anonymous #pvv #wildershttp://t.co/Qjg8ecZ7 reageer retweet

quote:

Op zondag 19 februari 2012 02:28 schreef Nemephis het volgende:

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Hopelijk niet alleen een Paulus de dDos-kabouter-actie maar die hele server plunderen.

twitter:

YourAnonNews twitterde op zondag 19-02-2012 om 02:03:48 Follow the hashtag #AnonMeans on Twitter and find out what #Anonymous means to different people. It's amazing to read the responses. reageer retweet

quote:

Op zondag 19 februari 2012 09:42 schreef gogosweden het volgende:
interessant topic!

(verkapte TVP )

Anonymous Thinking Together - Awakening of Planetary Consciousness

quote:

Op zondag 19 februari 2012 02:22 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

twitter:

A3nigmus twitterde op zaterdag 18-02-2012 om 23:40:35 http://www.meldpuntoosteuropeanen.nl/ is TangoDown!!! #anonymous #pvv #wildershttp://t.co/Qjg8ecZ7 reageer retweet

quote:

http://pastebin.com/qvB5zjvH

Dit weekeinde, heeft Anonymous een succesvolle aanval uitgevoerd op het Meldpunt Midden en Oost Europeanen. De eerste van velen.

Wij veroordelen Wilders en zijn xenofobe vriendenclubje, en we zullen er alles aan doen om vanaf nu elke vorm van vreemdelingenhaat tentoongespreid door de PVV te bestrijden.

Gelukkig staan we niet alleen, getuige de internationale ophef over deze verraderswebsite.

Een dringende oproep aan Geert Wilders:

Stop met deze haatzaaierij!

Je aanwezigheid in de Nederlandse politiek is niet langer gewenst.

Ons kleine landje is groot geworden door zijn betrekkingen met het buitenland. Al vele eeuwen zijn wij een handelaarsvolk, geroemd door onze (zaken)partners om onze vrije denken en onze open houding naar andersdenkenden.

Wat wij in eeuwenlang hard werken hebben opgebouwd, wordt nu door jouw populistisch gekrakeel in sneltreinvaart afgebroken.

Je verandert ons land in een bang, kortzichtig, Polen-verradend kippenhok met jou, als opper-kip-zonder-kop, voorop.

Wij, Anonymous, zeggen nu:

Het Is Genoeg!

Nu is het Carnaval, maar vanaf woensdag begint de Vastentijd; een tijd voor reflectie en bezinning. Tijd om orde op zaken te stellen. Tijd om te beseffen dat, als je beweert een Partij voor de Vrijheid te zijn, je ook voor Vrijheid moet staan! En niet alleen de vrijheid om je eigen haat de wereld in te kotsen.

Denk hier maar eens goed over na, als je deze dagen bij een Polonaise aansluit. Of klinkt "Polonaise" je ook al te Oost Europees in je oren?

Wij, Anonymous, waarschuwen ook Mark Rutte:

Als premier van Nederland dien je ten allen tijde in het belang van ons land en al haar inwoners te handelen.

Jij bent onze premier, Mark. Dus doe je mond open; spreek je uit tegen deze nieuwe, door Wilders veroorzaakte zweer op het aangezicht van Nederland. En laat zondebok Leers niet jouw vuile zaakjes oplossen, maar toon dat er ergens nog iets van een ruggegraat in je lijf zit.

Juist als VVD-er zou jij respect en bewondering moeten hebben voor het arbeidsethos van de honderdduizenden Oost-europeanen in ons land.

En mocht je alleen aan de centjes willen denken: deze groep mensen (MENSEN, ja!) levert een jaarlijkse bijdrage van 3 miljard euro aan onze economie. En nu er een internationale oproep is om Nederlandse goederen en bedrijven te boycotten, komt onze toch al wankele economie nog verder in gevaar.

Dus, Mark: laat zien dat je een vertegenwoordiger bent van het héle Nederlandse volk!

Wij, Anonymous, zullen de ontwikkelingen de komende tijd scherp in de gaten houden. dit Carnavalsoffensief is slechts het begin.

Zoals de Havenzangers al zongen:

"Het feest kan beginnen, want wij zijn binnen. We gaan er tegenaan.."

#VerwachtOns!

quote:

Op zondag 19 februari 2012 20:41 schreef YazooW het volgende:

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Statement van "anonymous", althans zo noemen/noemt ze/hij/zij zichzelf, is toch wel behoorlijk raar te noemen. Quotes als: Je aanwezigheid in de Nederlandse politiek is niet langer gewenst. kunnen gewoon niet. Anonymous heeft zich nooit, zover ik het weet, bezig gehouden met politiek.