Anonops #5: Anonymous en de MO-revoluties

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Op zondag 30 januari 2011 17:50 schreef Muridae het volgende:

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Misschien kunnen we samen een soort van "news monitor" bijhouden ?
In dit geval zou je bijvoorbeeld de berichtgeving van de NOS/RTL kunnen vergelijken met de berichten vanuit Al Jazeera, NRC, Guardian etc. Dit zou je ook kunnen doen voor binnenlands nieuws, zaken zoals de OV chipkaart etc.

Ik hoor het wel.

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Op zondag 30 januari 2011 18:00 schreef Muridae het volgende:

[..]

We kunnen beginnen met een thread op Fok!.
Na de revolutie in Egypte heheh.

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Op zondag 30 januari 2011 18:18 schreef schommelstoel het volgende:


Het is een begin, maar daar zijn wel meerdere onderzoekjes en terug lees acties voor nodig.
Omdat het niet alleen recentelijk gebeurt met wat nu in Egypte gaande is.

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NRC Live:
Bondskanselier Angela Merkel heeft een telefoontjue gewaagd aan het overhalen van Mubarak tot hervormingen. Ze vroeg hem dit te doen om geweld te voorkomen. (Reuters)
zondag 30 januari 2011 7:22 NRC Live
7:24


NRC Live:
Ze vroeg de Egyptische president ook vrijheid van informatie te handhaven nadat Al Jazeera het land was uitgezet en internetverbinding eerder dit weekend werd beperkt.

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Downing Street says that David Cameron supports President Obama's call for an "orderly transition" in Egypt. The statement from No 10 said:

"The prime minister made clear that restrictions on the media and internet were unacceptable and should be lifted immediately.

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Op zondag 30 januari 2011 22:35 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

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Dat lijkt mij sterk, er is geen Engelse regering

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Op zondag 30 januari 2011 22:43 schreef Berlitz het volgende:

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Klopt niet ze proberen deze site te downen.

http://www.redwatchonline.org/

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http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2011/01/30/mass_groups_software_helps_avoid_censorship/?camp=misc:on:share:article

A Walpole-based group of Internet activists known as Tor is playing a key role in helping Egyptians get around Internet censorship during this current political turmoil.


Over the last three days, 120,000 people — most of them Egyptian — have downloaded Tor software, which helps activists protect their identity from surveillance by repressive regimes and get around blocked sites, according to Andrew Lewman, executive director of Tor, which provides the software for free.

“We saw this huge amount of traffic,’’ said Lewman, who said the group normally gets about 20,000 downloads a day worldwide. “We started looking at what was going on and the Internet service provider called us and said, ‘You are getting a huge amount of requests from Egypt.’ It didn’t look like an attack. It looked like a flash crowd.’’

Most of the downloads occurred just before the Egyptian government ordered a near-total block of the Internet on Thursday night, but usage remains high through the few pathways to the Internet that remain.

It is not the first time that Tor, which was formed in 2001 after two MIT students developed the anonymity software with a US Navy laboratory, has found itself in the center of a political uprising.

Iranian activists downloaded its software en masse during the massive protests after the contested 2009 presidential elections, and China has repeatedly tried to block Tor downloads and denied visas to Tor’s activists, who have trained people from over 20 countries, including China, at workshops in Hong Kong and Europe.

“It is plain that tools like Tor can be enormously value,’’ said John Palfrey, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, who did a study of software that activists use, including Tor. Since only the most tech-savvy know how to use such software, “there is enormous value in trainings and they pay dividends in crisis moments like this,’’ he said.

The group, which employs about 10 people, runs a network of about 2,500 computers around the world manned by volunteers who help the anonymous network run. It registered as a nonprofit in 2006 and receives about 75 percent of its funding from the US government.

About a year ago, Tor set up a special system just for Tunisian activists to protect their identity. So when the Tunisian government began monitoring Facebook pages and Twitter accounts during the recent uprising in Tunisia, “those people were already protected,’’ Lewman said.

In December 2009, Jacob Appelbaum, one of Tor’s main software developers, traveled to Cairo and held workshops for human rights activists on how to use the software to avoid surveillance on the Internet.

The workshop appears to have paid off. As protests swelled in Egypt in recent days, so many people rushed to download Tor that one of its servers crashed on Thursday. They managed to keep their service up and running, but the downloads from Egypt plummeted Thursday night after the government apparently ordered a near-total block on Internet service. [cont.]

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Op woensdag 26 januari 2011 15:51 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Gelukkig maar, want de Egyptische overheid kan wel een steuntje gebruiken.

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Op maandag 31 januari 2011 13:33 schreef Im.Kant. het volgende:

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Quote je nou net jezelf?

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http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/anonymous-hackers-threaten-egypt-govt-websites-reprisal-censorship
Global internet hackers threatened to attack websites affiliated with the Egyptian government on Wednesday in retaliation for the regime’s blocking of social-networking sites used by opposition groups to mobilize Tuesday’s “Day of Anger” protests.

The posse of hackers known only as “Anonymous” issued an online press release on Wednesday carrying the following strongly-worded warning to the Egyptian government: “Anonymous challenges all those who are involved in censorship. Anonymous wants you to offer free access to uncensored media in your entire country.”

“When you ignore this message, not only will we attack your government websites, Anonymous will also make sure the international media sees the horrid reality you impose upon your people,” the statement continued.

Egyptians were denied access to both Facebook and Twitter following Tuesday’s protests, in which tens of thousands took to the streets shouting anti-government slogans and demanding political reform. Violent clashes erupted between demonstrators and security forces, leaving at least four killed and hundreds injured. Police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.

The “Day of Anger” was initially called for by online protest groups, including the 6 April youth movement, that had been inspired by recent events in Tunisia.

In recent years, social networking websites have been used by growing numbers of young Egyptians as a platform from which to voice their political and economic grievances. Since 2008, Facebook activists have been calling for strikes and sit-ins to protest rising inflation and chronic authoritarianism.

“By imposing censorship upon its own people and condemning these freedoms, the Egyptian government has revealed itself to be criminal and has made itself an enemy of Anonymous,” the hackers’ statement noted.

Last month, the mysterious group established themselves as a force to be reckoned with after having disrupted several major western websites that they accused of working against online whistle-blower Wikileaks. Victims included the Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Amazon websites.

Earlier this month, Anonymous turned its attention eastward when it targeted key websites affiliated with the now-defunct Tunisian government following the successful popular uprising in that country.

ANONYMOUS - OPERATION EGYPT - A Press Release

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1.
Translation:
2.

3.
Ministry of Interior
4.
Office of the minister
5.
Memo 1 # 06/b/mn [slightly illegible]
6.
Secret and Very Important
7.
Topic: Plan to fight back against popular demonstrations
8.
Strategies:
9.
- Allowing demonstrations to pass in the streets of cities and villages of the republic starting from date A and not getting in the way of their walk and being extremely careful not to use live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas unless an order is issued by the respective specialist according to the specialization table you have
10.
- Employing a number of thugs and paying them decent amounts and meeting them in their houses and in the gathering locations and one on one by the elements permitted to do so and the meetings should be unofficial and explain the deployment plan according to the attached schedule of locations labeled B1 and informing them of mobilization time and the plan to spread gradual chaos mentioned in the memo
11.
- Surveillance of all members of organizations and political parties and coordinating with printing presses and publishing houses and communication systems and enforcing a complete record of messages and incoming and outgoing phone calls and explaining their clarifying with a direct report as soon as you get the information
12.
- Communication methods (cellular – internet) will be cut off starting six AM on Friday 28/1/2011 while keeping landline services therefore all deployed officers and personnel must use handheld wireless communicators and make sure they’re in encryption mode
13.
- The plan to deploy police personnel and investigation officers [Mabahes / Maba7es – Translator] and security elements in civil clothing according to the attachment labeled B2
14.
- Limiting the walk of protests on Friday 28/1/2011 in public squares and major squares and cutting them off in case they reach warning locations according to the attached map labeled B3
15.
- Making sure security elements in plain clothing are armed with wooden sticks and metal maces of a small size (hand held) to use for arresting the primary elements present in the protest without revealing any violence
16.
- Shooting rubber bullets and tear gas without using live ammunition and informing everyone of that unless it is absolutely necessary

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/28/syria-internet-down_n_815337.html

On the same day that Egypt has suspended online activity, Syria has also blocked internet service, according to reports.

Syria is known for a tight control of the internet, which was tightened further after the unrest in Tunisia, reports Reuters. Now, Al Arabiya is reporting that internet services have gone down completely in the country. Previously, Syria had blocked programs that "allow access to Facebook Chat from cellphones," according to Reuters.

Egypt's online services have reportedly been down since last night as the country's deadly protests continued into what was planned as the largest day so far.

Facebook has reportedly been blocked in Egypt for days, before which it was being used as a key tool for organizers. It was also used by the successful revolutionaries in Tunisia, raising concerns among other nations that it posed a threat.

UPDATE (10:32EST) Al Arabiya is reporting that a Syrian official has denied the internet service is down.

UPDATE: Reports are emerging that the Internet is not down in Syria, although the previous service disruptions are in place.

This is a developing story. More to come.

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http://www.dailytech.com/ProWikileaks+Hacker+Group+Calls+For+War+Against+the+UK+Government/article20774.htm

Fiery statement from Anonymous follows the arrest of several of the group's hackers

Amid the drama unfolding in Egypt, drama of a very different nature was unfolding in the U.S. over the weekend. Hackers belonging to one of the highest profile online communities have accused the U.S. and UK governments of declaring "war" on them, and vow to fight back.

I. The Search

The turmoil began on Thursday, when the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations executed 40 search warrants, raiding the houses of members of the group Anonymous, a 1,000+ member group of online enthusiasts/hackers who met on the image-board site 4Chan.

The raids followed Anonymous members coordinating and executing distributed denial of service (DDoS) and other malicious attacks on credit card companies and financial institutions. The attacks came after those companies denied funding for controversial leaks site Wikileaks, saying that the site was supporting illegal activity. The hackers used a DDoS program dubbed the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) tool -- an homage to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back -- in their attacks.

Anonymous dubbed the attacks "Operation Payback". The attacks were executed during the second week of December and succeeded in briefly disabling some of the targeted businesses' web portals.

Coldbood, Anonymous's unofficial spokesman described the attacks, stating:

Anonymous is supporting WikiLeaks not because we agree or disagree with the data that is being sent out, but we disagree with any from of censorship on the internet. If we let WikiLeaks fall without a fight then governments will think they can just take down any sites they wish or disagree with.

Authorities have since worked with financial institutions and antivirus software makers to weed out and block the LOIC, putting an end (for now) to the attacks.

II. The Arrests

Now international authorities are getting a bit of "payback" of their own. In the Netherlands several arrests were reportedly made. And in the UK five people ages 25 to 16 were taken in for questioning. Among those arrested was the 22-year-old spokesperson, Coldblood.

Arrests may be in store in the U.S., as well, pending the results of the FBI's investigation. As of Monday no U.S.-based arrests had been announced yet.

The FBI issued a press release, stating:

A group calling itself “Anonymous” has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they conducted them in protest of the companies’ and organizations’ actions. The attacks were facilitated by the software tools the group makes available for free download on the Internet. The victims included major U.S. companies across several industries.

The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating or conducting a DDoS attack is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as well as exposing participants to significant civil liability.

III. Anonymous Says it is at "War"

Following the arrests Anonymous has released a statement [PDF] commenting:

Not only does it reveal the fact that you do not seem to understand the present-day political and technological reality, we also take this as a serious declaration of war from yourself, the UK government, to us, Anonymous, the people.

First and foremost, it is important to realize what a DDoS attack exactly is and what it means in the contemporary political context. As traditional means of protest (peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, the blocking of a crossroads or the picketing of a factory fence) have slowly turned into nothing but an empty, ritualised gesture of discontent over the course of the last century, people have been anxiously searching for new ways to pressure politicians and give voice to public demands in a manner that might actually be able to change things for the better. Anonymous has, for now, found this new way of voicing civil protest in the form of the DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, attack. Just as is the case with traditional forms of protest, we block

access to our opponents infrastructure to get our message across. Whether or not this infrastructure is located in the real world or in cyberspace, seems completely irrelevant to us.

Moreover, we would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on the difference between a DDoS attack and hacking, as these concepts often seem to be confounded when media and policy-makers talk about Anonymous. Hacking as such is defined by the law as ‘unauthorised access to a computer or network’, whereas a DDoS attack is simply a case of thousands of people making legitimate connections to a publicly accessible webserver at the same time, using up the entire bandwidth or processing power of the given server at once and thereby causing a huge ‘traffic jam’.

It is clear then, that arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their hometown. Anonymous believes this right to peacefully protest is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy and should not be restricted in any way.

Moreover, we have noted that similar attacks have also been carried out against Wikileaks itself, yet so far, nobody has been arrested in connection with these attacks, nor are there even any signs of an investigation into this issue at all. Yet, we know exactly who was responsible for that attack. Anonymous believes it is unfair and hypocritical to attempt to put these 5 arrested anons to trial without even attempting to find those who DDoS’ed a website which you oppose. We can therefore only assume that these arrests are politically motivated, and were being carried out under pressure from the US government. Anonymous can not, and will not, stand idle while this injustice is being done.

What exact steps Anonymous will take to fight back in this "war" against the UK and Netherlands governments remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen whether the group will similarly call for a war against the U.S. if it makes arrests.

The members of Anonymous arrested in the UK face up to 10 years in prison and ~$8,000 USD in fines, under the UK's Computer Misuse Act.

In related news, Anonymous is calling for internet action [video] in support of protesters in Egypt. The announcement comes after Egyptian authorities are seeking to block communication, impairing protesters' ability to organize.

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http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/31/egypt.protests.where.else/index.html

(CNN) -- What began as a popular uprising that toppled the Tunisian government before spreading into Algeria, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and, of course, Egypt, may now be headed for Syria.

Opposition movements in Syria are calling for mass protests on Saturday against the rule of President Bashar Al-Assad.

The groups are organizing on Facebook, with several pages promoting protests in Damascus, Aleppo and other cities.

Protest organizers want better living standards, human rights improvements and a greater voice for youth, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that studies and translates news accounts and social media postings.

It's unclear how many people might join the protests. A few thousand people had expressed their support for the movement on the Facebook pages, some of them undoubtedly from outside the country, the research institute said.

On Sunday, Sudan got a taste of the protests. An undetermined number of university students and others demanded the removal of the government in Facebook-organized protests that its leaders said were inspired by the events in Tunisia.

The students protested at a university in Khartoum, chanting "No to high prices, no to corruption" and "Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan together as one."

"The people of Sudan will not remain silent anymore. It is about time we demand our rights and take what's ours in a peaceful demonstration that will not involve any acts of sabotage," according an English language version of the group's profile on Facebook.

"We will demonstrate against the rising of the prices, the corruption, unemployment and all false practices of the government such as violence against women and lashing them in ways that breaks all laws of religions and humanity and the violation of minorities' rights."

The Sudan Tribune newspaper, citing a statement from police, said 70 people, 40 of them students, were arrested after the protests.

Meanwhile, a Facebook page has surfaced calling for a protest on Thursday in Yemen, which has been the site of a few demonstrations already.

The Tunisian protests that sparked the region's unrest sprang up after Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old college graduate, set himself on fire in protest of police confiscation of the fruit cart he had set up to make money. He later died.

The protests resulted in the collapse of Tunisia's government and inspired similar protests in other countries, including Algeria, Jordan, Sudan and Yemen.

The protests have reached their zenith to date in Egypt, where untold thousands of Egyptians have ignored government curfews and clashed with police over demands that President Hosni Mubarak resign.

A popular Facebook page that helped organize the Cairo protests was dedicated to Bouazizi.

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# Oilyleaf_normal xitsawrap RT @OfficialAnonOps: #Anonymous / #OpEgypt are attacking www.moiegypt.gov.eg in support of the #Egypt protests. Retweet and join the fight against censorship. 10 minutes ago via web

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Op maandag 31 januari 2011 20:53 schreef -Strawberry- het volgende:
Je bent er maar druk mee Papierversnipperaar.

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Tunisians, we need your voice. Please join the IRC at our webchat (click here). We will keep you updated on new addresses for AnonNews, in case it gets blocked. The migration has been completed, we should be running stable from now on. Whoever attacks AnonNews at this moment, thanks for testing our new host.

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Dear Egyptians,

We are providing a Telefax bridge to the internet for you to use. Due to the harsh internet blackout in Egypt, we are trying to establish all possible means of communications for you.

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It was only last week that Google acquired SayNow, a voice messaging startup, They’re already putting them to good use. I mean really good use.

As they’ve just announced on the Google Blog, the search giant has teamed up with the incoming SayNow team and Twitter to create a simple speak-to-tweet service for people currently engulfed in the turmoil in Egypt.

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Egypt says it's shutting down mobile phone networks

[Update 1:12 a.m. Tuesday in Cairo, 6:12 p.m. ET Monday] Egypt's information ministry told CNN Tuesday that the Noor Group, an Internet service provider, has been shut down. The move essentially takes the country offline.

Minnutes earlier, Egypt's information ministry that mobile phone networks will be shut down in Egypt during the next few hours ahead of demonstrators' planned "march of millions."

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dinmend RT @alphaleah: PLS RETWEET!! French ISP offers free dial up internet access ~ +33 1 72 89 01 50 Login password: toto #egypt #jan25 #cairo PLS RETWEET!!

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Sinistere videomanifesten, romantische compilaties van betogingen en petities tegen providers. Internetactivisten wereldwijd betuigen hun steun aan het Egyptische volk. En niet alleen dat: handleidingen om je tegen traangas te weren, tips om internetblokkades te ontwijken en nummers van bellijnen waar demonstranten verslag kunnen doen worden in rap tempo verspreid.

“Het komt goed, Anonymous zit er bovenop”, schrijft de beweging, die eerder sites van Wikileaks-vijandige bedrijven platlegde, op Facebook. Via YouTube verzoekt Anonymous de VS om “per direct alle militaire en politieke steun aan het regime van Hosni Mubarak te stoppen” en op Anonnews.org publiceerde ze een open brief aan nieuwsorganisatie Al Jazeera om te bedanken voor de “onpartijdige en moedige journalistiek”.

Anonymous ziet zichzelf als machtsfactor. “We zijn een legioen. We vergeven niet, we vergeten niet”, is de standaard afsluiting van haar manifesten. Via Twitter informeert ze duizenden volgers over de laatste ontwikkelingen. “Geen politiebureau is aan brandstichting ontkomen op de weg van Alex naar Caïro”, luidt een tweet van 14.33 uur. [er is meer]

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Help those behind the firewall by lending your bandwidth.

By joining the cloud, you allow people to harness the power of free expression through the internet. The Global Proxy Cloud allows you to donate your unused bandwidth to ensure that governments can’t keep their people behind the firewall.

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ioerror Jacob Appelbaum
Want to directly help Tor get non-state controlled internet access to Egypt? Give: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/egypt_blackout #egypt #jan25

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With the Internet down across Egypt, Google and Twitter have come up with a way for Egyptians to tweet using their phones. Now, Dan Lyons reports, a group of hackers is close to delivering software that could turn laptops into low-cost Internet routers—and help protesters organize.

Hours after the government in Egypt shut down that country’s access to the Internet, hackers around the world started banding together to craft some kind of workaround. And one group claims to be only a day or two away from delivering a partial solution.

Their initiative is called the Open Mesh Project and it began when Shervin Pishevar, an Internet entrepreneur in Palo Alto, California, posted a message on Twitter calling for help shipping software into Egypt that could turn regular laptops into low-cost Internet routers, forming what’s known as a “mesh network,” where each computer can route messages along to the others.

Article - Lyons Egypt Internet Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images; Ben Curtis / AP Photo

Since then, engineers from around the world have been spreading the word and kicking in to help. The mesh network would at least let people communicate with others located close to them. The laptops can all talk to each other. If one goes out, messages just find another way to zip through the cluster of machines.

“This would at least let people build an ad hoc mobile network,” Pishevar said. “At the very least, people inside Egypt will be able to communicate with each other and organize.” [cont]

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The Most AMAZING video on the internet #Egypt #jan25
The Most AMAZING video on the internet #Egypt #jan25
- epic vid, go to 0:45 and shit brix
http://live.reuters.com/Event/Unrest_in_Egypt - live Reuters updates
http://www.ikhwanweb.com/breakingNews.php - muslim brotherhood breaking news. most is unconfirmed and exaggerated
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/ - live coverage
http://twitter.com/Jan25voices - egyptian in the centre of the protests calling from his phone to another country and his friend there posting the calls on twitter.
http://twitter.com/aymanm - aljazeera journalist
http://twitter.com/nolanjazeera - aljazeera journalist
http://twitter.com/rawyarageh- aljazeera journalist
http://live.cnn.com/ - good for live coverage of major events like presidents speaking
http://www.cnn.com/video/ - missed the news? check the vids

Anonymous involvement:
http://nakedsecurity.soph(...)ackers-launch-ddos-a
ttack/

ANONYMOUS - OPERATION EGYPT - A Press Release

http://hammeroftruth.com/2011/the-anonymous-revolution-in-egypt/
http://blogs.forbes.com/a(...)-mass-faxes-wikileak
s-cables-to-egypt/

For more information and for coordination purposes:
irc.accessirc.net (72.250.175.12) port 6667
channel: #egypt-revolution

Contributing to the Tor network and helping Egypt:
https://www.accessnow.org/proxy-cloud/page/join-the-cloud

What to do if your government shuts down everything:
http://lifehacker.com/574(...)de-internet-shutdown
http://www.budgetdialup.com/html/support_access_1.htm
http://lifehacker.com/140(...)-internet-connection
http://www.sailmail.com/

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ANONYMOUS ITALY PRESS RELEASE
For the attention of the people of the world:
The electronic information network has moved to fill the void left by traditional media, providing citizens with the information and means necessary to push their governments to act. We share a responsibility to defend fundamental human freedoms. Now it is time to act and Anonymous will always be present in the places where human rights are in jeopardy.
The political and economical situation in Italy has become untenable. The Italian government has made it a priority to censor the internet and to turn the judicial system into a tool of corruption. It is involved with prostitution (including the prostitution of children) and it uses its dubious links with the Mafia to corrupt and manipulate the free flow of information. A government such as this will never be a government that is supported by the Italian people, nor will it be supported by Anonymous.
We do no not support violence and we are against war. We are the countless humble protectors of free speech; we are the critical mass. When the free flow of information is attacked, we organize and we show up as one to support the groups being oppressed.
Citizens of the world, governments are only now realizing that when we combine our efforts with the people we, Anonymous, have a significant influence that cannot be ignored.
We are working for our freedom, for your liberty, and we, like you, will never surrender.
For too long they have fooled us by masking their dirty deeds with the word democracy. For too long they have poisoned our environment, the same environment that will be inherited by our grandchildren. For too long we have been kept divided by false ideologies of left and right - all in the struggle to gain more power and more money.
These abuses have been perpetrated for years by the entire political class and as a result all Italians have now seen a progressive and steady deterioration of their fundamental human rights and dignity.
We are Anonymous, we are the critical mass, we are not terrorists, we are the friends of the people because we are the people. We are the instrument of the collective global consciousness that has now awakened...
Citizens: unite under our cause, because our cause is your cause.
We are Anonymous. YOU are Anonymous.
We do not forgive injustice.
We do not forget Freedom.
Expect us.

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# Al Jazeera confirms signal is being blocked. Page grab of frozen screen. http://yfrog.com/h8pojekj 1 minute ago via Twitter for iPhone

# This contravenes the terms of lease of both NileSat & ArabSat. The US & EU must put pressure on the Mubarak regime to stop the info blackout 4 minutes ago via web

# Al Jazeera is now confirming that its signal on ArabSat is being corrupted. 5 minutes ago via web

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A Message from Anonymous - 01/29/2011


Hello, world.

You are now breathing manually.

Over the last few weeks, North Africans have expressed an ardent desire for liberty, democracy, and justice for both themselves, and for the world. While most in the West responded with a mild interest and cynicism for which our culture has become rightly reviled, Anonymous responded with action. Beginning with Tunisia and continuing on to Egypt, thousands of world citizens have dedicated their lives to securing the liberty of others, providing tools, expertise, and long-sought encouragement to those who have already earned their rights by virtue of fighting for them.

When Tunisians bristled in indignation at the chains that have bound them for far too long, the world was silent. Anonymous was not; and thus the online venues of state propaganda were taken down and in some cases replaced with our own clear message that those who want our help will get it.

When protests erupted upon the occasion of one fruit vendor's bravery, the media ignored it. Anonymous did not, and thus Tunisians were provided with the Guide to Protecting the North African Revolutions.

When Wikileaks confirmed the cruelty and corruption of the Ben Ali regime, Western governments did nothing. Anonymous organized hundreds of Tunisians directly and thousands more indirectly.

It was the Tunisian people themselves that overcame the tyranny to which they had been subjected. They did so in the context of the digital reformation, with unprecedented assistance provided over a mere few weeks. Others will follow. Some have already begun.

...

That the Egyptian regime has reacted to the yearning of its citizens by shutting down the nation's communications is the smoking gun that should tell the world that communications are the key to liberty. That we live in the communications age should, and has been, of great alarm to all who love their power more than their people, or who consider themselves to be the only ones capable of governing the world around them. That they have failed to provide any real security should remind all concerned that such people are not only unnecessary to true security, but a perpetual threat to same.

Anonymous is a machine that harnesses the talent that other, lesser institutions often fail to acknowledge or incorporate. Man is a creature that builds institutions and thereafter loses his grip on them. Anonymous cures institutions that are dying and destroys institutions that ought to have died long ago.

All significant human activity is the result of human collaboration - including this very press release. And the means by which humans may collaborate has exploded - not expanded, not increased, but exploded - in such a way as to allow any man on earth to talk and work with any other man.

Such issues will be explored soon enough. In the meantime, we demand that all normal communications be restored to the people of Egypt by January 29th, 12:00 midnight, Eastern Standard Time. That we have occasion to make such a demand in the first place should be enough to convince all good men that the world needs revolution. That we have made it in full view of all men should be enough to convince them that we now have the means to back it up - not just against this regime, but against any and all parties that continue to prop it up even after it has conceded that the truth is its enemy.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not Forgive.
We do not Forget.

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Op dinsdag 1 februari 2011 16:36 schreef YazooW het volgende:
Anonymous die persverklaringen uitgeeft...

Message to Scientology

quote:

President M. H. Mubarak:

We are Anonymous. We, along with the rest of the world, watched and listened to the speech you gave to the Egyptian People. We were all deeply disappointed by your decision to ignore your people's desires by continuing to cling to the last vestiges of power in the face of your overwhelming lack of support. Your reign as "The Pharaoh" has come to an end, and it is only a matter of time before you are removed from your office. The method of your retirement was solely in your hands, but by your poor judgement and choices, you have handed your fate over to the people who have suffered under your tyranny for nearly thirty years. In light of this development, we have concluded that your decision to continue to hold the office of the President is an insult to the people of Egypt. It is obvious that you are no longer deserving of such a title. We are not alone in our conclusion. See for yourself the protests growing across the country; a manifestation of the people's seething anger for the whole world to witness. Hear the calls of solidarity throughout the world demanding your immediate resignation. We stand alongside the Egyptian people and we will lend them our support in order to put an end to your self-righteous, authoritarian rule.
#

#
The Citizens of The Arab Republic of Egypt have demanded that you step down from your post as President of Egypt, demands that you have blatantly ignored and the expectations that have been placed on you. Mark our words that the consequences of this course of action will be dire; do not delude yourself into thinking that the political game that you are attempting to engage in will ultimately end in your victory. The people have spoken, and your stubborness and resistance to change delays the only acceptable resolution - the removal of you and your puppets and the termination of your undemocratic regime.
#

#
You have already been judged, but it is the people of Egypt and not history that has passed the judgement. It is obvious to all that the decision they have made is not in your favour. You have been found guilty of numerous crimes against your people. You have used your influence to try to hide these crimes, and denied them when they could no longer be kept down. Even now you attempt to twist the situation and the suffering of your people to advance your own agenda. Try as you will, but your attempted political machinations have fooled no one.
#

#
Allow us to better illustrate this to you. You say that you "take pride in the long years" that you claim to have served the people of Egypt; however, the use of secret police forces, the torture of innocent citizens and political acitvists, the repression of the freedoms of speech and assembly, and the murder of the Egyptian people are all testament to your tyrannic disposition, rather than your alleged benevolent rule. It is precisely the opposite of what you claim to want for Egypt. Only a madman would flaunt such a record with pride. The uprising of your people and the reverberation of their message throughout the world is undeniable. These views speak of the true legacy you are leaving behind.
#

#
Like a cancer, the resentment for your regime has festered within the people for nearly thirty years. For the last few days, the Egyptian people have united to speak as one voice against you and together have cried out in unison for your immediate removal. People young and old, and of all classes, creeds, and religious convictions are ready to stand as one nation and ensure their basic rights of economic security, political equality, and freedom of speech and assembly. Whatever dignity you have left can only be preserved by honoring their demands. You have said that you will "die on the soil of Egypt." The Egyptian people are desperate for change, and may make you honor your words if left with no better alternative. You have indeed "served long enough." Do the right thing and step down, and do it now, and not in eight months. Let the aspirations of the Egyptian people be realized. Mr. Mubarak, free your fellow countrymen from the grasp of tyranny! You have been warned.
#

#

#
We are Anonymous.
#
We are Legion.
#
We do not forgive; We do not forget.
#
We have spoken.
#

quote:

_{Anonymous-persbericht 31 januari (Nederlands)}

Anonymous,

Het is geen geheim meer dat de overheden van de VS en het Verenigd Koninkrijk verschillende mensen proberen te vervolgen die betrokken zijn geweest bij de protesten van Anonymous tegen censuur - voornamelijk tegenover PayPal, Mastercard, en VISA, nadat zij hadden besloten niet langer financiele transacties uit te voeren voor Wikileaks. Tegen veertig mensen uit de Verenigde Staten zis een huiszoekingsbevel uitgevaardigd, ze zijn ondervraagd door de FBI, en hebben daarna een dagvaarding ontvangen. Vijf Anons in het Verenigd Koninkrijk zijn ook ondervraagd, maar we wachten nog steeds op meer informatie over hun situatie. Op dit moment weten we wat de overheid van de Verenigde Staten van plan is, en daar zullen wij dan ook op reageren.
Het feit dat de Amerikaanse anons voor een rechtbank moeten verschijnen geeft al aan dat ze geen idee hebben hoe om te gaan met deze moderne vorm van protest (zie voor meer informatie http://www.grandjuryresistance.org/ )

De rechtbank vereist dat de volgende zaken worden overgedragen:

* Enige en alle archieven, documenten en materialen die betrekking hebben op de internetactivisten-groeperingen "4chan" en "Anonymous."

* Enige en alle archieven, documenten en materialen die betrekking hebben op kwaadaardige software, code, or andere programma's gerelateerd aan Trojaanse Paarden, botnets, Denial of Service aanvallen, inclusief maar niet gelimiteerd tot Low Orbit Ion Cannon en/of High Orbit Ion Cannon.

* Enige en alle archieven, documenten en materialen die betrekking hebben op interacties tussen computers van personen die een huiszoeking hebben gehad en zij die onkwetsbaar zijn.

* Enige en alle archieven, documenten en materialen die betrekking hebben op de identificatie en locaties van perso(o)n(en) die gebruik maken van, besturen van, of verspreiden van informatie over Denial of Service software.

* Enige en alle archieven, documenten en materialen die betrekking hebben op administratie, onderhoud, gebruik, of propagatie van Denial of Service hulpmiddelen, inclusief maar niet gelimiteerd tot Low Orbit Ion Cannon en/of High Orbit Ion Cannon.

* Enige en alle archieven, documenten en materialen die betrekking hebben op identificatie en locatie van andere computers die deel uitmaken van de Denial of Service aanval en/of botnet.

* Enige en alle computerlogs onderhouden in relatie tot computers gevonden in met huiszoekingsbevel doorzochte huizen.

* Enige en alle archieven, documenten en materialen die betrekking hebben op namen, bijnames, email adressen of IP adressen van de betrokkenen van het AnonOps IRC netwerk.

Het is overduidelijk te zien aan deze punten en het hele principe van een Grand Jury dat de overheid van de Verenigde Staten geen idee heeft hoe om te gaan met deze vorm van protest. Ook hebben ze overduidelijk geen technische kennis van de hulpmiddelen die zijn gebruikt. De "DDoS-aanvallen" die Anonymous heeft uitgevoerd zijn in principe hetzelfde wat een internetbrowser doet, en maken simpelweg gebruik van wat er voor iedereen beschikbaar is op het internet. Ook lijkt de overheid van de VS niet in te zien dat het TCP/IP-protocol uitgevonden is in de jaren zeventig, en tegenwoordig in principe een gedateerde infrastructuur is, die dit soort "aanvallen" mogelijk maakt zonder enige diepgaande kennis van zaken.
Om een voorbeeld te noemen, het type aanval dat LOIC uitvoert kan gemakkelijk worden uitgevoerd op een 'naturel' Windows-systeem zonder enige special hulpmiddelen. Geen van de mensen die benaderd zijn door de FBI waren betrokken bij enige "hack", "deface", of enige andere activiteit die te maken heeft met het binnendringen van een gesloten systeem. Deze 'aanvallen' waren publiek, open voor iedereen (dit is ook duidelijk bekend gemaakt), juist omdat het doel ervan is om aandacht ergens op te vestigen, om te protesteren.
We zijn ons er allen van bewust dat we een nieuwe vorm van protest zijn begonnen - een zogenaamde digitale sit-in. Nu is de tijd aangebroken om deze nieuwe en blijkbaar zeer efficiente vorm van protest te verdedigen, zoals zovelen in de geschiedenis andere vormen van protest hebben verdedigd.
We vragen niet alleen jullie hulp voor een fysiek protest, we hebben jullie hulp - met name die van mensen die zich specialiseren in rechten - om de getroffen anons te helpen en verdedigen op elke mogelijke manier.

Dit is wat we vragen van de FBI / Politie:

* Dat ze stoppen met de huiszoekingen en het in beslag nemen van privé eigendommen zoals computers, telefoons, opslagmedia en andere electronische apparaten, en te stoppen met het dagvaarden van demonstranten.

* Dat al het eigendom dat in beslag is genomen of is gedagvaard in deze huiszoekingen aan de eigenaars wordt teruggekeerd.

* Dat de huidige dagvaardingen van demonstranten ongeldig worden verklaard.

Voor mensen die in de Verenigde Staten leven zijn er protesten gepland op de volgende data en locaties:
Kom naar deze protesten met een Anonymous-masker (en andere Anonymous-attributen waar je aan kunt komen) om je steun te tonen voor onze mede-anons.
10 februari 2011 09:30
United States District Court
United States Courthouse
280 South First Street
San Jose, California 95113

Protestacties in New York
http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=358

7 april 2011
Er is ook een groot protest gepland op 7 april, bij The City Hall, met sprekers van Anonymous, <executive director> van de National Lawyers Guild, Gregg Housh, Barry Eisler, Glenn Greenwald, Barret Brown, en meer. Mis dat dus niet!

Ongetwijfeld zullen er ook in Nederland en Belgie protesten plaatsvinden in de komende maanden. Houdt daarom sites als Anonnews.org, WhyWeProtest.net, Anonops.in / Anonops.ru en andere Anonymous-gerelateerde websites in de gaten!

Meer informatie
http://www.glennbecktoday.com/raidz/?p=209
http://abclocal.go.com/kf(...)nal_world&id=7924826
http://www.grandjuryresistance.org/
http://glennbecktoday.com/raidz/
http://www.anonnews.org

Kom ook naar ons IRC-kanaal!
irc.anonops.ru / irc.anonops.in
#OpClueless en #dutch
- Anonymous

quote:

11.10pm GMT:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)ve-updates#block-107 Malcom Gladwell, the New Yorker sociological popularist, is still trying to dismiss the influence of social media in events in Tunisia and Egypt:

Right now there are protests in Egypt that look like they might bring down the government. There are a thousand important things that can be said about their origins and implications: as I wrote last summer in The New Yorker, "high risk" social activism requires deep roots and strong ties. But surely the least interesting fact about them is that some of the protesters may (or may not) have at one point or another employed some of the tools of the new media to communicate with one another. Please. People protested and brought down governments before Facebook was invented. They did it before the Internet came along.

There are all sort of reasons why Gladwell has got this wrong and it deserves to be dealt with at greater length than I can here. But to deny the impact of technological change on what we've witnessed in recent weeks seems foolish, to say the least.

quote:

11.21pm GMT: Avaaz, the web-based digital activists, announces that it is supplying high-tech equipment to the protesters in Egypt to help them circumvent government restrictions:

The global campaign organisation Avaaz is working to help provide activists in Egypt with satellite phone devices together with secure online software to allow them to send and share information confidentially, beating the government crackdown on information.

This comes as Avaaz has learnt that the Egyptian government has arrested eight bulletin board service operators in Egypt who have been providing internet access through landlines.

In partnership with the TOR Project, Avaaz is providing equipment and software to increase the flow of information and online access for news dissemination via satellite phones. This comes as the crisis in Egypt continues and internet and mobile network access remains intermittent and has again been shut off today.

Providing high-speed satellite equipment is not only much faster and more reliable, it is also far safer in the context of a violent government crackdown on information.

quote:

Op donderdag 3 februari 2011 03:28 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Wat een vreselijk cynische en oningelichte opmerking, heb je de quotes hierboven gelezen, en zoja, volgens welke gedachtelijnen ben je tot die post gekomen vraag ik me af?

quote:

UPDATE: A roommate of Chen called APN to say that the roommate had received the note left by APN. He said he would forward the note to Chen. He said that Chen had met with the university's administration yesterday and was advised not to speak to any more media.

(APN) ATLANTA -- On Thursday, January 27, 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigations raided the dorm room of Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) student Zhiwei "Jack" Chen, after the FBI obtained a warrant to search for materials related to Operation Payback (OP).

OP was an effort by a group of activists and hackers, called Anonymous, to take down websites Aiplex Software, Bank of America, Mastercard, MPAA, Paypal, RIAA, Visa, and US Copyright Office, after these sites refused to process donations for Wikileaks or otherwise adversely impacted Wikileaks.

The raid was first reported by the Technique student newspaper of Georgia Tech.

The raid is one of about 40 that took place around the country in connection with the investigation of OP.

Atlanta Progressive News has attempted to contact Chen by his campus email address, but has not heard back. APN also visited Chen's dorm, Towers Hall, earlier today, but all the doors were locked and there was no front desk. APN provided a resident of the dorm with a handritten note for Chen, which the student said he would deliver to Chen's room.

Chen, 18, is a freshman studying Computer Engineering, according to Tech's website.

After the incident, Chen posted a message on the website Reddit, along with a link to a photograph posted on Imgur.com, of the warrant that he was served, an inventory of the property seized from his room, and a business card left by the FBI agent.

The Reddit post was titled "IAMA Person Questioned about Operation Payback."

"FBI had a warrant to take all my electronics," Chen wrote. "They came in the dorm room bustin in @ 7:00, and pushed everyone out of bed. They searched the place and questioned all people involved."

"I was a passive admin for Operation Payback, and quit early to avoid complications with the law, but it seems the FBI has gotten the better of me," Chen wrote.

"Questions shall be answered whenever I have time, and when I find a public computer to use as they seized all my electronic assets," Chen wrote.

"TL;DR: FBI took all my stuff and questioned me about OP. Also, AMA," Chen wrote.

"Before his account [apparently his Reddit account] was deleted, Chen offered more details surrounding the situation. Upon request, he posted a copy of the search warrant and the identity of the FBI agent who executed the search," Technique reported.

"He also stated that he never participated in the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, but confirmed that he was an administrator on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel used to coordinate the operations," Technique reported.

The search warrant cited a case number, 1:11-MJ-0078, but said the case was under seal. The warrant was approved by United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, Magistrate Judge Russel G. Vineyard. It was issued January 25, 2010.

The warrant stated, "TO: Special Agent Roderick Franklin Coffin and any Authorized Officer of the United States. Affidavit(s) having been made before me by Roderick Franklin Coffin who has reason to believe that on the property or premises known as... See Attachment A... in the Northern District of Georgia there is now concealed a certain person or property, namely... See Attachment B... which constitutes evidence of the commission of a criminal offense and property which has been used as the means of committing a criminal offense, concerning violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section(s) 1030. I find the affidavit(s) establishes probable cause to search and seize the person or property from the person or premises described above."

The inventory of property taken from Chen's room included computers, an IPhone, handwritten notes, a digital camara, and URB drives.

Chen has denied being involved in Operation Payback, aside from having been a passive administrator on a chat room site for the group, Anonymous, that has been used to carry out OP.

"I thought 'Oh, there are some intelligent people here to chat with,' and apparently that got me into some extreme trouble," he told 11Alive news.

"I'm not involved in the attack on these sites," Chen said. "I feel devastated personally. Pretty much my life's been invaded. [The FBI] required me to give all my passwords I have and they pretty much took all my accounts, everything."

"Chen hasn't been charged with any crime and he says it could be weeks or months before he knows anything about the investigation. He is asking FBI agents to return his study materials and class documents," 11Alive reported.

The FBI issued a press release regarding the multiple search warrants executed.

"FBI agents today executed more than 40 search warrants throughout the United States as part of an ongoing investigation into recent coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations. Also today, the United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police Service executed additional search warrants and arrested five people for their alleged role in the attacks," the FBI wrote.

"These distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) are facilitated by software tools designed to damage a computer network’s ability to function by flooding it with useless commands and information, thus denying service to legitimate users. A group calling itself 'Anonymous' has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they conducted them in protest of the companies’ and organizations’ actions. The attacks were facilitated by the software tools the group makes available for free download on the Internet. The victims included major U.S. companies across several industries," the FBI wrote.

"The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating or conducting a DDoS attack is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as well as exposing participants to significant civil liability," the FBI wrote.

"The FBI is working closely with its international law enforcement partners and others to mitigate these threats. Authorities in the Netherlands, Germany, and France have also taken their own investigative and enforcement actions," the FBI wrote.

quote:

Op vrijdag 4 februari 2011 13:26 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

Payback is a bitch.

quote:

Op vrijdag 4 februari 2011 13:44 schreef Tijger_m het volgende:

[..]

Oh? Daar gaan ze eerst naar de rechter om een huiszoekingsbevel te halen? Is dat voor of nadat men ze het ziekenhuis in slaat? Deze yokel is niet eens gearresteerd of opgesloten.

Man, praat toch niet zulke baarlijke nonsens.

quote:

Anonymous, the clandestine group that operates "Operation Payback" and reportedly includes members of the "/b/" bulletin board 4chan.org, has set its sites on Egyptian government Web sites.

Soon after Egypt restored access to the Internet Tuesday, the group launched distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the Egyptian Ministry of Interior.

"Welcome back to the Internet, #Egypt. Well, except http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg -- you stay down," the group tweeted.

Several minutes later, the group added, "Internet in #Egypt is up. Why isn't Mubarak's site? Because we do not forgive, We do not forget. Egyptians, Hang in there, we are with you."

Group spokesman Gregg Housh told the New York Times that the attack is part of a larger campaign Anonymous is running to support anti-government protests. Last month, the group also took down the Web sites for the Tunisian government and its stock exchange.

This is the latest in a string of DDoS attacks organized by Anonymous. Last month, British police arrested five men for their alleged involvement in a string of DDoS attacks that targeted the Web sites of Visa, MasterCard, Amazon, and PayPal. The companies stopped processing payments and cut hosting ties with WikiLeaks after it released 250,000 State Department cables in late November, a move with which Anonymous disagreed.

Anonymous later said the UK government had made a "sad mistake" with the arrests and said DDoS attacks are simply the digital equivalent of a protest or sit-in.

quote:

Op vrijdag 4 februari 2011 18:29 schreef Im.Kant. het volgende:

een Egyptische gevangenis

quote:

Op vrijdag 4 februari 2011 18:35 schreef Im.Kant. het volgende:

[..]

Het enige wat ik tot dusver van dit topic heb geleerd is dat anon-falertjes niet enkel uit 14-jarigen maar ook uit oudere hoopjes vervelend bestaat

quote:

Op vrijdag 4 februari 2011 18:45 schreef Im.Kant. het volgende:



Het gaat hier namelijk gewoon om zielige hoopjes mens die hun 'roem' zoeken op het internet.

quote:

Hacktivists from the online group Anonymous have turned their attention to Yemen as part of their battle for greater net freedoms.

The website of President Ali Abdullah Saleh has become inaccessible as Yemenis stage anti-government protests.

It follows attacks on the websites of Egypt's ruling party and ministry of information this week.

Last month Anonymous shut down some Tunisian websites, including the government's official site.

Anonymous's move into Middle East politics has alarmed security experts, who warn people against jumping on the bandwagon.

"If you participate in these attacks, you are knowingly engaging in a cyber crime," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos.

Web freedoms

"If you aren't prepared to go and throw rocks, then maybe you should think again about clogging up websites with traffic," he added.

There have been five arrests in UK and the FBI launched raids across the US in connection with the Wikileaks cyber attacks, which saw members of Anonymous targeting firms which had withdrawn services from the whistle-blowing site.

Anonymous claims that it wants to uphold web freedoms around the world but as such attacks increase, it could have knock-on effect of governments seeking to make it harder to remain anonymous online, thinks Mr Cluley.

"If there was no ability for anonymity, we would all be the losers," he said.

quote:

Welcome everyone to ultimateleaks.org Our website is currently in BETA in some parts of the website. Our website was made so people can send us leaks using our secure "Ultimatepad" and will be posted once Authrized. Ultimateleaks is proud also to host a mirror site of the well known Wikileaks .

When pressing Ultimatepad at the top of the website, make sure you are using a Proxy/Tor so that you don't get caught uploading content to Ultimatepad. We also reccomend that you use outside your house and work internet, By going to a Cafe,Hotspots and more. Please make sure that you Don't Use Your IP!

**DISCLAIMER**:We dont have any connection with the owners and uploaders,nor we detain or visualise,share,or access the parent directory of the sTORage server.We discourage viewing anything related to Parent Directory On This Website.

Chat: http://www.anonops.in:9090/?nick=WebAnon....&channels=opegypt&prompt=1 --->Join #ultimateleaks <---

Follow us on Twitter for news and updates! http://www.twitter.com/ultimateleaks

quote:

Our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.” Hillary Clinton, January 25, Washington

quote:

When asked about the revolt in Egypt, 72% of american adults agreed that they should overthrow the current Pharaoh.” Anonymous member, #opegypt IRC, January 26,

quote:

But interestingly, in the #opegypt channel, one Anonymous member responded to criticism of Clinton by noting that, had the State Department statement been any stronger in support of the Egyptian protests, it might have enabled critics to paint them as tools of US policy, like the Iranian dictatorship did about 2009’s protests in that country. It was a subtle point, particularly for a group described variously as “juvenile”, “domestic terrorists” (thank you Fox News) and an “underground hate group”.

quote:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/2/5/175932/7709?new=true

Anonymous Concedes Defeat

A recent article in the Financial Times cites a certain Aaron Barr of the "security services" firm HBGay Federal (amirite?) as claiming to have discovered the identities of Anonymous' operating leadership and founder, with this having been accomplished in large part by an infiltration of our entirely secret IRC server anonops.ru and in particular our ultra-clasified channels #opegypt, #optunisia, and, of course, #reporters, which itself is the most secret of all.

The following message was relayed to all Anons possessing at least 30 degrees of initiate status (17 in Scotland) or their equivalent in reddit karma, and is being leaked to the laity in an effort to gain their useless sympathy:

URGENT WARNING TO ALL ANONYMOUS HACKTIVISTS:

Mr. Barr has successfully broken through our over 9000 proxy field and into our entirely non-public and secret insurgent IRC lair, where he then smashed through our fire labyrinth with vigor, collected all the gold rings on the way, opened a 50 silver key chest to find Anon's legendary hackers on steroids password.

As Mr. Barr has discovered in spite of our best efforts, Anonymous was founded by Q last Thursday at the guilded Bilderberg Hotel after a tense meeting with one Morrowind mod collection, which itself includes the essential Morrowind Comes Alive 5.2 as well as several retexturing packs, all of which seem to lower one's FPS unless one has also installed the latest Risc Architecture framework and thus obtained the killer refresh rate that is the right of all world citizens, except for noted heterosexual Tom Cruise.

In addition to the sudden disappearance of Anonymous leader Q, Anonymous co-founder Justin Bieber also disappeared just before his top-secret mission to Eritrea to offer physical succour to the rebels, suggesting that Mubarak is in our base, eating our Cheetos, likely with military support authorized by Hill Dawg. All of this comes at a low point for the Official Anonymous Organization, Inc. and its valued shareholders; several Anons had already lost their Fallout New Vegas saved games in the unwarranted and faggy raids perpetrated by the U.S. federales.

At this point, it is safe to assume that the underground server sites at the North Pole have been compromised as well. Back up all porn drives now, because the super secret P2P centralized distribution server of Backdoor Sluts 9 is presumed to be immediately threatened. Male Anons have been commanded to switch back to traditional tentacle porn while femanons, or "Rei Ayanami wannabes," continue to be shared among the Echelon Nine Working Group that has since replaced Owen as sky marshall.

However, David Davidson (who might also be the legendary Ceiling Cat, as rumors have it) so far eludes custody, so all is not lost. Mr Davidson skyped the anonymous leaders from his hideout in Philadelphia to remind them that he was "Never gonna give them up, never gonna let them down". Meanwhile, the board of directors remains little more than a gin-addled menagerie of puppets.

Despite these setbacks, the planned conference in Vienna is not slated for cancellation, although the buffet may be altered to include fewer Cheetos. The scheduled appearence of Boxxy is a subject of much contention within Anonymous ranks, being an event of considerably greater importance than the 4th return of Raptor Jesus, which itself is older than the internet.

We shall note in conclusion that we like the guy and want to believe him, but we still have to ask: Did Aaron Barr shave and murder Alexander Hamilton in 1993? We're just asking questions here, people. At any rate, the Pink Horse prophecy will soon be fulfilled.

All Hail Xenu,

-Anonymous

quote:

10.52am: Our correspondent in Cairo, Jack Shenker, reports on the latest skirmishes in a propaganda war between the regime and the protesters.

Jack Shenker

The standoff between protesters in Tahrir and the Mubarak regime is a media battle as much as anything else, and it's a vastly unequal one: the Egyptian government spends millions of dollars on a trio of top Washington lobbyists to help push its message to the international media and foreign policy-making circles, whilst those opposed to the regime have to rely on word of mouth and online social media sites, access to which has regularly been cut off by the authorities in recent days.

Now though, members of the anti-Mubarak occupation are getting more savvy in their efforts to keep global opinion on their side. A new tactic is to put out fake press releases, spoofing the official statements issued to journalists by government ministers. Take for example this announcement from newly-appointed prime minister Ahmed Shafiq on Friday (sent by the Ministry of Information):

Prime Minister: Protestors will not be forced to leave

4-2-2011

Cairo – Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik reiterated Governmental commitments that demonstrated would not be forced to leave Tahrir Square.

Speaking to an Arab Satellite Channel Dr. Shafik stressed that demonstrators were free to remain in the Tahrir Square, and that no one would be arrested for participating in the protests so long as they had not committed an act of violence or vandalism.

And now the response from a group of protesters in Tahrir, sent to me this morning:

Protesters: Mubarak will be forced to leave

6-2-2011

Tahrir – Pro-democracy activists reiterated their commitment that the existing regime would be forced to leave government.

The overwhelming consensus in the participatory, democratic arena of Tahrir Square, was that Mr Mubarak would be free to flee to the country of his choosing, and that he would not meet his just rewards, despite his prolonged acts of violence and vandalism against the country.

Given the brutality perpetrated against the anti-Mubarak crowds in Tahrir and elsewhere in the country - first by the state's central security forces then by regime-backed baltagiyya (thugs) - the protesters might be forgiven for thinking that it would be relatively simple to garner support from those watching events unfold from outside the square. But the struggle to shape the news agenda hour by hour, day by day, is a tough and unceasing one, and protesters know they have to try and keep their own voices prominent as other more formal opposition forces begin dialogue with the government, claiming to speak in their name. These spoof press releases may just do the trick.

Public Enemy - Don't Believe The Hype

quote:

my blog is under attack, i will publish the documents again, feel free to distribute 26 minutes ago via web

quote:

# security experts say DDoS attack 17 minutes ago via web

# documents not verified, but still my blog is being attacked for publishing them, fishy! 18 minutes ago via web

# those were the 5 documents, save them offline, publish elsewhere if possible, i give you all permission 19 minutes ago via web

# doc 5 http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7848/sixf.jpg 20 minutes ago via web

# doc 4 http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7848/sixf.jpg 21 minutes ago via web

# doc 3 http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4770/threehe.jpg 22 minutes ago via web

# doc 2 http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/6810/twovi.jpg 25 minutes ago via web

# doc 1 http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/9167/onexj.jpg

quote:

@bbclysedoucet: Just saw a motorcyle roar by with a pizza delivery..isn't there a curfew in Cairo? #jan25 #egypt

quote:

http://krebsonsecurity.co(...)hacked-by-anonymous/

A company that is helping the federal government track down cyberactivists who have been attacking business which refused to support Wikileaks has itself been hacked by the very same activists.

At the center of the storm is a leaderless and anarchic Internet group called Anonymous, which more recently has been coordinating attacks against Egyptian government Web sites. Late last month, authorities in the U.K. and the U.S. moved against at least 45 suspected Anonymous activists. Then, on Saturday, the Financial Times ran a story quoting Aaron Barr, the head of security services firm HBGary Federal, saying he had uncovered the identities of Anonymous’ leaders using social networking sites. Barr said he planned to release his findings at a security conference in San Francisco next week.

Anonymous responded by hacking into HBGary’s networks and posting archives of company executive emails on file-trading networks. The group also hacked the firm’s Web site and replaced it with a message saying it was releasing Barr’s findings on its own because the group was confident Barr’s conclusions were wrong.

“We’ve seen your internal documents, all of them, and do you know what we did? We laughed. Most of the information you’ve ‘extracted’ is publicly available via our IRC networks,” the statement reads. “The personal details of Anonymous ‘members’ you think you’ve acquired are, quite simply, nonsense. So why can’t you sell this information to the FBI like you intended? Because we’re going to give it to them for free.”

I tuned into this conflict late Sunday evening, after HBGary President Penny Leavy had waded into Anonymous’ public chat channel in an attempt to reason with the group. Earlier in the evening, Anonymous sympathizers hijacked several Twitter accounts belonging to HBGary employees, and used them to post offensive comments and personal information about the account holders.

The topic of the IRC channel Leavy joined said it all: “Mission: Aaron Bratt FIRED. His salary donated to Bradley Manning Defense Fund. Simple.” Leavy said the group was planning to publish online the entire email archive belonging to Greg Hoglund, the security researcher in California who co-founded HBGary, which is part owner of HBGary Federal.

A snippet from that conversation:

“[20:06:12] <+Penny> Guys, I can’t fire someone that owns a portion of the company What i can promise is we will have a meeting to discuss next steps”

In a phone interview late Sunday evening, Hoglund said that unlike the more traditional Web-site attacking activities of Anonymous, the hackers who infiltrated HBGary’s system showed real skills, even social engineering a network administrator into giving them complete control over rootkit.com, a security research site Hoglund has long maintained.

“They broke into one of HBGary’s servers that was used for tech support, and they got emails through compromising an insecure Web server at HBGary Federal,” Hoglund said. “They used that to get the credentials for Aaron, who happened to be an administrator on our email system, which is how they got into everything else. So it’s a case where the hackers break in on a non-important system, which is very common in hacking situations, and leveraged lateral movement to get onto systems of interest over time.”

Hoglund said Anonymous had crossed a line, and that posting the company’s email online would expose internal, proprietary data that would likely cost HBGary millions of dollars. He added that Anonymous activists should be able to see — if they read the email they’ve stolen — that HBGary ultimately decided not to publicly name any of the members it had identified.

“Before this, what these guys were doing was technically illegal, but it was in direct support of a government whistle blower. But now, we have a situation where they’re committing a federal crime, stealing private data and posting it on a torrent,” Hoglund said. “They didn’t just pick on any company, but we try to protect the US government from hackers. They couldn’t have chosen a worse company to pick on.”

quote:

Greetings HBGary (a computer "security" company),

Your recent claims of "infiltrating" Anonymous amuse us, and so do your attempts at using Anonymous as a means to garner press attention for yourself. How's this for attention?

You brought this upon yourself. You've tried to bite at the Anonymous hand, and now the Anonymous hand is bitch-slapping you in the face. You expected a counter-attack in the form of a verbal braul (as you so eloquently put it in one of your private emails), but now you've received the full fury of Anonymous. We award you no points.

What you seem to have failed to realize is that, just because you have the title and general appearence of a "security" company, you're nothing compared to Anonymous. You have little to no security knowledge. Your business thrives off charging ridiclous prices for simple things like NMAPs, and you don't deserve praise or even recognition as security experts. And now you turn to Anonymous for fame and attention? You're a pathetic gathering of media-whoring money-grabbing sycophants who want to reel in business for your equally pathetic company.

Let us teach you a lesson you'll never forget: you don't mess with Anonymous. You especially don't mess with Anonymous simply because you want to jump on a trend for public attention, which Aaron Barr admitted to in the following email:

"But its not about them...its about our audience having the right impression of our capability and the competency of our research. Anonymous will do what every they can to discredit that. and they have the mic so to speak because they are on Al Jazeeera, ABC, CNN, etc. I am going to keep up the debate because I think it is good business but I will be smart about my public responses."

You've clearly overlooked something very obvious here: we are everyone and we are no one. If you swing a sword of malice into Anonymous' innards, we will simply engulf it. You cannot break us, you cannot harm us, even though you have clearly tried...

You think you've gathered full names and home addresses of the "higher-ups" of Anonymous? You haven't. You think Anonymous has a founder and various co-founders? False. You believe that you can sell the information you've found to the FBI? False. Now, why is this one false? We've seen your internal documents, all of them, and do you know what we did? We laughed. Most of the information you've "extracted" is publicly available via our IRC networks. The personal details of Anonymous "members" you think you've acquired are, quite simply, nonsense.

So why can't you sell this information to the FBI like you intended? Because we're going to give it to them for free. Your gloriously fallacious work can be a wonder for all to scour, as will all of your private emails (more than 44,000 beauties for the public to enjoy). Now as you're probably aware, Anonymous is quite serious when it comes to things like this, and usually we can elaborate gratuitously on our reasoning behind operations, but we will give you a simple explanation, because you seem like primitive people:

You have blindly charged into the Anonymous hive, a hive from which you've tried to steal honey. Did you think the bees would not defend it? Well here we are. You've angered the hive, and now you are being stung.

It would appear that security experts are not expertly secured.

We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us - always.

---

Quick 'n dirty way to read the emails in a human-readable format:
1. Get a client. http://www.mozillamessaging.com/thunderbird/
2. Get a file renaming tool. http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Download.php (Windows)
3. Rename all the mail files so that they have a .eml extension.
4. Drag & drop them into Thunderbird.
5. Enjoy.

quote:

ANONYMOUS PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Distribution
February 7th, 2011

Recently, the head of internet security firm HBGary Federal, Aaron Barr, sought to elevate his investigation of the Anonymous movement by providing the Financial Times with what he claimed to be accurate and useful information about those who allegedly drive our activities.

In yesterday's release we inferred that the information presented was easy to undermine by any of the millions of people around the world with a cursory understanding of internet culture. Not only was the information provided by HBGary Federal woefully inaccurate, it provided no incriminating evidence against any of the persons named.

Today, Anonymous learned that HBGary Federal intended to sell to the FBI a large document (it can be found at http://hizost.com/... ) that allegedly detailed the identities of dozens of our participants.

Within hours of learning this, Anonymous infiltrated HBGary Federal's network and websites. Anonymous acquired the document with supposed personal details of anons, along with more than 50,000 company e-mails (~4.71GB) - all of which have now been distributed on the internet. Additionally, his associated websites and social media accounts were hijacked and manipulated to stress how poorly this 'security expert' handles matters of his own security ( http://imagebin.org/... ). Woe to his clients and others who invested in his confidence.

The lack of quality in Aaron Barr's undertaken research is worth noting. Aaron Barr missed a great deal of information that has been available online, and in fact failed to identify some of those whose identities were never intended to be hidden. People such as DailyKos' diarist blogger Barrett Brown, and the administrator for anonnews.org joepie91, whose identities could have been found with a simple Google search.

It is also worth noting that Aaron Barr was also providing this documentation as an example of investigation protocol. This would introduce a systemic flaw to the FBI's investigative woodwork. The risk of institutionalising a flawed procedure exponentiates a problem, and it does so at the taxpayers expense in every sense. Had the FBI indeed bought this information from HBGary Federal, it would have been paid for by taxpayers money. Many innocent people would have been marked as leaders in actions they may not even have been associated with.

Unlike you, Aaron, we did our research, we know who you are, and now, so will everyone else. Although you have managed to ruin your credibility in an attempt to further it, you did provide us with entertainment, albeit very briefly.

Anonymous does not have leaders. We are not a group, we are not an organization. We are just an idea. What we have done today will appear harsh. It is harsh. We will respond to those who see threats to Anonymous. We understand that our participants have been concerned about recent FBI raids and companies such as HBGary lurking in our chats, so we’ve given all of Anonymous a message: we will fight back.

We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us - always.

Yours faithfully,

Anonymous.

quote:

After the first few days of protests, it was clear that it was risky to be instantly identifiable as a journalist anywhere in Cairo. The state media has been pumping out xenophobic stories about foreign journalists causing all the problems and damaging Egypt’s image. (This in itself will be an interesting dynamic once it becomes clear which has triumphed: the nimble new-media denizens of Tahrir Square or a regime in full control of the official newspapers and television channels, harnessing its power to divide and rule.)

quote:

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/854937-anonymous-hacks-security-firm-in-revenge-for-identification-claims?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button

The head of a security company who boasted that he could identify the 'leaders' of hacktivist collective Anonymous has found his Twitter account, emails and company website hacked by members of the group.

Aaron Barr, CEO of security firm HBGary, had claimed that his firm was able to identify many of the leaders of Anonymous - the loose group with a constantly shifting membership that was behind cyber attacks on perceived enemies of WikiLeaks last year, such as MasterCard, Visa and PayPal.

Barr claimed that Anonymous only had about 30 regular participants, and 10 key individuals in leadership roles, out of the hundreds who take part in operations. He also claimed to have identified several of the key leaders.

But now he's discovered the downside of poking Anonymous, after his Twitter account was hijacked over the weekend. According to a report in the Guardian, the hijackers then started tweeting that they had full control of HBGary's websites, and had access to their email archives, financial and personal details, and had wiped a terabyte of data from their system. They also said that they were going to release the companies emails as a torrent.

In a final indignity, they also claimed to have wiped Barr's iPad.

While it's not possible to confirm the accuracy of all their claims, the HBGary website is certainly offline at the time of writing, having previously been replaced with an image that mocked the firm and Barr - reading, in part: 'You have little to no security knowledge... You think you've gathered the full names and home addresses of the "higher-ups" of Anonymous? You haven't. You think Anonymous has a founderand various co-founders? False... We've seen your internal documents, all of them, and do you know what we did? We laughed.'

'Let us teach you a lesson you'll never forget: you don't mess with Anonymous,' they added.

Penny Leavy, president of HB Gary Inc, told the Financial Times that the attack would cost the firm millions of dollars, and that they would work with police to track down those responsible, saying: 'They have committed a crime against our company and, unfortunately, we are legally bound. I wish it had been handled differently.

quote:

Sometime last night after 10pm, a /b/ user posted a proposition that the board's users troll the "pedophile" Dahvie Vanity. 4chan was still basking in its earlier harassment of Jessi Slaughter, so users quickly got on board—the thread exploded with suggestions and encouragement accompanied by unrelated pictures of boobs.

quote:

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Evidence collected by the FBI about Anonymous, which attacked websites of four companies to punish them for blocking contributions to WikiLeaks, will be considered this week by a U.S. grand jury, according to court papers and an informal spokesman for the group of activist hackers.

The federal grand jury in San Jose, California, will begin reviewing evidence tomorrow that includes computers and mobile phones seized from suspected leaders as prosecutors probe the coordinated so-called denial-of-service attacks in December, according to a federal subpoena and the spokesman, Barrett Brown. Anonymous directed activists to target payment processors MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc., EBay Inc. ’s PayPal, and U.K.-based Moneybookers.com in public chat rooms.

Among the evidence seized by the FBI during multistate raids on Jan. 27 was data taken from an individual who controls one of Anonymous’s primary servers, identified by the organization only by his cyber-handle ‘Owen,’ Brown said.

“The FBI is breaking down people’s doors with guns drawn,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a member of the board of the National Lawyers Guild , which has talked with Anonymous organizers about their legal defense. “A group of people are engaged in a modern day electronic sit-in, and the FBI wants to treat that like it’s terrorist activity.”

Anonymous responded on Feb. 6 by hacking a California-based security firm that it said was aiding the probe, hijacking 60,000 company e-mails and making them public on one of the organization’s servers. The e-mails included a proposal by the company to develop a malware tracking program for the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), among other confidential documents.

Drawn Guns

Jenny Shearer, a Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman, said the agency couldn’t comment on the probe or its targets. She said “it’s not unusual” to have drawn guns during the execution of a search warrant until “the situation is secure.”

The subpoena shows federal investigators are trying to piece together the workings of an elusive group composed of hundreds of hackers and activists stretched across several countries. Brown said about a dozen members are able to influence the direction of Anonymous .

Agents served a grand jury subpoena on a California man who goes by the screen name ‘Trivette,’ ordering him to appear before the panel tomorrow. It demands all information he has on how the December attacks were organized, including instructions to activists on how to download software that can overwhelm websites by inundating them with thousands of service requests a second.

‘Names, Handles’

The subpoena requested information on the group’s hierarchy and structure, including “names, handles, e-mail accounts, or IP addresses,” according to a copy provided to Bloomberg News by the organization.

The FBI also raided the home of a 19-year-old Nevada woman, Brown said. Agents seized two computers, including one owned by her father, her iPhone, two flash drives and a router, Brown said.

Among other recent high-profile attacks, Anonymous has claimed in public statements responsibility for crashing government websites in Egypt and Tunisia to support political protests.

Brown said the group, whose activities have sparked an international investigation and five arrests in Britain, is dedicated to “the defense of liberty.” Its goal is “a perpetual revolution across the world that goes on until governments are basically overwhelmed and results in a freer system,” he said.

History of Retaliation

Several cyber-security experts declined to speak about the group or its activities on the record because of its history of retaliating against critics, such as the Feb. 6 attack on a cyber security firm HBGary Federal, which Anonymous accused of aiding the government’s investigation.

Shearer, the FBI spokeswoman, declined to comment on any cooperation between the agency and the security firm.

Aaron Barr, the head of security services for the Sacramento-based company, was quoted in the Financial Times on Feb. 4 saying that he had information on the identity of Anonymous leaders that he planned to release at a cyber conference this month.

The following day, the group hacked into the company’s network and took more than 60,000 internal e-mails and began releasing them last night, Brown said. It also hijacked the Twitter accounts of HBGary’s employees, using them to post personal information such as social security numbers and addresses, he said.

In one e-mail provided by Anonymous, HBGary Chief Executive Officer Greg Hoglund discussed a possible “60 Minutes” interview on Anonymous, as well as how the security firm could use it to their advantage.

Public ‘Hero’

“Position Aaron as a hero to the public,” Hoglund wrote to Barr and Karen Burke, the firm’s spokeswoman. “I think these guys are going to get arrested, it would be interesting to leave the soft impression that Aaron is the one that got them, and that without Aaron the Feds would have never been able to get out of their own way.”

Burke declined to comment on that communication or the other e-mails or whether the firm negotiated with Anonymous to retrieve the internal communications before they became public, as the group claimed.

Investigation Continuing

“The investigation into our breach is still ongoing so it would be premature to comment further at this time,” HBGary Federal President Penny Leavy said in a statement.

The exposure has the potential to be extremely damaging to the security company and its reputation, said Susan Freiwald, an expert on cyber security and law at the University of San Francisco.

“It’s a security firm,” Freiwald said. “It’s especially sensitive for them to be portrayed as insecure.”

The search warrants issued by the FBI in some cases referred to possible violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the main federal anti-hacking statute, Brown said.

The law can be used to prosecute denial-of-service attacks, according to a Justice Department manual relating to computer crime and intellectual property posted on the agency website. Prosecutors must prove an attack caused at least $5,000 in damage to a company or its operations, a threshold the December attacks probably meets, Freiwald said.

No One Arrested

No one has been arrested yet in the U.S. in connection with the probe, Brown said. The Lawyers Guild’s Verheyden-Hilliard said the attacks against PayPal or MasterCard should be viewed as a form of modern-day civil disobedience, the equivalent of blocking a company’s virtual storefront.

Those attacks may have slowed or disabled the companies’ websites temporarily without affecting their payment processing functions, the companies said.

“Civil disobedience is historically more effective when the state intervenes in a heavy-handed way,” said Ryan Calo, an expert in cyber crime at Stanford University in Stanford, California. “It is not just the act but also all the follow-up -- the subpoenas, arrests, a trial. That’s all part of the act of civil disobedience.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Riley in Washington at michaelriley@bloomberg.net .

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net .