Anonops #6: Anonymous en de MO-revoluties

quote:

Franzys999 RT @AnonNewsNet: And lo, the interwebz did render the BOAleak as a Google Doc: http://goo.gl/stY37 #Anonymous #AnonLeaks #BlackMonday #OpESR 6 minutes ago via web

quote:

Report: Iran's paramilitary launches cyber attack

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian hackers working for the powerful Revolutionary Guard's paramilitary Basij group have launched attacks on websites of the "enemies," a state-owned newspaper reported Monday in a rare acknowledgment from Iran that it's involved in cyber warfare.

The report followed an announcement in January that Iran had formed its first cyber police unit in an attempt by authorities to gain an edge in the digital world.

The Internet has also been a key outlet for Iran's opposition since the 2009 disputed presidential election. In addition, Iran has been trying to boost its web defenses after the Stuxnet computer worm made its way into computers involved with the country's controversial nuclear program.

Gen. Ali Fazli, acting commander of the Basij, was quoted by state-owned IRAN paper as saying Iran's cyber army is made up of university teachers, students and clerics. He said its attacks were a retaliation for similar attacks on Iran, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency. There were no further details about the possible targets or the time of the attacks.

"As there are cyber attacks on us, so is our cyber army of the Basij, which includes university instructors and students, as well as clerics, attacking websites of the enemy," Fazli said. "Without resorting to the power of the Basij, we would not have been able to monitor and confront our enemies."

So far, the Revolutionary Guard — Iran's military-industrial powerhouse — was believed linked to the secretive "Cyber Army" that emerged to fight opposition websites and blogs after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009.

In February, Guard chief, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, signaled that the force supports the cyber army, describing it as a "defensive, security, political and cultural need for all countries." Jafari claimed at the time that the Guard have been successful in cyber warfare.

Iran has been seeking to master the digital world as a crucial step to prepare for what it calls "soft war," which includes fighting against cyber attacks such as the Stuxnet computer worm that Iran said was aimed at sabotaging its uranium enrichment program.

Iranian officials claimed there were no setbacks in nuclear operations from Stuxnet but a November report by the U.N. nuclear agency said Iran's enrichment program was temporarily shut down in a possible link to the worm's infiltration at the Natanz nuclear facility.

The origins of Stuxnet are unclear. But it's considered a highly sophisticated malware designed to attack industrial systems and could have been aimed at the centrifuges used in uranium enrichment. Washington and others worry that Iran could eventually produce nuclear material for warheads, but Iran insists it only seeks to enrich uranium for energy and research.

The country has also been wary about Western cultural influences while trying to gain the upper hand in cyberspace against web-savvy opposition groups. Opposition groups use proxy servers and other tactics to stay ahead of authorities.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

quote:

Anonymous ‘OperationLeakS’ Exposes Bank of America Fraud Emails

At 12:00 midnight, Eastern Standard Time, the dawn of ‘Black Monday’ broke on America. Anonymous leaked the first in a series of email files aimed at proving Bank of America’s involvement in serious fraud. The access to the actual site where the following information was first posted by @OperationLeaKs, and where the larger size of the screen images are posted, is limited at times, but patients will prevail. Updates can be obtained through the Twitter account @OperationsLeakS . Many thanks to all those involved with Anonymous for shining a light on this information and bringing the facts to the public.

Links to information for how you may help Anonymous will be posted at the bottom.

quote:

http://www.dailykos.com/s(...)lton-VP-Caught-Lying

Pursuant to our ongoing investigation into the various intelligence contractors who worked in conjunction with the Department of Justice and other agencies to commit unethical and possibly illegal acts against Wikileaks, Glenn Greenwald, and Anonymous, I placed a call this morning to William Wansley, senior vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton. I asked Mr. Wansley about his relationship to incompetent federal contractor and former HBGary CEO Aaron Barr, who himself was fundamental to the conspiracy linking his company to Palantir, Hunton Williams, Bank of America, the Chamber of Commerce, Endgame Systems, and other entities, including Booz. He said he had no relationship with HBGary, which is odd insomuch as that this e-mail would seem to indicate otherwise.

Incidentally, I made the call from a one-party consent wiretapping state - good old Texas - pursuant to an investigation by Anonymous Holdings Company LLC/Anonymous Institute of the Rule of LAWL, which is to say it is entirely legal for me to record such a conversation and, say, upload it to the internet.

quote:

I forgot to mention. I had a meeting yesterday with Bill Wansley over at Booz yesterday. He said Mike McConnell is walking around like the cat that got the canary because their is something to happen or be released soon that is very significant in the cyber arena. Any knowledge?

Aaron

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 29, 2011, at 7:58 AM, Tom Conroy wrote:

> Aaron -
>
> Here is the note I sent to a senior at USCYBERCOM. I'll let you know if I hear back.
>
> As you can see, I took off your email address to protect you from immediate attention, though it would be easy to identify you by checking the speakers at the conference you reference. Let's see what they do with our offer.
>
> BTW, if they do research your identity by going to the online B-Sides agenda, what are they going to think of you when they see the title you've chosen? You have certainly chosen a topic that will generate lots of interest.
> Name: Aaron Barr
> Talk: Who Needs NSA when we have Social Media
>
> Tom
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Fwd: Ongoing Research
> Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 07:48:35 -0500
> From: Tom Conroy
> To: Dave
>
>
> Dave -
>
> This comes to me from someone I trust deeply and who has developed some
> extraordinarily valuable and effective capabilities for our former
> agency. He is fully SCI cleared. When I first heard of Aaron's work I
> figured you, or someone in your organization, would or should be
> extremely interested in learning about his work before he takes it public.
>
> When Aaron first mentioned his research, he told me that the "Anonymous"
> group has also been directly involved in Cyber attacks on MasterCard,
> and the governments and nations of Venezuela, Tunisia, and Egypt. That,
> it seems to me, would make them of high interest to the State Department
> and FBI as well as your organization. Please let me know if you would
> like to meet him.
>
> Tom
>
> P.S. I have also encouraged him to offer his research to ODNI and to
> others. In response to my encouragement he has reached out to Dawn
> Meyerriecks at ODNI as well as others whom I don't know.
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Ongoing Research
> Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:23:57 -0500
> From: Aaron
> To: Tom Conroy
>
>
>
> Tom,
>
> I have been researching the Anonymous group over the last few weeks in
> preparation for a social media talk I will be giving at the BSIDES
> conference in San Francisco on Feb. 14th. My focus is to show the power
> of social media analytics to derive intelligence and for potential
> exploitation. In the talk I will be focusing how effective it is to
> penetrate three organizations, one military (INSCOM), one Critical
> Infrastructure (Nuclear Power Plant in PA), and the Anonymous Group.
> All penetrations passed social media exploitation are inferred (i.e. I
> am not delivering any payload).
>
> I am surprised at the level of success I am having on the Anonymous
> group. I am able to tie IRC Alias to Facebook account to real people.
> I have laid out the organizations communications and operational
> structure. Determined the leadership of the organization (mostly - some
> more work here to go).
>
> I have to believe this data would be valuable to someone in government,
> and if so I would like to get this data in front of those that are
> interested prior to my talk, as I imagine I will get some press around
> the talk and the group will likely change certain TTP's afterwards.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Aaron

quote:

Op maandag 14 maart 2011 15:52 schreef MangoTree het volgende:
Mar 14 - 2:36 PM:
Libyan state TV website has been hacked! http://ljbc.net/home.php (Digest Report)


Klopt dit?

quote:

How did this mystery girl become a hacker? Kayla says that’s down to her dad, a software engineer who won custody over her after a divorce that deemed him the “more ’stable’ parent.” They moved to the countryside where others her age were few and far between. The house was meanwhile littered with programming books on Linux kernel, Intel manuals and networking books. “I just started reading them,” she says. By the time Kayla was 14 she could fully program C and x86 assembly.

“My dad encouraged it at first,” she says. “He thought it was awesome I was so in to what he did.” Dad allegedly showed her how to find bugs in C source code and exploit them. It was all harmless and Kayla had only been using the Internet to talk to friends on MSN. But she began looking into hacking, and learned scripting languages like Perl, Python and PHP, figuring out how to use databases like MySQL and how to attack them using SQL injection.

quote:

http://pastebin.com/HhVT728R
[20:16] <josie> So was a 16 year old girl really involved in the HBGary deal??
[20:17] <PKE> lol
[20:17] <PKE> no
[20:17] <PKE> its a hoax
[20:17] <@esc> lol
[20:17] <@wew> no
[20:17] <@wew> xD
[20:17] <josie> meme right?!
[20:17] <PKE> but shh
[20:17] <@wew> hahha
[20:17] <PKE> or is it?
[20:17] <@wew> no no josie i am she : )
[20:17] * @esc grins
[20:17] <josie> ohhhh.. k.
[20:18] <&Topiary> wew: your missed half the lulz which was a shame
[20:18] <&Topiary> *you

quote:

Anonymous To Release Documents Showing ‘Virtual Armies’ Used To Identify Dissidents

Members of the international hacking group Anonymous claim to have documents and e-mails that put Virginia-based consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton at the center of accusations of developing software used against dissidents in countries including Azerbaijan.

Spokespeople at Booz Allen could not be reached for comment on the phone or via e-mail.

Anonymous adviser Barrett Brown claimed on the group’s Radio Payback show earlier today that the software had led to rebels in Azerbaijan, where Booz Allen has offices, getting arrested. The software creates “armies of fake people” through social media sites like Facebook, he said, which results in identifying dissidents with anonymous profiles, a method also known as astroturfing.

The information came to light through thousands of e-mails belonging to software security firm HBGary’s former CEO, Aaron Barr, who’s accounts were hacked by supporters of Anonymous after he claimed to have identified members of the group by (ironically) using fake profiles on social media.

Another member of the group known as Topiary says the information, which it promises to release within the next few hours, does not amount to “solid proof” but comes from informants who have worked closely with companies involved and can confirm that Booz Allen created the software, having allegedly won a contract with the U.S. Air Force. The hacker was also unsure if Booz Allen sold the software to the government of Azerbaijan or was using it on its behalf, but believes it may also have been used in Iraq.

“We know the U.S. Air Force and the Pentagon asked for it, we do know that Booz Allen and Aaron Barr [of HBGary] bid for the contract, we’ve got confirmation from Booz Allen themselves that the software exists,” he claims.

Booz Allen Hamilton is a technology and engineering consultancy that provides services primarily to the U.S. government in the defense, intelligence, and civil sectors, as well as corporations, institutions, and nonprofit organization, according to its web site.

“This entire thing is a result of leverage from the leaked HBGary emails,” says Topiary, “which was a result of leverage from an infiltrated Google Mail App of HBGary Federal, which was a result of leverage from Aaron Barr using the same password twice.”

quote:

Op donderdag 17 maart 2011 02:33 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Ik vroeg me eerder nog af waarom HBG zo belangrijk zou zijn, maar dat begint nu toch wel heel duidelijk te worden.

quote:

http://www.guardian.co.uk(...)-networks?CMP=twt_gu

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media using fake online personas designed to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.

A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with the US Central Command (Centcom) to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities at once.

The contract stipulates each persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 controllers must be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".

The project has been likened by web experts to China's attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet.

Centcom's contract requires the provision of one "virtual private server" in the United States and eight appearing to be outside the US to give the impression the fake personas are real people located in different parts of the world. It calls for "traffic mixing", blending the persona controllers' internet usage with the usage of people outside Centcom in a manner that must offer "excellent cover and powerful deniability".

Once developed the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with a host of co-ordinated blogposts, tweets, retweets, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command.

Centcom spokesman Commander Bill Speaks said: "The technology supports classified blogging activities on foreign-language websites to enable Centcom to counter violent extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US."

He said none of the interventions was in English, as it would be unlawful to "address US audiences" with such technology, and any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.

The multiple persona contract is thought to have been awarded as part of a programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a psychological warfare weapon against the online presence of al-Qaida supporters and others ranged against coalition forces. Since then OEV is reported to have expanded into a $200m programme and is thought to have been used against jihadists across Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Middle East.

OEV is seen by senior US commanders as a vital counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation programme. In evidence to the US Senate's armed services committee last year, General David Petraeus, then commander of Centcom, described the operation as an effort to "counter extremist ideology and propaganda and to ensure that credible voices in the region are heard". He said the US military's objective was to be "first with the truth".

This month Petraeus's successor, General James Mattis, told the same committee that OEV "supports all activities associated with degrading the enemy narrative, including web engagement and web-based product distribution capabilities".

The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as "sock puppets" – could encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.

Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.

Centcom confirmed that the $2.76m contract was awarded to Ntrepid, a newly formed corporation registered in Los Angeles. It would not disclose whether the multiple persona project is in operation or discuss any related contracts.

Nobody was available for comment at Ntrepid.

In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." Centcom was working with "our coalition partners" to develop new techniques and tactics that the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".

According to a report by the inspector general of the US defence department in Iraq,, OEV was managed by the multinational forces rather than Centcom.

Asked whether any UK military personnel had been involved in OEV, Britain's Ministry of Defence said it could find "no evidence". The MoD refused to say whether it had been involved in the development of persona management programmes, however, saying: "We don't comment on cyber capability."

OEV was discussed last year at a gathering of electronic warfare specialists in Washington DC, where a senior Centcom officer told delegates that its purpose was to "communicate critical messages and to counter the propaganda of our adversaries".

Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.

Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.

It is unclear whether a persona management programme would contravene UK law. Legal experts say it could fall foul of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, which states that "a person is guilty of forgery if he makes a false instrument, with the intention that he or another shall use it to induce somebody to accept it as genuine, and by reason of so accepting it to do or not to do some act to his own or any other person's prejudice". However, this would apply only if a website or social network could be shown to have suffered "prejudice" as a result.

quote:

http://imgur.com/7JJ9u
Oh, Hai there Adrian Lamo. You should pay more attention to what's on your computer screen while you're being interviewed!

quote:

http://www.tgdaily.com/se(...)operation-metal-gear
The cyber activist group known as Anonymous has launched a new campaign dubbed Operation Metal Gear.

According to an Anonymous press release circulated Wednesday evening, Metal Gear is primarily investigative in nature, as it seeks to track down an enigmatic, yet sophisticated military app designed to spawn multiple cyber personalities.

quote:

db_s_turbosnail RT @atopiary: There needs to be a mass celebration in #OpLibya - http://irc.lc/AnonOps/OpLibya | Please retweet, join the IRC, share the win! #Anonymous