Anonops #6: Anonymous en de MO-revoluties

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http://anonops.blogspot.com/
Online mischief makers Anonymous are set to launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the website of the US Chamber of Commerce later today, in retaliation for the organisation's support for the draft PROTECT IP Act.

The 'hacktivist' collective announced it would launch the DDoS attack at 20:00 Eastern Standard Time.

If passed, the 'Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property' Act - 'PROTECT IP', for short - will allow US Justice Department officials to force ISPs and search engines to block access to web sites it believes to be infringing US copyright laws, and would require other companies such as advertising network providers and payment processors to cease doing business with them.

Anonymous said that the US Chamber of Commerce is being targeted for its support for the bill, which critics accuse of having disastrous implications for freedom of speech and the open exchange of information online.

The collective issued the following call to arms yesterday:

"As pioneers of this new world, it’s our duty to resist and fight those who attempt to stop us. Whether you’re a journalist or blogger, or a participant of Anonymous, or the activists on the ground who protest against these corporate thugs and oppressive regimes and risk everything for freedom of information and speech, we are all in this battle together and we have a responsibility to protect our civil liberties.

"This attack tomorrow will send yet another message to the pigs that run the state that we will not be another cog in the f****d up clock that these corporate entities attempt to preserve through their political puppets in Washington.

"This is our world now and we will fight for it. Take it or leave it."

Message From Anonymous ( IP ACT)

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Cyberaanval is in VS voortaan oorlogshandeling

Het Pentagon kan grote cyberaanvallen door andere landen voortaan classificeren als oorlogshandelingen. Dat meldde de krant The Wall Street Journal vandaag op basis van bronnen binnen het Amerikaanse ministerie van Defensie.

De nieuwe zienswijze staat in de eerste formele cyberstrategie van het Pentagon. De strategie maakt de weg vrij om op een cyberaanval te reageren met conventionele militaire middelen. Niet-geheime onderdelen van het plan worden naar verwachting volgende maand gepubliceerd.

Afschrikken
Door cyberaanvallen te zien als oorlogshandelingen proberen de Verenigde Staten hackende buitenlandse mogendheden af te schrikken. 'Als jij ons elektriciteitsnet afsluit, schieten wij misschien een raket in je schoorsteen', aldus een militaire functionaris in The Wall Straat Journal.

Volgens het Pentagon zijn cyberaanvallen net zo gevaarlijk voor bijvoorbeeld kernreactoren, pijpleidingen en metrostelsels zijn als een traditioneel vijandelijk leger.

China
De afgelopen tijd kregen de VS en andere landen te maken met cyberaanvallen. Afgelopen weekeinde sloeg het Amerikaanse bedrijf Lockheed Martin naar eigen zeggen een krachtige cyberaanval af. De onderneming is een van de belangrijkste leveranciers van informatietechnologie, vliegtuigen en wapensystemen van de Amerikaanse overheid. Hackers wisten in 2008 in ten minste één belangrijk Amerikaans militair computersysteem te infiltreren.

Sommigen beschuldigen China van zulk soort internetaanvallen.
Vorig jaar werd het Iraanse kernprogramma getroffen door de computerworm Stuxnet. Vaak blijft onduidelijk wie er achter de cyberaanval zat.

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“The Global Strike calls for a series of disruptions in the North American version of the Arab Revolution that was spawned in January starting with Egypt’s revolt against Hosni Mubarark’s thirty years of dictatorship. ”

Read more about Global Strike Planned 2011 - Politicol News on:
http://www.politicolnews.(...)&utm_campaign=share&

Message From Anonymous (NATO)

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Hello This Is Anonymous... This Message Is For You North Atlantic Treaty Organization... In Recent News On Your Report...
Information and National Security" from General Rapporteur Lord Jopling of the UK discusses the potential good of social networks for fostering democracy, the WikiLeaks scandal, and how hacktivists need to be burned at the stake.
"Virtual communities operating online provide new opportunities for civil society, but they have also increased the potential for asymmetrical attacks," the report says. "Apart from causing harm, destruction or conducting espionage, most recent cyber attacks have also been used as a means to reach, a rather different goal, 'Hactivism' is a relatively recent form of social protest or expression of ideology by using hacking techniques."
The report then singles out Anonymous as an example of this new trend by relating the group's support of Julian Assange's WikiLeaks.But that "info-war" is only the beginning, according to NATO. "Observers note that Anonymous is becoming more and more sophisticated and could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files." The report then explains how Anonymous hacked government contractor HBGary's servers and the CEO's Twitter account. after the group revealed the government's plans to take down WikiLeaks.

You Claim To Represent The Following.

1.Peace And Security That's Our Mission.

2.We Want To Be Sure That We Can Walk Around Freely In A Safe And Secure Environment. Security In All Areas Of Everyday Life Is Key To Our Well-Being, But It Cannot Be Taken For Granted.

3.NATO Promotes Democratic Values And Encourages Consultation And Cooperation On Defence And Security Issues To Build Trust And, In The Long Run, Prevent Conflict.

The Manner Of Which You Try To Push The Pursuit Of Anonymous. Seems To Be More Of An Issue Of Opportunity To Censor Anonymous. Rather Than An Honest And General Concern. All Of Anonymous' Previous Attacks And Protest Have Not Ignited Any Action Against Us From NATO. Though With The Most Recent Attack Of The United States Chamber Of Commerce Website. You Wish To Become Involved. If Your Goal Was To Start War With Anonymous. Then Why Would You Allow Visa, Pay Pal , Master Card And Countless Other Actions To Go Without Prosecution. Then A Simple Website Is Made Unavailable You Sound Your Drums Of War. Be Warned We Do Not Wish This. Nor Do We Want This. But Make No Mistake... We Will Defend Ourselves. We Are Anonymous. We Are Legion. We Do Not Forgive. We Do Not Forget. Expect Us.

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http://www.thinq.co.uk/20(...)persecute-anonymous/

NATO leaders have been warned that WikiLeaks-loving 'hacktivist' collective Anonymous could pose a threat to member states' security, following recent attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce and defence contractor HBGary - and promise to 'persecute' its members.

In a toughly-worded draft report to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, General Rapporteur Lord Jopling claims that the loose-knit, leaderless group is "becoming more and more sophisticated", and "could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files".

The group demonstrated its capabilities in February, says the report, when it hacked into US-based defence contractor HBGary. Documents stolen in the attack lifted the lid on the US military's plans to use social network surveillance software, code-named 'Metal Gear' by the online hive-mind, which could control an army of fake profiles, collecting data from disparate sites and piecing together an individual's identity by analysing linguistic traits and other details.

Describing the rise of the group from its beginnings on internet picture message board 4chan, via campaigns against the Church of Scientology and, more recently, in support of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, the report continues: "Today, the ad hoc international group of hackers and activists is said to have thousands of operatives and has no set rules or membership."

The report goes on to lay out a stark warning to the group's nameless participants:

"It remains to be seen how much time Anonymous has for pursuing such paths. The longer these attacks persist the more likely countermeasures will be developed, implemented, the groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted."

Reacting to the extraordinary threat in a post on micro-blogging site Twitter, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an MP in NATO member Iceland, said she was "seeking input". Jónsdóttir claimed the report of "falsifies facts" about WikiLeaks - for whom she was formerly an activist - and Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of leaking the US government's so-called 'Cablegate' diplomatic memos.

NATO's threat follows a recent toughening of governmental stances against hacking on both sides of the Atlantic, with major NATO players the US and the UK outlining their strategies for what appears a forthcoming age of cyber-warfare.

A policy document released last month and signed by President Obama issued an oblique threat of military retaliation against hackers, if legal and political measures prove fruitless.

"The United States will ensure that the risks associated with attacking or exploiting our networks vastly outweigh the potential benefits," the document said.

Yesterday, the UK's coalition government unveiled plans to recruit 'hundreds' of cyber-soldiers into a new defence task force aimed at combating online attacks.

"Our forces depend on computer networks, both in the UK and in operations around the world. But our adversaries present an advance and rapidly developing threat to these networks," the MoD said in the statement.

The UK government's statement didn't name who those adversaries were. In the light of Lord Jopling's report, perhaps it is now a little clearer just who they may have in mind.

Read more: http://www.thinq.co.uk/20(...)ymous/#ixzz1OICoT5hd

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International Monetary Fund Braces For Possible Hack Attack From Anonymous

The International Monetary Fund is ready to be hacked.

According to the Wall Street Journal, an IMF spokesperson confirms that it is taking measures to safeguard against a possible hack attack from cybervigilante group Anonymous.

"We are aware of the threat, and have taken appropriate action," an IMF spokesman told the WSJ.

Anonymous posted a tweet on Wednesday urging followers to set their sights on the IMF website. "#OperationGreece: Target: http://www.imf.org," the tweet read. The time of the attack is still "TBA."

IMF, currently in negotiations to help stabilize Greece's suffering economy, recently approved a $40 billion dollar loan as a part of a $140 billion bailout package.

Anonymous released a missive on May 25 condemning the Greek Government and the IMF for accepting the loan without letting citizens vote on the agreement, and for subjecting the people of the country to "prolonged poverty and a dramatic decrease in their standards of living."

"The people of Greece have been left with no other option than to take to the streets in a peaceful revolution against the economic tyrants that are the IMF," Anonymous wrote.

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BREAKING NEWS: Ten year old behind latest government website hack

Abuja - Though unconfirmed, widespread rumours in the digital underground claims that the job of hacking into the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) website was entrusted to a ten year old hacker.

“Anyone older or more experienced would have been overkill,” said an anonymous source who claims to be a member of the online group, NaijaCyberHacktivists.

A government official has rejected the insinuation that government websites are rubbish.

According to him, “Our websites are built with government IT equipment in mind. Have you tried viewing a flash website via a 26k modem on a Windows 95 computer?”

Asked what the government is doing to track down the computer hackers, he said: “We are currently clamping down on all suspicious internet cafes.”

In the meantime, intercepted government email correspondence has also revealed that the federal government is considering retaining the services of NaijaCyberHacktivists to break into the email account of late Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha, for clues as to where he hid all the money from the Gulf-War Oil windfall.

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Anony_Ops Anonymous Operations
by BarrettBrownLOL
#OpIran: 10,365 e-mails from the Iranian government. http://bit.ly/kE5kSk Pass: opiranopiran We are #Anonymous. #Iran should've expected us.

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[hackerspaces] Open letter to Anonymous

OPEN LETTER TO THE ANONYMOUS LEGIONS

in reply to

074 CDS 11 E - INFORMATION AND NATIONAL SECURITY
http://www.nato-pa.int/default.asp?SHORTCUT=2443

and to

LulzSec versus FBI (we challenge you, NATO!)
http://pastebin.com/MQG0a130

re all

We all know that cyberspace has come to an intense moment of
confrontation; it will become more and more difficult to focus on the
very reasons of the conflict opening, as the fog of war is
rising. This Open letter is an effort to focus on what is happening.

Hackers: behind all our actions there is a pulsating will to make
justice and to protect our freedoms. Fighting injustice has long moved
the hearts and souls of many people in history.

Meanwhile, the state of asymmetric cyber warfare in 2011 is
paradoxical: national defense departments against kids in their
bedrooms, an exaggeration depicting well the deep necessity of reform
faced by all forms of organized intelligence that existed before the
proliferation of digital networks; namely the most populous one, the
Internet, now 18 years old.

As usual, the reasons why members of an organization like NATO are
moved to fight are related to territorial control and predominance;
likewise, the reasons moving the legions of Anonymous are in their
deepest sense, and behind the lulz, a political stance supported by
natives and, as such, have a huge constituent potential.

The reasons that invigorate today the courage of the Legions of
Anonymous are also very similar to the political reasons that made the
Legion of Underground declare war to Iraq and China in 1999:

the reiterated threats to the freedom of the population;

the state's efforts to censor, monitor and manipulate the natural flow
of information;

the lies that monopolies, corporations and governments use to hide
failures in the eyes of their citizens and clients;

the resistance of nations to move out of obsolete forms of governance
engulfed by media-dictatorships;

the oppression against investigative journalists, hackers and such
liminal figures operating on the edges of semiospheres;

to name just a few.

Since this scenario is not new, please consider the war that might be
profiling ahead by reading further the statement below.

Solid.

LoU STRIKE OUT WITH INTERNATIONAL COALITION OF HACKERS:
A JOINT STATEMENT BY 2600,
THE CHAOS COMPUTER CLUB,
THE CULT OF THE DEAD
COW,
!HISPAHACK,
L0PHT HEAVY INDUSTRIES,
PHRACK AND PULHAS

Date: 7.1.1999

An international coalition of hackers strongly condemns the Legion of
the Underground's (LoU) recent "declaration of war" against the
governments of Iraq and the People's Republic of China. Citing human
rights violations and other repressive measures the LoU declared their
intention to disrupt and disable Internet infrastructures in Iraq and
China. In a decision that was more rash than wise, the LoU will do
little to alter existing conditions and much to endanger the rights of
hackers around the world.

We - the undersigned - strongly oppose any attempt to use the power of
hacking to threaten or destroy the information infrastructure of a
country, for any reason. Declaring "war" against a country is the most
irresponsible thing a hacker group could do. This has nothing to do
with hacktivism or hacker ethics and is nothing a hacker could be
proud of.

Frank Rieger of the CCC said, "Many hacker groups don't have a problem
with Web hacks that raise public awareness about human rights
violations. But we are very sensitive to people damaging networks and
critical systems in repressive regimes or anywhere else. The police
and intelligence communities regard hacking as seditious. It is quite
possible now that hackers - not only in totalitarian states - could be
jailed or executed as 'cyberterrorists' for the slightest infraction
of the law."

"It is shortsighted and potentially counterproductive," added Reid
Fleming of the cDc. "One cannot legitimately hope to improve a
nation's free access to information by working to disable its data
networks."

"Though we may agree with LoU that the atrocities in China and Iraq
have got to stop, we do not agree with the methods they are
advocating," said Space Rogue of the L0pht.

Emmanuel Goldstein of 2600 said: "This kind of threat, even if made
idly, can only serve to further alienate hackers from mainstream
society and help to spread the misperceptions we're constantly
battling. And what happens when someone in another country decides
that the United States needs to be punished for its human rights
record? This is one door that will be very hard to close if we allow
it to be opened."

Governments worldwide are seeking to establish cyberspace as a new
battleground for their artificial conflicts. The LoU has inadvertently
legitimized this alarmist propoganda. With its dramatic announcement
the LoU played into the hands of policy makers who want complete
control over the Internet and are looking for reasons to seize it. If
hackers solicit recognition as paramilitary factions then hacking in
general will be seen as an act of war. Ergo, hackers will be viewed as
legitimate targets of warring states.

Strategic combat planning in the United States and among other nations
has reached the point where real-world cases are needed to justify
assigned budgets. The LoU is providing this real-world case now. We
believe that the LoU should carefully investigate the idea of
declaring "war" against China and Iraq. Was it planted with them by
someone with different interests in mind other than advancing human
rights considerations?

The signatories to this statement are asking hackers to reject all
actions that seek to damage the information infrastructure of any
country. DO NOT support any acts of "Cyberwar." Keep the networks of
communication alive. They are the nervous system for human progress.

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One in four US hackers 'is an FBI informer'

The FBI and US secret service have used the threat of prison to create an army of informers among online criminals

The underground world of computer hackers has been so thoroughly infiltrated in the US by the FBI and secret service that it is now riddled with paranoia and mistrust, with an estimated one in four hackers secretly informing on their peers, a Guardian investigation has established.

Cyber policing units have had such success in forcing online criminals to co-operate with their investigations through the threat of long prison sentences that they have managed to create an army of informants deep inside the hacking community.

In some cases, popular illegal forums used by cyber criminals as marketplaces for stolen identities and credit card numbers have been run by hacker turncoats acting as FBI moles. In others, undercover FBI agents posing as "carders" – hackers specialising in ID theft – have themselves taken over the management of crime forums, using the intelligence gathered to put dozens of people behind bars.

So ubiquitous has the FBI informant network become that Eric Corley, who publishes the hacker quarterly, 2600, has estimated that 25% of hackers in the US may have been recruited by the federal authorities to be their eyes and ears. "Owing to the harsh penalties involved and the relative inexperience with the law that many hackers have, they are rather susceptible to intimidation," Corley told the Guardian.

"It makes for very tense relationships," said John Young, who runs Cryptome, a website depository for secret documents along the lines of WikiLeaks. "There are dozens and dozens of hackers who have been shopped by people they thought they trusted."

The best-known example of the phenomenon is Adrian Lamo, a convicted hacker who turned informant on Bradley Manning, who is suspected of passing secret documents to WikiLeaks. Manning had entered into a prolonged instant messaging conversation with Lamo, whom he trusted and asked for advice. Lamo repaid that trust by promptly handing over the 23-year-old intelligence specialist to the military authorities. Manning has now been in custody for more than a year.

For acting as he did, Lamo has earned himself the sobriquet of Judas and the "world's most hated hacker", though he has insisted that he acted out of concern for those he believed could be harmed or even killed by the WikiLeaks publication of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

"Obviously it's been much worse for him but it's certainly been no picnic for me," Lamo has said. "He followed his conscience, and I followed mine."

The latest challenge for the FBI in terms of domestic US breaches are the anarchistic co-operatives of "hacktivists" that have launched several high-profile cyber-attacks in recent months designed to make a statement. In the most recent case a group calling itself Lulz Security launched an audacious raid on the FBI's own linked organisation InfraGard. The raid, which was a blatant two fingers up at the agency, was said to have been a response to news that the Pentagon was poised to declare foreign cyber-attacks an act of war.

Lulz Security shares qualities with the hacktivist group Anonymous that has launched attacks against companies including Visa and MasterCard as a protest against their decision to block donations to WikiLeaks. While Lulz Security is so recent a phenomenon that the FBI has yet to get a handle on it, Anonymous is already under pressure from the agency. There were raids on 40 addresses in the US and five in the UK in January, and a grand jury has been hearing evidence against the group in California at the start of a possible federal prosecution.

Kevin Poulsen, senior editor at Wired magazine, believes the collective is classically vulnerable to infiltration and disruption. "We have already begun to see Anonymous members attack each other and out each other's IP addresses. That's the first step towards being susceptible to the FBI."

Barrett Brown, who has acted as a spokesman for the otherwise secretive Anonymous, says it is fully aware of the FBI's interest. "The FBI are always there. They are always watching, always in the chatrooms. You don't know who is an informant and who isn't, and to that extent you are vulnerable."

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Arrests in Spain mean Sony's troubles are over? !!

Please stop counting how many times Sony have attached this year?

At last, the Spanish police say they've taken down three of the people allegedly behind the massive PlayStation Network security breach in April. It is Probably comforting for Sony, but surely this doesn't mean the company has any reason to rest easy when it comes to security threats.

All what Sony said "We don't comment on pending investigations,", Where the three are said to be associated with Anonymous. Internet chat rooms frequented by people associated with the group are already abuzz today with threats of retaliatory attacks. And a blog posted to AnonOps simply had a picture of the "V" from the movie "V for Vendetta," titled "V for Spain" with the caption "Expect us."

And on Twitter it added, "We are Legion, so expect us."

The "legion" thing is what makes it hard for Sony, the Spanish police, or anyone to rest easy. Anonymous and other hacking collectives like to emphasize how widespread their networks are and, in turn, why finding and arresting one or three people won't stop them from cybersecurity shenanigans.

And it's not just Anonymous that Sony and others have to worry about. The growth of "hacktivism," or groups of hackers with political agendas, has been rapid in the last six months, said Dave Jevans, Chairman of IronKey.

"In this environment right now, hacking has become far more organized. There are new hacking collectives being formed every month or two it seems," Jevans said. "They've politicized hacking so the environment is far more dangerous than it was six months ago."

In the last few months, we've seen RSA, Google, Citibank, Acer, PBS, FBI partner Infragard, and the Turkish government targeted in separate cyberattacks. And Sony has taken some of the worst blows, including the attack that left its PlayStation Network out of commission for almost a month. Though no one has publicly taken credit for that breach, other groups have repeatedly targeted Sony, seemingly at times just because they could. There have been about 20 attacks on Sony just in recent months.

Sony insecurity
Sony turning into hackers' whipping boy is likely to be related to the state of Sony's Web security, which is still widely regarded as subpar.

The hacking group Lulzsec taunted Sony for its poor security on Twitter for days before posting 150,000 records it stole from SonyPictures.com and Sony BMG in Belgium and the Netherlands last week. The group subsequently posted source code it took from the Sony Computer Entertainment Developer Network.

On the site Pastebin, where Lulzsec dumped the information stolen from Sony's sites, the group said breaking into Sony's sites was not that complex.

"What's worse is that every bit of data we took wasn't encrypted," the group wrote last week. "Sony stored over 1,000,000 passwords of its customers in plain text, which means it's just a matter of taking it. This is disgraceful and insecure: they were asking for it."

Jevans, who besides heading up IronKey is the chairman of the Industry Anti-phishing Working Group, says Sony has a lot of work ahead of it before it can feel comfortable with security threats out there.

"The information we've learned on the data breach as far as how Sony was storing information indicated to me a fundamental lack of security expertise as a company," he said.

Sony will basically have to overhaul its entire security operation, which is no small task.
"Now is the time to aggressively hire really good people and review millions of lines of their code," said Jevans.

"It took years of Microsoft training and hiring security people," to get where they are today, he said. Similarly, Sony will have to "put new policies put in place, get training for all their developers. It'll probably take two years to get to the point where the right security stuff is in place."
Source: cnet.com.