Anonops #6: Anonymous en de MO-revoluties

quote:

http://paranormalis.com/threads/anonymous-to-attack-sony.2541/

Good evening,

Anonymous is preparing to target the Sony corporation for bringing litigation against innocent individuals who have been creating features for the Playstation 3 which were previously openly available to the public. We refer largely to the ability to install the Linux operating system.

Despite the fact that this was a largely advertised feature, Sony has cut access to the Playstation 3's firmware under the guise of "security concerns". They have removed a core feature after millions of consumers have handed over their hard earned money.

Those who opted not to upgrade their systems were cut off from PSN access, purchased media and lost the ability to to play some games ans Blu-Ray discs. This is unacceptable.

As Techland reported, George Hotz, a programmer, figured out how to "jailbreak" the PS3; thus unlocking the above mentioned features. Hotz (who posts under the handle GeoHotz) published instructions for jailbreaking the PS3 on his personal website. Sony has since brought legal action against him and has received permission to subpoena Bluehost (Hotz's hosting company) to acquire a list of every IP address that ever visited his site.

This is an affront against personal privacy, one which Anonymous will not ignore.

Our demands are these:

* Sony must end any and all attempts to prosecute individuals trying to alter a product that they legally own.
* Sony must end all current or pending/upcoming litigation against George Hotz and any individuals behind the collected IP addresses.
* Sony must allow for end-user modification of their product, as was heavily advertised and available before the 3.21 update.

Anonymous recognizes that there are events of greater magnitude occurring in the world today and is actively pursuing those as well. However, threats against our privacy and consumer rights cannot (and will not) go unnoticed.

We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
You should have expected us.

quote:

Op donderdag 10 maart 2011 22:52 schreef Opa2012 het volgende:

[..]

Ik zie dat er nog een eis ontbreekt: een kop warme chocolademelk.

quote:

Op vrijdag 11 maart 2011 15:14 schreef yavanna het volgende:

AP offers a fascinating profile of the rebels fighting for Ras Lanuf and hoping to work their way to Tripoli:

"The front-line force is surprisingly small. Not counting supporters who bolster them in the towns along their path, it is estimated at 1,500 at most Libyans from all walks of life, from students and coffee-shop owners to businessmen who picked up whatever weapons they could and joined the fight. No one seems to know their full size, and they could be picking up new members all the time

"The rebel force is a leaderless collection of volunteers, operating in an evolving collaboration with soldiers who deserted various units over the past month and are still be trying to organise themselves. It's not clear who, if anyone is giving orders

"The volunteer militiamen largely have been acting and reacting as a pack to government assaults, launching initiatives wherever they can. They ride around in dozens of pick-up trucks, some with machine guns and anti-aircraft guns strapped to the back. Some rebels have weapons, while others seem hardly able to operate a gun

"Many of the fighters come from Benghazi, the main city in the rebel-controlled eastern half of the country. They are united by hatred for Gaddafi and a burning desire to overthrow him and establish a state under the rule of law

quote:

http://www.thejournal.ie/(...)hacktivists-2011-01/

FINE GAEL’S NEW WEBSITE was last night defaced by the anonymous hacker group ‘Anonymous’, which replaced the party’s new ‘tell us what you think’ campaign with a holding page telling visitors that the party was censoring submissions.

quote:

Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you.

They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice.

WAKE UP!

quote:

Anonymous Hackers will Expose Something Awful About Bank Of America On Monday !

Last year Wikileaks' Julian Assange said he had documents on a major bank -- everyone kind of figured that it was Bank of America -- though it now seems that there isn't much to it.
Now Gawker's Adrien Chen points out that a member of the hacker group Anonymous going by the handle OperationLeaks on twitter is claiming to have damning docs on the bank that will likely be released Monday.
OperationLeaks has been teasing all day on twitter about having received documents on the bank from a disgruntled employee.
Chen's own sources within Anonymous suggest there's something real to the leaks.
In terms of substance, it's not clear what we might see. This tweet, regarding is the closest thing to anything explanatory:



If something does go up Monday, it's likely to be at Anonleaks.ch.

quote:

https://docs.google.com/d(...)wY/edit?hl=en&pli=1#
Please check the bottom of this document. I included a guide on how you can help us
jam the following frequencies as well

quote:

Op zondag 13 maart 2011 21:49 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Het gaat wel heeel snel nu, wow

quote:

Op maandag 14 maart 2011 13:02 schreef Muridae het volgende:

[..]

Voila :

http://bankofamericasuck.(...)ortgage-fraud-part-1

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

quote:

troopy78 RT @KforKallisti: In case of Revolution, break glass http://t.co/PjNeH3j <----- Most excellent. Love it! #Anonymous #Anonymiss #AnonOps #Wikileaks

quote:

RRowleyTucson Another #Libya propaganda site down http://bit.ly/fQE9Pb Join the #anonymous fight with #OpNewBlood 3 minutes ago via web

quote:

alwayssilent RT @OfficialAnonOps: Do u want to join #Anonymous to Help Yemen ppl? | Mass Recruiting for #OpYemen NOW | http://anonops.net | #Yemen Plz RT

quote:

Ex-Anonymous Hackers Plan To Out Group’s Members

The nameless revolution that calls itself Anonymous may be about to have its own, online civil war.

A hacker startup calling itself Backtrace Security–made up of individuals who formerly counted themselves as part of Anonymous’ loose digital collective–announced plans Friday to publish identifying information on a handful of active members of Anonymous. According to one source within the Backtrace group, it will release the names and instant messaging logs of several Anonymous hackers who took part in attacks on PayPal, Mastercard, the security firm HBGary, Westboro Baptist Church, and the Marine officials responsible for the detainment of WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning.

That spokesman, who goes by the name Hubris and calls himself BackTrace’s “director of psychological operations,” tells me that the group (Backtrace calls itself a company, but Hubris says it’s still in the process of incorporating) aims to put an end to Anonymous “in its current form.” That form, Hubris argues, is a betrayal of its roots: Fun-loving, often destructive nihilism, not the political hacktivism Anonymous has focused on for much of the past year. “[Anonymous] has truly become moralfags,” says Hubris, using the term for hackers who focus on political and moral causes instead of amoral pranks. “Anonymous has never been about revolutions. It’s not about the betterment of mankind. It’s the Internet hate machine, or that’s what it’s supposed to be.”

Backtrace has posted a triple-encrypted torrent file labeled “insurance”–a tip of the hat to WikiLeaks–on its website, BacktraceSecurity.com, and says it’s posting hundreds of links to copies on filesharing sites. Early next week the group plans to release the keys to unlock that file, which contains the names, pseudonyms, chat logs and methods of the Anonymous hackers. It’s a tactic, Hubris says, designed to cause “maximum fear and distress” for the individuals Backtrace is outing.

Backtrace’s members largely haven’t been active in Anonymous for years–Hubris says he only participated in the anti-Scientology protests in 2009 and none of its more recent operations. But he and others with Backtrace gained access to Anonymous hackers’ information by infiltrating the group with false identities and other “social engineering” tricks that he says fooled members into revealing themselves. “The whole point of this is that we didn’t break any laws,” Hubris says. “All we did was hack peoples’ minds, because they’re fucking retarded.”



Backtrace hopes to turn those digital dark arts into a business. Hubris sent me a “mission statement” for the group that calls Backtrace “an information security provider” focusing on “psychological operations/social engineering and deep investigative research.”

“Backtrace Security assists our clients predict and neutralize emerging social threats,” the statement reads. “While other security companies specialize in hardware/software vulnerabilities and exploitation; Backtrace specializes in the human experience.”

And doesn’t the group fear the same retaliation from Anonymous that hit HBGary Federal, the last firm to claim it could identify Anonymous’ leaders? In that case, Anonymous spilled 71,000 of the company’s emails onto the Web, defaced the company’s website, and hijacked the Twitter account of Aaron Barr, its chief executive. After a variety of dirty tricks were revealed in the company’s hacked emails, including proposals to launch cyberattacks on WikiLeaks and threaten its supporters, Barr resigned from the company.

Hubris says he’s confident Backtrace won’t face the same fate. He calls the Anonymous hackers “script kiddies” and downplays their skills, arguing that the HBGary hack was based merely on the company’s reusing passwords and falling victim to social engineering. ”If you do enough damage to someone, you don’t have to fear retaliation.” says Hubris. “Once the world sees who these kids are and what they stand for, no one will follow them.”

Hubris hopes to launch Backtrace as a startup while also calling attention to what he sees as Anonymous’ hypocrisy. “They say they fight for free speech, but then they use fear and intimidation, like Scientology or Fox News,” he says. “That’s not freeodm of speech, and we won’t put up with that crap.”

And how would Hubris prefer Anonymous spend its time? “Making fun of stupid people on the Internet. Laughing at natural disasters. Like back to the good old days,” he says. “Not trying to overthrow governments.”

quote:

http://techland.time.com/(...)orations-vulnerable/

Thursday, the RSA Security division of EMC Corporation reported a security breach, potentially leaving many corporations and governments vulnerable who rely on its products.

In an open letter, the company revealed that the “advanced persistent threat” had managed to pull information from the company. According to CNET, these types of attacks often target source code and useful information. The hacker often knows some knowledge of the company's inner processes.

It is not known where the threat originated from, and the company has refused to comment on the situation beyond an open letter posted yesterday.

RSA sells security measures that go beyond the multi-character password: users have to carry around a device that has a number. The numbers change at set intervals, and users type it in along with a password.

Read more: http://techland.time.com/(...)rable/#ixzz1GzeCVUbc

quote:

# 41448_528456493_4619_q_normal albaheth4 RT @r_yemen: #yemen Ministry of human rights website hacked http://bit.ly/fBkT59 #anonymous #opyemen 1 minute ago via TweetDeck

quote:

HACKED BY (Mr.MoHaMeD & هتلر الخراز & ولد صنعاء & يمنيه حره )

c5y@hotmail.com

quote:

Inside Anonymous’ Secret War Room

John Cook and Adrian Chen — Inside Anonymous' Secret War RoomDissident members of the internet hacktivist group Anonymous, tired of what they call the mob's "unpatriotic" ways, have provided law enforcement with chat logs of the group's leadership planning crimes, as well as what they say are key members' identities. They also gave them to us.

The chat logs, which cover several days in February immediately after the group hacked into internet security firm HBGary's e-mail accounts, offer a fascinating look inside the hivemind's organization and culture.

quote:

Gens_Anon I see your sock puppetry. Prepare yourselves for #OpMuppet. All your tweets are belong to us. Of course. #anonops #anonymous

quote:

carrycandy RT @laughingliberal: #Moonwalker MEETUP POINT: State St. Statue, Madison, WI ~ 11 AM Google Arial View: http://tinyurl.com/45r4psf #Anonymous Wants You! #WeAreWI about 1 hour ago via web

quote:

carrycandy RT @P1edPiper: Saturday in #Madison! Mass Mooning of the capitol! Details- http://twitpic.com/4a8b3o #anonymous #moonwalker #wiunion #weareWI about 1 hour ago via web

quote:

http://tweakers.net/nieuw(...)ciale-netwerken.html

Het Amerikaanse leger heeft de firma Ntrepid gecontracteerd voor de bouw van software om sociale media te manipuleren. Met de 'Online Persona Management Service' zou een soldaat tien niet-bestaande karakters kunnen aansturen.

Dat meldt The Guardian op basis van informatie uit een aanbesteding van de Amerikaanse luchtmacht. In de contractvoorwaarden met softwarebouwer Ntrepid is te lezen dat de via de Online Persona Management Service aangestuurde valse personages overtuigend moeten overkomen, inclusief 'kloppende' achtergrondinformatie en locatiegegevens. Het contract zou een waarde van 2,8 miljoen dollar hebben.

De 'sokpoppen', die ontraceerbaar zouden zijn door het gebruik van vpn's en regelmatig veranderende ip-adressen, moeten actief zijn op sociale-netwerkdiensten en weblogs. Het leger zou één server in de VS willen stallen, terwijl acht servers 'virtueel' in het buitenland zouden staan. Doel van de persona-software zou het manipuleren van websites en sociale netwerken in het buitenland zijn, maar opmerkelijk genoeg zouden de valse identiteiten nooit in het Engels mogen communiceren, omdat dit in strijd zou zijn met de wet.

Volgens het Amerikaanse leger vormt de software om met niet-bestaande personages sociale netwerken te manipuleren een belangrijk wapen in de strijd tegen het terrorisme en het tegengaan van vijandelijke propaganda-operaties. Het leger heeft bevestigd dat het een contract aan de firma Ntrepid in 2010 heeft verstrekt, maar wil niet ingaan op de vraag of de software al gebruikt wordt.

De software voor de manipulatie zou deel uitmaken van een grootschaliger programma van het Amerikaanse leger. Het leger zou in samenwerking met andere landen onder de naam Operation Earnest Voice op Iraakse websites actief zijn geweest in de hoop zo de rekrutering van opstandelingen tegen te gaan. Het programma zou inmiddels een budget hebben van 200 miljoen dollar.

Inmiddels heeft Anonymous op zijn website gereageerd op het programma dat zij tot Operation Metal Gear hebben gedoopt. De los-vaste actiegroep heeft gegevens gepubliceerd over de vermoedelijke opdrachtgevers van het project, in de hoop zo meer informatie over de software in te zamelen.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/20/google-gmail

Google has accused the Chinese government of hacking into its popular Gmail email system. The move follows extensive attempts by the Chinese authorities to crack down on the "jasmine revolution" – an online dissident movement inspired by events in the Middle East.

According to the search giant, Chinese customers and advertisers have increasingly been complaining about their Gmail service in the past month. Attempts by users to send messages, mark messages as unread and use other services have generated problems for Gmail customers.

In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in Japan, Google set up an application to help people find relatives and friends lost in the disaster. This service too seems to have been compromised.

"Relating to Google there is no issue on our side. We have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail," said a Google spokesman. China's embassy in Washington was not immediately available for comment.

The announcement follows a blog posting from Google on 11 March in which the firm said it had "noticed some highly targeted and apparently politically motivated attacks against our users. We believe activists may have been a specific target." The posting said the attacks were targeting a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. The two firms have been working to address the issue. At the time, Google declined to elaborate on which activists had been targeted or where the attacks had been coming from.

Last January Google said it had been the victim of highly sophisticated attacks originating from China. At first the firm thought its intellectual property was the target. The company's investigations found at least 20 other internet , financial, technology, media and chemical companies had been similarly targeted. Google said it had uncovered evidence that the primary goal of the attacks was the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

The search firm is not commenting further on this latest attack, but technology experts said it seemed to show an increasingly high degree of sophistication. "In the wake of what is happening in the Middle East I don't think China wants to be seen making heavy-handed attacks on the internet, that would draw too much attention," said one internet executive who wished to remain anonymous. He said making it look like a fault in Google's system was extremely difficult to do and the fact that these attacks appear to come and go makes the attack look "semi-industrial and very, very sophisticated."

In February dozens of political activists were arrested in China after an anonymous call online for people to start a jasmine revolution. The crackdown came as China's president Hu Jintao called for tighter internet controls to help prevent social unrest. Much of the unrest in the Middle East has gone unreported in China, where the internet is already heavily censored. Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube are all blocked in China.

Google first opened for business in China in 2005. But after announcing that it had been hacked in January last year the company said it was no longer prepared to censor its search results and moved its operations to Hong Kong.

"We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement," David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said at the time.

According to WikiLeaks cables, China's political elite have a love hate relationship with the internet. On the one hand the authorities want the information they can obtain via the web and on the other they are extremely concerned by the threat they perceive it presents to their authority. The cables suggest China has successfully hacked the US and other governments as well as private enterprises.

The leaked cables also chronicle the pressure put on Google to comply with Chinese censorship. As well as removing references to the Dalai Lama and to 1989's Tiananmen Square massacre, Google was asked to censor images of government facilities displayed on the Google Earth mapping service.

Last month the Chinese authorities launched Panguso, a search engine joint venture between Xinhua news agency and the state-owned telecoms giant China Mobile. The site appears to be even more heavily censored than Baidu, the largest search firm in China. Searches on Panguso reportedly produced no results for Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.

quote:

http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)-beschuldiging.dhtml

PEKING - China heeft dinsdag kwaad gereageerd op de beschuldiging van internetbedrijf Google, dat de autoriteiten problemen veroorzaken met maildienst Gmail. 'Dit is een onacceptabele beschuldiging', aldus een woordvoerster van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken.

Internetgebruikers in China klagen al weken over moeilijkheden met Gmail. Google zei maandag dat de problemen niet worden veroorzaakt door een technisch probleem bij het bedrijf. 'Dit is een blokkade van de overheid, die zo gemaakt is dat het lijkt dat het probleem bij Gmail ligt', aldus Google.

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Glider-inverse_normal h4x0r3d RT @Peaceful_Anon: BREAKING!! #Anonymous has taken down 26 Iranian websites related to the prison system http://prisons.ir/ 26 domains http://bit.ly/fKFBUU

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Backtrace fails to intimidate Anonymous

A team of "dissidents" claiming to be former members of Anonymous have apparently failed in their rather transparent efforts to intimidate the cyber activist group.

The latest initiative to discredit Anonymous was conducted by (at least) two so-called representatives of Backtrace Security, who threatened to post "identifying information" on key "centralized" personnel within the enigmatic organization.



Backtrace fails to intimidate Anonymous"[Anonymous] has truly become moralfags. Anonymous has never been about revolutions," Hubris, BackTrace's so-called director of psychological operations, proclaimed to Forbes on Friday.

"It's not about the betterment of mankind. It's the Internet hate machine, or that's what it's supposed to be."

BackTrace rep A5h3r4 expressed similar sentiments to Gawker before handing over what he considered to be incriminating evidence against Anonymous later that day.

"The bastards are becoming arrogant sociopaths. Acting first, not thinking of the consequences. They're recruiting children. I am a pretty far left person - I believe in privacy and free expression, but Anonymous is a vigilante group now," A5h3r4 told the publication.

"A mob without conscience. And I worry they will radicalize even more. In short, I believe they're on their way to becoming a genuine threat."

However, Anonymous member Barrett Brown, who describes himself as a spokesperson for the decentralized group, said the "security breach" which yielded the purported logs was actually detected quite a long time ago.

"We're aware of the security breach as other logs from 'HQ' have been posted before. I should note that HQ is not really HQ anyway - you will [see] the actual coordination of performed hacks [does] not appear in those logs.

"I can [also] tell you those who were responsible for pulling off HBGary no longer use that room due not only to this security breach, but other factors as well."

Meanwhile, p2pnet's Jon Newton scoffed at Backtrace for attempting to discredit Anonymous and criticized Gawker for facilitating the feeble scheme.

"It's the second time. Ask Aaron Barr and Greg Hoglund of HBGary infamy. But Gawker is just as wrong now as Barr and Hoglund were then. Not that it'll stop vested interests which desperately want there to be names so people can be found, arrested and jailed, from grasping at this latest straw.

"[Yes], Gawker may be well pleased with itself, and Forbes for a 'scoop,' and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility the 'exposure' isn't much more than a way to launch a new business to profit off Anonymous. Whichever and whatever, Anonymous is now firmly established as a hard-edged presence online and, off, and it isn't going away."

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HBGary chief tech officer: ‘Anonymous’ members are criminals and pseudo-journalist

The chief technology officer of the data security firm HBGary described the collective of hacktivists named 'Anonymous' as a small group of criminal hackers who "use the media as a tool."

"They are not at all what people think they are," HBGary CTO Greg Hoglund told Robert Lemos of CSO Online. "There aren't very many, first of all. There are not thousands, they are not a legion. That is all just stuff they say to make people fearful or intimidate."

"They have a whole propaganda wing," he continued. "So lets get this straight: A lot of the people in Anonymous are pseudo-journalists, they write the news."

The website of Washington DC-based HBGary Federal was defaced by 'Anonymous' in February after former CEO Aaron Barr told the Financial Times that he'd identified the "core leaders" of the group and had information that could lead to their arrest.

'Anonymous' also gained access to more than 44,000 company emails and released them to the public in a 4.71 gigabyte Torrent file. The emails would later reveal the firm was working on a plan to attack and discredit progressive critics of the US Chamber of Commerce, and had worked on ideas to take down secrets outlet WikiLeaks on behalf of Bank of America.

Hoglund said the company had been focused almost entirely on cyber attacks originating in China and was completely blindsided when the 'Anonymous' attack occurred.

Shortly after the cyber attack, Barr resigned from his position to focus on taking care of his family and rebuilding his reputation.

Although members of 'Anonymous' claim they "are not a group" and that they do "not have leaders," according to Hoglund there are about a dozen criminal hackers "at the center" of Anonymous.

"'Anonymous' is a group that hacks criminally into systems, and we are talking about probably over five corporations that I know of right now in the United States that are being actively targeted by them," he said. "When they get access, they are going to steal the data off those system, email, files off the file system, they are going to do everything they can, and then they are going to leak it and manipulate it and create stories about it."

The group has targeted Sarah Palin, PayPal, Bank of America, the Church of Scientology, MasterCard, the Westboro Baptist Church and even the governments of Egypt, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Libya.

Recently, 'Anonymous' called for a campaign of civil disobedience against the private central banking system that underpins all the world's industrial economies.

quote:

Backtrace Security Exposed

quote:

backtracesecurity.com .net and .org

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
Rubenstein, John d72xy57g328@networksolutionsprivateregistration.com

John Rubenstein is 'Housespider' in Jennifer Emick's fail skype troll group aka The Treehouse.
The Treehouse has been suspected for months as being behind the anonops doxing and other doxing of anons.

quote:

After two years of making accusations, they failed to provide one shred of evidence and
were counter-trolled hard.

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We are collating dox on Drifter and other backtrace failtards.
More dox will be forthcoming.

quote:

Unfortunately for Backtrace Securities we know that many of these entries are incorrect. There are a couple explanations, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive, as to how they could be certain enough in their facts to publish something this inaccurate:

quote:

De schaduwzijde van internet

Weer knaagt iemand aan het idee dat internet en snelle communicatie democratisering bevorderen. “Just let these people know what blogging and connectivity is and all of a sudden they will ask for more democracy“, zoals Evgeny Morozov, een wetenschapper uit Wit-Rusland verbonden aan het Program on Liberation Technology van de Stanford Universiteit, in een heerlijk geïllustreerde lezing neerbuigend poneert. “Cyber-utopians“, noemt hij de stam die zo denkt.

Niet alleen zijn samenlevingen iets ingewikkelder, internet biedt ook regeringen mooie mogelijkheden een bevolking te controleren. Twitter accounts zijn openbaar dus elke oproep tot protest is te volgen. In Thailand kan het publiek websites die geen respect tonen voor het koningshuis bij een speciale site aangeven waarop ze onmiddellijk worden gesloten. In Iran gebruiken de autoriteiten het internet om via crowdsourcing eerder gefotografeerde demonstranten te identificeren.

Ofwel, we verwarren bedoeld gebruik van technologie met het werkelijke gebruik. Ook aan de zijde van de burger/consument moeten we ons niet in de mens vergissen. Jongeren zijn niet per definitie allemaal voor revolutie en democratie. Tegenover de enkeling die een rapport van Human Rights Watch zullen downloaden staan volksstammen die liever online porno bekijken. Ook jongeren Ofwel, democratisering heeft met heel veel politieke, culturele, sociale en economische factoren te maken.

Morozov is niet de eerste die de rol van internet in een ander daglicht zet. In een veel besproken (ook op deze site) artikel in The New Yorker in oktober 2010 benadrukte Malcolm Gladwell de maatschappelijk omstandigheden die nodig zijn voor, bijvoorbeeld, een revolutie, zoals solidariteit en doorzettingsvermogen.

Morozov gaat echter nog een stap verder met het aanstippen hoe de autoriteiten internet juist voor het tegenovergestelde doel kunnen gebruiken: Big Brother is watching you, zogezegd. De titel van Morozov’s eerder dit jaar verschenen boek: The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

RSA Animate - The Internet in Society, Empowering or Censoring Citizens