Anonops #6: Anonymous en de MO-revoluties

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.

quote:

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.

quote:

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

quote:

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."

quote:

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.

quote:

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

quote:

TOR Made for USG Open Source Spying Says Maker

Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:57:39 -0400
From: Michael Reed <reed[at]inet.org>
To: tor-talk[at]lists.torproject.org
Subject: Re: [tor-talk] Iran cracks down on web dissident technology

On 03/22/2011 12:08 PM, Watson Ladd wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:23 AM, Joe Btfsplk<joebtfsplk[at]gmx.com> wrote:
>> Why would any govt create something their enemies can easily use against
>> them, then continue funding it once they know it helps the enemy, if a govt
>> has absolutely no control over it? It's that simple. It would seem a very
>> bad idea. Stop looking at it from a conspiracy standpoint& consider it as
>> a common sense question.
> Because it helps the government as well. An anonymity network that
> only the US government uses is fairly useless. One that everyone uses
> is much more useful, and if your enemies use it as well that's very
> good, because then they can't cut off access without undoing their own
> work.

BINGO, we have a winner! The original *QUESTION* posed that led to the
invention of Onion Routing was, "Can we build a system that allows for
bi-directional communications over the Internet where the source and
destination cannot be determined by a mid-point?" The *PURPOSE* was for
DoD / Intelligence usage (open source intelligence gathering, covering
of forward deployed assets, whatever). Not helping dissidents in
repressive countries. Not assisting criminals in covering their
electronic tracks. Not helping bit-torrent users avoid MPAA/RIAA
prosecution. Not giving a 10 year old a way to bypass an anti-porn
filter. Of course, we knew those would be other unavoidable uses for
the technology, but that was immaterial to the problem at hand we were
trying to solve (and if those uses were going to give us more cover
traffic to better hide what we wanted to use the network for, all the
better...I once told a flag officer that much to his chagrin). I should
know, I was the recipient of that question from David, and Paul was
brought into the mix a few days later after I had sketched out a basic
(flawed) design for the original Onion Routing.

The short answer to your question of "Why would the government do this?"
is because it is in the best interests of some parts of the government
to have this capability... Now enough of the conspiracy theories...

-Michael
_________________

24 March 2011

A sends:

From: A
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 01:41:41 +0000
Subject: Cryptome Fwd: Re: Fwd: The onion TOR network
To: cryptome[at]earthlink.net

Following the publication of the email extract on TOR, I asked
the EFF what they made of it. Here it is. You can of course publish it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Rebecca Jeschke <rebecca[at]eff.org>
Date: 23 March 2011 21:29
Subject: Fwd: Re: Fwd: The onion TOR network
To: A

Hi A. This is from Senior Staff Technologist Seth Schoen. Thanks -- Rebecca

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Re: Fwd: The onion TOR network
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:15:24 -0700
From: Seth David Schoen <schoen[at]eff.org>
To: Rebecca Jeschke <rebecca[at]eff.org>
CC: chris <chris[at]eff.org>, Peter Eckersley <pde[at]eff.org>,
Seth Schoen <schoen[at]eff.org>

Rebecca Jeschke writes:

any thoughts on this?

It's totally true that the military people who invented Tor were
thinking about how to create a system that would protect military
communications. The current iteration of that is described at

https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en#military

right on the Tor home page.

However, the Tor developers also became clear early on that the
system wouldn't protect military communications well unless it had
a very diverse set of users. Elsewhere in that same e-mail
discussion, Mike Perry (a current Tor developer) alludes to this:

https://lists.torproject.(...)11-March/019898.html

In fact, the best known way we have right now to improve anonymity
is to support more users, and more *types* of users. See:

http://www.freehaven.net/doc/wupss04/usability.pdf
http://freehaven.net/~arma/slides-weis06.pdf

The first link is to a paper called "Anonymity Loves Company", which
explains the issue this way:

No organization can build this infrastructure for its own sole use.
If a single corporation or government agency were to build a private
network to protect its operations, any connections entering or
leaving that network would be obviously linkable to the controlling
organization. The members and operations of that agency would be
easier, not harder, to distinguish.

Thus, to provide anonymity to any of its users, the network must
accept traffic from external users, so the various user groups can
blend together.

You can read the entire (ongoing) discussion about government funding
for Tor development via

https://lists.torproject.(...)11-March/thread.html

(search for "[tor-talk] Iran cracks down on web dissident technology").

--

Seth Schoen
Senior Staff Technologist schoen[at]eff.org
Electronic Frontier Foundation https://www.eff.org/
454 Shotwell Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 +1 415 436 9333 x107

Subject: Re: [tor-talk] Iran cracks down on web dissident technology
From: A3
To: John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com>
Cc: A2, cypherpunks[at]al-qaeda.net

On Tue, 2011-03-22 at 17:43 -0400, John Young wrote:
> Fucking amazing admission. No conspiracy theory needed.

Wasn't this already very common knowledge?

Subject: Re: [tor-talk] Iran cracks down on web dissident technology
To: A3, A2, cypherpunks[at]al-qaeda.net
From: John Young <jya[at]pipeline.com>

That's what the Eff-folks advocating TOR are saying. And point to a
file on Torproject.org. See:

http://cryptome.org/0003/tor-spy.htm

However, this appears to be a giant evasion perhaps a subterfuge,
even reminds of what Big Boys say when customers learn they are
siphoning customer data. Read the privacy policy the lawyer-advised
apologists bark, and upon reading the privacy policy see that it only
emphasizes the subterfuge. Openly admitting siphoning is supposed
to make it okay because everyone does it under cover of lockstep
privacy policy. Reject that.

If the Tor operators really know what they are being used for, then
they should admit to being agents of the USG, as Michael Reed had
the guts to do.

Claiming this US spying role for Tor is well known is a crock of slop,
but then spies lie all the time and care not a whit that they peddle
shit for eaters of it. If you believe them and like what they do then
don't shilly-shally, just do what Michael Reed did but others are
too ashamed to do after having been duped since 1996.

If Reed's precedent for honesty is followed, there will be an
admission that the Internet was invented for spying by its inventor.
And then cryptography and other comsec tools. And then cellphones
and the like. Hold on now, this is getting out of hand, the apologists
will bellow, everybody has always known that there is no privacy
in digital world.

Actually, no, they did not. And those who knew keep their Janusian
mouths writhing to reap the rewards of deception. Now that is a truth
everyone knows. No conspiracy theory needed.

quote:

Video: #Anonymous Addresses The Bilderberg Group (by Anonymous0890) #lulz You know who you are. http://tumblr.com/xec1wr7sxj

Anonymous Addresses The Bilderberg Group

quote:

Think4Freedom Ano Nymous
Do not mess with #Anonymiss http://z0r.de/538 #Anonymous Via @blackxanonymous #Anonops

quote:

Hackers step up attacks on security firms

The Internet's security infrastructure is under attack. Two major incidents against Comodo and RSA have raised the question of not just whether the enterprise can withstand hacker attacks but if the security firms we all count on to guard the infrastructure can protect themselves.

Earlier this week, Internet security firm Comodo revealed it had been tricked into minting nine high-value digital certificates that could allow the attackers to create fraudulent sites that fool users into thinking they are visiting Google, Yahoo, Skype or Microsoft's Live service. The sting on Comodo follows a more serious attack on RSA, which netted the infiltrators unspecified information that could compromise the security of the company's one-time password product SecurID.

These breaches follow other recent high-profile security events, including Anonymous's campaign to compromise HBGary Federal and Stuxnet's use of stolen code-signing certificates against Iran's nuclear capability. Altogether, it's undeniable that attackers now see the value in focusing on those companies and products that provide defense.

While the Comodo attack, at least, is thought to have limited impact, the RSA compromise could be more serious. However, both breaches point to a need by security firms to re-evaluate their approach to protecting themselves and their valuable intellectual property, says Anup Ghosh, founder and chief scientist of browser security firm Invincea. "How is it that the foundational elements of security are being compromised?" he asks.

"We have to worry whether we are going to be targeted next -- we, as in the royal we," Ghosh says. "And all we're really doing is doubling down on the technologies that was built in the late '90s and address yesterday's problems rather than the way that these attacks are actually perpetrated."

Hackers have always sought out corporate intel, but in a presentation at RSA, Josh Corman, research director of the 451 Group, argued that attackers are increasing their focus on intellectual property, at a time companies are becoming more proficient with protecting their custodial data, such as credit cards numbers and personal-identifying information. These factors point to a need by companies -- especially security firms -- to learn how to better protect their IP, he says.

"What is now required is for us to ask what kind of evolution and changes do we need to thwart those attackers who are more talented and more persistent," he says. "We can mock these companies for their mistakes -- or we can talk about the criminals and the perpetrators."

This article, "Hackers step up attacks on security firms," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

quote:

Democrat urges investigation into federal security contractors

Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia is seeking an investigation into whether government money was used by three data security firms involved in a proposal to harass liberal critics of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Reporting from Washington—
A Democratic congressman is seeking an investigation into whether government money was used by three security contractors involved in a proposal to track and harass liberal critics of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia plans to send letters Monday to the Defense and Justice departments, as well as the head of the intelligence community, requesting a review of the companies' federal contracts. All three firms are government contractors with security clearance.

Johnson wrote that he was concerned the companies "may have violated the law and/or their federal contracts by conspiring to use technologies developed for U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism purposes against American citizens and organizations on behalf of private actors."

The inquiry stems from email correspondence between the three data security firms — HBGary Federal, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies — proposing surveillance and sabotage of liberal and labor activists in an effort to win a contract with Hunton & Williams, a law firm representing the Chamber of Commerce.

The security firms came together in a group they dubbed "Team Themis," apparently after the Greek goddess of law and order.

Details of the proposal, which included planting false information to embarrass anti-chamber groups and creating dossiers on activists, complete with photographs and family references, were leaked this year by the hacker group Anonymous.

The chamber said it was not aware of the proposals and called the tactics "abhorrent."

HBGary Federal declined to comment. A company source said Palantir was aware of the congressman's request and believed the agencies would do what they could to comply. Neither Berico nor Hunton & Williams returned calls seeking comment. In the past, all have denied wrongdoing.

Johnson and 19 other Democrats this month called on Republican leaders to investigate Hunton & Williams and Team Themis for possible violations of federal law, including forgery and computer fraud.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, declined to pursue the matter, saying in a statement, "While I appreciate Mr. Johnson's letter, it is the role of the Justice Department to determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted."

Johnson said an investigation was necessary to determine whether Americans were sufficiently shielded from technologies meant to target enemies abroad.

"This is uncharted territory when we're dealing in the cyber world," Johnson said. "It's a dangerous place. It can be a place where liberties of American people are threatened or taken away."

quote:

Op maandag 28 maart 2011 14:51 schreef truepositive het volgende:
The plot thickens

Vandaag was toch ook operation ESR?

quote:

How General Electric avoids paying taxes

In a jaw-dropping exposé in The New York Times, David Kocieniewski explains how General Electric, the country's largest corporation, has managed to accumulate $26 billion in the last five years while not just paying zero taxes but receiving a net tax benefit of $4.1 billion from the IRS. The author dives deep into the company's regulatory filings and interviews a number of tax law and policy experts. Below, we've pulled out from the multi-page report the various schemes and tactics the corporation uses to keep exploiting the tax system. It's worth reading in full here.

-Lobbying The company spent more than $200 million in the last ten years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. One of its major lobbying coups includes the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act, which allowed it to "defer taxes on overseas profits from leasing planes to airlines." That law saved the company more than $1 billion just three years after it was enacted.

-Greasing Palms When GE needed to change Rep. Charlie Rangel's mind about support for a key tax break, it awarded $11 million to various schools in Rangel's district. Afterward, Rangel, who then headed the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, pledged his support for the tax provision. He says the donation had no effect on his decision. Rangel has also been under intense scrutiny recently for ethics violations unrelated to GE.

-Anointing Tax Kings At many of its major manufacturing facilities across the world, GE has elevated the role of tax strategist to an executive decision-making post. The company's tax department has expanded to 975 employees.

-A Culture of Tax Avoidance The company's mission statement of GE's tax department urges employees to "evenly" divide their time between obeying the law and "looking to exploit opportunities to reduce tax.”

-Leasing and Lending Abroad In the late '90s GE won passage of a tax provision known as "active financing" allowing it to "avoid taxes on lending income from abroad," that in turn gave the company an array of tax credits and write-offs used to offset taxes on its U.S. operations.

-Cutting Its Domestic Work Force "Since 2002, the company has eliminated a fifth of its work force in the United States while increasing overseas employment," writes the Times. "In that time, G.E.’s accumulated offshore profits have risen to $92 billion from $15 billion."

Update: GE has posted a response to the article here

quote:

Congressman Probing HBGary Scandal Fears ‘Domestic Surveillance’

When a small team of hackers launched a 24-hour assault on software security firm HBGary Federal last month, they did so to take revenge on its CEO, who had sought to penetrate the global collective they aligned themselves with known as Anonymous.

They did that and more. Now a Congressional subcommittee has asked to see all HBGary Federal’s contracts with the U.S. military and the National Security Agency (NSA), along with those agencies’ contracts with two other private security firms, Berico Technologies and Palantir Technologies.

The hacked HBGary Federal emails that were posted online showed the three firms had proposed a plan to the Chamber of Commerce’s legal representative Hunton & Williams to infiltrate and discredit the Chamber’s opponents with fake documents, personas, and potentially even malicious software. There were also proposals to track and intimidate supporters of WikiLeaks.

The man behind the investigation, Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia’s 4th House District, penned a letter signed by 19 other members of Congress calling for a subcommittee investigation on March 1. He believes the Chamber, Hunton & Williams, and the three security firms were in discussion regarding a “potentially illegal” scheme, according to a memo from his office.

Given the classified and convoluted nature of the alleged activities (not to mention lobbyists who will undoubtedly take issue with it), it’s possible Johnson’s Congressional probe will lead him and others down a long and winding rabbit hole. That’s also because of the wider implications he sees behind the HBGary revelations: domestic surveillance on Americans.

I spoke to Rep. Johnson on Monday and asked him about how the investigation was going, and why he had instigated it at all:

FORBES: Why was it important to you to spearhead this investigation into government and NSA contracts with HBGary, Berico and Palantir?

JOHNSON: Well I read various news reports of the possible scandal and I asked my staff to look a little further into it. Once we did it appeared to me that the implications being put forth were very serious and rose to a level of more than mere suspicion. There were no denials of accuracy by the three government contractors, so with that I felt duty bound to move for further investigation.

James Miller of the Department of Defence said in last week’s subcommittee hearing that he needed to check about handing over those contracts. Have there been any developments with that?

No, but I assume that we should receive the documentation. And just in case we’re going to request the documentation in writing from the Department of Defence as well as the director of national intelligence. Also the Justice Department may have documentation pertinent to this and we’d like to see this as well. [It transpired from the HBGary emails that the Justice Department had recommended the law firm Hunton & Williams to Bank of America.]

Does the investigation also extend to Hunton & Williams?

I’m not calling for a limited scope of the investigation. I think the investigation should proceed as far as the facts take us.

What do you think of Palantir and Berico’s attempts to distance themselves from HBGary Federal?

I would think that would be a normal response for a company finding themselves exposed in this way.

Do you think they are implicated more than they say?

Quite frankly I’d say there is a reasonable suspicion that they may be more involved than they are revealing at this time.

What concerns you the most about the contracts with these companies and the software they were selling?

[We're] talking about government contractors who may have developed tools to track and control information from foreign terrorists organizations. When those contractors using that kind of technology, developed pursuant to government contract and utilising American tax payer dollars, then turn the tools into domestic surveillance and marketing to business organizations, with the goal of discrediting and disrupting and actually destroying organizations that disagree with their clients, doing that domestically is like turning spying tools on the very people who paid for them. You should not use tools developed to get at foreign terrorist agents on American citizens who are choosing to exercise their first amendment rights.

When you say “tools,” what specifically are you referring to?

Apparently this is software that allows for data mining and enables the organization of vast bodies of information, or compilation through vast bodies of information, on particular subjects, and then putting it all together and so that you can have maximum intelligence on your targets. Then [also] software that would enable you to create false personas, and you use those to infiltrate the internal communications networks of your targets. With that, you can steer opinion, you can suppress other opinions, you can take over and control of what goes on in those private networks… and do so without fear of being discovered. One person can sit back and create, from one computer terminal, 20 false personas that can’t be tracked back to that particular computer.

Which company are you attributing that to?

I don’t want to attribute that to any one of the three contractors that we have here but I think that there is a scheme that was discussed that would employ that kind of technology to go after unions and other groups that opposed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Is there any documentation on this that you’ve seen, that hasn’t been reported in the public domain?

I think everything we know has been already publicly disseminated and I believe that these various [HBGary] emails allude to Palantir being a moving force behind the development of the software.

You have this information about HBGary because the company’s emails were leaked by a small group of hackers who align themselves with Anonymous. What do you think of that group, both the team of hackers and the wider collective they claim to represent?

I think we have embarked into a lawless environment with our cyber capabilities now, and we really need to see what kind of laws are lacking and what laws need to be strengthened to punish any misconduct in cyber space. It’s an emerging area. We get more and more opportunities to test our right to legally address misconduct in cyberspace. We’re getting more instances that cause us to question what can be done to right wrong by people in organizations over the Internet, both criminally and civilly.

How important is this investigation to you? How much of your time do you intend to spend on it?

I’m looking forward to a thorough investigation. I don’t know how long it will take, but I do think the implications of what has happened demand that this issue be afforded the attention it deserves.

Do you think this represents the tip of a large iceberg?

Could be.

quote:

http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/(...)acties-op-telegraaf/

Ooit wel eens gekeken bij de reacties op artikelen van Telegraaf.nl? Volgens de blog Retecool komen ze allemaal op hetzelfde neer: gericht tegen de regerende macht en tegen alles is wat buitenlands is.

Als reactie daarop hebben ze een systeem gemaakt dat automatisch nepreacties plaatst op de site van De Telegraaf. Deze bot (wiki) heeft een woordenschat van ruim 120.000 woorden, die allemaal eerder door lezers van De Telegraaf in de reacties gebruikt werden. Op basis van het Telegraaf-artikel wordt dan een reactie gegenereerd.

Op een artikel over de walvissenjacht had het programma van Retecool bijvoorbeeld het volgende te zeggen:


Maarten Reijnders, blogger voor techwebsite Bright, werd hierover getipt en volgde het verhaal, vertelt hij aan nrc.nl:

Ik kreeg een aantal maanden terug al de tip dat Retecool hiermee bezig was. Dus ik volgde het proces, onder andere via Google, al een tijdje. En twee dagen geleden publiceerde de blog zelf het verhaal.

Retecool tegen Reijnders:

‘In het begin glipte slechts een klein gedeelte van de reacties door de handen van de censuurpolitie, maar tegenwoordig zijn er dagen dat 10 van de 10 gegenereerde reacties geplaatst worden’

De bot heeft ook een naam: Hubert Both. Hubert heeft succes, er zijn volgens Google meer dan honderd reacties geplaatst. De Telegraaf is nu alle nepreacties aan het verwijderen.

quote:

The date of March 28th was picked to begin mass protests at all 13 Federal Reserve branches located around the country. However, as night fell, it became apparent that either nothing or very little had happened:

Of course, absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence. But either alternative of poor turnout or poor promotion makes for poor morale. So what went wrong?

quote:

Music Industry Lobbyist Becomes Europe’s Copyright Boss

Over the years many pro-copyright groups have lobbied extensively for harsher anti-piracy legislation. In Europe, this task may now become a little easier, as a former music industry lobbyist has been appointed as the head of a unit that deals with copyright and enforcement issues at the European Commission. Among other things, the former IFPI employee will be tasked with pushing through the ACTA trade agreement.

Just a few days ago we witnessed a prime example of the revolving door phenomenon, as a former RIAA lobbyist turned federal judge got to rule on a case that had a direct impact on her former employee.

Today we bring another example, one that’s perhaps even more worrisome.

Those who read TorrentFreak regularly will be familiar with music industry lobby group IFPI. Crowned as the most active DMCA sender of 2010, IFPI are known for their aggressive anti-piracy tactics. Among other legal efforts, they were one of the driving forces behind the Pirate Bay trial.

At the same time IFPI has been lobbying in the political arena for more tools to combat online piracy, with varying results. However, due to a new appointment at the copyright and enforcement unit of the European Commission, it appears that IFPI’s influence might increase significantly.

Maria Martin-Prat, who was formerly employed as Director of Legal Policy and Regulatory Affairs at IFPI, has now been selected to lead the EU unit that deals with copyright and enforcement issues. Among other things, she will be in charge of trying to get the controversial ACTA anti-piracy agreement accepted.

This means that Martin-Prat, whose previous job was to convince politicians that more restrictive copyright legislation is needed to deal with online piracy, is now responsible for shaping future copyright laws at the European Commission. Needless to say, it’s likely that her view on copyright won’t be the most objective one.

Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom is not happy with the appointment, to say the least. However, knowing the ins and outs of the European Commission and the dominance of lobby groups, it comes as no surprise.

“Welcome to the European Union, where the big business lobby organizations are calling most of the shots at the Commission, and where citizens are just seen as a nuisance to be ignored. I guess the only real news is that they don’t even bother to try to hide it any more,” he said in response to the announcement.

With the appointment of Martin-Prat, Europeans should brace themselves for more restrictive copyright legislation, and more effective enforcement of current laws. Meanwhile, IFPI members will be cracking open bottles of Champagne and dancing with excitement in their offices.

quote:

;-()) RT @Anony_Ops CONFIDENTIAL #ANONYMOUS HACKED NUCLEAR LAUNCH CODES http://whitehouse.gov1.info/launch/launch-codes.html INB4, SHITSTROM

quote:

Select Target and Click on the LAUNCH Button

quote:

A meme is circulating right now about a "civil war" brewing within Anonymous. This has been simmering for quite a while, but it's only now really being circulated among outside observers.

As a decentralized movement, it's somewhat erroneous to call the various combatants "factions," as there are no set members or participation and it waxes and wanes according to interest and participation. I would rather use the word "node" to describe the different rallying-standards I've noticed.

I'd first like to explain the main combatants, then the methods employed, then finally discuss the issues that they're grappling with.

quote:

Op woensdag 30 maart 2011 19:19 schreef truepositive het volgende:
Ja dat is jammer. Binnenkort tweede poging hopelijk?

quote:

Prepare For Revolution: The Empire State Rebellion Begins on June 14th

Contrary to rumors being spread around, I do not know what our friends at Anonymous have planned for Operation Empire State Rebellion (OpESR). However, I wholeheartedly agree with the goals they presented in their “Communication #1” video. They are very similar to reports I have been writing and the movement we have been calling for on our social network.

The Anonymous OpESR “manifesto” presented in their first video states the following:

quote:

Op vrijdag 1 april 2011 17:17 schreef Dhalsim het volgende:

[..]

Dit spreekt boekdelen over jouw (on)vermogen om rationeel na te denken. Zie jij echt nog niet in dat "anonymous" gewoon het volk is wat zich richt tegen de corruptie en machtsmisbruik van de machthebbers? Ik kan simpelweg niet bevatten dat iemand zo'n enorme tunnelvisie kan handhaven terwijl er zoveel informatie beschikbaar is.

Ik ga er maar vanuit dat er persoonlijke belangen meespelen. Zo niet, dan heb ik het met je te doen.

Robbie Williams ft Gary Barlow- Shame(Official Video)

quote:

BarrettBrownLOL Barrett Brown
#Anonops and th3j35t3r have come to an understanding in order to focus on our common enemies. http://pastebin.com/bSvuEZNa

quote:

Google Comes Under Fire for 'Secret' Relationship with NSA

Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group largely focused in recent years on Google's privacy practices, has called on a congressional investigation into the Internet giant's "cozy" relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama's administration.

In a letter sent Monday, Consumer Watchdog asked Representative Darrell Issa, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to investigate the relationship between Google and several government agencies.

The group asked Issa to investigate contracts at several U.S. agencies for Google technology and services, the "secretive" relationship between Google and the U.S. National Security Agency, and the company's use of a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration airfield in California.

Federal agencies have also taken "insufficient" action in response to revelations last year that Google Street View cars were collecting data from open Wi-Fi connections they passed, Consumer Watchdog said in the letter.

"We believe Google has inappropriately benefited from close ties to the administration," the letter said. "Google is most consumers' gateway to the Internet. Nonetheless, it should not get special treatment and access because of a special relationship with the administration."

Consumer Watchdog may have an ally in Issa, a California Republican. In July, he sent a letter to Google raising concerns that White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin, the former head of global public policy for Google, had inappropriate e-mail contact with company employees.

A Google spokeswoman questioned Consumer Watchdog's objectivity. Some groups have questioned the group's relationship with Google rival Microsoft, and Consumer Watchdog's criticisms of online privacy efforts have also exclusively zeroed in on Google, with the group rarely mentioning Microsoft, Facebook and other Web-based companies in the past two years.

"This is just the latest in a long list of press stunts from an organization that admits to working closely with our competitors," said the Google spokeswoman.

But Consumer Watchdog gets no funding from Microsoft or any other Google competitor, said John Simpson, consumer advocate with the group. "We don't have any relationship with Microsoft at all," he said. "We don't take any of their money."

Consumer Watchdog has decided to focus on Google's privacy practices because the company's services serve as a gateway to the Internet for many people, Simpson said. If the group can push Google, "without a doubt the dominant Internet company," to change its privacy practices, other companies will follow suit, he said.

"Google's held itself to be the company that says its motto is, 'don't be evil,' and they also advocate openness for everyone else," he said. "We're trying to hold them to their own word."

Consumer Watchdog, in January 2009, suggested that Google was preparing a lobbying campaign asking Congress to allow the sale of electronic health records. Google called the allegations "100 percent false and unfounded."

In September, Consumer Watchdog bought space on a 540-square-foot video screen in New York's Times Square, with the video criticizing Google's privacy practices.

In April, Consumer Watchdog officials called for the U.S. Department of Justice to break up Google. They appeared at a press conference with a representative of the Microsoft- and Amazon.com-funded Open Book Alliance.

Consumer Watchdog's latest complaints about the relationship of Google and the Obama administration are outlined in a 32-page report.

The paper questions a decision by NASA allowing Google executives to use its Moffett Federal Airfield near Google headquarters. Although H211, a company controlled by Google top executives, pays NASA rent, they enjoy access to the airfield that other companies or groups don't have, Simpson said.

The paper also questions Google contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies, suggesting that, in some cases, Google contracts were fast-tracked. The paper also questions Google's relationship with the U.S. National Security Agency and calls for the company to be more open about what consumer information it shares with the spy agency.

When asked if other companies, including broadband providers, should disclose what customer information they share with the NSA, Simpson said they should, too.

"I understand the NSA is a super-secret spook organization," he said. "But given Google's very special situation where it possesses so much personal data about people, I think that there ought to be a little more openness about what precisely goes on between the two."

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

Source: PCWorld

quote:

Infamous hacking group, Anonymous, began a series of attacks against Sony earlier today, bringing down several Sony sites and the PlayStation Network. However, a radical offshoot of the main group believe that the attacks aren’t enough, and are prepared to take the fight to a more severe level.

Initially claiming that they would seek revenge against Sony for their legal action against Geohot and other PS3 hackers, the group successfully DDoS’d PlayStation.com and the PlayStation Store under a group called OpSony. Now, a more more aggressive and darker group called SonyRecon have begun a series of more personal attacks.

quote:

http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=787

Dear Greedy Motherfuckers SONY,

Congratulations! You are now receiving the attention of Anonymous. Your recent legal actions against fellow internet citizens, GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo have been deemed an unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom, primary sources of free lulz (and you know how we feel about lulz.)

You have abused the judicial system in an attempt to censor information about how your products work. You have victimized your own customers merely for possessing and sharing information, and continue to target those who seek this information. In doing so you have violated the privacy of thousands of innocent people who only sought the free distribution of information. Your suppression of this information is motivated by corporate greed and the desire for complete control over the actions of individuals who purchase and use your products, at least when those actions threaten to undermine the corrupt stranglehold you seek to maintain over copywrong, oops, "copyright".

Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing. Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products? In light of this assault on both rights and free expression, Anonymous, the notoriously handsome rulers of the internet, would like to inform you that you have only been "renting" your web domains. Having trodden upon Anonymous' rights, you must now be trodden on.

If you disagree with the disciplinary actions against your private parts domains, then we trust you can also understand our motivations for these actions. You own your domains. You paid for them with your own money. Now Anonymous is attacking your private property because we disagree with your actions. And that seems, dare we say it, "wrong." Sound familiar?

Let Anonymous teach you a few important lessons that your mother forgot:
1. Don't do it to someone else if you don't want it to be done to you.
2. Information is free.
3. We own this. Forever.

As for the "judges" and complicit legal entities who have enabled these cowards: You are no better than SONY itself in our eyes and remain guilty of undermining the well-being of the populace and subverting your judicial mandate.


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

quote:

http://www.engadget.com/2(...)te-flawless-victory/

Well, after all the talk of TROs, tweets, and YouTube user info, it seems that the SCEA vs. Geohot litigation has come to a rather uneventful conclusion. According to Sony's Playstation Blog, the case has been settled, and Hotz has agreed to a permanent injunction preventing him from distributing his PS3 jailbreak hack ever again. Of course, while this settlement has cowed the man who did the initial distribution deed, the jailbreak genie's out of the bottle, and no court order can ever put it back.

quote:

Anonymous plans DDoS attack against Colombia Ministry of Justice
The Internet hacktivist collective known as Anonymous has scheduled a DDoS attack against the Colombia Ministry of Justice for Monday. The planned cyber attack is in response to a proposed law opponents claim endangers freedom of information and personal privacy.

The so called "Lleras law," is a U.S. backed anti-piracy bill introduced by Colombia's Minister of Interior and Justice, German Vargas Lleras. If made law, the bill will make ISPs liable for online copyright infringement by their subscribers.

Opponents claim the bill is a draconian effort being rail-roaded through the Colombia legislature by big money media interests. Opponents worry the bill will force ISPs to censor Internet content, spy on users, and disconnect those accused of copyright infringement without a fair hearing or just cause.

quote:

Anonymous: Message to Sony WE RUN THIS….
GeoHot has taken a settlement with sony. The case has been dropped. In the eyes of the law, the case is closed, for anonymous it is just beginning.
by forcing social networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook to hand over IP addresses of those who have viewed GeoHot’s videos, they have performed an act of privacy invasion.
We, anonymous, will not allow this to happen.

The attacks on the websites of sony have been ceased, sony’s poor attemps to explain the system outages through maintenance amuse us. Therefore we are finding other ways to get sony’s attention.

This April 16th, grab your mask, a few friends, and get to a local sony store by you. Use the IRC and the official Facebook page to organize a protest in your area. Make sure the people know the injustices performed by this corrupt company.
Boycott all sony products and if you have recently purchased any, return them.

It is time to show large corporations and governments that the people, as a collective whole, can and will change injustice in society, and we will make a great example out of sony.

Sony. prepare for the biggest attack you have ever witnessed, anonymous style.

- Anonops.tk

* Our official website: http://www.Anonops.tk ( or http://www.Anonyops.com )
* IRC: http://irc.lc/Anonops/opsony
* Our Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anonopstk/194085157274835
* Protests: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=136813236391154

Anonymous_ Message to Sony WE RUN THIS....

quote:

Learning the Importance of WAF Technology – the Hard Way

Wow. What a weekend. In case you haven’t heard, Barracuda Networks was the latest victim of a SQL injection attack on our corporate Web site that compromised lead and partner contact information. The good news is the information compromised was essentially just names and email addresses, and no financial information is even stored in those databases. Further, we have confirmed that some of the affected databases contained one-way cryptographic hashes of salted passwords. However, all active passwords for applications in use remain secure.

So, the bad news is that we made a mistake. The Barracuda Web Application Firewall in front of the Barracuda Networks Web site was unintentionally placed in passive monitoring mode and was offline through a maintenance window that started Friday night (April 8 ) after close of business Pacific time. Starting Saturday night at approximately 5pm Pacific time, an automated script began crawling our Web site in search of unvalidated parameters. After approximately two hours of nonstop attempts, the script discovered a SQL injection vulnerability in a simple PHP script that serves up customer reference case studies by vertical market. As with many ancillary scripts common to Web sites, this customer case study database shared the SQL database used for marketing programs which contained names and email addresses of leads, channel partners and some Barracuda Networks employees. The attack utilized one IP address initially to do reconnaissance and was joined by another IP address about three hours later. We have logs of all the attack activity, and we believe we now fully understand the scope of the attack.

This latest incident brings home some key reminders for us, including that:

* You can’t leave a Web site exposed nowadays for even a day (or less)
* Code vulnerabilities can happen in places far away from the data you’re trying to protect
* You can’t be complacent about coding practices, operations or even the lack of private data on your site – even when you have WAF technology deployed

Before responding prematurely to the press or to anyone else, we wanted to make sure we had time to sift through our logs and do a bit of communication. We’re glad that the impact will be very minimal, but we’re not happy about the amount of bandwidth we’ve spent assessing what happened, responding to affected parties and putting in place the steps to prevent it in the future.

We are working to notify everyone whose email addresses were exposed, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

quote:

New arrest over Anonymous' pro-WikiLeaks attacks

Police have made a sixth arrest in their investigation of Anonymous, the online activist collective that launched a series of cyber attacks on major firms it saw as anti-WikiLeaks.

The new suspect, a 22-year-old man from Cleveland, was questioned by specialist computer crime detectives at a local police station on Wednesday last week. He was bailed until 26 May pending further enquiries.

The five original suspects - three teenage boys and two men - have also all been bailed again in the last 48 hours, to reappear at police stations in June.

They were arrested at addresses in the West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Surrey and London in coordinated dawn operations on 27 January.

They are suspected of involvement in cyber attacks on the websites of Amazon, Bank of America, Mastercard, PayPal and Visa in December. Deliberately causing such disruption is an offence under the Computer Misuse Act and carries a sentence of up to 10 years' imprisonment.

The firms were targeted after they cut off services to WikiLeaks, amid controversy over its release of classified US diplomatic cables.

Anonymous saw the moves as an affront to free speech online, and in chatrooms planned Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in revenge.

Members downloaded a specially-developed piece of software - dubbed the Low Orbit Ion Cannon - to participate in "Operation Avenge Assange". The software was designed to effectively shut down the websites by bombarding their servers with requests for data.

But the impact was limited: while Amazon’s heavy duty infrastructure withstood Anonymous’ attack, the Mastercard and Visa websites were temporarily disrupted. Yet credit card payment systems themselves were mostly unaffected.

Since the attacks international law enforcement agencies have been cooperating on an investigation that has also led to the arrest of alleged Anonymous members in France, the Netherlands, and the US.

The collective had already caught the attention of British authorities before its WikiLeaks-related attacks, however.

Scotland Yard's Police Central e-Crime Unit began inquiries after similar DDoS attacks by Anonymous in September, on organisations connected to the entertainment industry. Its targets included the BPI and ACS:Law, a London-based law firm that had controversially accused thousands of internet users of copyright piracy.

Anonymous, which emerged more than three years ago from the anarchic web forum 4Chan.org, is also battling other attempts to unmask its members.

In February it hacked into HBGary Federal, a government computer security contractor that claimed to have identified its leaders. The firm's chief executive was forced to step down after the hackers stole his emails and published them online.

And recently a group claiming to be made up of disgruntled former Anonymous members has published a dossier its says contains the true identities of senior figures. Several are listed as living in Britain.

quote:

COICA means internet censorship. Join the campaign to stop #COICA today: http://dontcensorthenet.com #anonops #anonymous

quote:

Clue To The Massive Playstation Network Shutdown?

Earlier this week, in our post Anonymous Silenced By Youtube, we noted that the group may not yet be done punishing Sony.

As we write this post, Sony’s Playstation Network has been down for 2 days, with no real sign of it returning.

While some have speculated that this may be down to a cyber attack by Anonymous, a response from AnonOps say that they are not involved. They do concede, however, that members of the group could have taken it upon themselves to go it alone.

Earlier this week an anonymous source (small ‘a’) told us that Sony’s infrastructure would be attacked with a new kind of technique. We tried to find out more, but all we can give you is this:

Recursive DNS server amplification attack.

If any reader knows how to explain this in terms we can all easily understand, feel free to add them in the comments section.

Sony has offered no information about what has caused the downtime which is currently affecting millions of Playstation users. It might be a DDoS attack, or it could be – as Anonymous put it – that Sony are simply incompetent. Either way, Microsoft’s Xbox Live must think it’s Christmas this Easter.

quote:

HBGary: Silence, Sloppy Reporting Hyped Anonymous Hack

After months of almost total silence, security firm HBGary issued a statement to counter what it claims were inaccurate media reports about a February security breach that spilled thousands of e-mail messages onto the Internet.

The letter, published on HBGary's Web site and positioned as an "Open Letter to HBGary Customers and the Cyberdefense Marketplace," seeks to clarify the events surrounding a February, 2011 attack by online mischief making group Anonymous. According to HBGary, loose fact checking by journalists and the company's own silence led to rampant and widespread misinformation about what actually occurred.

The letter, which is not signed, reiterates company claims that its network was not compromised, just e-mail servers hosted in the cloud, but separated from internal networks. As they have before, the company claims they launched a thorough forensic investigation of their networks and determined that no data other than the emails were compromised. Paramount among these data is the company’s commercial product source code, what they call their most valuable asset. HBGary claims their source code has always been air-gapped from the Web and that despite allegations to the contrary, it was not stolen.

Once again, the letter attempts to a draw a distinction between HBGary and HBGary Federal, a wholly owned subsidiary headed by former CEO Aaron Barr, who was the initial target of the Anonymous attack. While admitting that HBGary Inc. “members” serve on the Board of Directors at HBGary Federal, the letter claims they merely guide the overall financial direction of the company, and play no role in its day-to-day operations as much of the company's work is classified. They further point out that this attack, carried out by online hacker collective Anonymous, was an act of retaliation against work being done exclusively by HBGary Federal, and specifically their former CEO Aaron Barr. HBGary Inc., they claim, was a victim of circumstance merely because the two companies share the same cloud-based email system.

The almost identical management of the two firms and the fact that their corporate e-mail was intertwined have caused many to cast doubt on HBGary claims that the two firms were distinct from one another.

The letter also refutes some of the more outrageous claims by Anonymous - for example, that HBGary had a hand in the creation of the Stuxnet worm. Such claims stemmed from the misinterpretation of a single email sent by Greg Hoglund. The email in question asked that HBGary employees not discuss the Stuxnet in order to avoid becoming a part of the high profile discussion surrounding the worm, which the company thought was best to avoid on account of the sensitive nature of its alleged target. They call it unfortunate that their internal communications were “stolen and interpreted without context.”

Lastly, the letter closes with a stab at the nature of the reporting and coverage surrounding the incident, saying, “We wish that journalistic standards of fact-checking and verification were uniform across the press, but unfortunately, the blog-o-sphere makes that impossible.”

quote:

Website Syrische parlement gehackt

De website van het Syrische parlement is vandaag overgenomen door hackers. In plaats van de normale voorpagina is een reeks foto's te zien.

In de slideshow van foto's zijn beelden te zien van mensen die, vermoedelijk tijdens de betogingen in het land, zijn mishandeld of vermoord. Daaronder staat een tekst in het Arabisch (Google Translate-vertaling), waarin onder meer te lezen is: 'de moordenaar van de menselijke wezens te doden'.

Het filmpje (hieronder staat het) dat te zien is op de website, is afkomstig van een YouTube-kanaal van iemand die meerdere beelden van de opstanden in Syrië de wereld in stuurt.