Anonops #7: Meer is beter

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Wired Story About TruePosition Disappears..., The Company Biz: Selling Mobile Phone Location Intelligence, 'Geo-Fencing' Monitoring Developed

This article hit my Google Reader, when clicking the link, I get a 404. Here is the text of the article copied from the reader:

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Banks step up security amid fear of Anonymous hackers

AUSTRALIA'S major banks are on a heightened security footing amid fears of being targeted by the high-profile hacking group Anonymous.

ANZ's top technology executive, Ann Weatherston, said yesterday that investment in technology security had been one of the highest priorities at the bank for the past few years, and spending on that area was now a core part of operations.

''Customers increasingly will judge their banks by the quality of their security,'' she said.
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Last month, the global group Anonymous and a second hacking network called LulzSec said they were planning to join forces in a campaign aimed at banks, government agencies and prominent targets around the world to encourage others to steal and leak classified information.

Ms Weatherston made the comments as ANZ outlined a five-year technology blueprint, including setting a target that would eventually give its customers a ''seamless'' technology experience through all of the countries in which it operated.

The plan also involves an upgrade of ANZ's internet banking, expanding its ATM network, and pushing further into mobile-banking.

ANZ also expects to start processing deposit and payment transactions in real time for business customers across its entire Asian network.

With some rival banks, including Commonwealth Bank, upgrading their core banking, ANZ's deputy chief executive, Graham Hodges, said he did not see a need for a big overhaul at this point. The bank would focus on upgrading and simplifying existing systems.

''What is right for us is not necessarily right for someone else,'' he said. He said ANZ's system was more modern than that of its bigger rival, and it was focused on spending more on building up its Asian banking businesses.

Technology remains one of the biggest expenses for banks and, given additional cost and risks, many are reluctant to tinker with systems that work.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/bus(...)p.html#ixzz1SE3CMWkS

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Anonymous Attacks Monsanto Network, Releases Employee Contact Data

Anonymous released personal information and documents stolen from agricultural chemical and biotechnology company Monsanto as the Senate discusses a committee to address cyber-

The hacking group Anonymous has struck again, this time releasing documents it said it stole from the network of giant biotechnology and agricultural seed company Monsanto in retribution for alleged corporate misconduct.

The hacking collective posted information it stole last month on 2,500 Monsanto employees and associates, the group announced July 13. Anonymous also launched a distributed denial-of-service attack on Monsanto's international Websites, forcing the company to shut down the sites for approximately three days.

The group claimed it spent two months attacking the Monsanto network to access hundreds of pages of documents that it contends reveal “Monsanto's corrupt, unethical, and downright evil business practices.”

In the process, the group accessed three mail servers and released sensitive personal information, including full names, addresses, phone numbers "and exactly where they work," Anonymous wrote on text-sharing site Pastebin. The list also included contact details for media outlets as well as other agricultural companies.

The group also promised to post a wiki providing all the information, including articles and emails, "in a more centralized and stable environment," similar to what it did with HB Gary Federal emails on the AnonLeaks site earlier this year.

"Monsanto experienced a disruption to our Websites which appeared to be organized by a cyber-group," said Tom Escher, the company's director of corporate affairs, in an email to msnbc.com.

These types of activist attacks are not limited to the private sector as government agency Websites like the Central Intelligence Agency, private-public partnership sites affiliated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton have been hit recently, Sen. John McCain (R-Airs.) wrote July 14 in a letter to the Senate leadership. He called these kinds of attacks threats to national security.

McCain wrote, “to renew [his] request that the Senate create a temporary Select Committee on Cyber-Security and Electronic Intelligence Leaks." The committee could also develop a comprehensive cyber-security legislation based on disparate proposals currently in the Senate, he said.

"I truly believe the only way to ensure the protection of sensitive and valuable information from tampering or dissemination by unauthorized persons is a Select Committee," McCain said.

In a letter to Senate majority leader Harry Reid and minority leader Mitch McConnell, McCain requested a committee be appointed to specifically look into the various cyber-attacks and data breaches on federal agencies and contractors.

The temporary Senate committee was necessary to "adequately address" the growing threat from hacking collectives, such as Anonymous and other malicious perpetrators, as well as the risk of losing more classified documents to whistleblowers, such as Wikileaks, McCain wrote.

It won't be an easy task to untangle the snarl of cyber-security-related legislation and proposals currently swirling around Washington, D.C. At least three committees have drafted proposed bills, and at least seven committees claim some jurisdiction over cyber-security, McCain said.

The White House has also put forward a legislative proposal outlining the Obama administration's cyber-security goals in May. The Department of Energy released its own set of requirements and responsibilities for a cyber-security program the same month.

The Department of Commerce is still taking comments on its June proposal to establish voluntary codes of behavior for the private sector to improve cyber-security. To top it off, the Department of Defense on July 14 released its strategy on how it will operate in cyber-space.

"With so many agencies and the White House moving forward with cyber-security proposals, we must provide congressional leadership on this pressing issue of national security," McCain wrote in the letter.

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Banned Anons launch Anon+ to take on Google+

Web hackivists Anonymous, having been banned from Google's attempt at building a social networking service, say they are setting up their own rival service named Anon+.

Google decided to oust youranonnews from Google+ over what it said was content it found objectionable. The headless collective claims that a number of accounts connected with it were also deleted.

"This is the sad fact of what happens across the internet when you walk to a different beat of the drum," the outfit wrote.

So, in resposnse it said to "stories of activists being banned from FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and governments blocking their people from these sites as well through organized black outs," the mischief makers have announced their intention to build their own social network.

"This is one social network that will not tolerate being shut down, censored, or oppressed - even in the face of blackout. We the people have had enough…enough of governments and corporations saying what’s best for us - what’s safe for our minds," the post on youranonnews.tumblr.com reads.

"The sheep era is over," they write. "The interwebz are no longer your prison."

It's certainly a new twist on the idea - a "social" network on which the members are anonymous. What will become of it is anyone's guess, but version 0.1 Alpha of the site is here.

Read more: http://www.thinq.co.uk/20(...)oogle/#ixzz1SNO120YZ

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Internet Bill Could Help Hackers, Experts Warn

Legislation cracking down on rogue websites could inadvertently help hackers who have struck major corporate and government targets in recent weeks, a group of computer science experts said on Thursday.

“America is getting hacked,” security consultant Dan Kaminsky said at a Center for Democracy and Technology briefing. “On a deep architectural level, we have to fix this or our economy cannot work.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced the PROTECT IP Act to crack down on websites that sell copyrighted and counterfeited materials, and it passed out of committee in May.

But Kaminsky and other Internet architecture experts object to a section that requires Internet service providers to use a controversial method known as domain name system filtering to direct traffic away from websites selling copyrighted or counterfeit materials.

Authorities could use a court order to make service providers do the filtering--in essence, redirecting web users from a rogue website to another website that carries a notice about why the site couldn't be reached. But the filtering mandate could undermine online safety initiatives that hinge on use of Web addresses, the experts say.

The system that would allow filtering would also prevent providers from using an emerging security system known as DNSSEC. This security system sends credentialed messages between browsers and ISPs to ensure that users are taken to the proper website—and not a scam website—when they enter a URL.

Not only would a filtering requirement undermine the spread of DNSSEC, but hackers are likely to offer workarounds to private users. When clicked, these workarounds could also function as entry points, the computer architects argued.

Kaminski, Steve Crocker of the security consultancy Shinkuro, David Dagon of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Danny McPherson of security firm Verisign, and Paul Vixie of the Internet Systems Consortium wrote a white paper in May predicting that businesses relying on secure connections will quickly feel the repercussions of the proposal when hacking increases.

Kaminsky’s group said the redirection measures in the bill can be easily circumvented, adding that they have met with the White House, Commerce Department, and members of Congress to air their concerns, which are confined to the technical sections of the bill and not the entire proposal.

The Motion Picture Association of America, a key supporter of the bill, issued a statement on Thursday strongly disputing these claims. Web users are unlikely to reconfigure their computers to circumvent the filtering, the MPAA said, and the security standards cited by the authors ought to be flexible enough to allow for IP protection.

“Here's the bottom line: We rely on the Internet to do too much and be too much to let it decay into a lawless Wild West. We are confident that America's technology community, which leads the world in innovation and creativity, will be capable of developing a technical solution that helps address the serious challenge of rogue sites,” said Paul Brigner, chief technology officer at MPAA.

The technical grievances are just one sticking point in a bill that has received strong criticism from the Internet sector, which fears new costs involved with combating piracy. Civil libertarians fear an overly broad bill could suppress online speech. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., placed a hold on the bill earlier this year after it passed out of committee.

“By ceding control of the Internet to corporations through a private right of action, and to government agencies that do not sufficiently understand and value the Internet, [the legislation] represents a threat to our economic future and to our international objectives,” Wyden said at the time.

Legislation cracking down on rogue websites could inadvertently help hackers who have struck major corporate and government targets in recent weeks, a group of computer science experts said on Thursday.

“America is getting hacked,” security consultant Dan Kaminsky said at a Center for Democracy and Technology briefing. “On a deep architectural level, we have to fix this or our economy cannot work.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced the PROTECT IP Act to crack down on websites that sell copyrighted and counterfeited materials, and it passed out of committee in May.

But Kaminsky and other Internet architecture experts object to a section that requires Internet service providers to use a controversial method known as domain name system filtering to direct traffic away from websites selling copyrighted or counterfeit materials.

Authorities could use a court order to make service providers do the filtering--in essence, redirecting web users from a rogue website to another website that carries a notice about why the site couldn't be reached. But the filtering mandate could undermine online safety initiatives that hinge on use of Web addresses, the experts say.

The system that would allow filtering would also prevent providers from using an emerging security system known as DNSSEC. This security system sends credentialed messages between browsers and ISPs to ensure that users are taken to the proper website—and not a scam website—when they enter a URL.

Not only would a filtering requirement undermine the spread of DNSSEC, but hackers are likely to offer workarounds to private users. When clicked, these workarounds could also function as entry points, the computer architects argued.

Kaminski, Steve Crocker of the security consultancy Shinkuro, David Dagon of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Danny McPherson of security firm Verisign, and Paul Vixie of the Internet Systems Consortium wrote a white paper in May predicting that businesses relying on secure connections will quickly feel the repercussions of the proposal when hacking increases.

Kaminsky’s group said the redirection measures in the bill can be easily circumvented, adding that they have met with the White House, Commerce Department, and members of Congress to air their concerns, which are confined to the technical sections of the bill and not the entire proposal.

The Motion Picture Association of America, a key supporter of the bill, issued a statement on Thursday strongly disputing these claims. Web users are unlikely to reconfigure their computers to circumvent the filtering, the MPAA said, and the security standards cited by the authors ought to be flexible enough to allow for IP protection.

“Here's the bottom line: We rely on the Internet to do too much and be too much to let it decay into a lawless Wild West. We are confident that America's technology community, which leads the world in innovation and creativity, will be capable of developing a technical solution that helps address the serious challenge of rogue sites,” said Paul Brigner, chief technology officer at MPAA.

The technical grievances are just one sticking point in a bill that has received strong criticism from the Internet sector, which fears new costs involved with combating piracy. Civil libertarians fear an overly broad bill could suppress online speech. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., placed a hold on the bill earlier this year after it passed out of committee.

“By ceding control of the Internet to corporations through a private right of action, and to government agencies that do not sufficiently understand and value the Internet, [the legislation] represents a threat to our economic future and to our international objectives,” Wyden said at the time.

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Tor's Hammer - Slow POST Denial Of Service Testing Tool

Tor's Hammer is a slow post dos testing tool written in Python. It can also be run through the Tor network to be anonymized. If you are going to run it with Tor it assumes you are running Tor on 127.0.0.1:9050. Kills most unprotected web servers running Apache and IIS via a single instance. Kills Apache 1.X and older IIS with ~128 threads, newer IIS and Apache 2.X with ~256 threads.

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Yet another report: Internet disconnections a "disproportionate" penalty

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with its 56 member countries made up of 1 billion people, is the “world's largest regional security organization.” And it really doesn't like Internet censorship.

A new OSCE report on "Freedom of Expression on the Internet" (PDF) takes a hard line on all things Internet, issuing conclusions at odds with the practices of many of its most powerful member states, including France and the US. Net neutrality? Every country needs it. “Three strikes” laws that and in Internet disconnection? Disproportionate penalties for minor offenses. Internet access? It's a human right.

The report was prepared by Yaman Akdeniz, a law professor at Istanbul Bilgi University in Turkey, and it's a scorcher—coming to many of the same conclusions reached by UN Special Rapporteur Frank LaRue last month. Reports, even when they come from organizations like OSCE and the UN, seem unlikely to alter France's stance on Internet disconnections as response to online copyright infringement, or the United States' newfound appreciation of the need for Internet site blocking. As for countries like Belarus and Kazahstan—well, the chances they will suddenly agree with Akdeniz and LaRue are infinitesimal.

Still, the reports do document a growing high-level international perspective opposed to nearly all censorship and curtailment of Internet access, and in strong favor of making such access a universal human right.

Highlights from the report:

Network neutrality: It's "an important prerequisite for the Internet to be equally accessible and affordable to all. It is, therefore, troubling that more than 80 percent of the participating States do not have legal provisions in place to guarantee net neutrality. Finland and Norway stand out as best practice examples… Users should have the greatest possible access to Internet-based content, applications or services of their choice without the Internet traffic they use being managed, prioritized, or discriminated against by the network operators."

"Three strikes": "The increased use of so-called 'three-strikes' legal measures to combat Internet piracy is worrisome given the growing importance of the Internet in daily life… This disproportionate response is most likely to be incompatible with OSCE commitment on the 'freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.'"

Internet kill switch: "Existent legal provisions allow several OSCE participating States to completely suspend all Internet communication and 'switch off' Internet access for whole populations or segments of the public during times of war, states of emergency and in cases of imminent threat to national security. Reaffirming the importance of fully respecting the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the OSCE participating States should refrain from developing, introducing and applying 'Internet kill switch' plans as they are incompatible with the fundamental right to information."

Web blocking: "As blocking mechanisms are not immune from significant deficiencies, they may result in the blocking of access to legitimate sites and content. Further, blocking is an extreme measure and has a very strong impact on freedom of expression and the free flow of information. Participating States should therefore refrain from using blocking as a permanent solution or as a means of punishment… Blocking of online content can only be justified if in accordance with these standards and done pursuant to court order and where absolutely necessary. Blocking criteria should always be made public and provide for legal redress."

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One arrest and further threats in the German police hacker case

The "No Name Crew", a group of hackers who recently published classified information relating to the German customs investigators' "Patras" GPS location system, has threatened to publish further data. The data is to be released at midnight on 28 July, and the alleged target is a German federal authority. The data reportedly includes sensitive information such as the authority's emails. The hackers say that they have had "full control of the central download server of the German Federal Police for some time", and that they were able to intercept the network traffic to and from the systems of the German Federal Criminal Police, the German Federal Police and the German Customs Authority, over the course of an entire year.

To avoid being arrested the hackers have, in WikiLeaks fashion, posted a 717 MB encrypted archive on the internet. The criminals have threatened that an automated response mechanism will publish the archive password should a member of their group get arrested. This could now be the case, as the North Rhine-Westphalian Federal Police reported earlier today (Monday, 18 July) that it has arrested a 23-year-old German citizen on the suspicion of intercepting and manipulating data and computer sabotage. Evidence was reportedly secured at the suspect's home. German Focus OnlineGerman language magazine says that the German police is aware of the identities of three suspected group members.

The case is currently being analysed at the cyber defence centre operated by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Talking to The H's associates at heise Security, the BSI's Matthias Gärtner was unable to rule out that the attackers may be in possession of further sensitive information. Focus Online quoted a high-ranking German security official as saying that he feared that hundreds of secret investigations could be disclosed on the internet.

Classified investigation documents that the magazine claims to have obtained reportedly state that the attackers managed to exploit mistakes made at the German Federal Police's Swisstal-Heimerzheim barracks in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). To save money, the police authority is said to have used the standard XAMPP Apache installation package. This package is intended as a simple introduction to the world of Apache for developers and doesn't present any major configuration hurdles. However, the XAMPP developers explicitly warn that the standard settings are not suitable for production use: "To make it convenient for developers, XAMPP is configured with all features turned on. [...] The default configuration is not good from a security point of view, and it's not secure enough for a production environment."

Consequently, the attackers managed to inject at least 42 trojans into the authority's systems. Talking to Focus Online, the BSI said that unauthorised accesses to the German Central Credit Committee's and the Federal Police's infrastructures that could be attributed to the No Name Crew began in autumn 2010.

twitter:

AnonymousIRC twitterde op maandag 18-07-2011 om 22:53:57 We have joy we have fun we will mess up Murdoch's Sun: http://t.co/JArvwg1 | Hi Rupert! Have fun tomorrow at the Parliament! #AntiSec reageer retweet

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#AntiSec Hackers Spill News of the World Chief Rebekah Brooks’ Email Login to Entire Internet (Update)

Sam Biddle — The fruits of today's Sun UK hack are starting to dangle down: LulzSec (out of retirement?) and Anon are tweeting logins of some serious British media brass. Foremost? Rebekah Brooks, the epicenter of England's voicemail hacking scandal. Update: phone numbers!

The tweet divulged the email and password info for one Rebekah Wade—Brooks' maiden name—along with many others from Murdoch's tabloid upper crust:

Harvey Shaw—Publishing Operations Team Manager, News International—Phone number

Pete Picton—Sun Online Editor—Phone number

Lee Wells—Editorial Support Manager at News International—Email and Password

Bill Akass—Managing Editor, News of the World—Email and password

Chris Hampartsoumian—Former Online Editor at timeonline.co.uk—Phone number

Danny Rogers—Sun Online Editorial Manager—Email and password

This trickle is probably only the start. LulzSec appears to be hard at work squeezing more logins out of The Sun's servers:

We are battling with The Sun admins right now - I think they are losing. The boat has landed... >:]

In other words, expect more—though the only login fish bigger than Brooks would be Murdoch's.

Update: AntiSec operators have tweeted phone numbers for The Sun's online editor, Pete Picton, along with two other (lesser) Sun editorial figures.

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How LulzSec hacked the Sun's website


Weakness in disregarded server was used to gain access to News International systems and then redirect traffic to fake web page, and then to LulzSec's Twitter feed

The LulzSec attack on News International's systems to redirect readers from the Sun to a fake story, and to try to get at its internal email store, appears to have been two-pronged.

Some of the more skilled hackers, including some from the hacker collective Anonymous, had been probing it in detail for about two weeks before the hack. One was to break into its email archive; the other was to hack and "deface" the site itself, by putting up a fake story – the same method LulzSec originally came to attention by doing when it hacked the PBS site to claim that Tupac Shakur was not dead.

However as far back as 2009 a weakness was found in the "Contact us" form of the Sun's site that meant that it could be used to attack the database holding emails for the system.

Some former News International employees' names and mobile phone numbers have been given out on Twitter by people affiliated to the hacker collective Anonymous. However, they are not current: some include people who left the company in 2007. But that also implies that they may have access to email archives dating back to when some phone hacking occurred.

Monday night's hack of the Sun occurred because one of the hackers found a weakness in a "retired" server for the News International "microsites" – used for small or unimportant stories – running Sun's Solaris operating system.

The most likely candidate for that hack – which would use the weakness discovered in 2009 – is the "mailback" page at http://www.new-times.co.uk/cgi-bin/newtimesmailback, which on Tuesday morning had been deactivated, along with the whole of the new-times site.

The server hosted the outdated "new-times.co.uk" site put up when the Times was building its paywall.

The hacker used that and then ran a "local file inclusion" program to gain access to the server – meaning they had extensive control over it.

That then gave them access across large parts of the News International network, possibly including the archived emails, and to the Sun's "content management system" (CMS) – which formats news onto pages. That will have included the code for the "breaking news" element of the Sun's main webpage; changing the entire content on the page would be too obvious.

By including a line of Javascript in the "breaking news" element, the hackers were able to ensure that anyone visiting the Sun's home page would, as the ticker was automatically refreshed, they would be redirected to anywhere that the hackers chose.

Initially they made it redirect to a fake page they had created at new-times.co.uk/sun which attempted to look and read like a Sun story claiming that Rupert Murdoch had been found dead. That page used a template of another story that first appeared on 14 July, suggesting that the hackers either grabbed an archived story or have had access since then.

After the team at News International tried to regain control, the hackers then redirected the main News International page to the Twitter page for LulzSec.

But the problems for the News International team aren't over. A number of email addresses and passwords were being tweeted last night on various feeds – implying that the hackers may have gained access to the email archive and be preparing to release it. If that happens, the effects could be titanic.

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Invallen FBI bij hackersgroep Anonymous

De FBI heeft vandaag op verschillende plaatsen in New York huiszoekingen gedaan in het kader van een onderzoek naar de hackersgroep Anonymous. Op een adres in de wijk Brooklyn en drie op Long Island werden computers in beslag genomen, zegt een FBI-woordvoerder.

Anonymous is een los georganiseerde groep van hackers die sypathiseren met de klokkenluiderswebsite Wikileaks. De groep heeft de verantwoordelijkheid opgeëist voor een groot aantal aanvallen op websites van bedrijven en overheidsinstellingen in de hele wereld.

Doelwit waren onder meer de websites van creditcardbedrijven Visa en Mastercard, omdat die weigerden donaties voor Wikileaks en zijn oprichter Julian Assange te verwerken. Ook werden de sites van de Scientology-kerk en van Kiss-bassist Gene Simmons aangevallen.

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Federal Government Indicts Former Demand Progress Executive Director For Downloading Too Many Journal Articles

“This makes no sense,” said Demand Progress Executive Director David Segal; “it’s like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library.”

“It’s even more strange because JSTOR has settled any claims against Aaron, explained they’ve suffered no loss or damage, and asked the government not to prosecute,” Segal added.

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Sky News uncovers mysterious hacker Louise Boat

SKY NEWS has uncovered a mysterious hacker called Louise Boat, who is responsible for targeting Rupert Murdoch's rag, The Sun.

The revelation came on a news report late last night by news anchor Anna Botting, who exposed the leader of hacktivist group Anonymous as none other than Louise Boat, a shady figure that few know anything about.

The guests on the show, who we presume were security 'experts', were baffled by this hacker femme fatale, asking several times, "Who is Louise Boat?"

The question, which is sure to become part of modern day philosophical treatises, is made all the more captavating by the fact that Boat also spells her first name Luiz, probably as some kind of attempt to fit in with internet lingo.

In case anyone might think otherwise, the Twitter page that The Sun redirects to after its recent hack, specifies that it represents the Louise Boat. Presumably there are a number of people out there pretending to be this elusive hacker woman.

Even Botting, who is usually quite lucid at her late night broadcasts, admitted, "I don't know who Louise Boat is."

One of the guests on the show attempted to offer some clarity on the situation by saying, "It's some hacking ... thing." Such astute observations are what can be expected on such an illustrious news programme.

We think Botting, who has worked for Sky News since 1995, might know a bit more about Louise Boat than she's letting on, considering she was a rower at university and participaticed in the BBC's The Other Boat Race. Presumably, however, she never sailed in the Lulz Boat.

Sky News is partly owned by Murdoch's News Corporation, which was forced to withdraw its bid for parent company British Sky Broadcasting (Bskyb) last week over the hacking scandal. Part-owned by Murdoch, you say? Well, that explains it.

Sky News Reporting @LulzSec www.thesun.co.uk Hack, Call them ' Annoymous & call them louise ' fail

Read more: http://www.theinquirer.ne(...)e-boat#ixzz1Sas9QBWv
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today.

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Anonymous shut down! Ringleaders brought to justice!

July 20, 2011 --

As many readers would no doubt already be aware, the FBI has just arrested 16 "members" of Anonymous in relation to DDoS attacks and intrusions.

The US Department of Justice swiftly issued a press release with the catchy, ALL CAPS title of "SIXTEEN INDIVIDUALS ARRESTED IN THE UNITED STATES FOR ALLEGED ROLES IN CYBER ATTACKS".

So this is a massive blow to "Anonymous" and its sophisticated campaign of mayhem, right?

Wrong.

One of the complaints details charges to be laid against Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 22. He's alleged to have somehow created an account on Infragard Tampa's Website and successfully uploaded a couple of files.

By the looks of things he made no attempt to hide his actions -- using his own IP address to conduct the "attack" -- then Tweeted about it and directed his followers toward his Website.

How stealthy.

What a criminal mastermind. I'll sure sleep better tonight knowing this criminal genius has been taken off the streets.

Another complaint alleges former AT&T contractor Lance Moore uploaded a bunch of commercially sensitive material to Fileape. That information was subsequently "redistributed" by LulzSec.

This guy isn't even alleged to be sailing aboard the Lulz Boat, but hey, at least the DoJ got to use the word "LulzSec" in an indictment. What a win!

The remaining 14 arrests deal with a DDoS attack against PayPal, apparently in retribution for that company's decision to suspend payment processing for Wikileaks. They were using LOIC. How 1337.

So what does this all amount to? A leaker with internal access (AT&T), a young guy who was able to pwn Infragard in about five minutes (great security, guys) and a bunch of LOIC users.

And yet the coverage I'm seeing still persists with this ridiculous idea that the arrests will be some sort of strike against Anonymous, the "group".

So here, let's try to get something straight, once and for all: Anonymous is not a group. It's not a hydra. It's not a "loose collective". Anonymous is just a designation. Why is that so hard to understand?

Let's try an analogy.

17th century pirates liked to steal booty. They sailed the high seas and pillaged. They had a common flag. But they WERE NOT A GROUP.

Sure, there were groups of pirates that sailed on ships together. There was a common outlook -- that plundering booty was a worthwhile activity, ho ho and a bottle of rum, all of that. But they were not a group.

There were pirate hangouts like pirate taverns, so there was congregation, but no leadership. Pirates were not a collective.

So let's clear it all up. The anons are the pirates, IRC channels and imageboards like 4chan are their pirate taverns, and the various Anonymous outfits like @AnonymousIRC and @AnonOPS are pirate ships with multiple pirates aboard. They're groups of pirates! Simple! See?

So when the Spanish, Turkish, British or whichever police force claims to have arrested "key members" of Anonymous I wonder if they're deliberately misleading the public and their masters, or if they genuinely just don't get it.

This current batch of arrests will "bring to justice" a bunch of people who made no attempt to conceal their actions because they're either technically useless or just didn't care.

They're "low hanging anons".

But that won't stop the mainstream media from portraying this as the establishment striking back at online troublemakers.

Sigh.

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http://www.reddit.com/r/A(...)earch_warrant_today/

At around 11:00 this morning, I had 4 cars and a van filled with FBI agents pull up to my house, and then invade. I have learned enough from Reddit to ask for a copy of the search warrant, which took them at least half an hour to provide, and it was a "copy" (bad signature, no seals, etc.). They ushered me and my four kids to the couch, and then proceeded to search my house, with guns drawn, and collect all our electonic devices and equipment.

When I finally got to sit down and talk to them, they said that packets were sent from our isp address during the ddos attack on paypal. They said my son was responsible (he was 13 at the time). They sat down with both of us and asked about our involvement with AnonOps. I think they were surprised (really?) that I knew about Anonymous. [http://gizmodo.com/5709630/what-is-loic]

Why would they spend all this time, energy, and funds to get a kid who was trying to be cool and follow Anon without knowing any of the consequences? What do I do to protect him? What can I expect? They seized two desk top computers.

Thanks for any feedback or guidance or information.

*EDIT Can't "lawyer up", don't have the funds. I guess my biggest question is this: Why would they spend all the time and resources on a child? If they want to get Anon, how about spending the funds they spent today on researching who to really go after? Seems like a waste of my tax payer dollars.

Edit 2 There are a lot of people calling bullshit. It is "United States District Court Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Case number: . I am trying to take pictures with my phone to upload, but I am not certain that it will be clear enough, and I have a new computer (bought today, and it is not hooked up to the printer/scanner).

Edit 3 Proof - Sorry for the bad quality, taken with my Flip camera.

Edit 4 Removed some information on the advice of other redditors.

quote:

LulzSec claims to have News International emails

Member of hacking group LulzSec says it will make public 4GB of emails it claims were taken from attack on servers at the Sun

One of the members of the LulzSec hacking group has claimed on Twitter that the group has got 4GB of emails taken from the Sun and the "royal family" which may be released as soon as lunchtime on Thursday.

The claim follows a hacking attack against News International on Tuesday night during which members of LulzSec apparently broke into computer systems there and redirected readers of the Sun's website to a faked page claiming News Corp chief executive Rupert Murdoch had been found dead.

Significantly, the group also seems to have broken into the email database at News International.

Some accounts belonging to Anonymous also began tweeting email addresses and passwords for staff at News International, including what seemed to be an email account and password for Rebekah Brooks under her previous married name of Wade while at the Sun.

The password appeared to be valid based on the contents of the tweet, which included the encrypted form of the password.

News International reacted by closing down all external access to its webmail systems and forcing users to reset their passwords.

The company declined to comment at the time on whether the hackers might have had external access to email accounts, but the fact that it shut down the access suggests that it feared they might.

Equally, the hackers almost certainly would not have begun tweeting details of their find without having first exploited it.

Contacts within Anonymous have told Guardian journalists that News International's email systems were being probed last week and that downloads were being made then.

twitter:

AnonymousIRC twitterde op donderdag 21-07-2011 om 14:04:15 Here is the next NATO Restricted PDF: http://t.co/zSR7bVo | Outsourcing CIS in Kosovo (2008) | Enjyoing the war yet, NATO? #AntiSec reageer retweet

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NATO HACKED: AnonymousIRC claim to have infiltrated NATO servers

The AnonymousIRC hacking organisation have claimed this afternoon that they have hacked into NATO servers.

The group tweeted a message earlier claiming they are sitting on 1gb of NATO data.

"Yes, #NATO was breached. And we have lots of restricted material. With some simple injection. In the next days, wait for interesting data "

They later said:

"We are sitting on about one Gigabyte of data from NATO now, most of which we cannot publish as it would be irresponsible. But Oh NATO...."

They later released the document, obtained by Blottr. However for security reasons, we will not be sharing this document, but can provide a screenshot that we AnonymousIRC did in fact leak the document.

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Op donderdag 21 juli 2011 16:45 schreef YazooW het volgende:
Anonymous (degene die nu hacken) is gewoon een toneelstuk van grote overheden waardoor het voor hun makkelijker wordt wetten aan te nemen die de vrijheid van de gewone mens op het internet kan gaan beperken.

Dit is niet mijn mening, al denk ik er wel steeds vaker zo over. Wat denken jullie hiervan?

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Op donderdag 21 juli 2011 18:27 schreef MouzurX het volgende:
Maare papierversnipperaar ik dacht dat lulsec er mee was opgehouden en op was gegaan in anti-sec en anonymous ofzo?

quote:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/21/us-cybersecurity-response-idUSTRE76K66G20110721
(Reuters) - After a brief hiatus and an FBI takedown of several alleged "hacktivists," two groups that have claimed responsibility for a recent wave of cyber vandalism say they are back.

twitter:

AnonymousIRC twitterde op donderdag 21-07-2011 om 15:00:19 Hello thar, FBI. Since you were so kind to address us via press, we and @LulzSec like to respond: http://t.co/NXItB0w | #AntiSec Sail Strong reageer retweet

quote:

Hello thar FBI and international law authorities,

We recently stumbled across the following article with amazement and a certain amount of amusement:

http://www.npr.org/2011/0(...)ed-anonymous-hackers

The statements made by deputy assistant FBI director Steve Chabinsky in this
article clearly seem to be directed at Anonymous and Lulz Security, and we are
happy to provide you with a response.

You state:

"We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable,
[even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it's entirely
unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts."

Now let us be clear here, Mr. Chabinsky, while we understand that you and
your colleagues may find breaking into websites unacceptable, let us tell
you what WE find unacceptable:

* Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep
them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece.

* Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking
advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for
federal contracts we all know they can't fulfil.

* Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits
higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around
the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough
so the status quo will never change.

These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to
fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly
includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies.

We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to
us as you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your
citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our
mission to help these people and there is nothing - absolutely nothing - you
can possibly to do make us stop.

"The Internet has become so important to so many people that we have to
ensure that the World Wide Web does not become the Wild Wild West."

Let me ask you, good sir, when was the Internet not the Wild Wild West? Do
you really believe you were in control of it at any point? You were not.

That does not mean that everyone behaves like an outlaw. You see, most
people do not behave like bandits if they have no reason to. We become bandits
on the Internet because you have forced our hand. The Anonymous bitchslap rings
through your ears like hacktivism movements of the 90s. We're back - and we're
not going anywhere. Expect us.

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Inside Anon+, the first anonymous social network

Forget Google+ – the future of social networking shuns identities altogether. We got an exclusive look inside Anon+, the first-ever anonymous social network.

Earlier this week, Google banned pages related to loose-knit hacker group Anonymous from its hot new social network, Google+. Fed up with the apparent censorship, a group of like-minded hackers, programmers and other digital underground activists decided to take the realm of social networking into their own hands by creating the world’s first-ever anonymous social network.

Still in its infancy (version 0.8 alpha, to be exact), the new network is currently called Anon+, but that name will soon change, according to “Higochoa,” a self-professed hacker, Web developer and computer programmer from Galveston, Texas, who is leading a core team of 12 to 15 other developers, plus freelance specialists, to build Anon+. We had a chance to speak with Higochoa via IRC chat, and he gave us the low-down on what the team hopes Anon+ will become.

Contrary to many of the reports about Anon+, the project is not being built by members of Anonymous, said Higochoa during our interview, at least not in an official capacity. The Anon+ dev team does have ties to Anonymous, but they have distanced themselves from the group because they were “getting attacked by those who don’t like Anonymous,” said Higochoa. The Anon+ crew also wanted to differentiate themselves from certain negative connotations associated with the notorious hactivist collective.

“We just didn’t want everyone to think we are a bunch of hackers sitting around trying to change the world,” he said. “We are actually going to do it.”

The guiding principal behind Anon+ is to give “the people what most corporations have taken away, and that is control,” said Higochoa. “[Anon+] will allow people to get both educated freely, and allow them to voice their opinion without having fear of any org or gov.”

Like traditional social networks, Anon+ will allow users to create profiles, add friends and communicate with one another. Higochoa says that users will have total control over their “circles” of friends (though it’s unlikely they will use the word “circles” officially, as Google+ has already co-opted that word). Like Facebook, only people in a user’s circles will be able to view their posts and other activities on the network.

Higochoa says it’s likely that Anon+ will attract a lot of hackers and Anonymous members “because of the tech and what it provides,” but stipulates that the service is intended for a “wide audience” — anyone will be able to join.

One major difference from traditional social networks, of course, is that Anon+ will be entirely anonymous; members won’t use their real names, a practice that is forbidden on both Facebook and Google+ for legal reasons.

“It is also secure and without a central server, so it can’t be stopped once it’s started,” says Higochoa. This ensures “that control stays in the hands of the people. That alone is pretty different from other social networks.”

The lack of a central server means that Anon+ users will have to download an application to use the network, which will be at least partially based on peer-to-peer technology. This type of system will serve as a key security mechanism for the network.

Anon+ will also differ from traditional social networks — and even other anonymous forums, like 4Chan.org — because users will have greater control over the discussions around their posts to the network, says Higochoa. Things like comment deletion are on the table, as well as the ability to have “parallel” conversation threads on the same topic. This will enable users to “go off on a tangent with one guy while continuing the conversation with another, without worrying about someone else interfering,” he says.

The goal of Anon+, says Higochoa, is to give a user “the tools to get his voice heard over the masses.” Higochoa refused to go into detail about what exactly those tools would be, but he says that the structure and built-in functionality of Anon+ will make such empowerment possible — users will have “the same tools as the big guys.”

In addition to enabling online activism, Higochoa says the team plans to build Anon+ in a way that will let users to more easily organize offline protests, without the risk of the corporate censorship Anonymous and other dissident political groups have experienced on other networks.

Anon+ will likely include “Skype-like” video chat functionality, and other real-time communication features, says Higochoa. The network will also incorporate ways for users to anonymously transfer money between each other, though Higochoa said that system is far from complete, and he could not say whether it would be based upon traditional currency (like dollars), or something more like Bitcoin.

In addition, Higochoa says the Anon+ crew hopes to create a sort of online university, that will incorporate “interactive teaching,” and give teachers the ability “to reach students 24/7, on any subject,” he says.

When asked whether Anon+ users would be setting themselves up to be targeted by law-enforcement agents — just yesterday, 16 members of Anonymous were arrested in the United States — Higochoa says that accounts will be essentially un-hackable, making it impossible for authorities to reveal a user’s true identity.

“[Your] circle of friends will not only be the only ones that see your posts, but the only ones who ever handle any of your data, so there isn’t one place to get hacked,” says Higochoa. “If you get your Anon+ account hacked, it was you or one of your friends.”

Obviously, the team still has a lot of work to do before Anon+ will be ready to start taking on users. Higochoa says the official release will be “sooner rather than later,” but couldn’t give an exact launch date. Of course, the entire project could fall through the cracks at any moment — building a social network from scratch isn’t easy. And besides, the Anon+ team has enough enemies to keep them on their toes.

There are “people who wanna stop us,” says Higochoa. “As long as they are there, we are going to have problems. But other than that, there are none.”

quote:

Op vrijdag 22 juli 2011 13:30 schreef shameonyou het volgende:
"Every war in past 50 years a result of media lies"

"The situation in Libya clearly has an involvement of state actors in it from many different areas. That’s something that has been driven by state actors.

When outside forces from very, very far-flung countries start to take an aggressive role in a regional affair, then we have to look a bit more and say that what is going on is not normal. So, what’s happening in Libya, for example, is not normal."

"Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented. Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations and the communications with each other, their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to US intelligence. Facebook, Google, Yahoo – all these major US organizations have built-in interfaces for US intelligence. It’s not a matter of serving a subpoena. They have an interface that they have developed for US intelligence to use. "

Julian Assange

JULIAN ASSANGE RT EXCLUSIVE - FULL INTERVIEW (PART 1 of 2)

JULIAN ASSANGE RT EXCLUSIVE - FULL INTERVIEW (PART 2 of 2)

quote:

The INQUIRER reveals appearance of hacker leader Louise Boat .

THE INQUIRER has received exclusive details about what infamous yet little known hacker Louise Boat looks like.

The femme fatale, who apparently leads the hacktivist group Anonymous, reputedly has long, blonde hair and tends to wear pink. She also apparently attempts to disguise her identity by wearing a monocle, top hat and a false moustache, according to sources close to the group.

Our sources informed us that close friends call her Luiz or Lulu, but that often times they try not to call her at all, for fear of being hacked by a certain media empire.

We also received word that the second-in-command goes by the name Lubo. We're not entirely sure if this is the same person, or even whether it is a real name or an online handle.

One of our sources, Ryan Cleary's co-conspirator Columbus, told us that Boat is a heavy wine drinker, presumably a way to help her deal with the stress of such a prominent position in the hacking world.

The details we received about Boat were extensive, suggesting that one of her closest aides might have fallen out with her. This inner turmoil in the hacking world previously led to the arrest of Ryan Cleary, so we imagine it's only a matter of time before the police go after Boat. Some of the details are so shocking we're not entirely sure it's responsible to publish them, but we are happy to co-operate with the police if necessary.

Earlier this week, the hacking menace behind all hacks in history was revealed in the guise of Louise Boat. The INQUIRER, via Sky News, brought the news to its readers to warn them of this terror. However, some readers were quick to belittle this serious threat with references to someone called Lulz Boat, who we assume is a relative of Louise.

One emailed comment we received was:

"It's The Lulz Boat, Lulz meaning laughs. Where the hell are you people getting Louise from? You can't find hackers if you can't figure out their names. Say "lulz" repeat after me....Luuuullllzzz....luuuullllzzz. L....U....L....Z. Get it right, at least show some respect, else they might come after you."

Another told us:

"Its Lulz as in LOL, LULZ, no loiuse. or what every you put. And, it wasn't Anon."

We also received comments directly on our exposé, including:

"Sky News and The Inquirer are stupid. If only the industry experts actually knew anything, this would not have happened. The hacker group is know as LulzSec, and their Twitter page is called The Lulz Boat. Another thing: Anonymous has no leader. Anonymous is a movement, not a club. Thank you very little, 'industry expeerts.'"

And another:

"Nice fail skynews and the Inquirer."

And one more:

"you people cannot honestly be that stupid. The LULZ BOAT which is Internet lingo for lols, or 'laugh out loud' turned internet meme."

Sufficed to say, while it might be easier to go after relatives of Boat instead of the woman herself, this public disregard for how serious Boat's crimes are is unsettling. If Boat is allowed to continue her reign of terror unchecked, the internet will soon become no better than the Wild Wild West. µ

Read more: http://www.theinquirer.ne(...)e-boat#ixzz1SpxKe2tF
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today.

quote:

Anonymous still accessing, downloading NATO data

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is still under attack, a person claiming to be a member of Anonymous told CBS News in an interview published today.

According to the alleged member, who uses the name "Commander X," the "hacktivist" group still has access to NATO servers and is currently "downloading databases." What's more, the person said that the group plans to release all the documents it has collected, even though a Twitter account related to the organization says such a release would be "irresponsible."

"Anonymous ALWAYS releases EVERYTHING we take...eventually," Commander X wrote in an e-mail to CBS News, which is owned by CBS, the same company that owns CNET. "But with these big classified dumps we like to take our time analyzing exactly what it is we have. That way we can do the disclosures in such a way as to maximize the political impact of the release."

Anonymous has been quite outspoken about its issues with NATO. Last month, the group issued a response to NATO condemning its past actions, warning that the hacktivist organization can never be stopped.

"Finally, do not make the mistake of challenging Anonymous," Anonymous wrote in its message. "Do not make the mistake of believing you can behead a headless snake. If you slice off one head of Hydra, ten more heads will grow in its place. If you cut down one Anon, ten more will join us purely out of anger at your trampling of dissent."

Yesterday, @AnonymousIRC, a Twitter account related to the organization, reported that Anonymous had breached NATO's cyberdefenses and stole data.

"We are sitting on about one Gigabyte of data from NATO now, most of which we cannot publish as it would be irresponsible. But Oh NATO...." @AnonymousIRC said.

In addition to announcing the breach, Anonymous also offered up "proof" that it has, in fact, accessed NATO servers, by releasing two "restricted" NATO files. Though a full release of documents could be embarrassing for NATO, it's worth noting that "restricted" is the organization's lowest security-level classification.

But that doesn't mean more important documents won't be discovered soon by Anonymous. According to Commander X, Anonymous is working around the clock to continue to exploit NATO's defenses.

"It is important to understand that Op NATO and many of our other Operations are manned by a global force and ongoing 24/7," Commander X told CBS News. "If the Op is active, it never ceases because there is always someone in the world awake and at least monitoring the chan and news feeds. All the media and the world see is when we release something, but the effort to do these Ops is relentless and continuous."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation this week arrested 16 people on charges related to hacking. In response, members of both Anonymous and LulzSec said that the arrests won't do anything to stop the groups from continuing on with their agenda.

"We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea," the group wrote on Pastebin. "Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing--absolutely nothing--you can possibly to do make us stop."

NATO did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301(...)-data/#ixzz1SremVw5n

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What, me a hacker?! Target of international manhunt speaks!

A target of a global sting on an elusive group of computer hackers this week said he has no idea why feds banged down the door of his former apartment in Bushwick as part of coordinated international manhunt on Tuesday.

Authorities stormed a loft building on McKibbin Street as part of the siege against the intercontinental hacker group Anonymous — and were apparently looking for Garrett Deming, 25, and his roommates.

But to Deming, lead singer of the band Broken Glow and assistant manager at Greene Grape Provisions in Fort Greene, that does not compute.

“I can barely turn my computer on. Any of our computer use is for band promotion stuff,” he said.

Authorities netted 16 alleged hackers across the globe, but ironically, Deming’s roommate, Brenner Eugenides, may have been one of the victims, not one of the perpetrators. He said his Gmail account had been hacked, which could explain why the FBI stormed his former abode.

“There was a bunch of weird Paypal stuff that came up,” he said. “Someone clearly had access to my information.”

Authorities say that Anonymous did attack Paypal after the online payment company stopped accepting donations for the whistle-blower site Wikileaks in November.

Deming said the confusion may stem from the fact that his wireless network had not been password-protected, allowing others to possibly access it and arousing FBI suspicion.

And experts say that’s totally possible.

“If someone cracks into that service and does something illegal or ethical, if that gets tracked, it will get tracked back to the person that owns the Internet, which is you, not them,” said Robert Diamond, a software developer and member of the Brooklyn hacker collective Alpha One Labs.

Deming and Eugenides lived in the fifth-floor apartment at the McKibbin Lofts with their band for a year, but moved to Bed-Stuy a few weeks ago when their lease was up.

The current tenant told us that the agents were looking for the band.

“They asked me about the wireless and whether I was stealing the Internet. They asked if any of my roommates were good with computers,” said Meaghan Ralph, 21, who sleepily answered the door when a half-dozen armed agents knocked at 6:15 am. “They said that they wanted the people that were living there before me.”

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the investigation since the affidavit is sealed, but said that the agents left when they realized that Ralph was not the target of the probe.

Since the raid, the feds have not tried to contact Deming, who added that he only heard about the police action in the newspaper.

“I don’t want them to think I’m hiding from them or running away from them,” he said.

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Anonymous-Operation AntiSec

Greetings from Anonymous,

For the past decade, the government has tried to take control of our internet ocean. In an effort to stop these acts of injustice, Anonymous has joined collective forces with LulzSec in our newest operation, #Antisec. We are sending our fleet to fight alongside the Lulz boat to reclaim what is rightfully the peoples. We encourage anyone and everyone, to man their vessels and charge their lazers.

We encourage defacement's of the enemies websites, and use of the word antisec on any and every website or pro censorship group. Any exposed intelligence the enemy decides to withhold from us, should be brought to light. It's time to show the corrupt governments of the world that they have no right to censor what they do not own.

Anyone and everyone is strongly urged to join our fleet through rough waters in our attempts to restore the tainted internet sea. No matter your skin color, origin, or beliefs, we invite you to join us in our fight against censorship and corrupt governments.

Come aboard or walk the plank.

We are Anonymous.
We are legion.
We do not forgive corrupt governments.
We do not forget censorship injustices.
Expect us.

quote:

High Ranking LulzSec Members Arrest Report Remains Unconfirmed

In the flurry of news stories surrounding the AntiSec movement yesterday, one report stuck out for us. The report said that tFlow, a high ranking member of LulzSec, was arrested in the UK and facing extradition to the United States. After speaking to members of Anonymous, however, that report remains unconfirmed.

There was a report on the Telegraph recently that said a 16 year old is facing extradition to the United States over his involvement with LulzSec. From the report:

The teenager was arrested in south London amid a new wave of internet attacks. He remained in custody last night.

Police believe he is connected to the notorious hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec which have been blamed for a string of attacks on organisations including the CIA, the US Senate and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

The teenager, who was held under the Computer Misuse Act, reportedly goes by the online user-name Tflow.

To our knowledge, tFlow is one of the high ranking members of LulzSec. So was the report true that tFlow was arrested? That apparently remains unconfirmed.

We spoke to Anonymous about this.

“a 16-year-old boy in South London was arrested who they thought was tflow,” someone from Anonymous told ZeroPaid, “and he was released on bail with no charges, and has to go back for additional questioning in August – it’s stupid of whoever that is to confirm it was the real tflow”

This wouldn’t be the first time the media thought a high ranking hacking member was arrested. Previously, when media reports that an arrest was made in the UK, media reports initially suggested that it was LulzSec’s leader Sabu was the one that was arrested. The reports in question turned out to be false and it was merely someone who ran an IRC server – not necessarily someone who was heavily involved in the hacking activities within Anonymous. So, major media outlets have been known to get these types of stories wrong before. The truth is, no one really knows who was arrested in this incident. Yes, someone was arrested. Yes, he probably is facing extradition to the United States. Yes, it’s because of suspicion of him being connected with Anonymous. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the person in question is tFlow.

If more information surfaces about the arrested individual, we will be happy to report on it, but at this time, the report that it was really tFlow that was arrested simply cannot be confirmed at this time.

Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.

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A passion for change - LulzSec interview

A rare and candid interview conducted with Topiary, founding member of LulzSec and self-described ‘captain of the Lulz Boat’ – on becoming involved in hacktivism, fighting extortion claims, donating to Wikileaks, revolution, and the US government

Last week, hacker collective LulzSec returned with a bang, attacking a series of websites owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International in apparent response to the ongoing phone hacking scandal.

For 50 days between May and June, the tight-knit, six-strong group made headlines across the world, rising to almost instant notoriety after perpetrating a series of audacious cyber attacks on high-profile government and corporate websites, before abruptly announcing that they would disband. Among just a few of LulzSec's targets: Sony, the US Senate, the CIA, the FBI and even the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency.

The authorities continue to try to track them down, and on Tuesday 20 suspected hackers were arrested in the UK, US and Netherlands as part of an ongoing international investigation. In a joint statement with an affiliated network of hackers known as Anonymous, LulzSec responded to the authorities directly. "We are not scared any more," they wrote. "Your threats to arrest us are meaningless as you cannot arrest an idea."

Earlier this month, two weeks after they had announced their apparent split, I managed to track down "Topiary", a founding member of LulzSec and self described "captain of the Lulz Boat". The interview was long - almost three hours - and covered lots of ground. But a great deal of what Topiary told me never made it in to the final write up, published by the Guardian, due principally to restrictions of space.

It was troublesome, deciding what to include and what to omit; the entirety of the interview was valuable. So rather than let the sections that were not printed disappear into the ether, the most sensible thing to do, I feel, is to have the full transcript published here in its entirety.

In the sections that were until now unpublished, Topiary explains how he first became involved in hacktivism and pays credit to his fellow hackers. He details the basis for extortion claims levelled against LulzSec by one US security company; reveals that he recently engaged in a bout of philanthropy, donating thousands of dollars to organisations including WikiLeaks; and also takes time to talk politics - blasting the US government, who he says are "scared of an uprising"...