Anonops #7: Meer is beter

quote:

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:

quote:

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.
Advertisement: Story continues below

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

quote:

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.

quote:

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

quote:

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.

quote:

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.

quote:

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."

quote:

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

quote:

#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.

quote:

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.

quote:

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.

quote:

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.

quote:

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.

quote:

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.

quote:

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.