Anonops #12: Spy on the Spyers

quote:

Britse overheid wil toegang tot e-mailverkeer van burger

De Britse overheid krijgt toegang tot informatie over het bel-, mail- en surfgedrag van haar burgers. Ook communicatie op sociale netwerksites als Facebook en Twitter komt ter beschikking te staan van de autoriteiten, voor zover ze al niet op gewone wijze kunnen meelezen.

Binnen de overheid leeft er zekere angst voor terreuraanslagen, zeker nu de Olympische Spelen voor de deur staan.

Een soortgelijke spionagewet was al in 2009 opgesteld door de toen regerende Labour Partij, maar die stuitte indertijd op teveel maatschappelijk verzet.

Opvallend is dat ook de huidige regeringspartijen - de Conservatieven en Liberaal-democraten - destijds felle kritiek uitten op dit voornemen en op andere privacygevoelige maatregelen van de Sociaal-democraten.

Een verschil is dat Labour de gegevens centraal wilde opslaan en dat de huidige regering de informatie laat beheren door de bedrijven zelf.

quote:

http://pastebin.com/jjMRFDH6

Dear Anonymous & fellow Americans
My name is Higinio Ochoa and until recently I have been also known as higochoa and w0rmer. I have spent the last few months fighting along side some of the best in the world.
On march 20th 2012 @ 10:30 am around 8 agents from the FBI stormed my apartment and put me under arrest. Shortly after I was taken to the Texas City field office where I turned over all evidence I had collected on myself,over the course of the last few months. I then spent the subsequent hours going over w0rmers timeline and confirming or denying my participation in various attacks. After FBI Agent Scott Jenson was done explaining how unimpressed he was with both my expressed skills, and information I provided the systems administrator for the texas DPS. He then proceeded to interview me for the exact information concerning the breach of the texas DPS site.( It would seem to me niether the DPS administrator nor the FBI fully understand the "complexity" of SQL injections.) After faIling to get the printer from which my fingerprints were to get printed from, to work, they proceded to fonger print me "old school style" as one agent elequently put it. Hand cuffed and guarded by two U.S. marshalls I was led to a car and driven to the Houston federal detention center.
Once there, I was once again finger printed and processed to be held until my court date the following morning. I want to express that the young cocky FBI agent (mr. Jenson) aside ;everyone who I had contact with was both understanding and curtious in their actions. the following morning I was once again dressed out and led by two marshals to the Southern District Fedral court house where I was to await trial. After the marshals turned me over though, all curtisies were thrown out the window. As an epileptic I was required to take 2 medications twice daily. One medication was provided the first day while the second was witheld. The following day niether were even offered to me; even after the medication was both provided and the courthouse marshals were informed of my condition.
The marshal that processed me had no issue calling me dumb after I failed to provide a single piece of contact Information to anyone on the outside because of my personal operation security measures allowing plausable denyability thus ensuring the protection of both my family and friends. After seeing the judge and having my bond set, this same agent then proceeded to stall my release by holding me and refusing to let me go until even the guards had left.
On the 23rd after talking with my public defender I had a name trial waved and all subsequent proceedings moved to Austin, home of the orginating charges. Let it be a matter of public record that not a single marshal there showed anything but fear and aggression towards me; someone charged with neither a violent nor drug based crime. Y U mad Bro?
Let me take this time now to clarify a couple of things I know many of you are questioning.
1. Where is my natural urge for self preservation? I have none. I did not "join" this movement out of personal interest, I did not get paid to hack these sites, I simply took donations in case any supporters of this cause could donate towards my protection. In fact my main source of currency was 'bit coins' as the american dollar continues to drop in value. When I abandoned my mask i was fully aware of the consiquences and know full well that someday i may infact have to pay for my activism. My life from that day on was about protecting my fellow activist, not myself, which is why I stand here today and you do-not. I was asked by the agents if I thought other anon's caught would feel the same as I do, and if i expected others to not, rat me out. To this I responded: "of course not" But the problem i see in the world today is apathy and a willingness to protect oneself over others, something I myself took a personal oath to not follow. Americans and the world no less, need to wake up, turn off their T.V's and notice a real change is comming.
2. Were you ever approached to be a confidential informant? Of course I was! Some body such as myself who not only participated in the occupy movement but knew many and knew the inner workings of the "infamous" cabin crew would not be just put away without wondering if he could be turned. I did how ever tell FBI that I would participate in the capture of my fellow crew mates, a play which undoubtfully both satisfied and confused the FBI. Those however who know me best would vouch for me undoutfully that doing so would put this movement at risk, something that i wish more anon's would not only consider but place higher than themselves and those around them. ALL information provided to the FBI merely made MY case weaker and caused internal confusion showing the inherent weakness in the system. It was only because of this play that I believe I was allowed to not only get bond but keep those closest to me safe. I gave the FBI plenty of time to come up with more questions that I may have considered answering but alas they failed even that simple task. I turned over all accounts in my control and forfieted any protection I personally may have had to ensure they believed I was cooperating.
3. and last on my list, what did I hope to accomplish by speaking out as I am? This is simple. As our nation continues to grow more worldly and anonymous continues to spread our reach, our country will continue to wage war. This time however it will not only be our civial rights but our human rights. This country, one based on a failing system, not only continues to mis-manage our rights and resources but our internal infrastructure. If there was ever a time when helping others was needed, yesterday was that time. As millions go homeless, many millions of houses lay vacant, as millions go hungery, tons of food go wasted. Let me stand here, as many have before , and call out to you to request not that you vote a certain way, or even risk what you currently have as I have done, but to educate yourselves and reach out to those unconditionally who truly need help so that when you stand in need, that same help will be available to you. Thank you for reading. Yours in human eveloution.
Hig/w0rmer.

All Media and support inquiries please contact my public defender at, Jose I. Gonzalez-falla (512)916-5025

quote:

Forget SOPA, You Should Be Worried About This Cybersecurity Bill

While most folks are looking elsewhere, it appears that Congress is trying to see if it can sneak an absolutely awful "cybersecurity" bill through Congress. We've discussed how there's been some fighting on the Senate side concerning which cybersecurity bill to support, but there's a similar battle going on in the House, and it appears that the Rogers-Ruppersberger bill, known as CISPA (for Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) or HR 3523 is winning out, with a planned attempt to move it through Congress later this month. The bill is awful -- and yet has somehow already gained over 100 sponsors. In an attempt to pretend that this isn't a "SOPA-like" problem, the supporters of this bill are highlighting the fact that Facebook, Microsoft and TechAmerica are supporting this bill.

However, this is a terrible bill for a variety of reasons. Even if we accept the mantra that new cybersecurity laws are needed (despite a near total lack of evidence to support this -- and, no, fearmongering about planes falling from the sky doesn't count), this bill has serious problems. As CDT warned when this bill first came out, it's way too broad and overreaching:

. However, the bill goes much further, permitting ISPs to funnel private communications and related information back to the government without adequate privacy protections and controls. The bill does not specify which agencies ISPs could disclose customer data to, but the structure and incentives in the bill raise a very real possibility that the National Security Agency or the DOD’s Cybercommand would be the primary recipient.

If it's confusing to keep track of these different cybersecurity bills, the ACLU has put together a handy dandy (scary) chart (pdf) comparing them all. And what comes through loud and clear is that the Rogers-Ruppersberger CISPA bill will allow for much greater information sharing of companies sending private communication data to the government -- including the NSA, who has been trying very, very hard to get this data, not for cybersecurity reasons, but to spy on people. CISPA has broad definitions, very few limits on who can get the data, almost no limitations on how the government can use the data (i.e. they can use it to monitor, not just for cybersecurity reasons) and (of course) no real oversight at all for how the data is (ab)used.

CDT has put together a reasonable list of 8 things that should be done if politicians don't want to turn cybersecurity into a new SOPA, but so far, Congress is ignoring nearly all of them. Similarly, EFF is asking people to speak out against CISPA, noting that it basically creates a cybersecurity exemption to all existing laws. If the government wants your data, it just needs to claim that it got it for "cybersecurity purposes" and then it can do pretty much whatever it wants.

This is a really bad bill and it looks like it's going to pass unless people speak up.

quote:

EU Cybercrime Bill Targets Anonymous: Makes It A Criminal Offense To Conduct 'Cyber Attack'

While we're still sorting through the crazy cybersecurity bill proposals in the US, it appears that some in the EU are going through a similar process. The EU Parliament's "Civil Liberties Committee" has approved a legislative proposal concerning "cyber attacks," which appears to ramp up criminal penalties for all sorts of broadly defined activities. It even applies criminal penalties to a company if an employee hacks into a competitor's database (even if they weren't told to do it). But where it gets scary is when it appears to directly target "hactivism" like what Anonymous does. While we still think Anonymous' DDoS attacks are incredibly counterproductive, are they really criminal?

. The Committee's proposals would make it a criminal offence to conduct cyber attacks on computer systems. Individuals would face at least two years in jail if served with the maximum penalty for the offence.

. A maximum penalty of at least five years in jail could apply if "aggravating circumstances" or "considerable damage ... financial costs or loss of financial data" occurred, the Parliament said in a statement.

. One aggravating circumstance in which the heavier penalty could be levied is if an individual uses 'botnet' tools "specifically designed for large-scale attacks". Considerable damage may be said to have occurred through the disruption of system services, according to plans disclosed by the Parliament.

Even more ridiculous? Merely "possessing... hacking software and tools" could lead to criminal charges. Does that make everyone with a computer a criminal? This whole thing seems like a bad overreaction by politicians who are freaked out, but who clearly don't understand the technology in question.

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How do you police the entire internet?

The Ben Dover case shows how bizarre copyright and piracy battles have become

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Shady Companies With Ties to Israel Wiretap the U.S. for the NSA

Army General Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, is having a busy year — hopping around the country, cutting ribbons at secret bases and bringing to life the agency’s greatly expanded eavesdropping network.

In January he dedicated the new $358 million CAPT Joseph J. Rochefort Building at NSA Hawaii, and in March he unveiled the 604,000-square-foot John Whitelaw Building at NSA Georgia.

Designed to house about 4,000 earphone-clad intercept operators, analysts and other specialists, many of them employed by private contractors, it will have a 2,800-square-foot fitness center open 24/7, 47 conference rooms and VTCs, and “22 caves,” according to an NSA brochure from the event. No television news cameras were allowed within two miles of the ceremony.

Overseas, Menwith Hill, the NSA’s giant satellite listening post in Yorkshire, England that sports 33 giant dome-covered eavesdropping dishes, is also undergoing a multi-million-dollar expansion, with $68 million alone being spent on a generator plant to provide power for new supercomputers. And the number of people employed on the base, many of them employees of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, is due to increase from 1,800 to 2,500 in 2015, according to a study done in Britain. Closer to home, in May, Fort Meade will close its 27-hole golf course to make room for a massive $2 billion, 1.8-million-square-foot expansion of the NSA’s headquarters, including a cybercommand complex and a new supercomputer center expected to cost nearly $1 billion.

The climax, however, will be the opening next year of the NSA’s mammoth 1-million-square-foot, $2 billion Utah Data Center. The centerpiece in the agency’s decade-long building boom, it will be the “cloud” where the trillions of millions of intercepted phone calls, e-mails, and data trails will reside, to be scrutinized by distant analysts over highly encrypted fiber-optic links.

Despite the post-9/11 warrantless wiretapping of Americans, the NSA says that citizens should trust it not to abuse its growing power and that it takes the Constitution and the nation’s privacy laws seriously.

But one of the agency’s biggest secrets is just how careless it is with that ocean of very private and very personal communications, much of it to and from Americans. Increasingly, obscure and questionable contractors — not government employees — install the taps, run the agency’s eavesdropping infrastructure, and do the listening and analysis.

And with some of the key companies building the U.S.’s surveillance infrastructure for the digital age employing unstable employees, crooked executives, and having troubling ties to foreign intelligence services, it’s not clear that Americans should trust the secretive agency, even if its current agency chief claims he doesn’t approve of extrajudicial spying on Americans. His predecessor, General Michael V. Hayden, made similar claims while secretly conducting the warrantless wiretapping program.

Until now, the actual mechanics of how the agency constructed its highly secret U.S. eavesdropping net, code-named Stellar Wind, has never been revealed. But in the weeks following 9/11, as the agency and the White House agreed to secretly ignore U.S. privacy laws and bypass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, J. Kirk Wiebe noticed something odd. A senior analyst, he was serving as chief of staff for the agency’s Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center (SARC), a sort of skunkworks within the agency where bureaucratic rules were broken, red tape was cut, and innovation was expected.

“One day I notice out in the hallway, stacks and stacks of new servers in boxes just lined up,” he said.

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RCMP, spy agency shed no light on Anonymous threats against Toews

Representatives of Canada’s electronic surveillance agency and national police force were called before a Commons committee Tuesday to tell politicians all they know about threats posted by online hacker group Anonymous against Public Safety minister Vic Toews.

And the answer is: Not much.

Toni Moffa, the assistant deputy minister who is responsible for technical security at the Communications Security Establishment, seemed genuinely confused by the questions being put to her and had to repeatedly explain that threats posted to public Internet sites are outside the jurisdiction of her organization.

And, while Chief Superintendant James Malizia of the RCMP agreed his organization was looking into the activities of Anonymous as they relate to Mr. Toews, he made it clear he could not discuss the details of the investigation.

The matter was referred to the House affairs committee by Speaker Andrew Scheer, who ruled that Mr. Toews’s privileges as a parliamentarian may have been breached by Anonymous – a loose network of international protesters who, in this case, objected to controversial online-surveillance legislation introduced by the minister.

Some of the opposition MPs on the committee have previously expressed concern their inquiry is hampered by the fact Anonymous is anonymous. When they asked how they should get around that problem, Mr. Toews – who testified last week – suggested that they should call in the experts.

But the testimony of those experts Tuesday merely bolstered the notion that the committee’s efforts are, in many ways, futile.

As Ms. Moffa told the committee, CSE collects foreign intelligence signals and provides assurances to the government that federal computer systems are secure. But when asked by Conservative MP Harold Albrecht to explain what she knows about Anonymous, how it operates and what threats the group may pose, Ms. Moffa was at a loss.

Anything CSE knows about Anonymous comes from “open sources,” she said. And “from our perspective, it’s not an [information technology] security breach and it would be best dealt with by an investigative body or agency that would do that type of investigation.”

But the investigators were not much more informative.

Supt. Malizia confirmed it is public knowledge that there is an ongoing investigation. But, in response to any question about the case of Anonymous and Mr. Toews, he said: “I am not in a position to discuss any details or specifics with respect to any ongoing investigation.”

The most important information provided to MPs on the committee by CSE and the RCMP was that they should follow good Internet security protocols and, if they are ever threatened, they should inform the authorities – none of which will get them very far in their current inquiry.

Toward the end of the committee meeting, which finished early because the MPs had nothing more to ask their witnesses and their witnesses had nothing more to tell them, Conservative MP Laurie Hawn conceded it is unlikely that the identities of the people behind the Anonymous threats will ever be revealed.

Searching for ways to make the committee’s inquiry relevant, Mr. Hawn asked Supt. Malizia if he thought the process was worthwhile in reminding Internet users that posting threats against parliamentarians is a crime. “Has this process been useful at least in that respect?” he asked the police officer.

“Well, I am not in a position to comment on the committee’s work and the process,” Supt. Malizia replied, “but I can say is that advances in technology have created an environment where individuals achieve anonymity.”

quote:

http://pastebin.com/mTw9Y1ea

Operation: BlackTide || #OpBlackTide

Targets:
www.bp.com
www.saudiaramco.com
www.nioc.com
www.qgpc.com.qa
www.shell.com
www.conocophillips.com
www.chevron.com
www.knpc.com.kw
www.adnoc.com
www.texaco.com

Message:

This message is to the internation oil giants concerning the ever rising prices of petrol. We have been watching you. Your gluttony can no longer be tolerated. You continue to raise the prices of oil which in turn raises the prices of everything needed to live day to day. You ignore OSHA guidelines and ravage our planet. This cannot be allowed to go on any longer.

With fuel prices reaching $4.00 per gallon in poorer parts of the United States, and rumors of prices rising to $8.00 per gallon, many minimum wage workers cannot afford to travel to work and back home. You have taken advantage of the people for to long. It is time that you learned that the people have the power, not the Government, and not you.

Our demands are simple, lower fuel prices and cap them at $3.00 per gallon for fuel not containing ethanol and $2.75 per gallon for fuel with up to 10% ethanol. We are not asking for free fuel or a drastic change in price, but we demand that the price of oil be controlled.

---

This message is to the citizens of the world, the consumers, the very people that these oil giants are taking advantage of. The weight of this operation falls on you. Without you, this operation cannot be successful without the support of the people. We are not asking you to do anything illegal, we are just asking you to do what you will. Don't buy fuel on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Sundays. Protest at gas stations. DDOS the target websites listed above. Print and pass out fliers. Share this post. Call your Congressman. Write letters to these corporations. Use hashtag #OpBlackTide. Anything you are willing to do to help this operation. Together we can make this work and secure the prices of oil.

How do oil prices effect everything else? Shipping. When oil prices go up, the cost of shipping goes up, when the cost of shipping goes up, the cost of the product being shipped goes up. Everything trickles down hill while the oil giants reap the benefits.

We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.

quote:

Hacker claims breach of China's CEIEC defence contractor

Hacker known as Hardcore Charlie says he targeted CEIEC in search of information on US military campaign in Afghanistan

A hacker has posted thousands of internal documents he says he obtained by breaking into the network of a Chinese company with defence contracts.

The hacker, who uses the name Hardcore Charlie and said he was a friend of Hector Xavier Monsegur, the leader-turned-informant of LulzSec, told Reuters he got into the computer system of the Beijing-based China National Import & Export Corp (CEIEC).

He posted documents ranging from purported US military transport information to internal reports about business matters on several file-sharing sites, but the authenticity of the documents could not be independently confirmed.

CEIEC did not respond to a request for comment. Pentagon and US intelligence officials had no immediate comment.

CEIEC's website says the company performs systems integration work for the Chinese military.

Cyberspying is a growing concern for companies and governments around the world. Beijing is often accused of promoting or at least tolerating the hacking of western targets, but Chinese institutions have rarely been identified publicly as victims of such attacks.

Hackers associated with LulzSec have generally targeted western defence contractors and law enforcement organisations, though some of their attacks may have been driven by FBI informants. LulzSec is a spin-off of Anonymous, an amorphous collective that uses computer break-ins to promote social causes and expose what members see as wrongdoing by governments and corporations.

Hardcore Charlie said in email and Twitter conversations with Reuters that he had worked with others to crack the email passwords that got him inside CEIEC.

In particular, the hacker said he worked with an associate who calls himself YamaTough, another former Monsegur ally who recently released stolen source code for old versions of security products made by Symantec Corp.

YamaTough was involved in an incident in which fake documents, purportedly from Indian military intelligence, were mixed with genuinely stolen documents, raising the possibility Hardcore Charlie had pursued a similar strategy in posting the alleged CEIEC documents.

Hardcore Charlie described himself as a 40-year-old Hispanic man in a country close to the US. He said he did not have strong political leanings, but was concerned the Chinese company had access to material about the US war effort in Afghanistan, as some of the documents suggest.

He said he planned to "explore" the computer networks of other Chinese companies.

quote:

Hacker LulzSec bekent schuld grote kraak Sony

Cody Kretsinger van de hackersgroep LulzSec heeft vandaag in Californië schuld bekend aan deelname bij een grote kraak bij Sony. Hij zei schuldig te zijn aan samenzwering en beschadiging van een beveiligde computer.

Eerder had Kretsinger de beschuldigingen ontkend. De verdachte kan maximaal 15 jaar gevangenisstraf opgelegd krijgen.

Volgens de aanklagers heeft Kretsinger vertrouwelijke informatie van computersystemen van Sony weten te bemachtigen. Hij en zijn mede-hackers hebben de informatie vervolgens op de website van LulzSec geplaatst en dit bekend gemaakt op Twitter.

LulzSec is de afgelopen jaren veelvuldig in het nieuws geweest vanwege inbraken op de systemen van onder meer de CIA, de Amerikaanse senaat, het Playstation Network van Sony, Mastercard en de Algerijnse en Zimbabwaanse overheden.

quote:

http://nibletz.com/2012/04/optrialathome-from-anonymous-to-hit-this-saturday/

#OpTrialAtHome is Anonymous newest cause. Unlike last Saturdays “attempt” to take down the Net which makes no sense as why would they crash their playground. This one is being reported by all the Anonymous Twitter feeds and people close to it. In a group showing against UK extraditing people to the USA to face crimes, Anonymous is telling its supports to take out the countries home website.

In what has been a normal accordance to governments helping the West, Anonymous believes that the actions taken by the British government to send citizens back to the US for crimes shouldn’t happen.

In an attempt to show how Britain wrongly sent Gary McKinnon, Christopher Harold Tappin and Richard O’Dwyer back to the USA for crimes. Such as allegedly hacking into U.S. military and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002 and deleting files and copying data done by Gary McKinnon.

To take place at 9p.m. GMT Anonymous even posted the IP address to go after its promo picture for the “event”.

quote:

CISPA: Anonymous prepares for battle to keep Internet free

Anonymous prepares for battle to prevent CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, from eroding digital rights and censoring the Internet.

Anonymous enthusiasts and others across the Internet are warning of the dangers of CISPA, a controversial new bill that would allow for unchecked Internet censorship and surveillance. Critics agree, H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), constitutes a substantial threat to the Internet as we know it.

Within the last 24 hours a petition Anonymous has been promoting at Avaaz.Org has received over 300,000 digital signatures. The petition reads:

Continue reading on Examiner.com CISPA: Anonymous prepares for battle to keep Internet free - National Anonymous | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/a(...)t-free#ixzz1rL2giZhO

quote:

The 2012 TIME 100 Poll

Voting for inclusion in the TIME 100 issue is now closed. The final list, selected by our editors, will be revealed on Tuesday, April 17th

quote:

‘Anonymous’ says it will hack more Chinese sites

The hacking group Anonymous said Friday it would continue targeting China, after announcing it had hacked hundreds of Chinese websites to protest against Internet censorship in the country.

Most of the sites Anonymous China claimed to have hacked were working normally early Friday, although some still carried error messages, among them an official site for the ruling Communist Party in the southern city of Hezhou.

But the group, which announced its existence last month via Twitter, told AFP in an email it would continue targeting Chinese sites.

“It will keep going. The targets are selected,” it said.

Anonymous said this week it had hacked 300 Chinese websites and posted messages to the government and the Chinese people.

One read: “To the Chinese people: your government controls the Internet in your country and tries to filter what he sees as a threat to him.”

Another said: “Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible. Today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall.”

China has the world’s largest online population, with more than half a billion users, but its government tightly controls the web, using a vast and sophisticated censorship system known as the “Great Firewall”.

This week’s hackings came after the government last month shut down websites, made a string of arrests and punished two popular microblogs after rumours of a coup linked to a major scandal that brought down a top politician.

quote:

Decentralized and Open DNS To Defeat Censorship

For the last couple of years discussion around censorship of websites in the West has become as prolific as the that around already established blockades in countries such as China and Iran. While meddling with the Internet’s DNS is the weapon of choice for censors, a new P2P system called ODDNS hopes to put control back in the hands of the people.

The Internet’s Domain Name System, which translates human-readable URLs into IP addresses so that web users can more easily find Internet sites, has become a battle ground for censorship during the last couple of years.

From residing almost exclusively in the awareness of computer engineers and nerds, recent attempts by various copyright holders to censor sites such as The Pirate Bay and introduce even more broad powers with the introduction of the SOPA legislation in the US, the existence and mechanisms of the Internet’s DNS have now broken through into the mainstream.

In a response to growing attempts at censorship, various alternative DNS systems have been proposed with an emphasis on those that can’t be meddled with by the authorities. The latest, called ODDNS, comes out of France.
As its name suggests, ODDNS (Open and Decentralized DNS) is an open and decentralized DNS system running on the P2P (Peer-to-Peer) model. It’s creator, web developer Jimmy Rudolf, told PCinpact he invented the system with two specific aims in mind.
The first, and of most interest to people fighting censorship, is to “show governments that it is not possible to prevent people from talking.”

The second, of interest to anyone who owns and maintain their own domain names, is to take back control of them. “I find it absurd to have to regularly pay for a domain name,” Rudolf explained.
ODDNS is an application which allows everyone running the software to share information about domain names with each other, a bit like how a P2P network functions. ODDNS can supplement or even replace regular DNS.
ODDNS Because domain names and related IP addresses are shared among peers in the network, they can no longer be censored. Furthermore, buying a domain name from a registrar is no longer required since people running ODDNS can create and maintain their own.

Still under development, as expected the source code to ODDNS is licensed under GNU GPLv3. PCinpact reports that the current ODDNS website will be updated next week and the first beta release of the software will follow shortly after.

Of course the success of the project will sit on the developers’ ability to overcome the technical hurdles and, crucially, if they can encourage enough people to come on board and stay on board. The desire to stick with this kind of system will be driven by need so more censorship will become this and similar projects’ lifeblood.

quote:

UK 'exporting surveillance technology to repressive nations'

Fears that software similar to that which government wants to use in Britain is being sold to monitor dissidents abroad

Britain is exporting surveillance technology to countries run by repressive regimes, sparking fears it is being used to track political dissidents and activists.

The UK's enthusiastic role in the burgeoning but unregulated surveillance market is becoming an urgent concern for human rights groups, who want the government to ensure that exports are regulated in a similar way to arms.

Much of the technology, which allows regimes to monitor internet traffic, mobile phone calls and text messages, is similar to that which the government has controversially signalled it wants to use in the UK.

The campaign group, Privacy International, which monitors the use of surveillance technology, claims equipment being exported includes devices known as "IMSI catchers" that masquerade as normal mobile phone masts and identify phone users and malware – software that can allow its operator to control a target's computer, while allowing the interception to remain undetected.

Trojan horse software that allows hackers to remotely activate the microphone and camera on another person's phone, and "optical cyber solutions" that can tap submarine cable landing stations, allowing for the mass surveillance of entire populations, are also being exported, according to the group.

Privacy International said it had visited international arms and security fairs and identified at least 30 UK companies that it believes have exported surveillance technology to countries including Syria, Iran, Yemen and Bahrain. A further 50 companies exporting similar technology from the US were also identified. Germany and Israel were also identified as big exporters of surveillance technology, in what is reportedly a £3bn a year industry.

Last month Privacy International asked 160 companies about sales of equipment to repressive regimes. So far fewer than 10 have written back to deny selling to nations with poor human rights records. The campaign group warns: "The emerging information and communications infrastructures of developing countries are being hijacked for surveillance purposes, and the information thereby collected is facilitating unlawful interrogation practices, torture and extrajudicial executions."

Many of the brochures, presentations and marketing videos used by surveillance companies to promote their technology have now been posted on the WikiLeaks website, while a list of firms identified by Privacy International as a cause for concern has been provided to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The trade minister, Mark Prisk, has been briefed on the situation.

Last month the European council banned the export of surveillance technologies to Iranian authorities in response to serious human rights violations. It has imposed similar bans on exports to Syria.

But human rights groups said equipment was still being sold to commercial organisations in the two countries and called for the government to take stronger action.

"By the time the embargo is in place the ship has sailed," said Eric King, head of research at Privacy International. "Our research shows the idea that this is not a British problem is wrong. We need governments to act now. In a few years this equipment will need to be updated; these countries don't have the technical expertise to do it, so this is something the UK needs to be aware of and to take action against now."

In December it emerged a British company had offered to sell software to Egyptian security services that experts say could hack into web-based email. The company, Gamma Group International, insists it "complies, in all its dealings, with all relevant UK legislation".

Last year a public outcry forced an Italian company to pull out of supplying Syria with "deep packet investigation" technology that would allow the country's security forces to access internet service providers. But Syriatel Mobile, Syria's largest mobile phone operator, uses blocking technology provided by a Dublin-based company.

Creativity Software (CS), a British firm specialising in "location-based services", sold technology to the mobile network operator MTN Irancell that campaign groups said could be used to track individuals. The company said its technology provided "the same type of activities that are enjoyed by consumers in many other markets – a hugely popular and successful social networking and location-based mobile advertising service".

It is the responsibility of manufacturers to ensure their technology is not used to perpetrate human rights abuses. But there are now calls for them to be subject to stringent export controls requiring a licence to sell abroad.

Privacy International also argues that, in order to prevent dangerous technologies reaching authoritarian regimes through middlemen, there is a need for "end-use" controls that would make it illegal for companies to provide their products when they know or suspect they will be used in human rights abuses.

In a letter to Privacy International, Downing Street said the government was "actively looking at this issue" and was working within the EU to introduce new controls on surveillance.

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Pastebin to hire staff to tackle hackers' 'sensitive' posts

The owner of Pastebin.com says he plans to hire more staff to help police "sensitive information" posted to the site.

The website is frequently used by Anonymous and other hackers to reveal data taken from their targets.

In the past this has included home addresses, email passwords and bank account details.

Pastebin currently relies on an abuse report system to alert it to material that might need to be removed.

Jeroen Vader, a 28 year-old Dutch entrepreneur, bought the site from its original owner in early 2010.

In that time he says he has helped grow its popularity, as it now attracts an average of 17 million unique visitors a month. The site makes money from banner adverts on its pages.

Revelations

Many visitors to the site use it to keep watch over trending topics. These often include articles posted by people who identify themselves as being linked to the hacktivist collective Anonymous, or related movements such as Antisec or Lulzsec.

Recent posts have included details of attacks on Panda Labs, the Spanish security firm; Stratfor, the US risk analysis firm; and email addresses and passwords belonging to users of the Youporn pornography sites.

In January, users who discovered that feeds from thousands of Trendnet home security cameras could be accessed to spy on their owners posted details of the internet addresses and locations of some of the breached devices on its site.

Pastebin asks its members not to post password lists, source code or personal information.

Mr Vader said he currently received on average a total of 1,200 abuse reports a day via Pastebin's on-site notification system and by email.

"I am looking to hire some extra people soon to monitor more of the website content, not just the items reported," he told the BBC.

"Hopefully this will increase the speed in which we can remove sensitive information."
Blocked users

Mr Vader noted that personal information about himself had been posted to Pastebin, which he "quickly" removed.

He confirmed reports that the site had been blocked in Pakistan and Turkey after material hacked from local databases was published.

However, he said that people in both countries were still finding ways to visit the site, and traffic from the two nations had only fallen by about 50%.

Mr Vader also noted that Pastebin itself is the victim of unidentified hackers.

"In the last three months not a single day has gone by that we didn't get some kind of DDOS [distributed denial of service] attack," he said.

"I do hear from people in the hackers community that many hackers like to test their DDOS skills on Pastebin."

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Global Internet Slowdown: Is Anonymous to Blame?

Anonymous is claiming responsibility for a cyberattack against Chinese websites — one that may also be having an impact on Internet speeds across the world.

Networks in North America, Europe and especially Asia were running at significantly lower speeds Thursday. Asia’s cyber backbone was especially hard hit, seeing packet loss of 33% or more, according to the monitoring website Internet Traffic Report.

Anonymous, a loosely knit group of hackers, took credit for defacing up to 500 Chinese websites Thursday, according to ABC News.

“Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible, today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall,” reads a message left on the homepages of attacked sites.

Other messages encouraged Chinese citizens to join a revolution against the Chinese government and left instructions for bypassing Internet filters installed by the Chinese government to prevent citizens from freely accessing the web.

There was no explicit connection between the site defacements and the Asian slowdown. But Anonymous’s attacks also often come in the form of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). Thousands of connections are made to a specific server causing it to crash from an overload of web traffic.

If such an attack is carried out on a massive scale, it can have consequences for Internet speeds across the world.

An eerie, two-word message left on an Anonymous Twitter account seems to back up that theory: “Don’t panic,” with a smiley face emoticon.

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Audiomicro

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Hacked By Anonymous
Lol

AdRev Copyright Trolls Beware! You now have the attention of Anonymous

Under the name AdRev you wrongly claim ownership of audio from other peoples YouTube videos in order to make money fraudulently. This will no longer be tolerated. We consider this your first and final warning.

We are Anonymous
We Are Legion
Expect Us»

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I've been waiting for someone to do a little research on this. Very interesting! It would appear from the leaked logs that team pois0n didn't know that in ^ sane was sabu and they're all unknowingly part of a sting.

Lol at this tweet: @anonymouSabu i think you've just united morons. antisec was supposed to be an ethical imperative of the priestly caste and thats it.

So he's shitting on a member of his team. Can you imagine how hilarious that would be if in pois0n's IRCs MLT goes on a tirade agaist lulzsec/sabu, all the while iN^ SaNe (aka Sabu) has to hold his shit together while going, "yeah what a twat! Let's hax0r him!"

Hackers: backstabbers backstabbing backstabbers.

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Anonymous to launch Operation Cannabis 420 campaign

First Netflix, now the drug war. Anonymous is taking absolutely no prisoners this week.

The hacktivist group has declared a new project: Operation Cannabis 420. The informal Internet collective has declared April 20, a traditional day of observance for those in the marijuana community, as a day of action for all occupiers around the world and will launch a full campaign to educate the masses and (hopefully) end the war on drugs.

A press release put out today (April 9) highlights the myriad of medicinal uses for cannabis, and states, "Cannabis has been oppressed by the powers that be that are afraid of its true benefits, and these benefits do help all of mankind! So cannabis fits the criteria for Anonymous support."

And just what can you do? "We ask that all Anons and individuals please support the legalization efforts in any way possible! Even simply signing a petition or sharing info or even just having an open mind about the subject will help!" The group is also asking people to make their online social-media photos green on April 20 as a show of solidarity.

Anonymous and cannabis. It's like my two favourite things all rolled into one. If I didn't have a calendar, I'd swear it was Christmas.

Anonymous #OpCannabis 420

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Anonymous Leaks Tunisia Prime Minister’s Emails

Anonymous Hackers says it has hacked 2,725 emails belonging to Tunisia's ruling Ennahda party, including those of the prime minister, in the latest challenge to the Islamist-led government. The email addresses of the president, head of the Constituent Assembly, Ennahdha party officials, and other party leaders were disclosed as well as documents from the electoral campaigns.

In a video posted on a Facebook page belonging to Anonymous TN, a hacker wearing the trademark activist "Guy Fawkes" mask, said the emails were released in protest against Ennahda's alleged failure to protect the unemployed and artists who were attacked by Salafi Islamists during a recent protest.

The activist said the emails include phone numbers, bank transactions and invoices paid during Tunisia's election campaign in October, in which Ennahda won more than 40 percent of parliament seats, going on to lead the government.

The Tunisian government seems to think the emails are pretty old, but are investigating if the emails from Jebali are from before or after the election.

Anonymous is pushing against internet censorship in Tunisia, and promised: "To the Tunisian government, we have kept a large part of your data secret. If you do not wish to see these published on the internet we ask you to work to the best of your ability to avoid internet censorship and to respect human rights and the freedom of expression in Tunisia."

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Anonymous wants to take down the Great Firewall of China

Last week, I wrote about how the hacktivist group Anonymous has a new Chinese branch, Anonymous China, which has been very active since it launched its Twitter account on March 30, 2012. The group has hacked and defaced hundreds of Chinese government, company, and other general websites to the point where China even acknowledged the attacks. The hacking has continued against various websites, but even more importantly, the group has declared a new target: the so-called Great Firewall of China.

Since my last two reports, Anonymous China has hacked shangzhi.gov.cn, publicly posting eight user names and passwords on Pastebay. This was soon followed by the hacking of szzfcg.gov.cn, which resulted in the sites full database being leaked and posted to Wikisend. The document was hard to parse, but I could easily see that it included thousands of e-mail addresses, logins, and passwords.

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ACTA-rapporteur raadt omstreden anti-piraterijverdrag afDe Britse socialist David Martin, die namens het Europees Parlement de Handelsovereenkomst ter bestrijding van namaak (ACTA) behandelt, heeft zich vandaag zelf tegen het omstreden anti-piraterijverdrag gekeerd. Hij raadt Europarlementariërs aan om niet met het verdrag in te stemmen.

Dat zei Martin vandaag na afloop van een bijeenkomst van de Progressieve Alliantie van Socialisten en Democraten. Met 184 van de in totaal 736 zetels is dat de op één na grootste fractie in het Europarlement. Volgens Martin verandert het verdrag niets aan de Europese wet, en levert het de Europese Unie te weinig op.

Privégebruik
Zo zou er volgens hem in het verdrag te weinig onderscheid worden gemaakt tussen privé- en commercieel gebruik. En het enige dat het Europa oplevert, is meer samenwerking met enkele andere landen. De voordelen wegen uiteindelijk niet op tegen de nadelen, denkt hij. De ACTA-rapporteur zal daarom in zijn eindverslag aanraden om het verdrag te verwerpen.

ACTA, voluit: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is al aangenomen door de Europese Commissie. Maar naast het Europarlement moeten ook de individuele Eurolanden, waaronder Nederland, er nog mee instemmen. Gebeurt dat niet, dan is het verdrag van de baan.

Onder andere in Nederland is er veel weerstand tegen de wet, die internationale standaarden voor de bescherming van de rechten van producenten van muziek, films, farmaceutica, mode en tal van andere producten probeert te harmoniseren. Tegenstanders noemen het ook wel de 'censuurwet', omdat het de internetvrijheid drastisch zou beperken.