Anonops #14: All about control

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World Bank contract details to be published online in transparency push

Bank's capacity development arm promises to open its books on publicly funded contracts as part of global anti-corruption drive

Details of World Bank-financed contracts will be available online as part of a global initiative to fight corruption and get governments to disclose their deals with private companies.

Sanjay Pradhan, vice-president of the World Bank Institute – the capacity development branch of the World Bank – said the organisation would "walk the talk", ensuring its own contracts are disclosed while helping countries open their books. "We need to be credible partners to do this," he said.

The move will embolden the nascent Open contracting initiative, a global campaign to increase disclosure and participation in public contracting. Estimates suggest governments around the world spend $9.5tn (£5.8tn) a year contracting private companies to provide goods and services, but these deals are often shrouded in secrecy. In some developing countries, procurement can account for up to 70% of public spending.

Under the initiative, details and copies of contracts funded by public money will be online in a bid to reduce corruption and increase value for money.

"Corruption, opaque contracting processes and poor oversight of contract implementation are undermining results and citizens are paying the price in terms of schools not being built, environmental damage, bridges not fixed to standard and hospitals unable to offer necessary medicines," says the campaign, arguing that "creating a level playing field with transparent and fair contracting processes … benefits all of society – government, private sector and citizens."

Pradhan said the effort, which is backed by the World Bank Institute and the German government, fits into the bank's anti-corruption work and its broader "open development" agenda, both of which have support from the very top of the bank.

"It's inherent in our DNA that we cannot tolerate corruption, we cannot tolerate any kind of blemish to the reputation of the bank on the fiduciary side," said Pradhan. "It's a natural evolution for the World Bank and the bank needs to play a leadership role in this area."

The bank finances public contracts worth up to $13bn each year. It already publishes some information for its major contracts but would release further details under the Open contracting initiative, which aims for the disclosure of all relevant documents, from pre-award activities through to the awarding of contracts and the implementation of projects.

Pradhan said the bank would also disclose contracts for its central, corporate procurement and that the International Finance Corporation, the bank's private-sector lending arm, is phasing in new requirements to disclose contracts for extractive industries projects (video).

The initiative builds on recent efforts by some governments to increase transparency around contracts. Georgia, for example, publishes all information around public contracts, including correspondence around original bids and details of payments from the state treasury. This month the Afghan government disclosed hundreds of mining contracts online.

Yama Torabi, from Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an NGO that monitors reconstruction projects in the country, welcomed the move. "This is the first time we can see how our natural resources have been contracted to private companies. We can now look at whether this was done in the national interest, for the benefit of the people," he said.

Torabi, who was in Johannesburg this week for the first Open contracting global meeting, said it will take years to roll out the initiative, which must find a way to include information about sub-contracts. "We really need to see who's getting the money at the end of the chain," he said. He added that a lack of literacy skills, reliable electricity and internet access will in some areas limit the initiative's promise to strengthen public monitoring of contracts.

One of the biggest challenges in achieving full disclosure of contracts will be the resistance of companies that claim such moves violate commercial confidentiality. Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International, said that although companies have the right to secrecy when contracting with each other, "different rules have to apply" when a government is party to a contract. Eigen added that confidentiality clauses are often overprotective and "sloppily written", and must be subject to scrutiny.

Increased transparency alone is unlikely to satisfy critics of the World Bank, who say the lender's procurement rules favour big companies from industrialised and emerging economies. "A lack of transparency in tendering, tendering in large lots, and restrictive eligibility criteria make it difficult for small and medium enterprises from developing countries to compete against large multinationals," said a group of civil society organisations (pdf) last month.

This year, the bank launched a separate review of its procurement policies, which is expected to lead to new rules in 2014.

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Operation ‘Vendetta’ has begun

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In the final scene of the film ‘V for Vendetta’ (2006), based on the graphic novel by Brits Alan Moore and David Lloyd, Evey Hammond, played by Natalie Portman, at the point of starting a civil revolution in the centre of London, states, in reference to the English parliament that “this country needs more than a building, it needs hope”.

Inspired by this revolt, Anonymous UK have organised their Operation Vendetta in front of the houses of Parliament for 5th November, which aims to remind the government that “if they put too much pressure on, revolution is inevitable” and that justice, impartiality and freedom “are more than just words”.

So that citizens do not put up with the abuse or forget the government cuts, Anonymous UK have organised this protest in front of Westminster to denounce the executive’s actions that have damaged society.

Before the march takes place, the organisation will develop different actions throughout the month of October in order to mobilise the people for their initiative.

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Israeli Police disconnects its computer network from the web to prevent cyber attack

Israel was facing an increasing number of cyber attacks, various government agencies have been under a cyber attack for a week. The attack results in extraordinary decision to disconnect all the police's computers from the Internet. The Israel police ordered all officers to disconnect their computer network from the web.

The police also issued a warning all relevant parties to avoid inserting external drives and CDs into any computer linked to the system.

. “The only reason for disconnecting the computers from the internet is the apparent concern that information would be leaked." says Roni Mecher, manager of the cyber field at Avnet Information Security.

. "This is not a simple thing to carry out, and it's only implemented in acute situations where there's genuine concern of leaking information and utilizing such a Trojan horse planted in the network, one way or another"

Currently, the investigation is underway to determine whether the malware successfully entered the computer network and whether any damage has been caused.

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Interviews with Hackers: Today, interview with PrOtOn_An0n

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Hello EHN Readers, Today we interviewed Anonymous Hacker "PrOtOn_An0n", who take down several Child porn sites. Recently, he take down 89 cp sites. You can find him here @PrOtOn_An0n

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Anonymous hacks 20 million accounts to promote Operation Jubilee



Anonymous hackers claimed that they compromise over 20 million user accounts worldwide this year to promote Operation Jubilee. Large community web sites were targeted to gain access to users' contact information. Many administrators denied that their databases were at risk while all their data was being downloaded. The reason for one of the largest hacking campaigns in history is to rally people to cancel debt and end the economic crisis.

Earlier this month Operation Jubilee came into public view after defacing several popular police forums. Members of the police forums received e-mail inviting them to join the Operation. News of the defaces spread quickly with the help of social media platforms. Until these events, Operation Jubilee was virtually unknown to the general population. Unbeknownst to the public, large web sites were already being attacked for months.



Operation Jubilee is a peaceful protest to take place on the 5th of November in front of Parliament in London. Millions of people have received e-mail messages containing the Rules of Engagement for the Operation. Controversy has sparked around the declaration that protesters will confiscate any weapons that are used against them. The Rules of Engagement state that anyone, protester or police, that causes violence will be subdued.
The stated goal of Operation Jubilee is to cancel all debt. Anonymous has become aware of the collective's potential for social change and is now actively pursuing campaigns for justice. The reason to cancel all debt is to end the economic crisis, end poverty, and cut off the financing for the wars.

The name Anonymous has become synonymous with hacking and protest, but it is difficult to define Anonymous. Many people think of it as an organization, but Anonymous is not organized anyone can become Anonymous by being Anonymous. Anonymous is the idea that anyone can become the change they want to see in the world by hiding their identity.

Recent Hacks under Operation Jubilee:
1.) Anonymous deface UK Police forum and Dating Portal
2.) #OpJubilee - Anonymous Hackers deface UK police forums

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http://www.anonpaste.me/a(...)46UElidVHWqL/lUNV+0=

"Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on: we cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances, we guard you while you sleep. Do not fuck with us." -Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Greetings citizens of the world
Greetings citizens of Greece
We are anonymous.

The Greek government is prepared to testify to a vote in the Greek Parliament the new package of economic austerity measures of 13.5 billion euros which are expected to prolong the recession in Greece.

Under the austerity measures, pensioners have seen a 60 percent fall in their pensions - meaning their life savings are now less than half what they expected. Meanwhile, the government is considering more cuts, raising the retirement age and putting a cap on free healthcare provision of just ¤1,500 per person per year.

Greece used to have one of the lowest suicide rates in the EU but since 2010, the number of people taking their own lives has increased by 40 percent, with a large proportion from the older generation.

Sixty-eight percent of Greece's population living below the at-risk-of poverty rate (ie, having an income below 60 percent of the national median) were spending over 40 percent of their income on rent or mortgage payments.

More than 439,000 underage children are living below poverty level in Greece due to the ongoing crisis, according to a UNICEF report released on Oct. 16 on the occasion of the World Feed Day 2012 and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The popularity of far right parties, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, has risen in tandem.

Your goverment failed you.

Greek citizens, it's time to revolt. Do it while you can. Stick it to the Man. You must resist. We stand by your side.

We gained full access to the Greek Ministry of Finance. Those funky IBM servers don't look so safe now, do they...

We have new guns in our arsenal. A sweet 0day SAP exploit is in our hands and oh boy we're gonna sploit the hell out of it. Respectz to izl the dog for that perl candy. We retrieved confidential goverment documents, credentials etc.

*************************************************************** https://anonfiles.com/file/5c9fa9402e62bffd2f569ac3d118fbcd *************************************************************** https://anonfiles.com/file/a50145cddeb310ad8250c6c97d569887 ***************************************************************

Citizens of Greece you are paying Banks and international hedge funds. They own your lives. Revolt before it's too late.

The austerity measures should not pass.

We need to say no more.

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

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Canadees parlement verbiedt dragen masker bij betoging

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Het Canadese parlement heeft woensdag een wetsvoorstel goedgekeurd waarin betogers die een masker dragen, kans lopen op een gevangenisstraf van maximaal 10 jaar. De wet werd uitgerekend in stemming gebracht tijdens Halloween, het in Canada uitbundig gevierde feest waarbij het dragen van een masker tot de goede gewoonten wordt gerekend.

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Auteursrechtenzaak levert recordboete op: tien pornofilms voor 1,5 miljoen dollar

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De zaak was voor Flava Works eenvoudig hard te maken. Met de code die in de video’s is verwerkt, konden de gedeelde films makkelijk naar de Amerikaan worden getraceerd. Bovendien heeft hij, door een betaald account af te sluiten bij het bedrijf, ingestemd met de gebruiksvoorwaarden van Flava Works, waarin staat dat het delen van gekochte films verboden is. De Flava-films die F. deelde zijn volgens Flava Works 3.449 keer gedownload.

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Veel van dit soort auteursrechtenzaken zijn de afgelopen tijd vroegtijdig afgebroken in de VS, omdat een federale rechter oordeelde dat een IP-adres niet genoeg was om iemand te veroordelen, terwijl veel zaken daar wel op gebaseerd zijn.

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Transcript Leaked Files ~~ “Facebook & Zynga” hacked | #Anonymous #OPmaZYNGA – Phase 1 – Started!

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Zynga customers and Facebook users , We are anonymous . During the last few days anonymous has been targeting Zynga for the outrageous treatment of their employees and their actions against many developers .

We have come to believe that this actions of Zynga will result in massive layoff of a thousand people and legal actions against everyone that speaks to the public about this plan.

It will also come to end of the US game market as we know it as all this jobs will be replaced in other more convenient financial countries.

With a billion dollars cash sitting in a bank we do believe that such actions are an insult to the population and the behaviour of corporations like Zynga must change.

Anonymous could not allow this to happen so it’s starting to release confidential documents we have leaked on this plan

As we speak we are planning to release also all the games we’ve taken from their servers for free.

That being said we will stop the idea of the distribution of such games if Zynga will cease immediately the plan.

The leaked strategy of Zynga , transcript:

Following the preliminary announced of this week the final strategy for the next two quarters has been successfully set to delivery by november 23 an additional but of 800 jobs with further raising of new capital from the market to support businesses.

We’ve identified our global gambling strategy with bwin.party and as we speak discussions are progressing with a partner to cover the US market.

Work is focused and on-going to completely outsource our development teams in our offices in Bangalore , India to hedge our position in the long term.

We’ve identified key new products from third parties such as Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime , Shove Prod and Music Invaders in which we are starting business contacts to buy these IP for transaction value of approximately 20 million.

We strongly believe we will conclude these deals this month and compete with this titles against mobile competitors with ease.

Our business continues to evolve and we must evolve with it. We operate in a exciting and challenging industry and I am very pleased that our senior leadership team continue to strengthen and develop with us.

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Op zaterdag 3 november 2012 11:43 schreef AchJa het volgende:
Het Project

Begin 2011 las filmmaker Peter Vlemmix een bericht over mobiele naakt-scanners in Nederlandse steden.
Voor hem het zoveelste bericht over de aantasting van privacy,
en het moment dat hij daar een film over wilde gaan maken.

Echter, filmen kost geld, en budget was er nauwelijks.
Maar door de geweldige belangeloze inzet van crewleden en een aantal sponsors,
is het stapje voor stapje gelukt om de docu verder te ontwikkelen.

Nu is hij af.

We hopen dat je hem cool vind.

Het team van Panopticon

http://panopticondefilm.nl/

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Skype verstrekt gegevens 16-jarige aan beveiligingsbedrijf

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Skype verstrekte persoonsgegevens van een 16-jarige jongen aan een bedrijf dat ermee naar de politie stapte.

Dat blijkt uit het dossier van het strafrechtelijk onderzoek naar de aanvallen op diverse financiële instellingen in 2010. NU.nl heeft dat dossier ingezien.

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De gang van zaken tijdens het onderzoek verbaast Gerrit-Jan Zwenne, hoogleraar recht en informatiesamenleving in Leiden en advocaat bij Bird & Bird te Den Haag.

"Opmerkelijk. Je zou verwachten dat abonnee-gegevens niet zomaar worden prijsgegeven. De gegevens moeten worden verstrekt als de politie een geldige vordering heeft, of als de rechter het opdraagt. Anders niet", vertelt hij aan NU.nl.

twitter:

exiledsurfer twitterde op zondag 04-11-2012 om 23:07:31 #Anonymous Remember, Remember, the 5th of November. RT @rober1236Jua: #OperationVendetta to enact end of V in London http://t.co/jieIEz2u reageer retweet

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Okay I am not entirely sure how subversive an event planned on Facebook can be, but the Operation Vendetta Facebook page has over 5,000 people confirmed to go. Almost another 2,000 likely to attended.

The event is scheduled for November 5, 2012. I have read different times on Twitter and Facebook, probably between 5 and 6 PM. A flyer that has been going around London for some time said Trafalgar Square but they are not that far apart.

This is clearly a serious effort by Anonymous UK, who ever they are. Last month an attack on the Conservative Foundation Web Site also mentioned details about the event. That post called on people to assemble at Trafalgar and move towards Parliament. It could be the largest flash mob in history. The idea seems to be to act out the closing sequences of the V for Vendetta movie, which included the exploding of Parliament. I profoundly doubt the halls of Parliament are going to be blown up, but I suspect someone will try to play the 1812 Overture.

twitter:

AnonymousWWN twitterde op zondag 04-11-2012 om 23:32:29 LIVE STREAMING ON THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER 6PM EXPECT US http://t.co/MtFtYVAB #OpVendetta Remember Remember the 5th of November #UK #Anonymous reageer retweet

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Anonymous hacking spree hits PayPal, Symantec

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The press arm for Anonymous has announced that it has begun its hacking spree for the 5th of November -- Guy Fawkes Day -- and claims to have dumped user and employee account information on accounts from PayPal, Symantec, Australian government Web sites and much more.

Monday's main focus seems to be an anti-surveillance protest -- as with the recent Anonymous October 20 protest -- with November 5th intent aimed at surveillance systems such as TrapWire and INDECT.

Trapwire and INDECT's opponents believe that the surveillance systems to be direct threats to privacy and certain civil freedoms and that their implementation could constitute human rights violations.

According to the various Anonymous Twitter accounts announcing the hacks and linking to document dumps, this is just the beginning of doc dumps and defacements for its day of protest. News of the protest is being shared on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Pastebin.

The hacktivists have also included in its Nov. 5th announcements tonight the hacking and defacement of Australian government sites, ImageShack and PayPal (claiming a zero day exploit), Ascension Australia, NBC.com and Lady Gaga's fan site (claimed for the spree by "Pyknic"), Saturday Night Live's Web site, Australian steel and mining company Arcelor Mittal, homewares website GiftNow, the Greek City website, the Ghana Consulate Web site, and claim to have leaked VMware ESX Server Kernel source code via twitter today.

Anonymous Australia seems to be the most active at this time.

At the same time, the press arm for Anonymous has announced -- via a press release on Pastebin -- that it is rallying the public for an in-person V For Vendetta protest at The Houses of Parliament, at 8 p.m. in London.

Protesters in Canada will get a rude surprise if they don Guy Fawkes masks -- because last week Canada's House of Commons approved a bill that bans people from hiding their faces during riots.

We're watching and following the developments as they happen.
And right now they're happening fast -- and furiously.

twitter:

Theurgia_Goetia twitterde op maandag 05-11-2012 om 11:39:12 Don't forget! #TYLER will be out today! Gather your leaks! #Anonymous reageer retweet

twitter:

SmileAndSubvert twitterde op maandag 05-11-2012 om 19:56:05 There's a good 200 - 300 people in Trafalgar Square for #opvendetta #opjubilee http://t.co/CGfyW7PJ reageer retweet

twitter:

politicshomeuk twitterde op maandag 05-11-2012 om 21:16:55 Police line closing parliament square at #Anonymous protest http://t.co/PkG94oXy reageer retweet

twitter:

savetheearth5 twitterde op dinsdag 06-11-2012 om 00:00:33 5th of November is trending :-)Cool one just before I say goodnight everybody!!! #5Nov reageer retweet

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november 5th #OpVendetta march on parliament - report & pics

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at 6pm, the steps of trafalgar square were full of masked anons, and numbers built up to spill into the square. police and "heritage wardens" watched as various square bye-laws were transgressed, with some commercial photography, lots of banners and protest, some singing, music and games, and even some fire-eating and juggling (all things prohibited by the bizarrely draconian rules covering this "private" public space).

at around 7.30, anons climbed the ledges around the base of nelson's column, and this then became the focus for the crowd, which at its peak might have numbered close to a thousand.

around 8pm, the group set off towards parliament, taking over whitehall to the familiar chants of "whose streets, our streets". along the way, they paused to allow a giant 'anonymous' banner and some disabled people to lead the protest into the square.

police formed a line, forcing people to pass around them. their idea seemed to be to prevent traffic disruption to certain routes, but it looked as though they had accepted that the main road in front of parliament would be closed and traffic was obviously being managed to facilitate this.

there was also a line of police along the fences and gates of parliament, and the crowd surged right up to them, with some people attempting to attach the anon banners to the fences.

there were some scuffles over by the abbey between masked protestors and a FIT team. this led to a sit-down at that corner, which resulted in traffic being turned back along the embankment and then managed again to avoid the square.

as two politicians were accompanied out of parliament, police surged forward to clear the pavement in front of parliament and there were some minor confrontations during that process.

there was also some scuffling and, i think, one arrest, when a small group of people tried to scale the fences.

otherwise, the proceedings remained cheerful, peaceful, and reasonably unhindered. however, my feeling was that the protest was being "facilitated" or tolerated, but the police had huge re-inforcements nearby, two helicopters above, and manifestly visible and audible attack dogs within the grounds of westminster, so were in complete control at all times.

numbers started to dwindle after 9pm, and it's been reported that legal observers left around 11pm as less than a hundred people remained outside parliament.

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D66 wil opheldering over opvragen persoonsgegevens Skype

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De Tweede Kamerleden Kees Verhoeven en Gerard Schouw (D66) willen opheldering van de ministers Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie) en Kamp (Economische Zaken) over het opvragen van persoonsgegevens door de overheid. Aanleiding is het nieuws dat videobeldienst Skype ongevraagd gegevens van een toen 16-jarige Nederlandse gebruiker aan het particuliere beveiligingsbedrijf iSIGHT zou hebben doorgespeeld.

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De zaak houdt verband met Operation Payback van internetcollectief Anonymous. Daarbij werden in 2010 de netwerken van onder andere PayPal en Mastercard platgelegd omdat zij weigerden de betalingen voor klokkenluiderssite WikiLeaks te verwerken. PayPal had Joep Gommers van iSIGHT ingehuurd om onderzoek te doen naar de aanvallen. Via een chatkanaal stuitte die op Nederlanders die bij de aanvallen betrokken zouden zijn, onder wie 'Jeroenz0r', die in december 2010 werd gearresteerd. Via Skype had Gommers inloggegevens en persoonsgegevens van de toen 16-jarige Nederlander te achterhalen, zo blijkt volgens nu.nl uit het politiedossier.

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MJM as Personified Evil Says Spyware Saves Lives Not Kills Them

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In the secretive world of surveillance technology, he goes just by his initials: MJM.

His mystique is such that other security professionals avoid using wireless Internet near him. MJM himself suggests that those he meets allay their paranoia by taking batteries out of their mobile phones.

MJM -- Martin J. Muench -- is the developer of Andover, U.K.-based Gamma Group’s FinFisher intrusion software, which he sells to police and spy agencies around the world for monitoring computers and smartphones to intercept Skype calls, peer through Web cameras and record keystrokes.

In the past year, the hacker-turned-executive has himself been under attack as the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings unravelled the cloak of secrecy he’d operated behind.

FinFisher’s once-elusive FinSpy tool has been exposed targeting activists from the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain; decoded for the first time by computer-virus hunters; placed under export control by the U.K.; and traced to countries with poor human rights records, such as Turkmenistan in Central Asia.

As evidence mounts that repressive regimes routinely use surveillance gear to track and capture dissidents, FinSpy has been singled out as one of the most invasive weapons. The attention has subjected Muench to death threats, he says, and government scrutiny.

It’s against this backdrop -- which Muench, 31, calls a “witch hunt” -- that he’s decided to explain himself, opening his Munich offices to a journalist.

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Open Internet Tools Project

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Anonymous May Have Hacked Petraeus Mistress

Broadwell's personal email appears on a list of compromised accounts of the commercial intelligence firm Stratfor.

A Yahoo email account belonging to former CIA Director David Petraeus' mistress may have been compromised by the group Anonymous.

The personal email account, which other sources confirmed belongs to the writer and veteran at the heart of this week's Washington scandal, was revealed in the decentralized online group's publication of millions of email accounts of customers of the commercial intelligence company STRATFOR.

The email appears on a listing of accounts obtained by the group after they hacked and stole credit cards from the company. Anonymous also obtained email logins to STRATFOR's website — which potentially could have been used by Paula Broadwell for email or other secure sites — as well as correspondence.

It is not clear what, if any, information belonging to Broadwell may have been obtained by the Internet-based group, whose members style themselves "hacktivists" but whom authorities have pursued on a variety of charges.

Broadwell was reportedly under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly trying to obtain access to the retired general's classified emails.

Broadwell's account, a derivation of her name, was also tweeted by the author and has been posted alongside a posting advertising that she was looking to interview high ranking women in the military. A Washington, D.C. political operative also confirmed that he had corresponded with Broadwell on that account.

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OSCE Vienna (REPRISE)

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If you have followed the previous OSCE release, you will have seen the article Jeffrey Carr wrote. Today we were notified that OSCE has shutdown its Austrian servers after the article was published.

Frane Maroevic, Deputy Head of Press and Information for the OSCE stated that "due to the sensitivity of the issue, the OSCE was unable to comment any further". Let us comment then, with another 55mb of internal documents from OSCE Vienna, dating upto today (November 11th), two days after the publication of Jeffrey's article. Again, many of the documents are marked as restricted; for example the report on "Efforts in the field of arms control agreements and confidence– and security–building measures" (PDF, 150kb) which concludes unsurrisingly that the meeting's result was "below expectations".

We can't help to notice the irony of this release, as the OSCE is currently running a program to train Ukrainian police in Cybercrime (translation). Maybe the OSCE can include this incident in their program.

The source of the data has provided a statement along with the files. As usual, feel free to browse the files using the links below. Most documents are English, some Russian; many restricted and you'll find things like scans of diplomatic passports as well.

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Twitter pedophile targets #Anonymous with child porn spam:

Anonymous has gotten a lot of attention this year for its actions against online pedophiles, with OpPedoChat to take them off Twitter, OpLiberation to protect abused kids in abusive schools and homes, OpYoungPony for junior Bronies, OpLithChild to rescue a Lithuanian girl they claim is being prostituted to well-connected men, and OpDarkNet, the granddaddy of anti-pedo ops.

Now, it’s gotten the attention of a pedophile (or pedo-supporter) on Twitter. A user wielding a series of as many as 13 accounts, all variants on the username @amj_o, spent a busy three hours this morning tweeting child pornography images, in between threats against the hacktivist collective. The user is apparently angry about Anonymous’ anti-pedophile activities.

The posts came rapid-fire, several times a minute, indicating either bots or a very fleet-fingered person using an app which enables posting across multiple accounts, and they continue intermittently to the time of this writing.

“CONTINUE OR YOU SAY I"M SORRY? #preteen #pthc #preteen #pthc #pedo #Anonymous #Anti_Anonymous @Angel_Anon @AnonymousGrupo” tweeted one of the accounts.

Anonymous wasn’t taking that lying down. While some angry Anons tweeted horrified remarks at the offending accounts, others followed the recommended procedure, which is to report such accounts to cp@Twitter.com and block them. Others took it philosophically, as an obvious trolling attempt, albeit more loathsome than usual.

“Tut tut tut. Idiots trying to associate #Anonymous with childporn. This will only lead to serious butthurtness ;-) me thinks. #EpicFail” tweeted AnonPsyOps, who’s seen it all before.

Indeed, it is almost certainly only a matter of time until the accounts are suspended. It’s only almost because Fawkes Security, which tweeted bomb threats prior to the election, was not suspended. Some Anons are claiming that it and other Anon-antagonizing accounts which appear immune to suspension must therefore be Feds. And the accounts are not suspended at the moment, although they are no longer tweeting the offensive material. They may only be in Twitter Jail, a temporary suspension that kicks in when an account exceeds a certain number of tweets over an hour.

For now, the #Anonymous hashtag is not exactly the wholesome playground of Lulz and revolution that it normally is. Meanwhile, life goes on in the Anonyverse.

“#OpPedoChat I have exposed and reported 42 pedophiles in less than 24 hours https://pastee.org/3qsfn #Anonymous #ExpectUs” said @Data_Overflow.

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Police accused of over-zealous reaction to poppy burning

Teenager from Canterbury detained after reportedly posting image on Facebook of a remembrance poppy being set alight

The arrest of a teenager on suspicion of posting a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook has triggered fresh allegations of over-zealous policing of the internet.

The 19-year-old was detained on Remembrance Sunday in Canterbury, Kent, after the posting of the image of a poppy being torched by a lighter was reported.

Kent police confirmed that a youth was in custody and being questioned under the Malicious Communications Act 1988. The act makes it a crime to send anything "indecent or grossly offensive, or which conveys a threat … [where] there is an intent to cause distress or anxiety to the recipient". It is usually used against poison pen letters.

The Crown Prosecution Service is drawing up draft guidelines on when to prosecute those who misuse social media websites.

Kent police said officers had been alerted at 4pm on Sunday to the image, which was accompanied by an offensive message, reported to be: "How about that you squadey c****."

Civil liberties groups criticised the arrest as a restriction on freedom of expression. The campaign group Big Brother Watch called on the police to drop their investigation. Nick Pickles, the director, said: "Kent police need to urgently release this man and drop an utterly ridiculous investigation into something that has harmed no one.

"It is not illegal to offend people and, however idiotic or insensitive the picture may have been, it is certainly not worthy of arrest. The case highlights the urgent need to reform a law that poses a serious risk to freedom of speech after several ludicrous prosecutions in recent months."

On Twitter, there was widespread condemnation. Thom Lumley, tweeting as Hotstepperrr, wrote: "Dear idiots at Kent police, burning a poppy may be obnoxious, but it is not a criminal offence."

There have been prosecutions for similar offences. In March 2011, Emdadur Choudhury, a member of Muslims Against Crusades, was fined £50 at Belmarsh magistrates court for the "calculated and deliberate" insult to the dead of burning two replica poppies during the two-minute silence commemorating Armistice Day, 11 November. Choudhury had denied a public order offence of burning the poppies in a way likely to cause "harassment, harm or distress" to witnesses.

The Royal British Legion declined to comment on the investigation in Kent.

In September, the CPS gave a detailed explanation of why a semi-professional footballer who tweeted offensive messages about the Olympic diver Tom Daley was not prosecuted.

The CPS pointed out in that case the message, "however misguided" was supposed to be humorous and that Daley and his teammates were not the intended recipients.

In Bristol, a man who skateboarded alongside a Remembrance Sunday parade wearing a pink outfit and horned mask has been charged under the Public Order Act, police said. Jose Paulo Da Silveria, 38, is alleged to have skateboarded beside troops as they marched past the cenotaph towards College Green. He was arrested at the scene and will appear at Bristol magistrates court on 4 December.

quote:

Op dinsdag 13 november 2012 03:26 schreef LelijKnap het volgende:
nee nja kvroeg me wel af of ie iets wilde zeggen... wt t is dat ie wilt overbrengen...mr tis gwn neutrale berichtgeving van zijn hand dus ?

quote:

The Future Of Hacktivism

quote:

After some high-profile arrests, hacker groups like Anonymous are changing the way they work. Asher Wolf interviews a former member of LulzSec about the future of hacktivism

quote:

The Kylie Chronicles: Anonymous vs. suicide trolls

quote:

Kylie Kylem is a 15-year-old high-school student and Twitter user, and she's in pain. For some "friends," that was enough reason to spend a few hours on social media trying to encourage her to commit suicide. That's when Anonymous stepped in and the trolls quickly learned what it meant to anger the Internet.

quote:

@YayyImKyliebaby We hate you just die... From sara, jesse, Hayley, Cat, Josh, becca and others

twitter:

GonzoPhD twitterde op woensdag 14-11-2012 om 08:32:13 @Hayley_Foster17 So,you think this is FUNNY?Let me introduce you to the REAL Internet Hate Machine, you dumb-ass bullying twats.Game: On. reageer retweet

quote:

The Hackers of Damascus

quote:

Much has been written about the rebellion in Syria: the protests, the massacres, the car bombs, the house-to-house fighting. Tens of thousands have been killed since the war began in early 2011. But the struggle for the future of the country has also unfolded in another arena—on a battleground of Facebook (FB) pages and YouTube accounts, of hacks and counterhacks. Just as rival armies vie for air superiority, the two sides of the Syrian civil war have spent much of the last year and a half locked in a struggle to dominate the Internet. Pro-government hackers have penetrated opposition websites and broken into the computers of Reuters (TRI) and Al Jazeera to spread disinformation. On the other side, the hacktivist group Anonymous has infiltrated at least 12 Syrian government websites, including that of the Ministry of Defense, and released millions of stolen e-mails.

The Syrian conflict illustrates the extent to which the very tools that rebels in the Middle East have employed to organize and sustain their movements are now being used against them. It provides a glimpse of the future of warfare, in which computer viruses and hacking techniques can be as critical to weakening the enemy as bombs and bullets. Over the past three months, I made contact with and interviewed by phone and e-mail participants on both sides of the Syrian cyberwar. Their stories shed light on a largely hidden aspect of a conflict with no end in sight—and show how the Internet has become a weapon of war.

quote:

Anonymous begint online kruistocht tegen Israël

quote:

Het hackerscollectief Anonymous heeft verschillende Israëlische overheidswebsites aangevallen. De computerkrakers steunen daarmee openlijk de Palestijnen in Gaza, die sinds woensdag opnieuw in een gewelddadige strijd met Israël zijn verwikkeld.

quote:

OpIsrael Info Update: 11/15

Intro:

For far to long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called "Occupied Territories" by the Israel Defense Force. Like so many around the globe, we have felt helpless in the face of such implacable evil. And today's insane attack and threatened invasion of Gaza was more of the same.

Anonymous does not support violence by the IDF or by Palestinian Resistance/Hamas. Our concern is for the children of Israel and Palestinian Territories and the rights of the people in Gaza to maintain open lines of communication with the outside world.



#OpIsrael #GazaUnderAttack #Anonymous


* Post all relevant links and information that will be useful to people in Gaza during the Israeli attack/invasion.


Current Issues:
Arabic translations may be sloppy. Poor grammar. Needs repair.



OpIsrael Press Releases:

-- Nov 15th:

English: http://www.anonpaste.me/a(...)gb1nV5DwOZXdau60ajQ=

Arabic: http://www.anonpaste.me/a(...)3dT3OjDE+sDvuvuV1aQ=

Arabic (enhanced Version) : pic.twitter.com/n95pIURF

Enhanced Arabic Version: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A7wqaWjCcAAhPRc.jpg

Hebrew: http://www.anonpaste.me/a(...)/vKSbGhzS8cA/3zwJF8=

Anonymous Operation Israel - Gates Of Hell | Video -

OpIsrael - Gates of Hell

Restoring Internet Service:

#OpIsrael Care Package for Gaza (Full v1.5) Mediafire Mirror http://www.mediafire.com/?z8ev035mw482x77

#OpIsrael Care Package for Gaza (Mini v1.0) http://www.mediafire.com/?3jrur7krcuucjr7


Tails: https://tails.boum.org/

-- English:
Telecomix: http://pastebin.com/6dYQruHu
Movement.org: http://www.movements.org/(...)-connection-cut-off/
Telecomix Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/6dYQruHu

--- Arabic:
Telecomix: http://www.anonpaste.me/a(...)jxV0lNNnbdPQnx0uQRw=
Movement.org: http://www.anonpaste.me/a(...)UbHLRvoGcTwb4lcN7GQ=
Telecomix Pastebin: https://pad.riseup.net/p/FAqaSYWGCZYe
WIFI Range Extend - http://pastebin.com/Smkcg6TE
Hebrew: Translator Needed.



#OpIsrael Pads:

Anonymous Tango Down List: http://piratenpad.de/qQ8nmbLXj3



Live Actions/Demonstrations:

Emergency Global Actions List: https://docs.google.com/d(...)eview?pli=1&sle=true



Israeli Contact Info:

List of World-Wide Israeli Embassies via Anonymous: http://pastebin.com/4DM7cfqF



IRC Channels:

Telecomix IRC: https://chat.wnh.me/?channels=gaza&uio=d4
VoxAnon: irc.voxanon.net 6667/6697 SSL



Livestreams:

@HarryFear Livestream from Gaza: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/operation-pillar-of-cloud



Anonymous Carepackages:

#OpIsrael Care Package for Gaza (Full v1.5) Mediafire Mirror 11MB http://www.mediafire.com/?z8ev035mw482x77

#OpIsrael Care Package for Gaza (Mini v1.0) 1MB http://www.mediafire.com/?3jrur7krcuucjr7

TinyTor+Vidallia 8MB http://www.mediafire.com/?0rgv1vw1d2rqv5t

TinyTor 6MB http://www.mediafire.com/?cu6u9h916ny77a1

Tails: https://tails.boum.org/

Tweet (Arabic)
مجموعة ملفات مساعدة #عملية_اسرائيل #غزة_تحت_الهجوم #غزةhttp://bayfiles.com/file/(...)Package_For_Gaza.zip …



Cellphone Apps:

- http://hackerdemia.com/ Allows for mesh network connecting (if Gaza cell service is taken down, they can possibly access Egyptian towers.)

http://www.androidzoom.co(...)rval-mesh_bgstt.html Another mesh program. Requires root.

there will be networks deployed on the ground using openwrt http://wiki.openwrt.org/inbox/mesh.olsr, this is an app they can use if they want to make their phones part of that network http://www.olsr.org/?q=olsr_on_android



How To Use Twitter VIA Text Message:

Get Twitter messages redirected to your phone and send Tweets by text. Make sure to link your mobile phone to your Twitter account and locate the Twitter short code for your country. Then you can send a text message containing your Tweet to that short code and it will be posted to your profile.

Info: http://support.twitter.co(...)d-your-phone-via-sms
Palestinian Terrority Shortcodes:
Wataniya: 40404
Jawwal 37373

If you use one of the phone services listed above, text START to the shortcode to sign into your Twitter account.



Telecomix Dial Up Numbers:

Telecomix Dial up Numbers:

Important: The Telecomix dialups are not secure and do not protect from wiretapping of your communications. It is still important to proceed with precaution and encrypt the data.

Visit this link for dial up numbers:
http://www.cyberguerrilla.info/blog/?p=5077

Note: Since the number of lines is limited, do not use them if you don't need to!

- French free isp FDN (about 100 lines): +33172890150 (login/pass: toto/toto)

- German free Free.de (about 35 lines). +4923184048 (login/pass: telecomix/telecomix)

- Swedish isp Gotanet (about 30 lines atm, can expand services) : +46708671911 (login/pass: toto/toto)

- Belgium Edpnet: +32022750640 (login/pass: free.edpnet/ free)

- Netherlands Edpnet: +31676002000 (login/pass: free.edpnet/ free)

netherlands +31205350535 and the username/password are xs4all



Medical Info:

http://streetmed.wikidot.com/ -- Street Medic resources. Includes Arabic translations.



Petitions:

Condition US aid to Israel on compliance with the law not to violate the rights of Palestinians.
https://petitions.whiteho(...)tm_campaign=shorturl



Gaza News Links:

Baby son of BBC worker killed in Gaza strike
http://www.telegraph.co.u(...)-in-Gaza-strike.html

As Israel Attacks Gaza, Palestinians find an unlikely ally (Anonymous)
http://tribune.com.pk/sto(...)nd-an-unlikely-ally/

Gaza activist: 'Israel has declared war, act now'
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52820

Impressions of Gaza by Noam Chomsky:
http://chomsky.info/articles/20121104.htm

http://tribune.com.pk/sto(...)nd-an-unlikely-ally/



Gaza Videos:

Martyred in Gaza - a documentary

Martyred in Gaza - a documentary by Harry Fear for GazaReport.com

Translators:

@Pino_Rodriguez
@Masterpiece_s
@alxgucci
@yazannshewat
@xJashin
@Samof88 - Arabic/Turkish.

Active Twitter Accounts:

@AnonOpsSweden
@DBCOOPA
@AnonymousZC
@AnonIRC
@OpLiberation1
@VizFoSho
@Op_Israel
@HarryFear
@PLF2012



Defaced/Hacked Websites:

http://www.rom.org.il
http://www.datinet.co.il/index.html
http://dannydanon.com
http://falcon-s.co.il
http://www.kosherest.co.il/index.htm
http://e-yoman.co.il/var | http://operator.co.il/var | http://p-tzofit.co.il/var | http://e-tzofit.co.il/var | http://www.tzofit.co.il/var
http://d3d.cwo.il
http://mor-space.co.il/he
http://www.cyber-ma.com/isreal.html
http://littner.co.il / http://iconcept.co.il / http://danybarshay.co.il / http://filtuna.co.il
http://iiamo.co.il
http://advocate-israel.com
http://deplus.co.il/home
http://hilulla.co.il / http://gan-pazit.co.il / http://almagorswishes.org.il
http://www.dolevltd.co.il/fuk_isreal.asp / http://shaked.co.il/fuk_isreal.asp / http://openspace1.co.il/fuk_isreal.asp / http://www.g-2.co.il/fuk_isreal.asp


Anonymous Operation Israel MSM Media Reports:

http://rt.com/news/gaza-israel-strike-anonymous-787/

http://www.dailydot.com/n(...)aza-internet-access/

http://www.globalpost.com(...)roup-vows-support-pa

http://tribune.com.pk/sto(...)nd-an-unlikely-ally/

http://freakoutnation.com(...)-telecommunications/

http://www.forbes.com/sit(...)on-for-gaza-attacks/

http://betabeat.com/2012/(...)ttack-on-gaza-strip/

http://bits.blogs.nytimes(...)s-israeli-web-sites/

http://www.huffingtonpost(...)-gaza_n_2139325.html

http://www.salon.com/2012(...)aza_internet_threat/

http://www.examiner.com/a(...)el-gaza-under-attack

http://www.foxbusiness.co(...)fter-gaza-airstrike/

http://www.washingtonpost(...)itter_washingtonpost

http://globalvoicesonline(...)g-like-rain-in-gaza/



Personal Messages:

غزہ کے عظیم، دلیر اور عزیز دوستو، پاکستان کا بچہ بچہ اپ سے پیار کرتا ہے- - A message from #AnonymousPakistan

You might need this: http://www.instructables.(...)rPoint-Presentation/ via @VizFoSho

Please contact me on Twitter or through one of the IRC networks to update this document.
Also, if you can translate Arabic or Hebrew from English and want to help #OpIsrael
hit us up - @DBCOOPA @AnonSikko @VizFoSho @PLF2012



CURRENT INTERNET AND TELECOMM CONNECTIVITY IN GAZA

Broadband: DOWN

PBX Lines DOWN

Mobile: DOWN

Ham Radio: Unknown

Satellite: Unkown

Electricity: DOWN, Current electricity by Generators



CONFIGURING AND USING DIAL-UP (WINDOWS)

Configuring Dial-Up Connections
Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Network and Internet Connections.
Click Create a connection to the network at your office.
In the Location Information dialog box, enter the appropriate information. Click OK, and then click OK to close thePhone and Modem Options dialog box and start the New Connection wizard.
In the New Connection Wizard, click Dial-up connection, and then click Next.
Type a name for the network to which you are connecting (such as "My Office Network"), and then click Next.
Type the phone number for the network to which you are connecting, including, if necessary, the area code and "1" prefix.
Specify whether you want this connection to be available for anyone's use, meaning for any user on this computer, or for your use only, meaning only for the user who is now logged on.
Specify whether you want a shortcut to the connection on your desktop.
Click Finish.
Using Dial-Up Connections
Click Start, click Connect To, and the click the connection that you want to use.
In the User Name box, type your user name.
In the Password box, type your password.
Choose one of the following options:
To save the user name and password so that you will not have to type them in the future, select the Save this user name and password for the following users check box.
If you want only the current user to have access to the saved user name and password, select the Me only check box.
If you want all users to have access to the user name and password, select the Anyone who uses this computercheck box.
Click Dial.




CONFIGURING AND USING DIAL-UP (MAC)

Configure Mac OS X
From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
From the View menu, choose Network.
Choose "Internal Modem" from the Show pop-up menu (or the "Configure" pop-up menu prior to Mac OS X v10.1).
If your computer does not have a built-in modem, select your external modem.

Mac OS X v10.5 or later: From the Configuration pop-up menu, choose Add Configuration.
Mac OS X 10.4.x or earlier: Click the PPP tab.
Enter your information into the relevant fields. Your username goes in the Account Name field, for example. If you want to copy this connection information to other user accounts on this computer, select "Save password".
You should now be able to connect. If you need to configure DNS servers or other advanced settings, continue to the next step.
Mac OS X v10.5 or later: Click the Advanced button, then click the DNS tab.
Mac OS X v10.4 or earlier: Click the TCP/IP tab. Choose either PPP or Manually from the Configure pop-up menu, as instructed by your Internet service provider. If configuring manually, type the IP address in the matching field.
Type the DNS server addresses in their field if necessary (click the "+" button first in Mac OS X v10.5 or later).
Click OK.
Click Apply (or Apply Now for Mac OS X v10.4 or earlier).

Connect and verify
Mac OS X v10.5 or later: Open Network preferences (in System Preferences).
Mac OS X v10.4.x or earlier: Open Internet Connect (from the Applications folder).
Be sure the Configuration pop-up menu is set to your modem.
Click the Connect button.
Once you're connected, open a Web browser or other Internet application to make sure your connection works.
Tip: You can have Mac OS X automatically connect to the Internet whenever you open an Internet application.


Stay Frosty.

OpIsrael - Gates of Hell

twitter:

th3j35t3r twitterde op vrijdag 16-11-2012 om 01:12:16 Propaganda attempts like israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx are spread via Hamas official sites. Not today. qassam.ps & http://hamasinfo.net TANGOS DOWN reageer retweet

quote:

Op vrijdag 16 november 2012 04:25 schreef SuperHarregarre het volgende:
Dikke misser om alleen Israël te targetten, zeg. Naïef hoor...alsof Hamas de vrede zelve is.

quote:

Anonymous hack hundreds of Israeli websites, delete Foreign Ministry database in support of Gaza

Hacker group Anonymous has launched a massive attack named #OpIsrael on almost 700 Israeli websites, protesting against Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza. Israeli media confirmed the group’s move.

­The hackers reportedly took down websites ranging from high-profile governmental structures such as the Foreign Ministry to local tourism companies’ pages.

The biggest attack as of now has been the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s international development program, titled Mashav. Anonymous announced on Twitter they’ve hacked into the program’s database, with the website remaining inaccessible at the moment.

“There is [sic] so many defaced Israeli websites right now, that we just made a list of them,” Anonymous tweeted.

The hacktivists also took down the Israeli President's official website and the blog of the country's Defense Force, www.idfblog.com, posting the news on Twitter using their infamous #TANGO DOWN hashtag.

The Jerusalem Post has confirmed the group’s assault, including the attack on the Foreign Ministry’s website, as well as those of Kadima party, Bank of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv Municipality. The latter is online as of now. Among other functions, it provides residents with directions to bomb shelters. Meanwhile, the majority of the web pages that were taken down were blank, but some showed pro-Palestinian images and messages, Jerusalem Post reported.

It was mentioned, however, that most of the 663 pages on the list were subdomains of the same site, and many proved to be still online and functioning properly.

Most of the sites were simply unavailable, but others displayed pro-Palestinian images and messages. One site whose front page was replaced with an image of a man wearing a Palestinian kaffiye, displayed a message reading: "This attack is in response to the Injustice against the Palestinian people."

quote:

Anonymous put together a Gaza Care Package, which contains instructions in Arabic and English to assist Palestinians in the event that the Israeli government cuts their internet connection. Plus, the package includes information on evading IDF surveillance, along with first aid information. The collective encouraged Palestinians to download and share the package with others.

quote:

Anonymous targets Israeli Web sites in protest over Gaza

quote:

The Bank of Jerusalem, one of Israel's largest financial institutions, has received particular attention from the hacktivists -- as the cyberattackers crowed on Twitter about deleting the organization's online database. Access to the bank's Web site has been spotty. Trying to access it yesterday afternoon resulted in nothing more than a database error, and though the site reappeared, it seemed to be offline again this morning.

quote:

Anonymous claims it stopped Karl Rove from hacking the vote

quote:

The hacktivist group Anonymous is claiming credit for Mitt Romney's loss, alleging that ORCA, Karl Rove's GOTV ubercomputer, was actually a vote tabulation manipulation software.

, We began following the digital traffic of one Karl Rove, a disrespecter of the Rule of Law, knowing that he claimed to be Kingmaker while grifting vast wealth from barons who gladly handed him gold to anoint another king while looking the other way.

After a rather short time, we identified the digital structure of Karl's operation and even that of his ORCA. This was an easy task in that barn doors were left open and his wind swept us inside.

Before the election Anonymous sent out a warning to Mr. Rove. In my mind what I had imagined transpiring was that after the election, Anonymous would release two spreadsheets, the former being the precinct-correct tally, and the second being the post-manipulation tally. An audit would discover that the "official" tally did not match the pre tabulation numbers, and to no one's surprise the audit would reveal that the actual vote count matched the precinct-correct tally on Anonymous' spreadsheet.

But that would have allowed the damage to be done, in order to catch the criminals. Mitt Romney would have already been declared president, and it would take months of court proceedings to reverse the election, amid cries of "stealing the election!" from both sides.

Had it been effective, it would have ruined the Republican brand forever, or at least the next two years, whichever voters remember longer. Given that they were so ready to forget the failures of George W. Bush, I don't have faith in the permanence of that notion.

So the better route was to "close the barn doors" and prevent the manipulation from happening.

Did Anonymous stop Karl Rove from Stealing Ohio again?

quote:

House Republicans: Copyright Law Destroys Markets; It's Time For Real Reform

quote:

This document really is a watershed moment. Even if it does not lead to any actual legislation, just the fact that some in Congress are discussing how copyright has gone way too far and even looking at suggestions that focus on what benefits the public the most is a huge step forward from what we've come to expect. In many ways, this is the next logical step after the completion of the SOPA fight. Rather than just fighting bad policy, it's time for Congress to recognize that existing copyright law is bad policy and now is the time to fix it. It comes as a surprise, but kudos to the Republican Study Committee -- and specifically Derek Khanna, the policy staffer who wrote the document -- for stepping up and saying what needed to be said, but which too many in Congress had been afraid to say for fear of how the entertainment industry lobbyists would react.

quote:

That Was Fast: Hollywood Already Browbeat The Republicans Into Retracting Report On Copyright Reform

quote:

So, late Friday, we reported on how the Republican Study Committee (the conservative caucus of House Republicans) had put out a surprisingly awesome report about copyright reform. You can read that post to see the details. The report had been fully vetted and reviewed by the RSC before it was released. However, as soon as it was published, the MPAA and RIAA apparently went ballistic and hit the phones hard, demanding that the RSC take down the report. They succeeded. Even though the report had been fully vetted and approved by the RSC, executive director Paul S. Teller has now retracted it, sending out the following email to a wide list of folks this afternoon:

quote:

Vendetta masks in UAE colours draw warning

Product being sold online declared illegal as National Day draws closer

Dubai: Police officials in Dubai have warned against wearing a mask that symbolises opposition to state authority during any celebrations connected to National Day and declared it illegal.

Any person found wearing Guy Fawkes masks, also known as ‘Vendetta masks’, risks police questioning as any object or action deemed to be instigating unrest or insulting the UAE is illegal, police officials said.

The masks are a stylised depiction of a man who was behind the failed Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British House of Lords in London in 1605. The plot is commemorated with a fireworks displays in the UK on November 5 each year in an event that has come to be known as Guy Fawkes night.

The masks being targeted at people in the UAE have mainly shown up on some online stores and are emblazoned with the colours of the UAE flag — red, white, green and black. They also feature the number 41 prominently — a reference to the 41st National Day on December 2.

The ‘Vendetta mask’ was popularised during the Arab Spring uprisings and has been used as a symbol of rebellion against governments and regimes across the region. Its design closely mirrors the mask used by activists portrayed in the 2006 movie ‘V for Vendetta’.

A Dubai Police official stressed the negative connotations of the mask. “Using any symbol that insults the country or instigates unrest against its system is not allowed. We urge citizens to celebrate using other symbols such as national flags, slogans or photos that are more appropriate to the happy occasion of National Day.”

The masks are being offered online for around Dh50 each with shipping fees ranging between Dh20-50.

Some markets and stores in Dubai are also reportedly selling the masks.

Emirati Twitter users have taken to the social media outlet to warn against wearing the mask and explaining its serious implications — claiming some people have no idea of what the mask denotes.

quote:

Hackers launch assault on Israeli government websites

Israeli officials count 44 million attacks on government sites since bombardment of Gaza began – but only one succeeds

More than 44 million hacking attempts have been made on Israeli government websites since Wednesday when Israel began its Gaza offensive, according to Israeli officials.

Finance minister Yuval Steinitz said just one hacking attempt was successful on a site he did not want to name, but added that it was up and running after 10 minutes of downtime.

Attempts on defence-related sites were the most numerous, according to his ministry, while 10m attempts were said to have been made on the site of Israel's president, 7m on the foreign ministry and 3m on the site of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

A finance ministry spokesman told Reuters that while the attacks have come from around the world, most have been from Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"The ministry's computer division will continue to block the millions of cyber-attacks," said Steinitz, speaking ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting. "We are enjoying the fruits of our investment in recent years in developing computerised defence systems."

A video message purporting to be from the hacking collective, Anonymous, was posted online on Sunday, warning: "We will strike any and all websites that we deem to be in Israeli cyberspace in retaliation for the mistreating of people in Gaza and other areas."

Cyber-attacks launched following the start of the Israeli offensive knocked some sites offline for a short period of time at the end of last week and resulted in others being defaced with pro-Palestinian messages.

Anonymous said on Saturday that it had taken down or erased the databases of nearly 700 Israeli private and public websites, including that of the Bank of Jerusalem finance house.

quote:

Anonymous claims to have affected U.S. elections through hacking GOP’s ORCA

The radical anarchist group Anonymous today has claimed that they have affected the 2012 presidential elections, thereby helping President Obama win a second term by hacking the Mitt Romney’s “Republican Get Out the Vote System” (ORCA).

On Election Day, the system (ORCA) application and network ran into problems as it was supposed to track through analytic's of what was going in key states of Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Colorado and helping to get out the vote in those areas.

The workers were unable to get the system to work and repeatedly failed and crashed.

According to ARStechnica, the network connection to the Romney campaign's headquarters also failed and went down and Internet provider Comcast had reported that they thought the traffic was caused by a denial of service attack.

If Comcast is correct in their assertion that the network connection and possible the application itself was the result of a denial of service attack, then Anonymous’ claims to affecting the system is true thereby violating U.S. elections laws.

Anonymous stated that the reason why they did this was an attempt to prevent Karl Rove, a political consultant and policy advisor, from rigging the election.

In the video, Anonymous said in-part, “We are watching you [Karl Rove]. We know you will attempt to rig the election of Mitt Romney to your favor.”

Anonymous went on to accuse Rove of attempting to overthrow the U.S. government and stated that if Mitt Romney were to win, that they would turn over all of the documents and information to the appropriate officials.

On Saturday, Anonymous in a joint effort with the Peoples Liberation Front attacked several hundred websites in Israel.

Interestingly enough, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Colorado were won by President Obama.

quote:

Internet censorship in Russia

quote:

Yet Mr Soldatov notes that two factors keep Russia from having a Chinese-style firewall—at least for now. The first is that the law does not block or criminalise the use of proxy browsers that mask what sites a user visits and keep browsing anonymous. But Russia may be headed in this direction: a September article in Izvestia said the Duma will soon add amendments to the internet law banning such services, including the popular service Tor, which masks online activity. Second, Mr Soldatov says is that Russia has not outlawed the use of secure browsing protocols, https, used by Facebook, Gmail, and other sites with sensitive personal data. But he says that some ISPs have already been approached by Russian security agencies and told to prepare for such a possibility.

quote:

Anonymous declares 'cyberwar' on Israel

(CNN) -- In the digital age, war isn't contained to the ground.

The Israeli government on Sunday said it has been hit with more than 44 million cyberattacks since it began aerial strikes on Gaza last week. Anonymous, the hacker collective, claimed responsibility for taking down some sites and leaking passwords because of what it calls Israel's "barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment" of Palestinians.

"The war is being fought on three fronts," Carmela Avner, Israel's chief information officer, said on Sunday in a press release. "The first is physical, the second is the world of social networks and the third is cyberattacks.

"The attackers are attempting to harm the accessibility of Israel's government websites on an ongoing basis. When events like the current operation occur, this sector heats up and we see increased activity. Therefore, at this time, defending the governmental computer systems is of invaluable importance."

Israel and the military wing of Hamas have been criticized for using ready-to-share images on social media to spread spin about the conflict, which has claimed the lives of about 100 Palestinians and three Israelis since the back-and-forth violence began again Wednesday.

There is some dispute about the effectiveness of the cyberattacks.

Israel says the attacks have largely been unsuccessful.

"We are reaping the fruits on the investment in recent years in the development of computerized defense systems, but we have a lot of work in store for us," Israel's finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, said in a written statement.

Reuters quotes him as saying only one website was down for 10 minutes.

CNN iReport: Instagram users wage peace in Israel

Anonymous, meanwhile, posted a list of more than 650 Israel-based websites it says it has taken down or defaced since last week.

"They've knocked down websites, deleted databases and have leaked e-mail addresses and passwords," Casey Chan wrote Friday for the tech site Gizmodo. "It's a whopping takedown."

A post on an Anonymous Twitter feed Monday morning said another set of hackers had defaced the Israeli versions of several Microsoft websites, including Bing, MSN and Skype. Visitors to Bing's Israeli site on Monday morning saw an anti-Israel rant instead of a search-engine homepage.

"Microsoft is aware of the site defacements and working to get all sites fully functional," a company spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "At present, we have seen no evidence to suggest the compromise of customer information but will take action to help protect customers as necessary."

A page associated with Anonymous also posted a new threat: "November 2012 will be a month to remember for the (Israel Defense Forces) and Internet security forces. Israeli Gov. this is/will turn into a cyberwar."

Some observers took this as a sign of an escalating digital battle.

"Beyond mere 'denial of service' tactics that blocked sites with floods of junk data, the hackers also ramped up their attacks to penetrations of any vulnerable target available to them, resulting in tens of thousands of Israeli citizens' and supporters' private data dumped onto the Web," wrote Andy Greenberg from Forbes.

Others said most of Anonymous' threats have been "hollow" so far.

"Today, Anon lacks the talent and semi-cohesion it once boasted across the net, and its most recent online crusade is an embarrassing reminder," Sam Biddle wrote for Gizmodo on Monday. "This is less a war than the hacker equivalent of egging someone's house and then smoking weed behind a Denny's."

The group is calling its campaign #OpIsrael.

"While the Israeli government almost certainly has backups of the aformentioned databases, these attacks as well as the defacements show Anonymous isn't just doing its usual spree of overloading target sites," writes another tech blog, TheNextWeb.

"OpIsrael appears to have gotten multiple hackers involved who are interested in doing actual damage, or at least something that is slightly more permanent than just a 404," which is the code that appears online when a website won't load.

Greenberg, from Forbes, makes the important point that none of this digital damage compares to the loss of life on the ground in the Middle East.

"Anonymous' attacks, of course, hardly register compared with the physical damage inflicted by both sides in the Gaza conflict," he wrote.

quote:

#OpIsrael, all about offensive of Anonymous against Israel

quote:

The challenged IDF published on-line a portal to fight "misinformation" concerning the IDF and Israel. The site propose a game that involve visitors in every kind of on-line activities aimed at providing a positive image of the state. The Web site provides also documentation on the attacks on Gaza and information about attacks that Israel suffers as shown in the following pictures.

quote:

"IDF Ranks is an interactive game, directly implemented into all of the IDF’s social platforms allowing YOU to be a virtual part of the IDF. Every action you take — reading, commenting, liking, sharing or even just visiting — will earn you points and help you climb the ladder of IDF Ranks. Specific actions will win you beautiful badges, and one day you might even become the Chief of Staff of IDF Ranks."

quote:

This website uses CloudFlare in order to help keep it online when the server is down by serving cached copies of pages when they are unavailable. Unfortunately, a cached copy of the page you requested is not available, but you may be able to reach other cached pages on the site.

quote:

1,000,000 Accounts Leaked By Hannibal in retaliation for #OPIsrael

quote:

Well known hacker Hannibal has released a pastebin document that is making some claims that are sure to hit headlines around the world within hours.

The pastebin file contains a message which is to the public and Anonymous hacktivist who have been involved in the attacks on Israeli governments and public websites over the last week in support to Gaza from air strike attacks.

quote:

**
Be careful, here are the biggest cyber attack in the United States
**

Since last January, after the Arabs hacked Israeli credit cards (0xOmar And His Friends lol) , That’s why the Arabs received my punishment – I’ve posted over 1,000,000 Facebook accounts of Arabs.

After I had attacked them very strong, they stopped attacking Israeils.
I went to sleep for a while, I woke up, What the hell?
Lately, Anonymous Group attacked for no reason Israeli websites and stuff.
Do you want to play with me, Anonymous Group?
Do you have forgotten that Israel stands alongside the world’s best hacker – Hannibal ???
Who the hell you think you are? I’ll fuck you.
I AM HANNIBAL.

I am the best hacker in the world, all Americans who do not know who I am, just Google it

www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=Hannibal+ Hacker

Anonymous Group, Do you want to mess with me?
Be careful of me.
I’ll ruin your life if you continue I will post Personal information of Anonymous group members, I will send you to prison, I’ll Fucl y0u tight.

Today because the games did Anonymous Group, Americans will receive my punishment.

I’m post now about 1,000,000 American Accounts, emails,password,userid, security questions, security answers, and stuff.

Download links -

http://www.crocko.com/64D(...)ishment_Hannibal.rar

http://bayfiles.com/file/t3G9/sggNJm/Punishment_Hannibal.rar

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/BkIGYNc/Punishment_Hannibal.rar

http://freakshare.com/files/2ae2mwy3/Punishment_Hannibal.rar.html

http://www.fileswap.com/d(...)nt_Hannibal.rar.html

http://bitshare.com/files/azfva1wt/Punishment_Hannibal.rar.html

http://fileshare.in.ua/6914961

http://www.filedropper.com/punishmenthannibal_1

https://depositfiles.com/files/ekq5n6y19

It’s nothing compared to what I have. Anonymous Group, Be careful of me.
Hannibal.

quote:

Anonymous cyber hackers 'cost PayPal £3.5m'

A student attacked the PayPal website as part of a concerted effort by the Anonymous "hacktivists" that cost the company £3.5m, a court has heard.

Christopher Weatherhead, 22, was studying at Northampton University when he allegedly took part in the campaign.

The court heard Anonymous targeted companies who opposed internet piracy but later attacked PayPal after it refused to process WikiLeaks payments.

Mr Weatherhead, from Northampton, denies a charge of conspiracy.

He has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to impair the operation of computers between 1 August 2010 and 22 January 2011.

MasterCard, Visa, Ministry of Sound, the British Recorded Music Industry and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry were also hit.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court were told Ashley Rhodes, 27, from Camberwell, south London; Peter Gibson, 24, from Hartlepool; and an 18-year-old male who cannot be named for legal reasons have already pleaded guilty to the charge.

Mr Patel said Gibson had initially suggested attacking musician Lily Allen's website because of her overt anti-piracy stance but changed his mind, saying he did not wish to "attack artists".

Sandip Patel, prosecuting, said the group caused PayPal "enormous economic harm".

He said they initially targeted components who were known to oppose internet piracy but later switched to attacking PayPal after it refused to process payments on behalf of the controversial WikiLeaks website, founded by Julian Assange.

Mr Patel said PayPal was chosen after it refused, in December 2010, to process payments for the Wau Holland Foundation, which was raising money to keep WikiLeaks going.

The prosecutor said Anonymous were "hacktivists" who believed copyright should not apply to the internet.

He said their attacks, codenamed Operation Payback, began as a campaign against the music industry and those who took part in action against the Pirate Bay website which had attempted to distribute music in breach of copyright laws.

quote:

Police Raid 9-Year-Old Pirate Bay Girl, Confiscate Winnie The Pooh Laptop

An anti-piracy company has found itself in the middle of a huge controversy. CIAPC, the company that had The Pirate Bay blocked by ISPs in Finland, tracked an alleged file-sharer and demanded a cash settlement. However, the Internet account holder refused to pay which escalated things to an unprecedented level. In response, this week police raided the home of the 9-year-old suspect and confiscated her Winnie the Pooh laptop.

Very soon in the United States, letters will be sent out to Internet account holders informing them that they should stop sharing copyrighted material on BitTorrent.

The message in the US from mainstream rightsholders is designed to be educational, but more aggressive companies carry out the same process but with a sting in the tail – a request for cash-settlement to make potential lawsuits go away.

One such request for cash landed on the doorstep of an Internet account holder in Finland during the spring. Known locally as TTVK, Finnish anti-piracy group CIAPC sent the man a letter informing him that his account had been traced back to an incidence of online file-sharing.

To stop matters progressing further the man was advised to pay a settlement of 600 euros, sign a non-disclosure document, and move on with his life. He chose not to give in to the demands of CIAPC and this week things escalated as promised.

Tuesday morning the doorbell of the family home rang around 8am and the man, who works in the hospitality sector, had quite a shock. Police were at his door with a search warrant authorizing the hunt for evidence connected to illicit file-sharing.

Surprisingly, the man isn’t a previously unknown Kim Dotcom-related “co-conspirator”, nor does he run a warez site or BitTorrent tracker. He is, however, guilty of having a 9-year-old daughter with a taste for pop music.

Having failed in her quest to put enough money in her piggy bank to buy the latest album from local multi-platinum-selling songstress Chisu, in 2011 she turned to the Internet, first via Google and then The Pirate Bay.

The girl’s father said the resulting downloads didn’t work so the following day they went to the store to buy music. Nevertheless, this week’s police visit shows that CIAPC mean business, no matter how young the targets or whether or not they also buy music.

In concluding their search, the police confiscated the girl’s file-sharing weapon of choice – her Winnie The Pooh laptop – and according to her father offered some final words.

“It would have been easier for all concerned if you had paid the compensation,” the police advised

“I got the feeling that there had been people from the MAFIA demanding money at the door,” the girl’s father explained.

“At that point my jaw hit the floor and I wasn’t sure if I was awake or dreaming. So the investigator suggested, between the lines, that I empty my wallet and keep my family in hunger for the next two weeks so that they could get rid of the case? What the f––… is this how it goes? I could evade justice murder by skipping Christmas this year?”

“We have not done anything wrong with my daughter. If adults do not always know how to use a computer and the web, how can you assume that children or the elderly – or a 9-year-old girl – knows what they are doing at any given time online?

“This is the pinnacle of absurdity. I can see artists are in a position, but this requires education and information, not resource-consuming lawsuits,” he added.

Electronic Frontier Finland say that this week’s developments are an indication of just how far copyright enforcements issues have progressed in Finland.

“It is not in anyone’s interest, that in the name of the copyright, little girls are being harassed. This shows poor judgment, and consideration from TTVK and from the police,” vice chairman Ville Oksanen said in a statement.

However, there are signs that support might come from an unexpected corner. In a statement the artist in question – Chisu – said that she doesn’t want to sue anyone and that no artist needs this kind of media attention. Indeed, the criticism of the move on her Facebook page is fierce.

“I hope that the matter will be resolved soon and sorry to my 9-year-old girls,” Chisu wrote, pointing them to this free link to her music on Spotify.

Joonas Mäkinen of Finland’s Pirate Party welcomes Chisu’s comments but bemoans artists’ apparent lack of power to get anything done.

“It is sad to see how even the big artists have no idea what CIAPC / TTVK is doing in their name. And the worst part is that even after learning about this, like Chisu did just now and took part in the discussion on Facebook, they can’t stop it since all copyright protection and monitoring is centralized,” Mäkinen told TorrentFreak.

“I hope all musicians realize that the fan hunt that involves confiscating laptops and signing deals that require you to be silent about the payments are severely hurting the image of copyright and creators. Authors of works should actively rise up to say NO to what CIAPC/TTVK is doing if they wish to keep their fans,” he concludes.

CIAPC confirmed that the case against the 9-year-old is only the latest in a line of attempted settlements. Last fall a total of 28 Internet account holders settled with CIAPC, but of course we haven’t heard of the cases due to the confidentiality agreements recipients are required to sign.

quote:

Your site has been Hacked in response to Scott the world about the massacres that happen in Syria ... On the occasion of the penetration I want to direct a few words to the world
To our heros in the Free Syrian Army.. our hearts and souls are with you those of whom sacrificed their blood and lives for us, may Allah reward you all the good and I find no words enough to address you may Allah protect and be with you
To Bashar 'the duck' who lacks legitimacy and sanity do you see fathers crying their children? soon you will be in their shoes if Allah's will
To Asmaa, crazy president's wife. Do you see women crying their husbands? soon you will be in their shoes if Allah's will
To the islamic and arabic conscience and specially Muslims kings and presidents, our profit (pbuh) says « ما من امرئ يخذل امرءا مسلما في موطن تنتهك فيه حرمته ، وينتقص فيه من عرضه ، إلا خذله الله في موطن يحب فيه نصرته ، وما من امرئ ينصر امرءا مسلما في موطن ينتقص فيه من عرضه وتنتهك فيه من حرمته ، إلا نصره الله في موطن يحب فيه نصرته » so those who let us down expect Allah's humilation if you don't support us
To United States and Europian countries, you claim that you protect the world, help the oppressed and claim democracy. But our revolution exposed your real faces and showed humanity that you are advocates of your own interests and that you don't have a humanitarian principle in what you claim, you only raise those banners to occupy nations, inslave their people and steal their treasures just like you did in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places, and maybe soon in Mali
To the neutrals in Syria: most of the Syrian neutrals are non-Mulims like our christian brothers and druze brothers and others from other communities, my message to them, Aren't we brothers? Aren't we fighting for our joint dignity and to make a better Syria for tomorrow and the most beautiful country in the world? Aren't you suffering oppression just like us? or your saying to your selves that if those win then we'll get our freedom without sweating for it? I ask not to share the revolution gain with any party that didn't come to its aid and stood aside, otherwise join the freedom and dignity's revolution
To the Alawite community: to the grandsons of Saleh Al-Ali, Bashar is abusing you, killing you and us just to save his precious occupied place, did Bashar claimed you kings in Syria? Are you living a better lives than us? The answer is clear, maybe you live worse than millions of Syrians, you are our brothers (except for the thugs and murderers among you) please abandon the regime now and join the revolution before it's too late and believe me if you don't join the revolution you will lose alot because you have crossed all the humanitarian and religious red lines against the Syrian people - Syrian Anonymous

quote:

Prosecution of Anonymous activists highlights war for Internet control

The US and allied governments exploit both law and cyber-attacks as a weapon to punish groups that challenge it

Whatever one thinks of WikiLeaks, it is an indisputable fact that the group has never been charged by any government with any crime, let alone convicted of one. Despite that crucial fact, WikiLeaks has been crippled by a staggering array of extra-judicial punishment imposed either directly by the US and allied governments or with their clear acquiescence.

In December 2010, after WikiLeaks began publishing US diplomatic cables, it was hit with cyber-attacks so massive that the group was "forced to change its web address after the company providing its domain name cut off service". After public demands and private pressure from US Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman, Amazon then cut off all hosting services to WikiLeaks. Sophisticated cyber-attacks shortly thereafter forced the group entirely off all US website services when its California-based internet hosting provider, Everydns, terminated service, "saying it did so to prevent its other 500,000 customers of being affected by the intense cyber-attacks targeted at WikiLeaks".

Meanwhile, Chairman Lieberman's public pressure, by design, also led to the destruction of WikiLeaks' ability to collect funds from supporters. Master Card and Visa both announced they would refuse to process payments to the group, as did America's largest financial institution, Bank of America. Paypal not only did the same but froze all funds already in WikiLeaks' accounts (almost two years later, a court in Iceland ruled that a Visa payment processor violated contract law by cutting of those services). On several occasions in both 2011 and 2012, WikiLeaks was prevented from remaining online by cyber-attacks.

Over the past two years, then, this group - convicted of no crime but engaged in pathbreaking journalism that produced more scoops than all other media outlets combined and received numerous journalism awards - has been effectively prevented from functioning, receiving funds, or even maintaining a presence on US internet servers. While it's unproven what direct role the US government played in these actions, it is unquestionably clear that a top US Senator successfully pressured private corporations to cut off its finances, and more important, neither the US nor its allies have taken any steps to discover and apprehend the perpetrators of the cyber-attacks that repeatedly targeted WikiLeaks, nor did it even investigate those attacks.

The ominous implications of all this have been never been fully appreciated. Recall that all the way back in 2008, the Pentagon prepared a secret report (ultimately leaked to WikiLeaks) that decreed WikiLeaks to be a "threat to the US Army" and an enemy of the US. That report plotted tactics that "would damage and potentially destroy" its ability to function. That is exactly what came to pass.

So this was a case where the US government - through affirmative steps and/or approving acquiescence to criminal, sophisticated cyber-attacks - all but destroyed the ability of an adversarial group, convicted of no crime, to function on the internet. Who would possibly consider that power anything other than extremely disturbing? What possible political value can the internet serve, or journalism generally, if the US government, outside the confines of law, is empowered - as it did here - to cripple the operating abilities of any group which meaningfully challenges its policies and exposes its wrongdoing?

But what makes all of this even more significant is the vastly disparate treatment of those who launched far less sophisticated and damaging attacks at those corporations which complied with US demands and cut off all funding and other services to WikiLeaks. Acting in the name of Anonymous, a handful of activists targeted those companies with simple "denial of service" attacks, ones that impeded the operations of those corporate websites for a few hours.

In stark contrast to the far more significant attacks aimed at WikiLeaks, these attacks, designed to protest the treatment of WikiLeaks, spawned a global manhunt by western nations and, ultimately, the arrest of dozens of mostly young alleged hackers, four of whom are now on trial in London:

"Four activists from the hackers collective Anonymous caused multimillion-pound losses to a number of firms in revenge for the backlash against WikiLeaks, a court has heard.

"Using the name Operation Payback, the four flooded websites belonging to companies including PayPal and Ministry of Sound with messages and requests in order to bring them down. . . .The self-styled 'hactivists' caused losses worth more than £3.5m at PayPal and caused sites belonging to MasterCard and the recording industry to go offline.

"Three of the group have admitted their role in the conspiracy. Christopher Weatherhead, 22, a student at Northampton University, is on trial at Southwark crown court accused of being 'part of a small cabal of leaders' of the cyber-attacks. . . .

"The four used a free internet tool called Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC) as a 'destructive cyber weapon', the court heard. 'Once downloaded, the LOIC could be used to attack by sending internet traffic to a target computer,' [the prosecutor] said. 'When the volume of traffic sent to a computer becomes too much for it to handle it would suffer a denial of service. The more LOICs used, therefore, to attack a target computer, the more likely that a denial of service will take place.'"

Last year, the FBI arrested 16 people in the US in connection with similar attacks on Master Card, Visa and Amazon, and charged them with crimes that carry 10-year prison terms.

The issue here is not whether Anonymous activists can be rightfully prosecuted: acts of civil disobedience, by definition, are violations of the law designed to protest or create a cost for injustices. The issue is how selectively these cyber-attack laws are enforced: massive cyber-attacks aimed at a group critical of US policy (WikiLeaks) were either perpetrated by the US government or retroactively sanctioned by it, while relatively trivial, largely symbolic attacks in defense of the group were punished with the harshest possible application of law enforcement resources and threats of criminal punishment.

That the US government largely succeeded in using extra-legal and extra-judicial means to cripple an adverse journalistic outlet is a truly consequential episode: nobody, regardless of one's views on WikiLeaks, should want any government to have that power. But the manifestly overzealous prosecutions of Anonymous activists, in stark contrast to the (at best) indifference to the attacks on WikiLeaks, makes all of that even worse. In line with its unprecedented persecution of whistleblowers generally, this is yet another case of the US government exploiting the force of law to entrench its own power and shield its actions from scrutiny.

Disclosure

Over the past couple months, I've been involved in discussions regarding the formation of a new organization designed to support independent journalists and groups such as WikiLeaks under attack by the US and other governments, one that would provide funding and a network for other means of support to enable them to operate. My role would be limited to unpaid board member. The group is not yet formed and my participation is only in the preliminary discussion stages, but disclosure still seems appropriate given the topic I'm writing about here. If and when this evolves further, as I hope it will, I will certainly write more on it.

quote:

Persbericht: Cybersecuritybeleid moet slimmer en gerichter

Met slimme, gerichte maatregelen kan onze cybersecurity sterk worden verbeterd. Dat zegt Bits of Freedom samen met een brede coalitie van veiligheidsexperts en andere stakeholders. Deze coalitie presenteert vandaag een notitie over Het cybersecuritybeleid van de toekomst aan Tweede Kamerleden.

“De overheid laat zich op het gebied van cybersecurity nu nog te veel leiden door incidenten en mist echte visie op wat goed beleid is.” zegt Simone Halink van Bits of Freedom. De Tweede Kamer heeft op 6 december een algemeen overleg over het onderwerp cybersecurity in de agenda staan. Volgens de Bits of Freedom is dit het ideale moment om de discussie over goed cybersecuritybeleid een nieuwe impuls te geven.

In de notitie staan vier uitgangspunten en acht concrete maatregelen voor modern cybersecuritybeleid. “Het belangrijkste uitgangspunt van dit beleid moet zijn dat cybersecurity begint bij de basis.” zegt Halink. “Persoonlijke veiligheid moet centraal staan. De meeste veiligheidsproblemen komen door simpele kwetsbaarheden, die met simpele maatregelen kunnen worden opgelost.”

De notitie pleit verder voor meer investeringen in kennis en capaciteit op IT-gebied bij overheid en politie. “Het is belangrijk dat de politie haar werk goed kan doen. Maar daarvoor is meer kennis over het internet en digitale opsporing nodig.” aldus Halink. Verder zou de overheid het goede voorbeeld moeten geven door controle over haar eigen infrastructuur uit te kunnen oefenen, minder afhankelijk te zijn van externe partijen en internetters structureel voor te lichten over hoe zij hun eigen veiligheid kunnen verbeteren.

quote:

We demand a fair trial for Jeremy Hammond!

This is what we know for certain surrounding the unfortunate circumstances of Jeremy Hammond’s ongoing prosecution. A time line published only days after Jeremy’s arrest suggests that Operation AntiSec was orchestrated by the FBI through the agency of cooperating witness Hector Monsegur; http://goo.gl/H1kWm. As if this were not unfortunate enough, new evidence suggests that Loretta A. Preska, the federal judge currently presiding over Jeremy’s case, has an undisclosed conflict which could potentially influence her decisions regarding Jeremy’s trial.

Loretta A. Preska is the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and a former nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Preska is married to Thomas J. Kavaler, with whom she attended law school. Information leaked from the very hack Jeremy is being prosecuted for having committed show that Thomas J. Kavaler is affiliated with Stratfor; http://archive.org/details/Stratfor. Sensitive information belonging to Kavaler was leaked along with the sensitive information of more than eight hundred thousand other Stratfor users and millions of internal emails.

We demand that Loretta A. Preska, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, recuse herself from Jeremy’s case immediately. We demand that all previous rulings made by Chief Judge Preska be dismissed. We demand an investigation into the tactics used by law enforcement officials to entrap hacktivists. We demand an investigation into the circumstances which allowed for Chief Judge Preska to preside over Jeremy’s case. We demand a fair trial for Jeremy Hammond! We will not be silent in the presence of such great injustices. If those prosecuting Jeremy deny him a voice, they will hear ours!

quote:

http://pastebay.net/1157809

The twitter account @AnonOpsSweden has been suspended as of the 24th of November by the twitter staff. This is not the first time we've seen this kind of censorship.
We demand an explanation from the twitter staff and that the account is unsuspended immediately!

The AnonOpsSweden twitter account is a highly regarded and followed news account thus there is no valid reason for a twitter suspension
Reporting events that have taken place is not a crime. The account was not used for any criminal purposes.
If reporting the news is a crime, then all of news media would be criminals. This is a matter of free press as well as free speech.

Twitter holds the possibility for free speech, unfortunately sometimes Government and corporate interests comes before the people. Anonymous is and
always has been a strong voice for free speech globally.

The users of the account has received no information from twitter about the reason for suspension and has no possibility to defend against this action at the moment.
The hive as a community cannot and NEVER will never be silenced. If they bring one Anonymous
account down we are still going to be present and we will fight for each other.

We encourage you all to contact the people who can make this right, unsuspend @AnonOpsSweden and explain this unacceptable action.

Send a tweet to @dickc, the CEO of twitter, with the hashtag #UnsuspendAoS. Be creative, relentless and make them hear us.

Cached version of AoS acc
http://webcache.googleuse(...)&hl=sv&ct=clnk&gl=se

If you wish to temporarily change your avatar to @AnonOpsSweden in solidarity:
https://si0.twimg.com/pro(...)1d56a772be26ccf.jpeg

Petition: Please sign and spread
http://twitition.com/uvfki/

Tweetstorm info
http://lissnup.wordpress.(...)eetstorms-revisited/

Additional Info
It is more effective to write your own tweets or steal, (copy & paste) tweets than to RT in tweetstorms.
To avoid twit jail, stick to under 45 tweets per hour.
If you do not wish to use your main twitter account, set up multiple accounds and schedule tweets to send from ALL.
DO NOT attack, DDoS, deface, black fax or anything like it. Keep it to a tweetstorm! (AoS's wishes)

We are AnonOpsSweden,
We are legion,
We do not forgive,
We do not forget.
EXPECT US!

quote:

Panopticlick

Is your browser configuration rare or unique? If so, web sites may be able to track you, even if you limit or disable cookies.

Panopticlick tests your browser to see how unique it is based on the information it will share with sites it visits. Click below and you will be given a uniqueness score, letting you see how easily identifiable you might be as you surf the web.

Only anonymous data will be collected by this site.

quote:

Anonymous hacks school board in retaliation for spying on students

Hackers say they are responsible for taking down the website of a Texas school district in retaliation for a mandatory surveillance program students are being told to comply with.

The website for San Antonio’s Northside Independent School District was unavailable at times throughout the weekend and into Monday after hacktivists claiming to be involved with the Anonymous movement waged an attack to draw attention to a controversial new program that requires students to be monitored with tiny Radio Frequency Identification (“RFID”) chips.

Through the Twitter account @RemainSilentz, one self-described participant in Anonymous confirmed that NISD.net was taken offline late Friday.

“DOWN AND OUT – Boom, track my ass like you track children you pervs,” the user wrote.

Two schools in NISD — John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School — began asking students earlier this year to carry RFID-equipped identification cards so that educators can monitor their location on school grounds. The school district says tracking students allows for more accurate attendance figures, and therefore better funding. It hasn’t been welcomed with open arms by students, however, and last week a judge had to intervene and issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the principle from Jay High from expelling sophomore Andrea Hernandez for refusing to wear a badge after the school said participation was mandatory.

“We are conditioning kids to live in a surveillance state,” John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, told RT on Friday.

Whitehead has been instrumental in helping Hernandez fight to be free from being monitored, and celebrated the issuing of a restraining order. And as more people become aware of cases like hers, he says he hopes there is a chance at holding onto our right to privacy.

“There are going to be people who are going to want to opt out, and we want to protect those people who don’t want to be part of a system that they feel violates their human dignity and their constitutional rights,” he says.

A hearing is scheduled in the coming days to consider a preliminary injunction that will prohibit NISD from making the tracking program mandatory any further, but meanwhile Anonymous has taken matters into their own hands.

“I sincerely hope you have noticed that I have took down your website for a reason, and that reason is stripping away the privacy of students in your school. What was going through your mind when you had this idea?” an Anon using the alias tr1xxyAnon wrote in a statement circulated over the weekend.

After a judge agreed to file an order blocking the expulsion of Hernandez last week, Whitehead wrote, “The court’s willingness to grant a temporary restraining order is a good first step, but there is still a long way to go—not just in this case, but dealing with the mindset, in general, that everyone needs to be monitored and controlled.”

Although only two schools in Texas ask students to use “SmartID” cards at the moment, the success of the program at John Jay and Anson Jones will determine of other facilities in NSID will soon make the badges mandatory.

quote:

UN Agency's Leaked Playbook: Panic, Chaos over Anti-Internet Treaty

The International Telecommunications Union, the UN agency at the center of a firestorm over new efforts to regulate the Internet, is preparing a social media campaign to target what it expects will be fierce opposition to a revised telephone treaty being decided next month at a secret conference in Dubai.

That’s according to a key ITU internal planning document [link] that appeared Saturday on the website WCITLeaks, which has been posting a steady stream of documents leading up to the conference. Even as ITU officials accelerate increasingly clumsy efforts to deflect the wrath of Internet users over next month’s World Conference on International Telecommunications, more documents leaking out ahead of the meeting continue to expose the agency’s misstatements.

The WCIT conference will consider revisions to a 1988 treaty known as the International Telecommunications Regulations. At the meeting, 193 member nations consider dozens of proposed amendments, including several that would bring the Internet under ITU jurisdiction and substantially change the architecture and governance of the Internet. Other proposals would, if adopted, give countries including Russia, China, and Iran UN sanctioned-authority to monitor and censor incoming and outgoing Internet traffic under the guise of improving “security.”

The newly-leaked document is the agenda for an “ITU Senior Management Retreat” held in Geneva in September. It includes a detailed report on resistance to WCIT and the agency’s plans to counter criticism of its secretive processes. It also includes links and passwords for presentations given by outside public relations and advertising executives from leading global agencies. (The passwords were still active as of Nov. 24th.)

The document, marked “confidential,” suggests senior ITU officials have become both paranoid and panicked over growing outrage over both the form and substance of the upcoming negotiations. Material included with the agenda paints a pathetic picture of the150 year-old UN agency struggling to defend itself from attacks by what the agency believes is a “well-financed and well-organized campaign originating in the USA” whose goal is to “discredit the ITU and WCIT.”

The two-day meeting also featured leading media consultants invited to help the agency formulate a strategy to avoid the kind of global outrage that mortally wounded a secret Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement treaty earlier this year, and which did in copyright legislation known as SOPA and PIPA in the U.S. in January.

Both ACTA and the US copyright bills were widely expected to pass with little opposition until Internet users organized physical and virtual protests that caught lawmakers by surprise.

According to the internal ITU document, the agency had already launched what it calls a “counter-campaign”–a media blitz the agency plans to expand in light of what the ITU sees as the likely event of significant hostility to the revised treaty after the conference.

Following the WCIT meeting, the ITU says, the counter-campaign will focus on ways to “mitigate the risk” of an “intensive anti-ratification campaign in [the US and Western Europe], based on the so-called lack of openness of the WCIT process, resulting in a significant number of countries refusing to ratify the new ITRs.”


A Crisis of the ITU’s Own Making

The “so-called lack of openness” has little to do with growing outrage over WCIT. The real objections to the conference have more to do with substance than the secrecy of the negotiations. First and foremost, there is strong opposition within the US and EU delegations to expanding the UN’s jurisdiction over IP networks in any form. (The current ITRs do not extend to the Internet.)

Globally, concern is also growing over increasingly direct efforts by some national governments to hijack the conference into mandating changes to the engineering-driven, multi-stakeholder model of Internet governance that relies on non-governmental international organizations such as the Internet Society, ICANN, and the W3C. These changes are seen as preludes to future restrictions on content and users implemented through the reengineering of key resources.

In response to early proposals along these lines, Congress unanimously passed a joint resolution over the summer urging the US delegation, led by Ambassador Terry Kramer, to reject any extension of the ITU’s authority to Internet matters, or to allow ITU member states to use the conference to advance longstanding anti-Internet agendas. Last week, the EU debated a sternly-worded proposal urging its members likewise to resist Internet-related proposals.

Also last week, Google launched its own campaign, urging users to take direct action against the WCIT. “Some governments want to use a closed-door meeting in December to increase censorship and regulate the Internet,” the company said. “Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech — or even allow them to cut off Internet access.”

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http://par-anoia.net/releases.html

Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

It is time to visit Syria. We present you one gigabyte of internal government emails from the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nicely parsed and rendered for our Email Viewer. Or, if you prefer, you can download the compressed MBOX archive to import into the mail client of your choice for easy local viewing.

Within the stash you will find details about cargo flights from Russia, each containing 30 tons of fresh Syrian Cash, as ProPublica has already reported today. Furthermore you will find lulzy documents such as scanned passports from Syrian ministers (PDF) and details about arms transportation from Ukraine, as shown in our teaser here (email/txt) and here (overflight permission for Iran, PDF). Most of the material is in Arabic and we invite all arabic speakers to look through the mails for interesting documents. Feel free to contact us on IRC if you have information or questions.

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Democratic Whoopsy: Kim Jong-Un and Mohamed Morsey Lead Time’s ‘Person Of The Year’ Poll

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The Internet has a hard time taking things seriously and will happily enact silly vengeance on websites daring enough to leave important tasks up to a vote. Time’s coveted “Person of the Year” poll has been hijacked by thousands of pranksters who have voted up the not-so democratic icons, North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un and Egypt’s Mohamed Morsey. The up votes could be legitimate exercise in satire, punishing Time for even floating the idea of those two in a poll next to Obama and brave political dissidents. But, if Morsey–or worse, Kim–actually wins the poll, Time will have egg on its face (both Kim and Morsey have nearly twice the number of votes as 3rd place).

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LulzSec hacker faces 30 years to life

Jeremy Hammond is denied bail, placed on terrorist watch list

November 27, 2012 — CSO — Jeremy Hammond is in really big trouble. Or, perhaps, the government is just trying to "scare the (expletive) out of him," in the words of Kevin Mitnick, formerly known as the world's "most-wanted hacker" and now a security consultant.

Either way, a potential sentence of 30 years to life for alleged hacking crimes is probably enough to get the attention of most 27-year-olds. And that is what U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska told Hammond last week that he could face if he is convicted on all counts.

Hammond, much better known in the world of hactivism by various online aliases including "Anarchaos," "sup_g," "burn," "yohoho," "POW," "tylerknowsthis," and "crediblethreat," has been held without bail since his arrest in March on charges connected with last year's hacking of Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based international intelligence broker, by AntiSec, an offshoot of LulzSec, which is in turn an offshoot of the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

The three-count federal indictment, brought in the Southern District of New York, charged him with conspiracy to commit computer hacking, computer hacking and conspiracy to commit access device fraud.

More specifically, the government alleges that starting last December, Hammond and others from AntiSec stole information from about 860,000 Stratfor subscribers, including emails, account information, and data from about 60,000 credit cards. The government alleges that he published some of that information online, and used some of the stolen credit card data to run up at least $700,000 in unauthorized charges.

He is also accused of giving about five million internal emails to WikiLeaks, which were published under the name The Global Intelligence Files.

Apparently unknown to Hammond, however, was that the then-leader of AntiSec, Hector Xavier Monsegur, a New York hacker known by the alias "Sabu," had been arrested the previous June and agreed to cooperate with the FBI. So, at least some of the Stratfor information Hammond uploaded was to a honey pot server maintained by the FBI.

At a hearing last week, Hammond was denied bail, based on Judge Preska's determination that he was both a danger to the community and a flight risk. He had also recently been added to the Terrorist Watch List, said Sue Crabtree, a member of the Jeremy Hammond Solidarity Network and a spectator at his bail hearing. Crabtree said Hammond didn't even have a passport.

The bail denial sparked another round of protest from Hammond's supporters. Anonymous published a message on Pastebin demanding that Preska recuse herself for conflict of interest. The group said her husband, Thomas J. Kavaler, was among Stratfor's clients, and therefore one of the alleged victims of the hack. Kavaler is a partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP in New York City.

[See slide show: Anonymous and LulzSec - 10 greatest hits]

"Judge Preska by proxy is a victim of the very crime she intends to judge Jeremy Hammond for," Anonymous wrote in a message posted last Friday. "Judge Preska has failed to disclose the fact that her husband is a client of Stratfor and recuse herself from Jeremy's case, therefore violating multiple Sections of Title 28 of the United States Code."

Beyond that, a writer identified only as "NA" on the website FreeHammond.com, argued that "Hacktivists are not criminals! Jeremy is alleged of a crime that has exposed the corruption and exploitation of the very State prosecuting him," and suggested entrapment by the FBI as well.

"A time line published only days after Jeremy's arrest suggests that Operation AntiSec [the Stratfor hack] was orchestrated by the FBI through the agency of FBI informant Hector Monsegur," NA wrote.

Hammond himself, in a posting last July on YourAnonNews, claimed that "even the warden of MCC New York has in surprising honesty admitted that, 'the only difference between us officers here and you prisoners is we just haven't been caught.' The(y) call us robbers and fraudsters when the big banks get billion dollar bailouts and kick us out of our homes ... And they call us cyber criminals when they themselves develop viruses to spy on and wage war against infrastructure and populations in other countries."

Chester Wisniewski, senior security adviser at Sophos, said while he is no legal expert, he thinks the Hammond supporters have a valid point about a possible conflict of interest for Judge Preska, although he thinks the claim that hacktivists are, by definition, not criminals is absurd. But he also said the potential sentence looks to be out of proportion to the crime.

"If you physically broke into Stratfor and stole all of that information, you'd get 90 days maybe," he said. "But when it becomes a computer crime, suddenly it goes way up. I don't understand why electronic crimes are getting so much longer sentences than physical crimes."

Kevin Mitnick, noting that the crimes with which he was charged during his hacking career could have brought 400 years in prison, said he expects Hammond's case will be settled by a plea agreement for much less than the possible maximum.

"But what concerns me is even if they drop some counts, the sentence for most federal crimes can range from 10 to 20 years," he said. "How they come up with 30 years to life is beyond me."

Mitnick said it is possible that the government is trying to scare Hammond to get him to cooperate. Or, it could be designed to send a message to Anonymous members that what they view as sticking it to the man could yield some very serious consequences.

Wisniewski said that while the vast majority of those affiliated with Anonymous are not skilled, the members of Lulzsec generally were. "They were talented, and then they got busted," he said. "So, the average Joe is saying, 'Look what happened. Maybe I shoud get out of this."

Hammond is scheduled to go to trial sometime next year.

Read more about malware/cybercrime in CSOonline's Malware/Cybercrime section.

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Geek Researcher Spends Three Years Living With Hackers

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When you’re starting off as an anthropologist, you aim is to explore a subculture your peers have yet to uncover, spending years living with the locals and learning their ways.

That’s what Gabriella Coleman did. She went to San Francisco and lived with the hackers.

Coleman, an anthropologist who teaches at McGill University, spent three years living in the Bay Area, studying the community that builds the Debian Linux open source operating system and other hackers — i.e., people who pride themselves on finding new ways to reinvent software. More recently, she’s been peeling away the onion that is the Anonymous movement, a group that hacks as a means of protest — and mischief.

When she moved to San Francisco, she volunteered with the Electronic Frontier Foundation — she believed, correctly, that having an eff.org address would make people more willing to talk to her — and started making the scene. She talked free software over Chinese food at the Bay Area Linux User Group’s monthly meetings upstairs at San Francisco’s Four Seas Restaurant. She marched with geeks demanding the release of Adobe eBooks hacker Dmitry Sklyarov. She learned the culture inside-out.

Now, she’s written a book on her experiences: Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking. It’s a scholarly work of anthropology that examines the question: What does it mean to be a hacker?

Earlier this month, she dropped by Wired’s offices to talk about the book. Here’s an edited transcript of the conversation:

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AnonOpsSweden writes debate article

On November 24th our twitter account was suspended by twitters support. On November 27th, the day Swedish media wrote about this event, we got the first email from twitter in response to our suspension. Their answer to the reason for our suspension is confusing to say the least. They refer to a tweet whereby we shared a link to a hacked website. The twitter account which tipped us off about the hack has also been suspended.
What we do is report to our followers about injustices in the World. We spread news about the Anonymous collective and other related news that may be of interest. We have done this and it is now also why we have been suspended.

The alleged breach of contract is to have shared information from a third party, in this case, a link to a hacked Spanish right-wing website. This can be compared to when the Swedish newspaper Expressen published the article, "Sweden Democrats website hacked again" (2010-09-18). If this were to result in the same kind of treatment that Twitter have applied, then Expressen would lose the right to publish anything at all as a result of this single newspaper article. The only thing that was done was to forward events from a third party, which reasonably is covered by the right to freely notify media, or equivalent in each country with good journalistic practice.

The problem is not that we have been suspended, but the incredible power that Twitter has on the public debate. Sure, we have accepted twitter TOC but when a private company has such power over the public debate another part of society has failed. Twitter has proven to be a very good platform for the dissemination of news around the World and the subsequent debate. This is something we strongly support, but as the owner of this platform, they must take the responsibility that comes with it and ensure any reports of abuse are handled in a reasonable manner and within a reasonable time frame. It should be mentioned that other accounts have had time to be both disabled and re-enabled before we got information about the reason for our suspension, and therefore we have not been able to defend against it.

See also, "UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights' Article 9, paragraph 2", which guarantees that, if arrested, you are to be immediately informed of the reason for this. Suspension from internet platforms such as Twitter, in that they now have to be considered as part of the public sphere is essentially the same results as an arrest as well as arbitrary censorship. No one can reasonably consider it too much to ask that someone accused and even punished for something also must be told what they are accused of and given a reasonable opportunity to respond to the charge within a reasonable time. This has also given the opportunity for others to attempt identity theft.

The fact that even our backup account was blocked with no links to hacked websites published is reminiscent of censorship. Certainly there is the possibility of mistakes committed but then we demand that these be corrected immediately. Twitter has the ball on their half of the pitch and it is time for them to start playing fair.

We are Anonymous,
We are legion,
We do not forgive,
We do not forget.
Expect us!

twitter:

redbull304 twitterde op woensdag 28-11-2012 om 18:52:04 Welcome back @AnonOpsSweden We missed you! <3 #Anonymous reageer retweet

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Syrian Internet Is Off The Air

Starting at 10:26 UTC (12:26pm in Damascus), Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down. In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet.

We are investigating the dynamics of the outage and will post updates as they become available.

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https://petitions.whiteho(...)tm_campaign=shorturl

we petition the obama administration to:

Declare Anonymous as a domestic terrorist organization.

Anonymous should be declared a domestic terrorist organization for repeated First Amendment violations, threats, bullying and cyber-terrorism acts. Distributed denial of service attacks negatively affect businesses and should in no way be considered a "sit in" or a form of speech.

Their continued support of hacks against law enforcement agencies and foreign governments must be ended.

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Syria Files, Wikileaks, Anonymous and dirty affairs

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Big outcry on Wikileaks that last week has published more that 2.4 million emails allegedly obtained from continuous hack against Syrian government and organizations connected to the regime.

The correspondence of “Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies” between August 2006 and March 2012 has been defined embarrassing for the government of Damascus and its allies, but the email also reveal uncomfortable truths on the West governments actions.

It’s the case of Finmeccanica affiliate Selex Elsag that sold to Syria its Tetra network for encrypted communications. The deal was made in 2008, before the beginning of the Arab Spring, but some emails leaked show ongoing relationship between the regime and the Italian company.

The email demonstrate the intermediary role of Greek company Intracom, an email dated February 2nd, 2012 discusses ”the arrival of Selex engineers in Damascus to train Intracom Syria technicians on Tetra technology, including at helicopter terminals. The email does not specify whether they are police or military helicopters,”

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Anonymous declares war on Syrian government Web sites

Online hacktivist group blames Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the Internet blackout blanketing the country and vows retaliation.

Concluding that the Syrian government was responsible for the country's Internet blackout, the online hacktivist group Anonymous has announced a campaign against Syrian government Web sites hosted outside the country.

The Middle Eastern country began experiencing an Internet outage earlier today, and many people on Twitter reported that phone lines are down as well. All 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet, according to Renesys, which operates a real-time grid that continuously monitors Internet routing data.

Anonymous said it had conducted an "exhaustive analysis" of the blackout and determined that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had severed fiber-optic and coaxial cables going into Syria.

"Essentially, they have physically 'pulled the plug out of the wall,'" Anonymous said in a press release. "As we discovered in Egypt, where the dictator Mubarak did something similar -- this is not damage that can be easily or quickly repaired."

Characterizing the outage as a "desperate move by a dying regime," Anonymous said it would begin a campaign at 6 p.m. PT dubbed "Operation Syria" to remove all Web assets belonging to Assad's government hosted outside the country. The group said its first target would be servers for all Syrian embassies, beginning with the embassy in China.

The hacker collective has ratcheted up its online attacks against Middle East governments in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the group launched a hacking blitz on Israel in retaliation for air strikes on Gaza. The hacking spree also targeted retail and business sites, allegedly resulting in the defacement or shutdown of hundreds of sites. Israel's government said its Web sites logged more than 44 million hacking attempts in just a few days.

"By turning off the Internet in Syria, the butcher Assad has shown that the time has come for Anonymous to remove the last vestiges of his evil government from the Internet," Anonymous said.

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Raided for running a Tor exit

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Yes, it happened to me now as well - Yesterday i got raided for someone sharing child pornography over one of my Tor exits.
I'm good so far, not in jail, but all my computers and hardware have been confiscated.
(20 computers, 100TB+ storage, My Tablets/Consoles/Phones)

If convicted i could face up to 10 years in jail (min. 6 years), of course i do not want that and i also want to try to set a legal base for running Tor exit nodes in Austria or even the EU.

Sadly we have nothing like the EFF here that could help me in this case by legal assistance, so i'm on my own and require a good lawyer.
Thus i'm accepting donations for my legal expenses which i expect to be around 5000-10000 EUR.
If you can i would appreciate if you could donate a bit (every amount helps, even the smallest) either by PayPal (any currency is ok):

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Justice For Jeremy Part II. You Hear Us Yet?

Just as important as recent revelations regarding the circumstances surrounding Jeremy Hammond’s case, such as the fact that Thomas Kavaler was a client of Stratfor, is that Kavaler’s firm, Cahill Gordon & Reindel, has represented victims of the Statfor hack. According to public documents belonging to Cahill Gordon & Reindel, in 2006 the law firm brokered a $600,000,000 credit agreement between multiple clients of Stratfor. Again, in 2007, Cahill Gordon & Reindel represented Merrill Lynch, a Stratfor client, in connection with a 1.4 billion dollar loan. These claims are supported by Stratfor’s “master client list,” published by Wikileaks and available at http://wikileaks.org/gifi(...)ient-list-2-23-.html, and together the documents show that Cahill Gordon & Reindel has a history of representing Stratfor clients.

Merrill Lynch is a long-term and important client of Cahill Gordon & Reindel who has overseen hundreds of millions of dollars in Merrill’s investment banking arrangements. For example, the relationship between Cahill and Merrill is evidenced by a $600,000,000 credit agreement dated in 2006, in which CHR LLP acted as special counsel to Merrill Lynch, in their capacity as Administrative Agent, on an investment banking arrangement with another Stratfor client AES Corporation. This document, http://www.scribd.com/doc(...)-20090807-EXHIBIT-10, shows that Cahill Gordon & Reindel oversaw the execution of the aforementioned agreement. The relationship between Cahill and Merrill continues into the present and is further referenced in the firm’s legal news briefs.

In a note on another investment banking deal, http://www.cahill.com/news/legal_news/101542, orchestrated, on Merrill’s behalf, by CGR:

. Cahill represented BofA Merrill Lynch as sole book-running manager and BMO Capital Markets, CIBC, HSBC, RBC Capital Markets, Scotiabank, and TD Securities as co-managers in connection with the Rule 144A/Reg S offering of $350,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 7.5% Senior Secured Notes due 2017 by Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd., a Canadian company. Proceeds from the offering and a concurrent rights offering will be used to refinance existing indebtedness.

This, we believe, shows that Kavaler and Preska, through her husband, have a strong financial interest in maintaining a favorable relationship with Stratfor clients.

There are few safeguards to ensure that Preska, either through conscious or unconscious bias, would not retaliate against a defendant based upon an interest in protecting her own financial livelihood, as Merrill Lynch generates substantial fees for CGR. As a partner of the firm, Kavaler is a direct beneficiary of those fees. As supporters of Jeremy Hammond we demand that these concerns be addressed, immediately! Our investigations show that many of the companies Cahill Gordon & Reindel has represented, having been clients of Stratfor, were victimized by the very act that Jeremy Hammond is being prosecuted for and that Cahill Gordon & Reindel, having represented these companies, stand to benefit from the prosecution of Jeremy Hammond. We demand a fair trial! We demand justice for Jeremy!

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Is Russia Running a Secret Supply Route to Arm Syria’s Assad?

On Nov. 27, a clip appeared on YouTube of a Russian-made Syrian military helicopter apparently being hit by Syrian rebels using a surface-to-air missile. The footage of the gunship, smoking as it turns and flies away, suddenly made the most effective killing machines in Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military look very vulnerable, as the brutal war between the Syrian government and anti-Assad rebels continues. Luckily for Assad, help appears to be on the way.

One day before the clip appeared, hackers from the group Anonymous leaked what they claim is a cache of documents stolen from the Syrian Foreign Ministry. As first reported by the non-profit investigative news organization, ProPublica, one set appears to detail shipments from Moscow to Damascus of 240 tons of newly printed Syrian money, which the Russian government has publicly acknowledged printing for the Assad regime. Another document looks to be a flight plan for four shipments of refurbished helicopters, also going from Moscow to Syria. The shipments, whose cargo the document lists in English as “old copter after overhauling,” include one delivery on Nov. 21, a second one on Nov. 28, and two more planned for the first week of December. According to the document, the payment for these shipments was made “in cash,” and their circuitous route through the skies above Iran, Iraq and Azerbaijan would circumvent the airspace of all the countries that have imposed a weapons embargo on Syria.

(PHOTOS: Inside Syria’s Slow-Motion Civil War)

“It’s getting to Syria by the back door,” says Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which operates an air-trafficking surveillance project on behalf of the European Union. Griffiths, who says the leaked flight plan appears to be genuine, sees it as the latest step in Russia’s effort to repair and then deliver Assad’s fixed-up helicopters by any means necessary. This effort has already come up against some major hurdles, with the U.S., the E.U. and Turkey making extensive efforts to stop such deliveries from crossing their airspace or territorial waters.

In June, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Russia for shipping attack helicopters to Syria; a week later, after British officials joined her calls for the shipments to stop, the Russian ship that was making the delivery—the Alaed—was forced to turn back after its British insurance company pulled its coverage. The Alaed reportedly made another attempt to fulfill the shipment in July, this time in the company of a flotilla of Russian warships. Senior U.S. officials have repeatedly warned Russian counterparts over the pattern of their arm sales to the Syrian regime.

According to the documents leaked by Anonymous, Russia has since begun transporting Syria’s patched-up helicopters by air. TIME emailed copies of the documents to the spokesman of Russia’s state arms dealer, Rosoboronexport, who declined to comment on them. But the company has previously said that it is repairing helicopter gunships for Syria under an old contract, which it says it is legally obligated to carry out regardless of the sanctions imposed by the U.S., E.U. and various Arab states. “None of these events will influence our relationships with our traditional markets in any way,” the head of Rosoboronexport, Anatoly Isaykin, told TIME in June.

And under international law, there is nothing to stop them. Russia and China have used their veto power three times in the U.N. Security Council to block sanctions against Syria over the past two years. Russia’s helicopter deliveries to Syria may be politically sensitive but they are perfectly legal.

According to the hacked documents, the helicopters were picked up from Ramenskoe airport, also known as Zhukovsky, a military facility outside Moscow that houses the fleet of Russia’s secret police, the FSB. That is the same airfield that hosts the biennial Russian arms bazaar, where TIME found and photographed Syrian officials shopping for weapons this summer

(MORE: Russian Realpolitik: Inside the Arms Trade with Syria)

The Syrian Airlines plane that is apparently ferrying the helicopters to Syria is registered under the code YK-ATA and has been on SIPRI’s watch list for two years, Griffiths says, ever since it started flying refurbished helicopter gunships to Syria. During one such shipment in 2010, Griffiths says, the government of Lithuania, an EU member, learned the nature of the plane’s cargo and refused to allow it into Lithuanian airspace. Since then, the E.U. and Turkey have banned all Syrian aircraft from flying over their territory. In October, that led to a diplomatic spat between Ankara and Moscow when Turkish fighter jets forced down a Syrian airliner flying from Moscow to Damascus. Turkish authorities searched the plane for weapons, and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they had found munitions and “military tools” inside. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the plane was carrying radar equipment, not military hardware.

Still, Turkey’s vigilance seems to have forced Russia to cobble together a new route for the helicopter gunships, says Peter Danssaert, an expert at the International Peace Information Service, an Antwerp-based organization that tracks the weapons trade. He also says the flight plan released by Anonymous looks genuine. “It looks like [Syria and Russia] are trying to avoid a repeat of the Turkish situation,” Danssaert says. “It’s a classic example of clandestine arms movement,” says SIPRI’s Griffiths. “The avoidance of more rigorously monitored airspace in favor of Iraq and [Syria’s] regional ally Iran.”

But these shipments seem a lot less clandestine after the leak of the documents, which may create new problems for both Russia and Syria. The U.S. could put pressure on Iraq, for example, to refuse overflight clearance for the Russian shipments, and that would again force Russia to scramble for a new route to Damascus. Given the determination it has shown so far, it is unlikely that Moscow will give up on its helicopter contracts with Syria altogether. So even as the Syrian rebels learn to shoot the Russian-made choppers down, Moscow will likely be there to patch them up again.

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REPORT: Anonymous Hacks Top Nuclear Watchdog Again To Force Investigation Of Israel

It appears the hacking collective Anonymous has compromised the internal computer systems of the world's top nuclear watchdog for the second time in two weeks, Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon reports.

The hackers claim to have seized “highly sensitive” nuclear data and satellite imagery from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and threaten to publish the confidential information if the IAEA does not investigate Israel's unofficially acknowledged nuclear program.

The group, called Parastoo (Farsi for bird), declared that it obtained documents from the IAEA's internal “nuclear data section”—including " Confidential ‘SafeGuard’ Documents, Satellite Images, Official letters, [and] Presentations”—and published a couple of satellite images, screenshots of the IAEA's internal system, an internal IAEA letter as well as the names and emails of IAEA judges and IAEA auditors.

"IAEA cannot just keep us away by turning off their Servers (either old or new ones!)," the group said in a statement, which also lists parts of the IAEA system it says is under its control. "There are plenty more of where this information came from but we guarantee that these information will stay in a very safe place with us. This information only released to open eyes of IAEA and independent media to real threat of world peace, Israel."

Last week IAEA chief Yukiya Amano recognized the first hack—which led to the publication of personal information of hundreds of IAEA scientists—but suggested that no sensitive information about Iran's atomic activities had been stolen.

The newest statement from the hackers ends with Anonymous' tagline and a question:

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

Your next move, what is it going to be?

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Op maandag 3 december 2012 13:17 schreef heartz het volgende:
We zitten in december.
Hoeveel arrestaties zouden er dit jaar wereldwijd gedaan zijn op 'Anonymous hackers'?

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Beacons of freedom: The changing face of Anonymous

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^{03 Dec 2012}

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since summer 2011, over 100 alleged participants have been arrested around the globe, from Romania, Turkey, Italy, the UK, the US, Chile and Germany.

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Since 2008, when individuals started to organise diverse collective actions under the banner of Anonymous, a living model was created, demonstrating to the world what a radical politics of dissent on the internet looks like. Even if Anonymous was to vanish, its history, exploits and propaganda material are here to stay; there will likely be others in different forms and with distinct twists who will take its place.

What is a little less clear is what will eventually become of freedom of expression online, given the increasing capabilities for surveillance, censorship and control all over the world. Is Anonymous merely the party at the funeral of online freedom? Or does it represent the irreverent clowns, rabble rousers, and tricksters who are keeping the reaper at bay and enabling others, from protesters on the street to elected representatives in parliament, to join the raucous political carnival and challenge threats to personal privacy and freedom?

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Stop the Madness: An #Anonymous Counterproposal to the #ITU

In one way, this could be summed up as "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But there's actually much more to this. The reality is that our sentiments are completely oppposed to the statist model that is represented by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and many of the "member states'" proposals that address the Internet at the WCIT. It's not enough for us simply to say "Don't fix it." We understand a need for a counterproposal to the nation and state-driven model of voting by governments on Internet as a "solution."

Even if governments in such a statist model opened the (ITU) system fully to a true multistakeholder system of comment and input, it would be an unwelcome system which we would reject. A 'representative' system in which governments hold full voting power over policies governing network using justifications such as "cybersecurity," "spam," while all the while using the system to conduct surveillance, deep packet inspection, and banning of specific types of software such as TOR and services including VPNs, all is unacceptable to us.

Aside from this, even if by some miracle none of these proposals (all of which we have seen through leaks coming out of the ITU) were to ever be approved, the notion of "one government, one vote" which the ITU currently utilizes inside of its own secretive halls (which have only recently been forced out slightly into the open by incessant pounding from a combination coordinated action of technology thought leaders and civil society groups, inclusive of #Anonymous collective(s)) is a pointless, antiquated notion. Not only does the concept of "one government, one vote" in essence ensure that (in today's age) successful and advanced governments that provision internet services freely to the people are marginalized, it means that oppressive governments (of which there is now a majority in the world, especially if we look at the WCIT participants) will dominate the course of such proceedings. Even if no concurrences or even if no high level principles for ITRs on the internet are agreed to at the WCIT due to the concurrence and voting provisions of the ITU, the worst and most oppressive governments (which again, are in the majority) come away having had the opportunity of a convention at which they have deliberated and agreed about the policy that they will set for their internet future. The ITU's introduction of the discussion of internet at the WCIT proceedings has caused a great deal of harm even before the beginning of WCIT12, for example, as the Russian Federation has already made plans to outlaw TOR software on the basis of its actions within the context of ITU / WCIT. The Netherlands raised this as a concern very early in the process of WCIT review.

What, then, is the #Anonymous counterproposal?

If it is the insistence of statist organizations such as the ITU and what it refers to as "member states" (a term which we object to, since it implies a concept of belonging that the ITU has no right or privelege to claim) that there be some concurrence on ITRs and that the so-called "member states" should have the ability (not granted by the rest of us in the world, that much is certain) to mystically ordain through some arcane ITU ritual, some new Internet principles in your ITRs or TD64 documents, REMEMBER: that there are only 190 or something of you who are voting or reaching concurrence on it, and there are over 7.056 billion people in the world, and so basically you do not count for shit if you are one of the "member state" voting representatives, sorry to say ~ this is particularly true if you are one of those state representatives proposing to trace, filter, conduct surveillance, or otherwise mess with the Internet as part of your proposals through the ITU / WCIT. We know who you are, because it has basically all leaked by now.

Our counterproposal therefore is this.

We all count.

We all have a vote. Everybody. All over the world, whoever has access to the internet.

If you don't like it, too bad for you.

We'll stick with a broad-based coalition of people who can work with organizations like ICANN, ISOC, Regional Internet Registries, OpenNIC, civil society groups, and pretty much anyone all over the world that's ready to handle the business of governance of internet proposals in a serious way. We disagree that there should be a "new season of cooperation" between ICANN and the ITU. We don't think that the ITU can nor should handle "cybersecurity" nor "spam" type regulation nor should these issues be addressed in the ITRs or TD64s as principles either. To the extent that these issues are problems they can be discussed, debated, and "policy-ized" in multistakeholder institutions that have worked in the past (the ones mentioned above are fairly good, even if they need improvement) but quite frankly, most people who raise the specter of "cybersecurity" problems are really trying to make a bid for control for elements of the internet, and if you're smart you know that it can't be controlled by governments. But if you're honest you also know that governments that develop national laws by and large haven't resulted in a balkanized internet (even China is having to face the music, the great firewall can't last forever) but that they will each always have their laws. The real problems begin if you abandon elements of the governance of the internet to a statist institution, the ITU, which essentially through the WCIT is serving as a convention of deliberate restraint upon the internet, not incremental but immediate, in a fashion that should concern all people.

If you are the U.N. ITU or frankly any U.N. organization, you are not the right people to be handling these matters. You don't have any experience in it. You've shown how closed off you are. Just keep on doing satellite registration and working on getting grants for expanding broadband for internet in rural areas and stuff like that. You've done some OK work there, but your other stuff sucks. We've had to fight tooth and nail for the better part of a year just to get you to open up a touch. Not exactly the sign of an open organization ready to handle "internet governance" of any kind. Also, you are statists.

Again, if it wasn't already clear:

There are something like 190 of you at the UN ITU that "vote" or come to concurrence in arcane and secretive processes that you believe should affect the rest of the entire world. We do not have to and will not accept the results of your deliberations. We categorically reject your statist shit. For those of you who are there who are arguing against the proposals at the ITU WCIT that would impact the Internet, thanks - that is much appreciated. Sorry you had to be there.

This is just a small sample of us that oppose what you are doing at the ITU, but here:
http://googleblog.blogspo(...)t-free-and-open.html
http://www.freeandopenweb.com/#loc=3/8.0000/22.0000
Something like 2,397,000 (Two million, three hundred and ninety-seven thousand) people want a #freeandopen web and stand in opposition to the #ITU model as of the time this pastebin was launched into the interwebs. Obviously, that's a lot more than 190 or however many government representatives there are that "vote" or "concur" at the ITU WCIT.

So take note.

The ITU is irrelevant.

The people of the world are relevant.

The #Anonymous counterproposal to the #ITU is simple, that that the people of the world count.

That every voice counts, and that it will be counted in a multistakeholder process not governed by governments nor by the ITU.

That is all.

Goodnight.

- #Anonymous

quote:

ITU Approves Deep Packet Inspection Standard Behind Closed Doors, Ignores Huge Privacy Implications

quote:

Techdirt has run a number of articles about the ITU's World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) currently taking place in Dubai. One of the concerns is that decisions taken there may make the Internet less a medium that can be used to enhance personal freedom than a tool for state surveillance and oppression.

Against that background, a story published by the Center for Democracy & Technology about the ITU's work in the area of standards takes on an extra significance:

twitter:

Crypt0nymous twitterde op woensdag 05-12-2012 om 16:30:09 Tango Down:.itu.int & itu.ch still down via #OpWCIT | #WCIT | #ITU | #WCIT12 | #Anonymous reageer retweet

quote:

The United Nations and the Internet: It's Complicated

quote:

The immediate threat to the Internet as we know it is the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) scheduled for December in Dubai by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a U.N. body whose remit has thus far been limited to global telephone systems. Members meet behind closed doors. Their policy proposals were until recently accessible only to members -- until activists forced transparency upon them through a website called "WCITLeaks." The leaked documents reveal how a number of governments -- in league with some old-school telecommunications companies seeking to regain revenues lost to the Internet -- are proposing to rewrite global international telecommunications regulations in ways that opponents believe will corrode, if not destroy, the open and free nature of the Internet. (For readers wanting to delve into details, a number of nonprofit organizations including the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Internet Society have published analyses of the leaked documents and other recent ITU statements.)

quote:

History has shown that all governments and all corporations will use whatever vehicles available to advance their own interests and power. The Internet does not change that reality. Still, it should be possible to build governance structures and processes that not only mediate between the interests of a variety of stakeholders, but also constrain power and hold it accountable across globally interconnected networks. Right now, the world is only at the beginning of a long and messy process of working out what those structures and processes should look like. You might say we are present at the creation.

quote:

Adviseurs Opstelten hekelen hackende politie

quote:

“Kinderporno wordt als argument misbruikt wordt om absurde bevoegdheden te introduceren. Net zoals tien jaar geleden ‘terrorisme’ te pas en te onpas gebruikt werd. (…) De minister zet de noodzakelijke samenwerking met de hackersgemeenschap onder druk zet door ethische hackers te achtervolgen. Het cybersecuritybeleid dreigt te mislukken; de minister beweegt zich als een olifant in de porseleinkast.”

quote:

Police breakthrough in 'Anonymous' hacking case

A young man has been convicted after organising distributed denial of service attacks on a number of businesses.

Police say four men were involved in the crimes using the banner 'Anonymous'.

Christopher Wetherhead of Holly Road, Northampton was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit unauthorised acts with intent to impair, or with recklessness as to impairing, the operation of a computer.

The three others are Jake Alexander Birchall of Little Neston, Cheshire, Ashley Rhodes of Bolton Crescent, London and Peter David Gibson of Castleton Road, Hartlepool, Cleveland.

Working under online nicknames including 'Nerdo' and 'NikonElite', the group targeted a number of companies from the digital entertainment industry that make up the anti-piracy lobby.

The group then switched their attentions to companies including Mastercard and PayPal after their withdrawal of services from Wikileaks.

DCI Terry Wilson of the Police Central e-Crime Unit, said: "These are important convictions which confirm this type of activity is not merely civil protest but is serious criminal conduct.

"The activity has not only significant financial and reputational implications to businesses endeavouring to operate online but also an effect on the general public's right to access online services.