Print

[SocialTransparency]

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/anonymous-hackers-arrested-spain-possibly-linked-sony-playstation/story?id=13812538

Anonymous' Hackers Arrested in Spain

People wearing masks often used by a group that calls itself "Anonymous" protest during Spain's film Goya Awards ceremony in Madrid, Feb. 13, 2011. Spanish police say they arrested three suspected computer hackers who allegedly attacked corporate and government websites around the world.

[mefree]

What is interesting is that the photo and story are unrelated to each other. 

Many people who protest against Scientology are not hackers. Some critics who protest have never worn a mask at all.

It really looks like an OSA smear campaign job. There is a good thread on clambake going where the same article was posted:

http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=35758

[SocialTransparency]

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/223220/technology/anonymous-attacks-spanish-police-website-following-3-hacktivists-arrests

‘Anonymous’ attacks Spanish police website following 3 hacktivists’ arrests

Following the arrest of three of its alleged members last week, the hacktivist group known as “Anonymous" claimed on Sunday to have attacked the website of the Spanish National Police over the weekend.

Anonymous said it launched against the Spanish National Police website on Saturday a successful “distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, which is an orchestrated attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended user.

“The attack is a direct response to the Friday arrests of three individuals alleged to be associated with acts of cyber civil disobedience attributed to Anonymous," it said in a blog post.

It said the DDoS attack, codenamed Operation Policia, paralyzed the police site — www.policia.es — for hours on Saturday, making it inaccessible to visitors.

But as of Sunday afternoon (Manila time), the Spanish police site was accessible and appeared to be normal.

On Friday, Spanish authorities announced they had arrested three Anonymous hackers suspected of participating in cyber-attacks against the Sony PlayStation Network as well as other corporate and government websites.

Immediately after the arrests, Anonymous issued a press release where it said DDoSing “is an act of peaceful protest on the Internet."

“Arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their hometown," it said. “Anonymous believes this right to peacefully protest is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy... You have not detained three participants of Anonymous. We have no members and we are not a group of any kind. You have, however, detained three civilians expressing themselves... You are providing us with the fuel, but now you must expect the fire," it said.

Earlier, Anonymous posted a blog entry the warning “Expect US" which was accompanied by an image of “V for Spain," referring to the imagery of the movie and comic book franchise “V for Vendetta."

Another blog entry showed Spanish authorities wearing the Guy Fawkes masks that the group has adopted as one of its symbols, also taken from the “V for Vendetta" series.

Anonymous owns up to attack on Turkey govt sites

Meanwhile, the group also claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack against the Turkish government.

It said the attack took down several official government websites, including http://tib.gov.tr/ and www. sgk. gov. tr.

“Anonymous is protesting Internet censorship in Turkey. The Turkish government plans to implement a filter on Internet browsing on Aug. 22 under the pretense of protecting the youth from ‘harmful elements on the web,’" it said.

The group said its cyber attacks against the Turkish government consist of DDoS attacks using a coordinated network of Low Orbit Ion Canons (LOICs). — MRT/KBK, GMA News

monitoring of Anonymous-affiliated websites and analysis of more than two million lines of content in log chats and web pages,

Be smart. Post smart!

[ethercat]

monitoring of Anonymous-affiliated websites and analysis of more than two million lines of content in log chats and web pages,

If they were monitoring this site, I hope they learned more about scientology and its front groups. 

There is very little to learn about Anonymous here.

Be smart. Post smart!

SocialTransparency, do you see a problem with anything that is being posted here?

By the way, I do not see the quote above in either of the articles you linked to; not doubting the truth of the statement, just wondering where it came from.

[mefree]

Yes, I hope some attention is given to the mountain of information that has been posted about human rights violations, the deceptive rehab referral scam and people harmed by Narconon, human trafficking, Scientology's many front groups that deceptively recruit, indoctrinate and bring in the cash for a tax exempt business masquerading as a religion that drains their member's dry and frequently leaves them in a crushing pile of debt.

I'm sure I left something out.

[SocialTransparency]

SocialTransparency, do you see a problem with anything that is being posted here?

Honestly? None whatsoever.

[SocialTransparency]

By the way, I do not see the quote above in either of the articles you linked to; not doubting the truth of the statement, just wondering where it came from.

 Sorry for not posting the link from which the quote in question was lifted.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-Issues/2011/0610/Spain-police-crack-Anonymous-cell-accused-of-hacking-PlayStation

 Here is another site that has also posted about the anon arrests.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/12/anonymous-spain-police-website-hacker-arrests_n_875527.html

MADRID (Reuters) - Access to the website of Spain's national police force was blocked for over an hour late on Saturday in a reprisal attack by the Anonymous hackers group, El Mundo said on its website on Sunday.

El Mundo said the group had warned police in a statement it planned to disable the website at some time on Saturday. The website was down for at least an hour from 2130 GMT, the paper said.

A spokesman for the Spanish police said access to the website www.policia.es was blocked at 2 a.m. on Sunday, but said police were still studying the reason for this.

"A website can collapse if too many people try to access it at once. I cannot confirm the link with the Anonymous group," the spokesman said.

Spanish police arrested three suspected members of the group on Friday on charges of cyber attacks against targets including the websites of Sony Corp, governments, businesses and banks -- but not the massive hacking of PlayStation gamers.

Anonymous responded by threatening to retaliate for the arrests: "We are Legion, so EXPECT US," the group said on its official Twitter feed.

Access was also temporarily blocked to the websites of Spain's state employment agencies INEM and SEPE, El Mundo said, but cited the Labor Ministry as saying this was due to maintenance problems and not related to a cyber-attack.

Anonymous is a loose grouping of activists who frequently try to shut down the websites of businesses and other organizations that it opposes.

Members cripple websites by overwhelming them with traffic in what is commonly known as "denial of service" attacks.

The group has attacked Turkish government websites in a protest against Internet censorship.

In a separate development, the International Monetary Fund became the latest known target of a major cyber attack on Saturday.

Jeff Moss, a self-described computer hacker and member of the Department of Homeland Security Advisory Committee, said he believed that attack was conducted on behalf of a nation state looking to either steal sensitive information about key IMF strategies or embarrass the organization to undermine its clout.

(Reporting by Judy MacInnes; editing by Alison Williams)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

[SocialTransparency]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217555/Turkey_arrests_32_Anonymous_hackers_for_DDOS_attacks?taxonomyId=82

Turkey arrests 32 Anonymous hackers for DDOS attacks

IDG News Service - Turkey responded to the hacking group Anonymous with 32 arrests following attacks on government websites, according to the country's state-run news agency.

The Anadolu Agency wrote the alleged Anonymous members were arrested in 12 cities, including Ankara and Istanbul.

Turkey is the latest country to make arrests connected with Anonymous, a decentralized group of activists who conduct distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDOS) against organizations and businesses that the group opposes. The attacks seek to make websites unavailable.

On Friday, Spain said it concluded its first policing action against Anonymous, arresting three people who allegedly directed DDOS attacks on banks, government websites and companies including Sony.

Also on Friday, Anonymous said through its website, AnonOps Communications, that its attacks against Turkish government websites were in protest of "plans to implement a filter on Internet browsing" in August. Activists took to the streets in 30 cities in Turkey in May to protest the plans.

"Over the last few years, we have witnessed the censorship taken by the Turkish government, such as blocking YouTube, Rapidshare, Fileserve and thousands of other websites," according to the statement. "Most recently, the government banned access to Google services. These acts of censorship are inexcusable."

Anonymous said the strikes will be executed using the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, an easy-to-use tool for DDOS attacks but one that security experts has said is not difficult for law enforcement to trace who is using it.

Targets included Turkey's telecommunications directorate, which appeared to be offline on Monday morning, and the country's social security institution, Anonymous wrote.

On Saturday, Anonymous wrote that it had retaliated against Spanish police by launching what it said was a successful DDOS against that organization's website for several hours. The site, however, was functioning on Monday morning.

Send news tips and comments to jeremy_kirk@idg.com

[ethercat]

SocialTransparency, do you see a problem with anything that is being posted here?

Honestly? None whatsoever.

That's a relief!   

Thanks for posting the link to the unattributed part.

[SocialTransparency]

The Federal reserve chairman may have an intersing day tomorrow according to this latest report.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504943_162-20070899-10391715.html

(CBS/What's Trending) - Online hacktivist group Anonymous recently made headlines when they targeted the Spanish police after three group members were arrested in the country. The police would not confirm if Anonymous was behind the hack, but the group claimed responsibility with a note on their blog.

Now, Anonymous has been dealt a decisively negative blow after 32 members were arrested in Turkey and a fake "affiliated" Indian Facebook page was shut down.

It seems the Spanish shut-down was only the beginning. After the success of "Operation Turkey," in which the group shut down several official government sites all in the name of "protesting Internet censorship in Turkey," the Turkish government retaliated by making 32 arrests, including eight individuals under the age of 18.

According to nakedsecurity.com, "The sites were brought down by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, with different computers around the world being deployed to bombard the sites with traffic using the LOIC attack tool." Ironically, the LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) however, does a poor job of keeping users anonymous, making the location of the hackers a bit easier than it has been in the past.

These recent arrests haven't deterred Anonymous or other hackers. A group in India calling themselves "Operation India" claiming to be an Anonymous affiliate took on the Indian Army. The Indian group apparently hacked the site in support of an Anti-Corruption bill, but met resistance from the public on their now defunct Facebook and Twitter pages. The group then relented announcing it had done no damage to the Indian Army site, and they would only target corruption going forward.

However, the decision to target only the corrupt came a little too late. Operation India's Facebook and Twitter pages have been taken down, and the real Anonymous has come out calling the Indian attacks the work of a copycat:

You targeted organizations and other Indian Government properties to settle your own issues and you used the name Anonymous for personal benefits... Anonymous would like to make it very clear that no private groups and the people representing these groups belongs to Anonymous nor Anonymous supports any of your activities.
As for the arrests, Anonymous had this to say:

The arresting of peaceful protestors is unacceptable; but how long before the authorities understand that they cannot arrest or imprison and idea? Our world's 'leaders' cannot grasp concepts outside of a limited and unimaginative system of controls and rules. That actions can take place, things achieved and tasks completed from within a group without leaders is unpleasant for them to behold. They pull away as if confronted with Hentai! But they have seen this happen; they have seen self-organized power achieve!
Next on the list for Anonymous? "Operation Malaysia" and the take down of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

ReplyRetweet
#OpMalaysia is now live at our IRC. Join the Asian movement. irc.anonops.li || Flyer: hxxp://bit.ly/jPtNmO #Anonymous Anon_Central
 7 hours ago

ReplyRetweet
‘Anonymous’ targets Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke hxxp://bit.ly/muT1TS Anon_Central
 8 hours ago
Powered by Storify

Do you agree with hacktivism or do you think these groups are in the wrong? We'll be discussing hacktivism in our June 14 show, so tune in at 10 A.M. PST / 1 P.M. EST to join the conversation.

The What's Trending show is produced by Shira Lazar Productions and the Disrupt Group, who are solely responsible for the content, opinions and viewpoints.

Edit: Broke the links. --ec

[ethercat]

I've broken your links, lest it be said that we're linking to and thereby condoning these activities.

[SocialTransparency]

I've broken your links, lest it be said that we're linking to and thereby condoning these activities.

Sorry about including the link backs. It was not my intention to cause any problems.

If I may expand on this and the reasoning behind my starting this thread. Please, once again bear with me here as I have a hard time conveying the merits of and direction my thoughts are on this matter through the written word.

What really helped me see this anonymous phenom in a better light was the sociologist event from many months ago which I attended. How the sociologist community steered clear of putting "Labels" on groups or individuals. Case in point being scientology called a "Cult".

This to me was a quite interesting take on how societies, in order to understand or classify an individual and or group has the need to call or name that individual or entity  something. Hence some of the general publics use of "Cult" to describe sci.

Now we have to take into consideration how society perceives this social phenom that is called anonymous. The phenom coined by the name or "Label" anonymous. Now of me @ least, back in the infancy of my publicly speaking out against a social ill,That ill being scientology, anonymous was not a factor. Now what happened next is what I can only call a force of nature. That being the online rise of individuals against censorship.

This gave rise to this collection of online individuals calling themselves or identifying themselves as individuals with a common goal. As humans so often do, a name was created so as those individuals in agreement had both an online and public moniker.

As many of you know, I was in full support of this social phenom. I met wonderful like minded people and thought we could bring much needed change to what I perceive as a social ill, I.E, scientology. Yet in the back of my mind, I felt something was wrong with the way this social phenom (anonymous) was heading. It was and does cause me angst on multiple levels. That is my problem. Of which I do honestly attempt to come to terms with.

Now fast forward today and the "Label" anonymous is very much in the spotlight media wise. This being alleged criminal activity. Now lets back track on how a label or brand can be seen through the eyes of the general public.

Hot topic words like "Hacker" and "DDos" is something joe public may not understand, but joe public may see this as some kind of threat. The media, which feeds on fear has pounced on those words and run with it.

Unlike many of us that understand somewhat this social phenom (anonymous) when relating it to our individual concerns towards scientology, the fact of the matter is joe public does not. That is the reality we have been dealt with!

Couple both joe publics and the media's perception today of masked wearing activists and we are seeing a far different picture painted publicly of the social phenom collectively known as anonymous.

Sadly, I personally feel those that aligned themselves (Including this poster) with the a group may suffer public blow back from some individuals that currently allegedly align themselves with anonymous and may be committing criminal acts within their or other countries borders.

I personally am not ashamed that I supported many an individual whom may have aligned themselves with anonymous. For me @ least I wish I had more online experience and understanding with a cultural phenom I was not fully up to speed on so to speak and possibly never will.

Labels and branding within the context of social activism does have its downside. Suck? Yes,! How to alleviate the misconceptions? Tough question to answer, yet it should be broached. To deny discussion on the matter is to in my humble opinion become "Cult like" in ones mind set!

[mefree]

You may be stuck in an incident

[SocialTransparency]

You may be stuck in an incident

Of my own making? I am capable of inserting foot A into mouth B on occasion.

Being stuck on an "incident" means that something in this life, or more likely a past life is holding you back. Not only something that happened to you, but most likely something wrong you did. A common Scientologists find is in a past life they were a Nazi.

Damn past lives bringin me down.

[ethercat]

I've broken your links, lest it be said that we're linking to and thereby condoning these activities.

Sorry about including the link backs. It was not my intention to cause any problems.

I didn't think you included the links for that reason.  I figured they probably just happened automatically, actively linked by the forum software.  In the future, if you have any you'd like to break, you just need to change the "http" to something else, like I did with "hxxp".

If I may expand on this and the reasoning behind my starting this thread. Please, once again bear with me here as I have a hard time conveying the merits of and direction my thoughts are on this matter through the written word.

Actually, I find this discussion much more interesting than a discussion of whatever latest bad things someone who calls themself "Anonymous" has done. 

What really helped me see this anonymous phenom in a better light was the sociologist event from many months ago which I attended. How the sociologist community steered clear of putting "Labels" on groups or individuals. Case in point being scientology called a "Cult".

This to me was a quite interesting take on how societies, in order to understand or classify an individual and or group has the need to call or name that individual or entity  something. Hence some of the general publics use of "Cult" to describe sci.

Now you see why I told you I was opposed to taking on any labels for myself, such as "activist" or "old guard".  Putting a label on something or someone is too often a way for someone to stop thinking about the individual thing or person and adopt a preconceived (and possibly wrong) idea.  So many people are so quick to want to stop thinking...

Of course, though, some labels are valid, when the label is well-defined.  Undeniably so; for instance, if one were to call an oak "a tree", or you "a forum member".  Doesn't mean that you have all the characteristics that any forum members have, any more than calling an oak a tree means it will grow apples because an apple tree does.  There is room for individual differences.

Now we have to take into consideration how society perceives this social phenom that is called anonymous. The phenom coined by the name or "Label" anonymous. Now of me @ least, back in the infancy of my publicly speaking out against a social ill,That ill being scientology, anonymous was not a factor. Now what happened next is what I can only call a force of nature. That being the online rise of individuals against censorship.

The online rise against censorship, as you call it, has happened before with scientology, though probably before you ever came onto the scene.  Helena Kobrin (of Moxon and Kobrin) issued a news server command to remove ARS from Usenet in 1995.  This resulted in many, many more people flocking to ARS, from all parts of Usenet, to defend what they considered their internet territory.  A great many people became aware of the abuses as a result of this action.  Later, in the early 2000s, scientology pressured Google to remove the Xenu.net links from their search results - this pulled in a bunch more people as enemies of scientology. 

The internet has always been full of free speech advocates.  This is nothing new with the internet, though, there have always been free speech advocates, and those who wanted to take that freedom away because it scared or threatened them.  Here's a brief timeline for you: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/feb/05/religion.news

This gave rise to this collection of online individuals calling themselves or identifying themselves as individuals with a common goal. As humans so often do, a name was created so as those individuals in agreement had both an online and public moniker.

As many of you know, I was in full support of this social phenom. I met wonderful like minded people and thought we could bring much needed change to what I perceive as a social ill, I.E, scientology. Yet in the back of my mind, I felt something was wrong with the way this social phenom (anonymous) was heading. It was and does cause me angst on multiple levels. That is my problem. Of which I do honestly attempt to come to terms with.

I guess the take-away lesson in that is: Don't embrace something, particularly a movement of some sort, until you understand fully what it is.   

Now fast forward today and the "Label" anonymous is very much in the spotlight media wise. This being alleged criminal activity. Now lets back track on how a label or brand can be seen through the eyes of the general public.

Hot topic words like "Hacker" and "DDos" is something joe public may not understand, but joe public may see this as some kind of threat. The media, which feeds on fear has pounced on those words and run with it.

Unlike many of us that understand somewhat this social phenom (anonymous) when relating it to our individual concerns towards scientology, the fact of the matter is joe public does not. That is the reality we have been dealt with!

Couple both joe publics and the media's perception today of masked wearing activists and we are seeing a far different picture painted publicly of the social phenom collectively known as anonymous.

I remember at one point, it was discussed on WWP whether to come up with a different name for the scientology-protesting part of anonymous.  I believe that was when the 4 Chan faction was railing against the use of "their" name by so many who had never been channers.  I also seem to remember it was summarily dismissed as an idea because "anonymous does not care about an image". 

Sadly, I personally feel those that aligned themselves (Including this poster) with the a group may suffer public blow back from some individuals that currently allegedly align themselves with anonymous and may be committing criminal acts within their or other countries borders.

I personally am not ashamed that I supported many an individual whom may have aligned themselves with anonymous. For me @ least I wish I had more online experience and understanding with a cultural phenom I was not fully up to speed on so to speak and possibly never will.

Labels and branding within the context of social activism does have its downside. Suck? Yes,! How to alleviate the misconceptions? Tough question to answer, yet it should be broached. To deny discussion on the matter is to in my humble opinion become "Cult like" in ones mind set!

Where is it you see discussion on the matter being denied?  And discussion of what matter, how to alleviate misconceptions with labeling? 

[ethercat]

You may be stuck in an incident

Of my own making? I am capable of inserting foot A into mouth B on occasion.

Hey, hey, now, we have a designated smiley for that:   

 

[SocialTransparency]

Where is it you see discussion on the matter being denied?  And discussion of what matter, how to alleviate misconceptions with labeling?

Oops. My bad. A starting to act cult like blog I post on takes issue with my pov on this evolving anonymous situation, hence the sentence you have quoted me on. It was related to that blog. Not this one.

 I will be keeping a close eye on how this whole affair manifests itself. Going to be rather interesting from a historical pov. I also wonder if this will have an effect on future protests here in the USA. Be they against scientology or other entities. With the heaping helping the public is getting on the subject of anonymous, the Warner Brothers mask as worn in the film V for Vendetta in particular is fast becoming associated with negativity.

The seed of demonization has been planted by the media and by the actions of a few whom consider illegal acts ( within their individual countries borders and laws ) acceptable. Now I do agree on multiple levels with some of the grievances this entity (anonymous) expounds upon, but this instigation of DDos in my humble opinion is a nuisance at best to the effected party.

This is not a World of warcraft game.

[SocialTransparency]

 Here we have a both well written and thought out article on the subject @ hand.

Why are Lulzsec and Anonymous hacking games companies?
After high-profile attacks on, among others, Nintendo, Sony, Bethesda, Codemasters and Minecraft, Keith Stuart looks into the motivations behind hacking groups and finds there's both more and less to it than meets the eye

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/keithstuart

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/16/lulzsec-anonymous-hacking-games-companies

guardian.co.uk,    Thursday 16 June 2011 07.25 BST
Article history

This isn't how Lulzsec or Anonymous really operate. But it helps some people to think – wrongly – of them this way. Photograph: Corbis
They called it Titanic Takeover Tuesday. Over the course of several hours on 14 June, the hacker group Lulzsec orchestrated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against three online games – Minecraft, Eve Online and League of Legends – as well as the gaming news site, Escapist.

The victims were knocked offline, websites went down, login servers collapsed, and via its Twitter feed, the culprit(s) reported on the chaos with undisguised glee.

Lulzsec is on a roll. Earlier this month the team broke into the Sony Pictures website and took the personal details of 1 million customers (although Sony later claimed it was closer to 40,000).

This was followed by a breach of Nintendo's site, and then a more concerted onslaught against game publisher Bethesda. This time, Lulzsec kicked off with a DDoS attack, but when the inherent weakness of the system became clear, the team shifted into a more penetrative smash-and-grab raid.

A press release issued on the group's website goaded: "After mapping their internal network and thoroughly pillaging all of their servers, we grabbed all their source code and database passwords, which we proceeded to shift silently back to our storage deck."

And that's besides their apparent attack against the CIA's website, which they claimed to have brought down on Wednesday evening.

In the meantime, UK publisher Codemasters and the Gears of War series creator Epic Games have also had their websites compromised by unknown hackers. Some have blamed Lulzsec, but it is unlikely they were involved – they haven't had a laugh about it on Twitter yet. Another group could well be at work out there.

So what is going on? And why is it happening now?

Hotz to trot

The answer to the latter question almost certainly lies with one company, Sony. Earlier this year, the consumer electronics giant brought a court case against hacker George Hotz, a leading light in the jailbreak community, for circumnavigating the security systems of the PlayStation 3 console and potentially opening the machine to pirated software.

The move generated considerable anger within the hacking underground, especially when Sony gained access to the IP addresses of visitors to George Hotz' website.

Calling this move an "unforgivable offence against free speech and internet freedom" the hacker group Anonymous effectively declared a cyber-war on the company. Two weeks later, the PlayStation Network suffered a major intrusion, and the service was offline for more than a month.

Anonymous claimed not have been responsible, but it certainly helped put Sony on the hacking agenda. Lulzsec's own campaign, wittily titled Sownage, kicked off in late April with the Sony Pictures attack.

Some theorise that Lulzsec is an offshoot of Anonymous, a splinter group tired of the politicising of the older organisation. It certainly carries the same anti-Sony resentment. A later hack was accompanied by the press release declaration: "Konichiwa from LulzSec, Sony bastards!"

Of course, the video games industry has faced hackers for many years, and the security systems of its consoles and web infrastructures have always faced attack. But this new wave is different.

"What Anonymous brought to the online party was the democratisation of hacking," says Steve Gold, editor of Infosecurity magazine (and himself famous as a former hacker in more innocent times). "The collective developed various hacking tools, starting with a distributed denial of service package called LOIC (Low Earth Orbit Cannon) late last year. This allowed the Anonymous collective to automatically pool their computing power to wage attacks on companies the collective did not like – Sony, Visa, MasterCard etc.

"LulzSec is the natural evolution of the trend that Anonymous started – focused online hactivism. Its membership is born from the online gaming community, and guess what – they resent large corporations like Sony charging them for services and 'ripping them off' as they perceive it. So they stage collective hacking attacks. The collective decides on the targets, votes on it, and takes action."

So what we have is a loose, decentralised group of like-minded computer users, who are almost impossible to track down (although hacker arrests in Holland, Spain, Turkey, the UK and US suggest that's not completely impossible). They communicate via arcane forums and Internet Relay Chat, they use the anonymous site Pastebin to post images and "press releases", and they speak through websites and Twitter accounts that will no doubt prove untraceable.

Cheekily, Lulzsec has even set up a phone line through which angry gamers and interested journalists are invited to talk to its "French elitists" whose given names are Pierre Dubois and Francois Deluxe. On Wednesday, it claimed to have 5,000 missed calls and 2,500 voicemails.

They're self-publicists, in a sense, with a chaotic sense of humour – the group's website plays the theme tune from 1970s series Love Boat, and their tweets are peppered with references to piracy (of the nautical rather than software kind). The group has a logo, a monocled gentleman, which reflects their self-consciously austere communications.

There are also interesting parallels here with the imagery used by Anonymous. In a YouTube video publicising that group's war on Sony, a character on screen is dressed as V, the masked anarchist from Alan Moore's dystopian comic book V for Vendetta. Here too, is the subversive mix of anarchy, historical allegory and twisted humour. In a way, Lulzsec has become a self-perpetuating graphic novel, an alternative reality game that's somehow segued into real life.

Non-fiction

But it isn't a fiction and it certainly isn't a game. "One of the attributes of hacker groups is a fairly firm understanding of what it is they believe in and what they don't," says Dr. Tim Watson, head of De Montfort University's computer forensics and security group.

"As a hacking group you have to be both creative and precise in the work you're doing with computer programming, and you tend to let that spill out into the rest of your life; you form views about what's right and what isn't. More than most social groups, these are ones that will embrace activism.

"If you look at groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec, only a small part of what they're doing is with the games industry. With these particular groups, profile raising and publicity seeking activities is more likely to be about raising issues that they have concerns about. Just like journalists, hackers need to find a forum that's going to connect with as many people as possible, and the sweet spot is gaming. Millions of people are connected online via games, and these aren't like online banks: the security isn't as good, yet you give them a lot of personal details."

Indeed, it would seem that Lulzsec's modus operandi is to raise awareness about lax security rather than to destroy games companies or steal and sell credit card numbers. After the raid on Bethesda, the group stated on its website that it would withhold from publication the personal details of more than 200,000 gamers: "We actually like this company and would like for them to speed up the production of Skyrim, so we'll give them one less thing to worry about."

Later, its DDOS attacks on Eve Online and Minecraft were designed to disrupt services rather than break them completely ("We didn't hack any games," went one tweet. "We just DDoS'd them with our not-to-be-messed-with Lulz Cannon.")

So is Lulzsec a sort of vigilante group, out to secure online safety for gamers? Or is it just a laugh at the expense of gamers as they sometimes claim?

Certainly the Titantic Takeover Tuesday attacks had no altruistic motives ("let's all laugh together at butthurt gamers" one Tweet on Tuesday night declared). Whatever the case, the organisation has highlighted the possibility of security deficiencies.

As Sanjay Sarathy of Vindicia, a company that creates billing systems for various games publishers, argues: "If what I'm reading is true, particularly about the second Sony breach in June, LulzSec are outraged at the poor security standards of game publishers. They're quoted as saying, 'Every bit of data we took wasn't encrypted. Sony stored over 1 million customer passwords in plaintext, which means it's just a matter of taking it.' And this, just after millions of credit card numbers were stolen through Sony's PlayStation Network in April.

"It's mind boggling to think that a company like Sony is not meeting basic security standards. How is it possible, in the digital age, for corporate culture around security to be so lax? Whether we agree with the vigilante activity or not, the hackers have sent a lot of senior level-types back to double-check what level of security their business provides customers. This is outrageous – they should know, they should be sure their company is Level 1 PCI DSS compliant (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)."

Watson agrees, and predicts significant ramifications for games publishers. "We're going to see – excuse the pun – some game-changing activity. The people running online games have realised now that security is a competitive advantage. If you're trying to persuade someone to type in their credit card details in order to play a game, being able to say our game is safer than the next company's is a selling point that's on the public consciousness. So what we should see is what Lulzsec and Anonymous wanted all along, which is more secure environments for people to play safely online."

Mutating target

The problem is, that hacker groups tend to mutate and evolve quickly and their impersonal, dislocated nature means keeping tabs on members – and their motivations – is all but impossible, even from the inside.

As Watson says: "The difficulty is, this is not a highly organised group that meets up in a room above a pub and comes up with a manifesto and a series of collective agreed beliefs. It's much more of a cloud organisation – not just because they're all on the internet, but because you may find two people within the organisation who will have remarkably different views.

"It's like any organisation that strays into the public arena where governments get involved; if you think about something like CND [the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament], for example, you have fantastically well-meaning people who are trying to do the right thing, mixed in with terrorists and subversives. And of course, it's far easier for infiltrators to come into groups like Anonymous or Lulzsec."

Gold agrees: "What we are seeing is the true democratisation of the internet. The power is truly in the hands of users who are young, enthusiastic and pissed off. Instead of demonstrating, however, they cause trouble online. The danger with this is that – like demos, which can turn into riots – online trouble can escalate, especially if various political factions infiltrate the collective and quietly steer or even take control.

"The $64,000 question, of course, is where the evolution of Anonymous and LulzSec ends. Like all collectives, as the authorities arrest one batch of malcontents, others step in to fill the breach. Furthermore, governments do not truly understand the rapid evolution that is happening on the internet."

Presently, Lulzsec is laughing about infiltrating game sites and upsetting a few role-playing fans. But the group has also recently gained access to the US Senate website and then some passwords in the NHS.

If security is tightened within the games industry, and if Lulzsec can spin it into a success story, where do they go next? It might not be so benign; the darker forces within this ghostly democracy may win out.

And if it is not Lulzsec it will be a splinter group, or a rival looking to piggyback its way into notoriety. Today, this is a story about MMORPGs providing better customer security. Tomorrow? Who knows where hackers will get their lulz.

[SocialTransparency]

http://techland.time.com/2011/06/16/as-lulzsec-claims-cia-coup-anonymous-hackers-arrested-worldwide/

As hacktivist group LulzSec steps up its game and targets serious quarry like the U.S. Senate and CIA, authorities worldwide have been rounding up individuals suspected of participating in Anonymous, the group behind scores of international cyber attacks, most notoriously recent ones against Sony.

LulzSec—purportedly a more aggressive Anonymous splinter group—claimed it attacked and took down the CIA's website Wednesday afternoon (the CIA has yet to confirm the hack), tweeting "Tango down - cia.gov - for the lulz" just after 6pm ET. And the U.S. Senate noted last night that it had actually been attacked a second time by the group (the first time occurred last weekend) but managed to prevent them from obtaining sensitive information.

(More on TIME.com: The Movies' Most Evil Computer Villains)

But while LulzSec seems to be hacking almost daily with impunity, International Business Times reports that as many as 32 members of Anonymous in Turkey, Spain, and the U.K. have either been detained by European officials or are awaiting trial for their alleged role in criminal hack-related activities.

In Turkey, where members of Anonymous allegedly attempted to overwhelm Turkish government websites, raids by authorities rounded up 32 suspected members of Anonymous on June 13th. It's thought that tens of thousands of computers may have been used to bring the Turkish government sites down using an open source "denial of service" app dubbed "Low Orbit Ion Cannon" or LOIC (named after a weapon in video game series Command & Conquer).

IBT notes that several of the arrested may in fact be minors, and that the Turkish state news agency is saying nine minors (of the 32 alleged total) have since been released.

(More on TIME.com: Turkish Authorities Claim Arrest of 32 'Anonymous' Hackers)

In Spain last Friday, June 10th, police nabbed three individuals allegedly involved in recent hack attacks against Sony's PlayStation Network (among other cyber-iniquities, including attacks against Spanish banks and an Italian energy company). The three were arrested independently in the Spanish cities of Almeria, Barcelona and Valencia.

Anonymous responded by targeting the Spanish Police website, managing—according to the BBC—to knock it offline for about an hour.

And in the U.K., British authorities have since January 2011 raided the homes of and arrested six suspected Anonymous members for alleged attacks last December on Amazon, PayPal and various credit card sites.

It's anyone's guess how much good the roundups will do, as these groups generally pride themselves on their "headlessness." And with all the free publicity, they're no doubt recruiting en masse.

Related Tags: Anonymous, cia, hackers, lulzsec, senate

A judgement made can never bend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBk0-43GIdY&feature=related

See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon
It's been so long

And I've been putting out fire
With gasoline

See these eyes so red
Red like jungle burning bright
Those who feel me near
Pull the blinds and change their minds
It's been so long

Still this pulsing night
A plague I call a heartbeat
Just be still with me
You wouldn't believe what I've been thru
You've been so long
Well it's been so long

And I've been putting out the fire with gasoline
Putting out the fire
With gasoline

See these tears so blue
An ageless heart that can never mend
These tears can never dry
A judgement made can never bend

See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Just be still with me
You wouldn't believe what I've been thru

You've been so long
Well it's been so long
And I've been putting out fire with gasoline
Putting out fire with gasoline

See these tears so blue
An ageless heart that can never mend
These tears can never dry
A judgement made that can never bend

See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Just be still with me
You wouldnt believe what I've been thru
It's been so long
Well its been so long

And I've been putting out the fire with gasoline
Putting out fire
With Gasoline

Been so long
Been so long
Well its been so long
Been so long
I've been putting out fire
Been so long
And its been so long
Been putting out fire
Well it's Been so long so long so long
Yes it's been so long so long so long
I've been putting out fire
Been so long so long so long
And putting out fire
Been so long so long so long
Yeah yeah putting out fire
Been so long so long so long
Been putting out fire
Been so long so long so long
Yeah putting out fire
Been so long so long so long
Putting out fire
Been so long so long so long
It's been so long
Been so long so long so long
It's been so long
Been so long so long so long
It's been so long
Been so long so long so long
I've been putting out fire
Been so long so long so long

[SocialTransparency]

http://www.itworld.com/security/174917/lulzsec-vs-anonymous-doing-hactivism-wrong

LulzSec vs. Anonymous: Doing hactivism wrong

Is this the best time for hactivist groups to go to war on each other?

By Kevin Fogarty  1 comment

June 16, 2011, 11:34 AM — At the same time attention-hungry hactivist group LulzSec announced it had penetrated senate.us.gov for the second time and launched what turned out to be a successful DDOS attack on CIA.gov, it also called out the hactivst group Anonymous for an adolescent king-of-the-hill competition that could distract or destroy both.

Hackers are supposed to be fractious and iconoclastic. It's one of the defining characteristics that lead them into that line of not-quite-work. Complacent, don't-rock-the-boat types aren't typically into digital vigilantism and using cyberattack as social protest.

[Painless password management: The best free and paid tools]

Of course, they're also less likely to be self destructive, and to know who their real enemies are.

"Just saw a thread on [on the 4Chan.org message board from which many Anonymous members come] where they’re trying to hunt us," LulzSec tweeted June 14. "You /b/tards realize that we are everything you’ve ever tried to be?”

"We are the concentrated success of 2005 /b/, being "hunted" by the 2011 furry horde. Challenge accepted, losers. "

LulzSec also called "the best thing ever" this Japanese news animation portraying the rivalry between the two as one between the old guard trolls-turned-activists vs. the new turks whose (shallow) intentions are more pure.

4channers aren't complimentary in return, even in discussing attacks like the one that brought down CIA.gov briefly overnight.

"We're important please, please pay attention to us! Look we took down cia.gov, a useless website that nobody really needs or cares about! we're so hardcore; mirite guys? ... guys!?," taunted one 4chan poster.

"Just a bunch of skiddies [script kiddies], using other peoples tools that have a clear GUI so that they can be lolhackers," another post read. "I'll give it about a week or so before one of the people involved gets caught and they all bail."

Some 4channers [and/or members of Anonymous] probably are trying to expose LulzSec, if only to take it down a peg.

The bulk of the group – which claims to make decisions by acclaim rather than following one leader or agenda – appears not to be interested in reality-show theatrics or trash talking, at least as a primary activity.

Its most recent red flag in the face of the government bull is a demand that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke resign for what it calls a failure to restrict the exploitation of ordinary investors and borrowers by Wall Street and the banking industry.

"We must fight back against the organized criminal class ... We must launch 'operation Empire State rebellion.' The operation will commence on June 14th ... Operation Empire State Rebellion Engaged," according to one Anonymous blog post.

LulzSec's flag wasn't just red, it was on fire and tied to a pole being shoved into private areas that are as uncomfortable for a bull as for anyone else.

"Tango down - cia.gov - for the lulz."

Attacking the Senate, FBI and CIA may be a good source of lulz, but is more obviously a purposeful provocation of every major law enforcement and intelligence organization in the U.S. government.

By doing it LulzSec was daring everyone from the FBI and CIA to the local sheriff to stop it if they could.

So far they haven't. Until now, though, LulzSec has spent most of its energy outraging its victims, not its fellow travellers.

Going after Anonymous, even if it's just a minor flame war conducted in separate forums, takes some of the focus of both LulzSec and Anonymous off what they're doing and creates openings for law enforcement to prosecute or restrict individual members of both groups.

Police in Turkey arrested 32 alleged members of Anonymous last week; three more are under arrest in Spain for their alleged participation in a series of attacks on Sony sites.

U.S. law enforcement is also investigating Anonymous and has questioned several people the FBI describes as "leaders" of the purposely leaderless, amorphous group that originated from griefer-and-porn-site 4chan.org and coalesced into a major player protesting the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and supporting popular uprisings in Egypt, Libya, Syria and elsewhere.

You think either one needs to go look for additional enemies?

Photo Credit:
Mad Magazine