A string of arrests involving members of the online "hacktivist" (groan) group Anonymous have been making headlines as of late. Last week there was a case involving three Spanish hackers who were tracked down and arrested after the attack on Sony's PlayStation Network data. This week, 32 members were detained by law enforcement officials in Turkey, marking one of the biggest raids on Anonymous to date.The arrests came after Anonymous kinda-sorta-organized a sorta-kinda-protest-but-not-really-so-whatever-type-dealie in response to proposed Internet filters that the Turkish government announced last week. Ironically enough, Turkey's Internet filters were announced the same week that the UN announced internet access was a human right. Turkey? Ignoring basic human rights? What?
Anyways, the filters angered the group, so they all met up in an IRC chatroom and released this lovely gem:But Anonymous has been on a roll recently. Last week they announced to NATO in a press release, "[w]e merely wish to remove power from vested interests and return it to the people — who, in a democracy, it should never have been taken from in the first place." In the same statement, they go on to refer to themselves as a hydra, drawing really nerdy parallels between themselves and HYDRA, the covert terrorist group from Marvel Comics.I mean, it's kind of amazing that NATO, a defensive coalition of some of Earth's most advanced nations, an organization that is currently trying to deal with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi committing deranged crimes against humanity in Libya, getting issued a threat written by teenagers that reads like it was written by the Joker.
But you've got to give Anonymous credit: As far as activism goes, a DDoS is a pretty good way to peacefully protest an oppressive government censor. Swap '60s protesting — a bunch filthy, lazy hippies, clogging the streets of cities and college campuses with the 21st century's equally filthy bored teenagers organizing in chat rooms, and using programs named after video games to attack websites. Of course, what's funny about it, is that a bunch of teenagers looking for a laugh are actually causing some distress to massive corporations and governments. It's pretty hard to decide who to root for in most cases. More often than not, the members of Anonymous being arrested aren't even old enough to be tried as adults. It's kind of silly. It's kind of awesome.The question now, though, as Anonymous matures into a hardened politically-motivated cabal of activists, is whether or not their means of protest are actually helping in the fight for an open internet. Are they defenders of freedom? Or are they a bunch of trigger-happy morons ruining things for the rest of us? Even better question, has that always been how revolutionary movements start — with a random bunch of stubborn idiots?But you can't deny that what they're doing is pretty hilarious, not to mention effective. There's a weird glee that comes from watching these bloated companies and stuffy governments scramble as a bunch of children leak massive amounts of personal information and write "LOL" on their website's homepage. Patrick Gray recently explained why IT security specialists really love Lulz Security, an offshoot of Anonymous that has orchestrated attacks on Sony, Nintendo, PBS, and FOX.com.
The Lulzsec logo striking fear into the hearts of corporations everywhere…Gray writes, "LulzSec is running around pummeling some of the world's most powerful organizations into the ground… for laughs! For lulz! For shits and giggles! Surely that tells you what you need to know about computer security: there isn't any."Also, on Monday afternoon, LulzSec released a hack of the US Senate, goading the US government, writing, "This is a small, just-for-kicks release of some internal data from Senate.gov — is this an act of war, gentlemen? Problem?" It's kind of scary, but it's also kind of hilarious. These groups aren't trying to terrorize countries, they're pantsing them and pointing and laughing. It's kind of beautiful, but it's also kind of stupid, which makes the whole thing even more awesome, sort of.Anonymous, and similarly operated "hacktivist" entities, do have a really useful function in an online ecosystem. There's not much incentive for governments and mega-corporations to listen to physical protesting, but when you have an untraceable group of idiots who like V for Vendetta way too much knock out their ability to get online and leak everyone's passwords, all of a sudden everybody's listening. Perhaps trolling is the future.Earlier Monday morning, a Spanish police website was knocked out, though spokespeople from the Spanish government aren't blaming Anonymous just yet. Anonymous, meanwhile, has already taken credit for it, saying it was a "direct response to the Friday arrests of three individuals alleged to be associated with acts of cyber civil disobedience attributed to Anonymous."Anonymous also took some time to point out that none of their core members were arrested in Spain last week, stating, "They did not arrest any core group, because we don't have a core group." Facepalm.Connections
Dear Big Companies: Getting Hacked is Good For You
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Let's be clear: Anonymous is essentially that kid in your anthropology class, with the Invader Zim t-shirt, who wears a fedora and eats Pocky complaining about corporate controlled media. That being said, they're capable of some pretty hilarious things when they put their minds to it. Historically, the group launches distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks using a program called Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), which is an application that basically slams a website with different user requests until the site shuts down. It's named after the weapon from Command & Conquer. Unfortunately, as Sophos' Graham Cluely points out, "LOIC doesn't do a very good job of covering your tracks — making it potentially easy for computer crime authorities to track those behind the attacks."To the citizens of Turkey.
We are Anonymous.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. Most recently, the government banned access to Google services.
These acts of censorship are inexcusable. The internet is a platform for freedom, a place where anyone and everyone can come together, discuss topics, and share information, without the fear of government interference.
We, Anonymous, will not stand by and let this go unnoticed. We will fight with the Turkish people against their government's rain of censorship.
Citizens of Turkey, Anonymous now fights with you.
Turkish Government,
Expect us.
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Dear Big Companies: Getting Hacked is Good For You