anonymous - The Art of the Prank

September 12, 2011December 15, 2023

Anonymous Activism Targeted as Threat to National Security

Anonymous Hackers Targeted By FBI, Homeland Security For Potential National Security Threat
by Paul Elias
Huffington Post
September 11, 2011

San Francisco “” Anonymous is not so anonymous anymore.

The computer hackers, chat room denizens and young people who comprise the loosely affiliated Internet collective have increasingly turned to questionable tactics, drawing the attention of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal investigators.

What was once a small group of pranksters has become a potential national security threat, federal officials say.

The FBI has carried out more than 75 raids and arrested 16 people this year in connection with illegal hacking jobs claimed by Anonymous.

Since June, the Department of Homeland Security has issued three “bulletins” warning cyber-security professionals of hacking successes and future threats by Anonymous and related groups, including a call to physically occupy Manhattan’s Wall Street on Sept. 17 in protest of various U.S. government policies. Continue reading “Anonymous Activism Targeted as Threat to National Security”

August 13, 2011December 15, 2023

Anonymous No More?

Submitted by W.J. Elvin III:

High School Pals Targeted In FBI Hacktivist Probe
The Smoking Gun
August 10, 2011

Three teens eyed in “Anonymous” attack on Koch sites

A trio of high school buddies are among the targets of on ongoing FBI probe into an online “Anonymous” assault carried out earlier this year against web sites of Koch Industries, the conglomerate owned by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, the influential Republican benefactors, The Smoking Gun has learned.

In simultaneous raids last month, federal agents searched the Long Island homes of three teenagers who have excelled academically at Bellport High School on Long Island”s South Shore. Agents removed an assortment of computer equipment from the respective homes in connection with the criminal investigation being run from the FBI”s Kansas City field office (Koch Industries is headquartered in Wichita).

As TSG reported last month, the FBI is probing a coordinated series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Koch Industries web sites in February and March. The assault–organized by the so-called hacktivist group “Anonymous”–flooded several Koch Industries web sites with so many requests that it left the sites unavailable for legitimate visitors. Continue reading “Anonymous No More?”

June 24, 2011December 15, 2023

Anonymous Hacktivism

Inside the Anonymous Army of ‘Hacktivist’ Attackers
by Cassell Bryan-Low and Siobhan Gorman
Wall Street Journal
June 24, 2011

Hoogezand-Sappemeer, Netherlands””In this sleepy Dutch town last December, police burst into the bedroom of 19-year-old Martijn Gonlag as he hurriedly pulled on jeans over his boxer shorts. He was hauled away on suspicion of taking part in cyber attacks by the online group calling itself Anonymous.

Mr. Gonlag admits taking part in several attacks on websites, but he recently had a change of heart as some hackers adopted increasingly aggressive tactics.

“People are starting to grow tired of” the hackers, he said in an interview. “People are also starting to realize that Anonymous is a loose cannon.”

Now he appears to be a target himself. A chat room he hosts faces frequent hack attacks, he says.
Mr. Gonlag’s role reversal provides a glimpse of the unruly hunt-or-be-hunted world underpinning a string of online attacks against major companies and government bodies””incidents that have sparked a digital manhunt by law-enforcement agencies in several countries.

What once was just righteous rabble-rousing by Anonymous in the name of Internet freedom has mutated into more menacing attacks, including by a splinter group of Anonymous called LulzSec, which is alleged to have moved beyond paralyzing websites to breaking in to steal data. Continue reading “Anonymous Hacktivism”

February 12, 2011December 15, 2023

Anonymous Revenge

Anonymous takes revenge on security firm
by Gareth Beavis
Techradar.com

HBGary gets hit with full range of electronic threats

Anonymous, the group behind the DDoS attacks to major websites in support of Wikileaks, have apparently hacked into the US security firm that claims to have identified its leaders.

HBGary’s CEO Aaron Barr was the subject of the attacks, which hacked his Twitter account and apparently released his address, social security number and mobile phone number.

It gets a lot worse for the security firm, as Anonymous claims to have access to everything from all financial records to data drives, as well as offering a full torrent of all emails and gaining access to the main HBGary front page.

We shall not fail, we shall not falter

According to the Guardian, the online group put up the following phrase on the front page before it was removed and a placeholder used instead:

“You’re nothing compared to Anonymous. You have little to no security knowledge. Your business thrives off charging ridiculous prices for simple things like NMAPs, and you don’t deserve praise or even recognition as security experts.”

“If you swing a sword of malice into Anonymous’ innards, we will simply engulf it. You cannot break us, you cannot harm us, even though you have clearly tried.”

However, the terror doesn’t stop there – Barr’s iPad was also wiped in the attack, according to the online group. We can only hope he backed up his Angry Birds scores somewhere remote.

Cyberactivists warned of arrest, uk.finance.yahoo.com

thanks V.Vale

November 7, 2009December 15, 2023

“Anonymous” Attacks: Is the Snake Biting Its Tail?

The Assclown Offensive: How to Enrage the Church of Scientology
by Julian Dibbell
WIRED
September 21, 2009

mf_chanology_f-200 In the evening of January 15, 2008, a 31-year-old tech consultant named Gregg Housh sat down at the computer and paid a visit to one of his favorite Web sites, the message board known as 4chan. Like most of the 5.9 million people who visit the site every month, Housh was looking for a few cheap laughs. Filled with hundreds of thousands of brief, anonymous messages and crude graphics uploaded by the site’s mostly male, mostly twentysomething users, 4chan is a fountainhead of twisted, scatological, absurd, and sometimes brilliant low-brow humor. It was the source of the lolcat craze (affixing captions like “I Can Has Cheezburger?” to photos of felines), the rickrolling phenomenon (tricking people into clicking on links to Rick Astley’s ghastly “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video), and other classic time-wasting Internet memes. In short, while there are many online places where you can educate yourself, seek the truth, and contemplate the world’s injustices and strive to right them, 4chan is not one of them.

Yet today, Housh found 4chan grappling with an injustice no Internet-humor fan could ignore. Continue reading ““Anonymous” Attacks: Is the Snake Biting Its Tail?”