Wikileaks defended by Anonymous hacktivists

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

Internet hacktivists have fired the latest salvo in the Wikileaks infowar. A group called Anonymous has hit sites that have refused to do business with the controversial whistle-blowing site with a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks.

=snip=

Anonymous is a loose-knit group of hacktivists, with links to the notorious message board 4chan.

Increased traffic

A member of Anonymous who calls himself Coldblood told the BBC that "multiple things are being done".

"Websites that are bowing down to government pressure have become targets," he said. "As an organisation we have always taken a strong stance on censorship and freedom of expression on the internet and come out against those who seek to destroy it by any means."

"We feel that Wikileaks has become more than just about leaking of documents, it has become a war ground, the people vs. the government," he said.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11935539

[caseymoz]

1. I hope they bring paypal and amazon to their knees.

Along with Visa and Mastercard, though the latter is far less likely.

[davidwparker]

4. Yes !!!!

[fascisthunter]

2. I Hope More Start Supporting Him

We need a massive movement.

[krabigirl]

21. They will. On both "sides" of the political fence.

[strawberryfield]

26. There are plenty of hackers on both sides of this

The DoS attacks on WikiLeaks, and all of its mirrors, are coming from rogue hackers. I used to run with that crowd and understand how they think. They believe that Assange is an attention whore who is sucking up way too much of the hacker limelight. They all want a part of the action in bringing him down. They love anarchy for anarchy's sake. Long live anarchy!!!

[Name removed]

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[Joanne98]

3. They've put out a video that's getting mirrored on Youtube. ".Operation Payback"

Operation Payback - Anonymous Message About ACTA Laws, Internet Censorship and Copyright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZNDV4hGUGw

[Voice for Peace]

5. wow, a whole new kind of resistance.. exciting nt

[L. Coyote]

6. How is this activity NOT the greatest threat to Internet freedom?

This group is supplying the justification to clamp down on Internet freedom by interfering with free commerce!

[TygrBright]

7. Freedom and commerce are not necessarily related. n/t

[caseymoz]

10. First, Paypal looks for any excuse to take people's money.

They are terrible in the way they freeze and seize people's funds at the least, absurd suspicion of anything illegal. That's how they really make their money. They never say, "We don't to have anything to do with what you're doing, here's your money back." No, they just freeze it and take it, and you have to fight them over the phone for months to get it back.

Second, it has now been practically proved that commerce doesn't have anything to do with freedom. If there's anything the corrupt, oppressive capitalist regimes in Russia and China and the corruption and growing oppressiveness of our own has shown us, freedom of commerce has nothing to do with liberty, rights or any other freedom.

Third, these sites are blocking commerce simply to fight free speech, and without a legal warrant to do so. So, they're using the power given them from "free commerce" to block a right formally guaranteed in our Constitution. Their actions are totalitarianist by their very nature.

WikiLeaks' free speech might have consequences, but Paypal's, Amazon's, Mastercard and Visa's actions have consequence too. They've put themselves in the middle of a political fight.

[Catherina]

50. interfering with free commerce! Interfering with profit! They're terrorists I tell ya

Go hackers. Ramp it up please.

I. AM. SPARTACUS.

[safeinOhio]

8. Keyboards and monitors

the new pitchforks and torches. Plus they are protected by the 1st Amendment.

[madmax]

12. Good analogy.

I'm starting to think of him as Robin Hood of the Internet.

"Wikileaks defended by Anonymous hacktivists Source: BBC

Anonymous is a loose-knit group of hacktivists, with links to the notorious message board 4chan.
A member of Anonymous who calls himself Coldblood told the BBC that "multiple things are being done".

"Websites that are bowing down to government pressure have become targets," he said. "As an organisation we have always taken a strong stance on censorship and freedom of expression on the internet and come out against those who seek to destroy it by any means."

"We feel that Wikileaks has become more than just about leaking of documents, it has become a war ground, the people vs. the government," he said."



Redundant but, it gives me a freaking thrill.

[Pavulon]

20. Boy I bet all those people have CP all over their hard drives. Hit 4chan

from a computer you dont own. Half of what you see will get you a 10 year minimum. But hey I bet they already thought of that.

[caseymoz]

24. Boy, but I hear our prisons and courts are overcrowded and underfunded.

Not to mention police, especially in this recession, and now Congress is cutting more taxes. If there are enough people to make attacks? There are already SO many zombies in the world. Authorities don't have the personnel and will probably never get it disentangled.

[Pavulon]

30. Thats the FBI brotha. Felony to go hacking at systems that run PCI transactions

a right quick way to do a hard 10 years.

[caseymoz]

33. And you know, you're getting damn boring about this.

You're like the guy who says something witty, but nobody laughs, so he thinks people will get it if he says it more and louder. No, they got it the first time and every time he says it again just makes him more annoying.

You're point's been made. I don't know what to say. You're right. It's illegal. And when the government doesn't like what you're doing and freezes all your funds in every bank and financial institution and won't allow your employer to pay you just remember that everything you try to do about it then will also be illegal carrying ten years minimum, (or as Soviet prisoners used to call it "a tener."]

But, you're a good guy, and our government is all good, too, so that will never, ever happen to you or anybody you care about, just because this very outrage seems to be happening to Assange because he tried to tell people something important.

Also, remember that what our government is doing to WikiLeaks it will now do to our domestic press, but our press seems to have gotten this message a decade ago.

And unlike what you think, hackers who know what they're doing get away with major hacks every day. Unfortunately, most of them are in China.

[Pavulon]

40. I am sure NO ONE IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT would ever

be considered a hacker. Not the guys who wrote IOS and JUNOS , assange is playing in the space with china and the rest of them. So what does he expect?

I have about as much respect for assange as do the people at cryptome. his peers. read up.

[Name removed]

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[caseymoz]

23. It's extremely differnt than diesel and fertilizer.

And if anybody falls for your ploy, I think the charge against you would be criminal incitement, that is, if you're not trolling for the CIA yourself, in which case, it's entrapment. If you're not, you might also look for a civil suit to be thrown your way.

You hope people here are stupid. Anybody should know it's better for professionals to do that work. A downloaded hackers program will not do any kind of job.

[Pavulon]

28. its a felony to attack telecom systems and "hacking" is not a movie with

Hallie Berry's tits in it. If you get caught you go to federal prison.

[Name removed]

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[Pavulon]

38. CIA, NSA, MI6, Nortel, Cisco, ConEd, anyone fucking stupid enough to run a ddos

against a site deserves the time they get. Posting the IP address of the people that host an CIA website has nothing to do with safety. your computer has "ping" that does not make you a criminal.


Everyone loves to talk about how cool the attack is, but fuck if they want to go to federal prison.

[caseymoz]

44. It's called leaving it to the experts.

And I'm tempted to follow that sentence with "asshole." I also admire my doctor for removing my appendix, but I wouldn't try it myself. I also might (at some time) admire a soldier.

If some people have the expertise and think they won't get caught, let them do this. Especially if they don't live in the US and aren't subject to our laws, which is probably where a lot of these attacks will originate, BTW, because I'm certain people in Europe are far more upset with this.

So, quit trying to question the bravery of people who don't have the expertise, and quit trying to bait people subject to our laws into breaking them. These attacks, by and large, won't be from the US.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Robb]

9. This could be bigger than YouTube Porn Day!

:eyes:

Were I Assange, I think I'd say "Thanks, but no thanks."

[TexasObserver]

11. recommend

[harvey007]

13. Drudge is reporting Assange will be TIME's person of the year

http://www.drudgereport.com/

[Arctic Dave]

14. Good. I agree with what they are doing whole heartingly

[crikkett]

15. That's not defense, it's retaliation. n/t

[Arrowhead2k1]

16. The best defense is a good offence.

Amirite? ;)

[marasinghe]

17. u r right. now the rabbits got shotguns too; & the deal is: no justice no peace. n/t

[Name removed]

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[caseymoz]

22. And why not?

They used their power of commerce to attack free speech, and besides this is not their fight. One of those is a formally recognized right in the Constitution.

He's not indicted for anything. This was not criminal activity. They have no right to deny service to their customers because they don't like what the recipient says. Period. That's dirty work.

[Pavulon]

31. They have every right. If i own a business I have no obligation

to do jack shit for you. And hacking a web site is, while childish amateur bullshit, still a felony. And if they run PCI transactions a felony with real sentencing.

He has free speech, this is called consequences. Its what happens in real life.

[Violet_Crumble]

34. And being attacked by Anonymous is a consquence as well...

Anyone who pisses them off is going to get attacked by them. That's just the way it is....

[Pavulon]

42. Right, and this and the church of scientology is now dead

the running joke is that the only way /b can host so much child porn it that it informs for the federal government. If not, maybe the smart ones sit this one out, considering the players.

Prison sucks.

[caseymoz]

43. It's also called free commerce and it has consequences too.

And it happens in real life. You ever think of that?

But strangely enough, all the consequences for free speech seem to have been made legal and are being done by the government and the powerful, while the consequences for "free" commerce all seem to be illegal and are being done by people with less resources who are out of power. Why this imbalance?

It seems that the wealthy and powerful have made laws against interfering with their wealth and power, even with free speech, and you actually like that circumstance and defend it?

No business exists by the fact that they have "no obligation." If they're in business, it means they're obligated to doing something for somebody. Feeling you "have no obligation" after a dick move is extremely bad for your business, if you face anger from it, you either change your set of obligations, or you call the law and hope they are more obligated to you than you were for your customer, and meanwhile your business languishes while they try to remedy the situation. Or you go out of business. In the last instance, then you're definitely under no obligations to anybody. It depends on your values.

So, what's happening here is, some people are trying to make dropping a customer due solely to free speech issues bad for business. Now, whether you see that as extortion or not, I don't care.

[Pavulon]

48. All those words for so much simple..

asshole stole classified data for attention. He gave it to another asshole who published it for attention AND money.

Stealing classified data is illegal, doing illegal things has consequences. Like publishing it and getting fucking sheep to give you money to "speak truth to power"

You will be picking up the tab for cleaning up after manning and assange.

http://cryptome.org/0001/wikileaks-mess.htm

[caseymoz]

49. How many illegal things is our government hiding from us?

I know, two wrongs don't make a right. Conclusion: one of those isn't a wrong. Funny that you shrug at our shadow government's lawlessness that's not a concern, but Assange, oh, he's an asshole let's prosecute him. He published something that, finally, was the property of the US taxpayer. And what did he do? He gave it to the US taxpayer. I've paid taxes and I say thank you.

Oh, BTW, it wasn't like stealing, because his "stealing" of government property did not deprive them of it.

This is a war against the free press. Pure and simple. Whatever tab I'm picking up for them pales in comparison to the amount of money stolen in Afghanistan alone. That much has become apparent already. It is also already apparent to me that this country is not going to last. And it's being stolen right before your eyes, and perhaps even with your tacit approval.

[ronnie624]

51. "cleaning up after manning and assange"

(whatever that means) will cost nowhere near as much as illegal invasions and endless war.

[caseymoz]

53. I'll add: if a business' only obligation is to make money

For MC, Visa, Paypal, etc to abandon WikiLeaks looks to me like they objected to the speech, not necessarily like they thought it would be good for business (except to cull government favor, yes, that's running your business without government interference). In other words, they stepped out of their business imperative which gave them "no obligation" to help exercise censorship. So, their censoring of free speech "has consequences." I say, whoever can should give it to them. They are also large operators in the very industry that destroyed this economy.

[crikkett]

52. I'm not passing judgement on anything but choice of words. n/t

[caseymoz]

25. And retaliation is defense in the future.

As long as it doesn't go to traumatizing violence. There is no way to prevent this if the businesses doing it can't see consequences to their bottom lines.

[Pavulon]

29. Sure there is, its called Federal Prison. If you get caught

and people do, you do federal time. your argument could be used for child pornography. Everyone has the internet and a webcam.

And not all the scum gets caught, but the ones who do regret it in prison.

[Violet_Crumble]

35. Are you calling hackers scum?

Just before I rush off to close my paypal account before Anonymous takes that site down, I think it's a bit harsh to label hackers as scum. Everyone's aware that what they do isn't legal, but I don't think the ones who use their skills for good (that would include what Anonymous is doing now, even though they're not doing it for altruistic reasons) are scum, just the ones that get used by crime gangs to do their criminal shit that hurts people...

[Turborama]

37. As well as PayPal, I only recently found out that eBay owns Skype, too.

I have to admit that I hope they leave Skype alone. It's one of my only contacts I have with members of my family back home, calls to and from here using regular phones are totally shit quality and super expensive.

[Name removed]

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[caseymoz]

45. You probably don't live in Europe then.

Now you're simply trolling. Take a break and recharge your brain with something intelligent.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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