Anonymous Threatens Internet With "Operation Blackout"

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Anonymous Threatens Internet With "Operation Blackout"


Anonymous has promised to blow up the entire internet at the end of the month.

You might want to stock up on freeze-dried food and 5.56mm ammunition over the next day or so, or at the very least a book or two you've been putting off, because Anonymous, the wild ghost riders of the internet, are pulling the plug on March 31.

"To protest SOPA, Wallstreet, our irresponsible leaders and the beloved bankers who are starving the world for their own selfish needs out of sheer sadistic fun, on March 31, anonymous will shut the Internet down," a message on Pastebin [http://pastebin.com/GFkQnf6e] warns. To be precise, Anonymous isn't actually trying to "kill" the internet, a fact the message readily admits. Instead, it's just going to make it a pain in the ass to use for awhile.

"In order to shut the Internet down, one thing is to be done. Down the 13 root DNS servers of the Internet. By cutting these off the Internet, nobody will be able to perform a domain name look-up, thus, disabling the HTTP Internet, which is, after all, the most widely used function of the Web," the message explains. "Anybody entering 'http://www.google.com' or ANY other url, will get an error page, thus, they will think the Internet is down, which is close enough. Remember, this is a protest, we are not trying to 'kill' the Internet, we are only temporarily shutting it down where it hurts the most."

Technical details about how "Operation Blackout" will work, as well as instructions on taking part [which, to be clear, I am absolutely not encouraging anyone to do] are included in the message. "It may only last one hour, maybe more, maybe even a few days," the message says. "No matter what, it will be global. It will be known." It concludes with the usual rambling justification for shenanigans and of course the "We are Anonymous etc." boilerplate.

Can this work? It sounds reasonable enough, at least for those of us who don't know what "the ramp linux client is located under the ramplinux folder and needs a working installation of python and scapy" means, but I'm sure the more technically adroit among us will ride in soon enough with reassurances that it's all a bunch of impossibly nonsensical technobabble and we have nothing to worry about. Or, conversely, that the end of the world is nigh. Either way, we'll find out for sure on Saturday!

via: GamePolitics [http://gamepolitics.com/2012/03/29/report-anonymous-promises-shut-down-internet-march-31]


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BaronIveagh

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Apr 26, 2011
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In theory it is possible. But no one has ever actually done it, so it's unknown if it will work.

If it does, I salute them. Someone has needed to show people that the internet is not carved in stone for a while, since people are not taking sufficient precautions against the possibility of the internet failing or being temporarily deactivated somehow.
 

Proverbial Jon

Not evil, just mildly malevolent
Nov 10, 2009
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What is this I don't even...

They are going to shut down the entire internet? Is that even possible?
 

TitanAura

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Jun 30, 2011
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I am seriously doubting the authenticity of this threat. Seeing as how ANYONE can claim to be anonymous, it doesn't mean the entire collective is for shutting THEMSELVES down. Why in the hell would you attempt to shut down the collective's ability to communicate with one another? How would they know when Operation Blackout is over if there is no set date?

Not only that, but anonymous usually has a habit of claiming credit for an attack *after they've already done it.*
 

Jaeke

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Feb 25, 2010
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Okay kiddies, we can see you.
Put your arms down and go back upstairs and sit in your room.

Seriously... just, why?

All this would do is prove that Anonymous are a bunch of douches and they would lose the little support they still have.
 

teqrevisited

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Mar 17, 2010
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Come on now, Anonymous, that's just silly. Everyone knows that if you want to shut down the internet you'd have to fetch it down from Big Ben first. They're either going to need security clearance or a few dozen ladders.
 

Weaver

Overcaffeinated
Apr 28, 2008
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Well, this is theoretically possible, it just depends on how much brute force they can fling at the root nodes. I'm going to start steam in offline mode just in case...
 

weirdee

Swamp Weather Balloon Gas
Apr 11, 2011
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my god, we'll have to resort to ip addresses

actually i don't really know how this thing works anyway
 

subtlefuge

Lord Cromulent
May 21, 2010
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Considering how this is a more serious threat than usual, I would just be worried that they've played their hand too soon.

I have no doubt that many governments have ideas of who participates in Anonymous attacks, and this is a perfect excuse to round them up.
 

Kapol

Watch the spinning tails...
May 2, 2010
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It seems like something that could work in theory. As mentioned, they aren't suggesting taking down the entire internet. Only making it appear to be down by taking out the main DNS servers that pretty much everyone uses. To them, the internet will appear to be down because they won't be able to connect to anything. It's less saying 'we're gonna take away your internet lol' and more 'we're going to make most people think we've taken down the internet by disabling the feature which makes it much easier to go to websites.'

In theory, it should be possible to connect to a website via entering their IP address instead of the domain name. That should create a direct connection if I'm not mistaken, bypassing the DNS altogether and allowing you to connect. But I'm not entirely sure.
 

ResonanceSD

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Dec 14, 2009
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Lol, in other news, space octopi are threatening to conquer Earth on the same day. This isn't going to happen.
 

BaronIveagh

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Proverbial Jon said:
What is this I don't even...

They are going to shut down the entire internet? Is that even possible?
Like I said: In theory. They won't actually 'shut down' all those servers, what they will do is effectively scramble anyone's ability to USE the internet, unless you know the actual IP addresses of the sites you want to visit.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Apr 1, 2009
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Ultimately I think this is a bad idea. I mean we know about it now and why they want to but unless people can easily understand why it happens then they will just assume the worst and treat it as such, the reason the website blackouts were effective is they told people why it was happening and gave them an easy link to their reps.
 

ciancon

Waiting patiently.....
Nov 27, 2009
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They couldn't wait 'til AFTER Game of Thrones Season 2 could they!?
 

Bobic

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Nov 10, 2009
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That's it, they have officially moved into the realms of internet terrorism. We don't like what a specific group is doing so we're going to attack everyone regardless of how related to the offending party they are or even if they are against them.

Of course, saying that would make them feel good, so I'll go back to referring to them as being on the same level as angsty teenagers breaking glass windows and tearing down posters thinking that makes them 'hardcore'.
 

Fappy

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Jan 4, 2010
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At least they have the common courtesy of doing this on the weekend.