British Spies Wage DDoS War On Anonymous, LulzSec

[Karloff]

British Spies Wage DDoS War On Anonymous, LulzSec

Government Communications Headquarters' Rolling Thunder may have hit unintended targets.

According to documents uncovered as part of the ongoing Snowden reveals, the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has been waging war against the likes of Anonymous and LulzSec, and using DDoS attacks to shut down group communications. Its specialist task force Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) ran an operation called Rolling Thunder against the groups, and claims it frightened off 80% of the users of Anonymous' chat rooms.

JTRIG also targeted individuals, and gathered data on hacktivists who went after government websites. Its HUMINT gathering resulted in arrests and convictions, including that of Edward Pearson, who was sentenced to 26 months in prison for stealing 8 million identities as well as information from 200,000 PayPal accounts.

It's likely that JTRIG had access to VPN information. In one instance, when gathering intel on a user called p0ke, a JTRIG agent sent p0ke a link to a BBC news article. When p0ke clicked on the link his personal data was accessed, allowing JTRIG to find out who he was and where he lived. But the VPN p0ke was using ought to have kept his identity safe; either JTRIG hacked the VPN, or somehow got the VPN to hand over the data.

While JTRIG can claim some level of success, its tactics targeted many teenagers, and interfered with citizen's right to free speech. Many of those involved were never charged with any crime - including p0ke - but were swept up in Rolling Thunder regardless. It's thought that the JTRIG attacks caused collateral damage in its efforts to disrupt Anonymous and LulzSec. Any DDoS aimed at chat rooms would have taken down all other servers operated by the same ISP, whether or not there was any connection to Anonymous or LulzSec.

Source: NBC [http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/war-anonymous-british-spies-attacked-hackers-snowden-docs-show-n21361]


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[Nimcha]

It's thought that the JTRIG attacks caused collateral damage in its efforts to disrupt Anonymous and LulzSec

Small price to pay. I hope they've been as succesful as they claim.

 

[LordMonty]

I think its high time we changed how our systems of government, as this is an outrageous breach of freedoms we expect in the western world. I'm no real revolutionary but damn its begining to piss me off that people can get away this shit like this this, it's unexceptable and I hope people begin to become aware of this and we as a greater whole(rather than a few hacktivists) move to make a change in the way the world is run.

 

[Jumwa]

Always nice to hear more tales of how law enforcement and government behave like lawless thugs.

It is shameful that anyone can expect to uphold the law when they aren't exemplars of the word and spirit of it.

 

[RicoADF]

Small price to pay. I hope they've been as succesful as they claim.

I wouldn't consider committing the same crime as Anonymous usually commits (DDoS attacks) against possibly 10x more than those that actually committed any crimes as being a small price. Not to mention the whole hypocrisy and legality of their actions.

Always nice to hear more tales of how law enforcement and government behave like lawless thugs.

It is shameful that anyone can expect to uphold the law when they aren't exemplars of the word and spirit of it.

You've said it better than I could, too true.

 

[lacktheknack]

And this is all legal how?

It's not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack#Legality

They probably use the "Police Justification" that allows policemen/firemen/ambulances to speed to the scene of a crime/fire/injury.

 

[dumbseizure]

Good, this Anonymous and Lulzsec are just plain annoying.

I'm willing to put up with these DDos' by JTRIG if its stops those other groups from doing it in the future.

 

[webkilla]

Good grief

If a government law-enforcement agency knows that an ISP somewhere is hosting a chatroom where neer-do-wells are hanging out... then get a court order to get the IP addresses that frequent the place and raid & arrest them.

Don't just DDoS them - that's not much better than... I dunno, a country's military being sent to pummel an opposition party's gathering

In the end its the government going "I don't want you doing this, even though you're not really doing anything illegal at the moment"

Oh sure, it might have been an effective at getting people to stop showing up at those chatrooms... but shutting down everything at that ISPs server to achieve that?

That's like carpet bombing a village to take out a shed


TLR - if some anons were doing something illegal, and they had their IP addresses and whatnot, why not just arrest them and shut the chatroom down normally?

 

[Nimcha]

It's thought that the JTRIG attacks caused collateral damage in its efforts to disrupt Anonymous and LulzSec

Small price to pay. I hope they've been as succesful as they claim.

Until all of your private information is accessed because your ISP is the same that is used by their targets.

What about then?

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

I kind of want to respond to this but I'd be getting a short post warning.

These sort of posts probably sound nice in your head, but what are you actually saying that has any relevance to the topic at hand? With things like those annoying anonymous kids it apparently works best to fight fire with fire. So why not?

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Fight fire with fire. Makes sense seeing as all these people seem to understand is DDoS attacks and personal information breaches. I hope some of them think twice before doing this shit again.

 

[Chaosian]

I'm surprised to see so many people against the side of Anon and Sec. For the most part they've tried to justify most of their attacks, and, as far as I know, have gone little further than just protest - the electronic version of protesting and blocking the entrance to some place. Think of them what you will, I find it hard to feel much for either party.
Two wrongs, and all that jazz.

 

[snekadid]

It's thought that the JTRIG attacks caused collateral damage in its efforts to disrupt Anonymous and LulzSec

Small price to pay. I hope they've been as succesful as they claim.

Until all of your private information is accessed because your ISP is the same that is used by their targets.

What about then?

They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

I kind of want to respond to this but I'd be getting a short post warning.

These sort of posts probably sound nice in your head, but what are you actually saying that has any relevance to the topic at hand? With things like those annoying anonymous kids it apparently works best to fight fire with fire. So why not?

Ignorance at its finest. Try reading 1984 sometime, you'll learn something.

This is ridiculous, this isn't a government arresting people for a crime, this is a Government body attacking privately owned property in countries they don't control or have the right to interfere in. This is (as previously stated) firebombing villages to kill a escaped convict. This is flooding a forest to put out a camp fire, AND AGAIN, it's not their country to do it in and even if it was, that's just terrible logic progression. Lets slippery slope it and suggest Canada nuke the entire US to prevent the possibility of killer bees reaching them.

 

[VanQ]

No, I highly doubt they scared anyone. Most likely any of the anonymous hackers that were worth their salt simply moved to somewhere harder to reach, leaving the weakest links, that 20% that they apparently caught behind. But really, the saddest part about this is the collateral damage caused to unrelated parties.

 

[Petromir]

Until all of your private information is accessed because your ISP is the same that is used by their targets.

What about then?

What my address, national insurance number, date of birth and such like? The stuff that they already fucking know?

All the useful information that could be accessed by the tactics described is pretty much known to the government anyway. If the government wanted to steal my ID why in the fuck would they go further than their own legally obtained records of me?

 

[CriticalMiss]

And this is all legal how?

Because it's the government doing it, everything they do is completely legal and anyone who complains is a terrorist or a criminal. And naturally if an individual did this they would get locked up because it's totally illegal and can't be justified in any way. Business as usual really, one set of rules for us and another for the government.

 

[Slegiar Dryke]

there's something to be said here about what happens when the """""""Protectors"""""""" become the attackers themselves........