4chan, Anonymous, and the Horrors of the Interweb

[New Frontiersman]

Gahh! Do not mention them here! You shall bring their unholy wrath down upon us! They shall destroy us ALL!!! Repent sinners! For the end of days draws near!

...And yes on a more serious note sometimes I do think those guys are a bit too powerful, they freaking scare me sometimes. But then they fight Scientologists, so on thje other hand I think humanity has a powerful ally in them. Both powerful and dangerous, they are a force not to be reconed with, they cannot be controled. We can only hope that their dark and near limitless power is used for good and never evil.

But since other people here aren't so worried, I'll just assume that they know better than me, and I won't worry to much either.

 

[ninjajoeman]

I think they have raided here before, and failed every time.

We get raided more often that you think. I was on /b/ about 30 minutes ago. There was a thread that was said "What forum should we troll? First to 5 votes wins." The Escapist got 3 votes, but the forum that won was a hipster website, if I remember correctly. We just narrowly dodged a bullet there.

ehem I still feel like someone was trying to linch me for being the wicken of the 4chan -.-
but anonymous seems like a group I want to join...

huh

 

[Just_A_Glitch]

Honestly, I think all those losers should go die. And it reminds me of this for some reason:

When a person, by his reprehensible behavior, practically cries out to be destroyed, it is truly your moral obligation to indulge them their wish. The person who takes every opportunity to "pick on" others is often mistakenly called "sadistic". In reality, this person is a misdirected masochist who is working towards his own destruction. The reason a person viciously strikes out against you is because they are afraid of you or what you represent, or are resentful of your happiness. They are weak, insecure, and on extremely shaky ground when you throw your curse, and they make ideal human sacrifices.

Cookie for anyone who knows what book that's from...

The Satanic Bible. Good read.

Also, I'll take that cookie now.

 

[GreyWolf257]

I think they have raided here before, and failed every time.

We get raided more often that you think. I was on /b/ about 30 minutes ago. There was a thread that was said "What forum should we troll? First to 5 votes wins." The Escapist got 3 votes, but the forum that won was a hipster website, if I remember correctly. We just narrowly dodged a bullet there.

ehem I still feel like someone was trying to linch me for being the wicken of the 4chan -.-
but anonymous seems like a group I want to join...

huh

I'm not sure what you mean, but Anonymous can be a fun thing to be a part of. Just try not to do too many stupid things.

 

[teutonicman]

AWWWW this thread miss-lead me, I thought it was going to be about telling your internet horror stories.

 

[ninjajoeman]

AWWWW this thread miss-lead me, I thought it was going to be about telling your internet horror stories.

ditto but that might be a good thing that it didn't

 

[Just_A_Glitch]

Hey.....pardon my innocence but what/who is this Anonymous.Is Anonymous a group of 4chan people.Can some one please explain.

The first rule of anonymous is...old meme is old.

If you have to ask, you really don't want to know.

I think there may be quite a few anons wandering around here. But why would they mess with Escapist? It's not full of retards, and there's very few teenage girls clamoring for attention, so this site's pretty safe. Personally I would love to see the b-tards take down a huge target like Google, it would be like the Vandals sacking Rome. I always root for the anarchic underdog.

Just wandering, has anybody ever made it down to the bottom of the Offended page on ED? I just can't do it. This isn't a dare, either. I just want to hear from someone who's already been there. I want to know what's at the bottom.

The bottom three pictures are the Nasty Krabby Patty from Spongebob, then a meatspin gif, then George Bush.

 

[BGH122]

Anonymous is too powerful. I know: I am one of them.

Not anymore.

Anyway, Anonymous isn't particularly scary and nor is any hacker. People don't seem to realise that there's really very few ways that one can be hacked: one can enter one's sensitive information such as passwords into phishing sites (i.e. every spam email pretending to be from PayPal or the Bank of America you've ever received), or download a malicious application and execute it or, most sneakily, go onto a site which uses some backdoor method to put the malicious application onto one's system, usually as a plugin to something else so that when one runs the usually benign application the malicious plugin runs unbeknownst to the user. However, a good virus shield will eliminate almost all instances of the second and third choice. Almost all useful sites (mail sites, PayPal etc) are so well coded that there really isn't any way for a hacker to get access to anything vaguely resembling a password file without taking it from the user themselves through the aforementioned method.

Really Anonymous is powerless. They can do stupid things to poorly coded/exploitable websites, like rig a Spice Girls competition so that they are forced to play in Baghdad in the middle of the Iraq war, or they can temporarily take down a site through a Distributed Denial of Service attack (although security back up sites with redirecting IP's and gigantic bandwidth make that basically null) or they can just try a brute force method to get what they want (the sheer number of anon mean that 'raids' can generally occur and be relatively uncontainable for a short period), but that's it.

Boxxy was an Anon joke anyway. A common recurring Anon joke is the concept of Anonymous as a single entity, or doing something which only a single entity can do (such as having a civil war, a civil war presupposes a single civil identity which splits) since Anonymous is legion; numerous free individuals united by a cause, rather than an identity (that's a highly romanticised way of saying 'a bunch of teenagers with little to no hierarchy').

 

[GreyWolf257]

Anonymous is too powerful. I know: I am one of them.

Not anymore.

Anyway, Anonymous isn't particularly scary and nor is any hacker. People don't seem to realise that there's really very few ways that one can be hacked: one can enter one's sensitive information such as passwords into phishing sites (i.e. every spam email pretending to be from PayPal or the Bank of America you've ever received), or download a malicious application and execute it or, most sneakily, go onto a site which uses some backdoor method to put the malicious application onto one's system, usually as a plugin to something else so that when one runs the usually benign application the malicious plugin runs unbeknownst to the user. However, a good virus shield will eliminate almost all instances of the second and third choice. Almost all useful sites (mail sites, PayPal etc) are so well coded that there really isn't any way for a hacker to get access to anything vaguely resembling a password file without taking it from the user themselves through the aforementioned method. Really Anonymous is powerless. They can do stupid things, like rig a Spice Girls competition so that they are forced to play in Baghdad in the middle of the Iraq war, or they can temporarily take down a site through a Distributed Denial of Service attack (although security back up sites with redirecting IP's and gigantic bandwidth make that basically null) or they can just try a brute force method to get what they want (the sheer number of anon mean that 'raids' can generally occur and be relatively uncontainable for a short period), but that's it.

Boxxy was an Anon joke anyway. A common recurring Anon joke is the concept of Anonymous as a single entity, or doing something which only a single entity can do (such as having a civil war, a civil war presupposes a single civil identity which splits) since Anonymous is legion; numerous free individuals united by a cause, rather than an identity (that's a highly romanticised way of saying 'a bunch of teenagers with little to no hierarchy').

Still, it is always a little sad and a little funny when you are on /b/ and see a thread that says "Hey guys, I got this chick's information. Let's screw with it!" I can't count how many times I've seen that, and it's always someone's Social Security number or password to an email address or PayPal account. It pisses me off to see such invasion of privacy.

 

[Brain_Cleanser]

-image cut-

If it were to escalate to something like this I say fuel the fire baby!

Where the hell'd we get DRAGONS? I KNOW They don't sell those on the internet. I'VE CHECKED.

Anyway, I have respect for Anon for the scientology thing, and I have a few friends who go on 4Chan. They arn't bad people, just have a bad reputation.
Though reading about some of the things Anon has done just send shivers down my spine. Both of respect and unrelenting fear.

 

[ChipSandwich]

Hey.....pardon my innocence but what/who is this Anonymous.Is Anonymous a group of 4chan people.Can some one please explain.

The first rule of anonymous is...old meme is old.

If you have to ask, you really don't want to know.

I think there may be quite a few anons wandering around here. But why would they mess with Escapist? It's not full of retards, and there's very few teenage girls clamoring for attention, so this site's pretty safe. Personally I would love to see the b-tards take down a huge target like Google, it would be like the Vandals sacking Rome. I always root for the anarchic underdog.

Just wandering, has anybody ever made it down to the bottom of the Offended page on ED? I just can't do it. This isn't a dare, either. I just want to hear from someone who's already been there. I want to know what's at the bottom.

A whole bunch of meatspin gifs, and the last picture is George W. Bush with a certificate that says you are now qualified to something-or-other.

On topic, Anonymous isn't a group, it's a culture. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but the "Internet Mosh Pit" description is pretty accurate. And yes, they do not like threats against them, one of the most recent being the Australian Censorship campaign. That said, /b/ doesn't really have it in them to do anything major. Even some /b/ veterans admit that /b/ is nowhere near what it used to be. For example, "Operation: Titstorm", their retaliation against the Australian Government, hacked their main page and flooded their inboxes with porn. Minor inconveniences but nothing particularly groundbreaking.

 

[ninjajoeman]

Anonymous is too powerful. I know: I am one of them.

Not anymore.

Anyway, Anonymous isn't particularly scary and nor is any hacker. People don't seem to realise that there's really very few ways that one can be hacked: one can enter one's sensitive information such as passwords into phishing sites (i.e. every spam email pretending to be from PayPal or the Bank of America you've ever received), or download a malicious application and execute it or, most sneakily, go onto a site which uses some backdoor method to put the malicious application onto one's system, usually as a plugin to something else so that when one runs the usually benign application the malicious plugin runs unbeknownst to the user. However, a good virus shield will eliminate almost all instances of the second and third choice. Almost all useful sites (mail sites, PayPal etc) are so well coded that there really isn't any way for a hacker to get access to anything vaguely resembling a password file without taking it from the user themselves through the aforementioned method. Really Anonymous is powerless. They can do stupid things, like rig a Spice Girls competition so that they are forced to play in Baghdad in the middle of the Iraq war, or they can temporarily take down a site through a Distributed Denial of Service attack (although security back up sites with redirecting IP's and gigantic bandwidth make that basically null) or they can just try a brute force method to get what they want (the sheer number of anon mean that 'raids' can generally occur and be relatively uncontainable for a short period), but that's it.

Boxxy was an Anon joke anyway. A common recurring Anon joke is the concept of Anonymous as a single entity, or doing something which only a single entity can do (such as having a civil war, a civil war presupposes a single civil identity which splits) since Anonymous is legion; numerous free individuals united by a cause, rather than an identity (that's a highly romanticised way of saying 'a bunch of teenagers with little to no hierarchy').

Still, it is always a little sad and a little funny when you are on /b/ and see a thread that says "Hey guys, I got this chick's information. Let's screw with it!" I can't count how many times I've seen that, and it's always someone's Social Security number or password to an email address or PayPal account. It pisses me off to see such invasion of privacy.

yea but if you think about it if she put that stuff on the internet well its mostly her fault...but if they lets say hacked her bank account thats different

 

[BGH122]

Still, it is always a little sad and a little funny when you are on /b/ and see a thread that says "Hey guys, I got this chick's information. Let's screw with it!" I can't count how many times I've seen that, and it's always someone's Social Security number or password to an email address or PayPal account. It pisses me off to see such invasion of privacy.

I'm not an American, so I don't understand how your Social Security number functions, but isn't it essentially worthless on its own? Wouldn't one need a lot more than just the number, such as some form of ID or at least a valid address to do anything with it? I've never understood why it's a big deal if it's leaked. PayPal is obviously a big deal, but they do refund hacked account purchases (and with proof like a 4chan post documenting the hacking there'd be no chance the user's request for a refund would be denied). However, that aside, I agree with you, but I don't lurk /b/ and haven't for a very long time and I didn't do it for very long back when I did. It's a chaotic den of adolescent immorality, where children cause abject misery for peer recognition. It's frankly pathetic and not worth visiting.

 

[ninjajoeman]

I'm not really sure how to describe it,

A bunch of trolls with power that sometimes choose to good?

 

[BGH122]

I'm not really sure how to describe it,

A bunch of trolls with power that sometimes choose to good?

Sorry, I don't mean to be cruel, but is English your first language?

 

[GreyWolf257]

Still, it is always a little sad and a little funny when you are on /b/ and see a thread that says "Hey guys, I got this chick's information. Let's screw with it!" I can't count how many times I've seen that, and it's always someone's Social Security number or password to an email address or PayPal account. It pisses me off to see such invasion of privacy.

I'm not an American, so I don't understand how your Social Security number functions, but isn't it essentially worthless on its own? Wouldn't one need a lot more than just the number, such as some form of ID or at least a valid address to do anything with it? I've never understood why it's a big deal if it's leaked. PayPal is obviously a big deal, but they do refund hacked account purchases (and with proof like a 4chan post documenting the hacking there'd be no chance the user's request for a refund would be denied). However, that aside, I agree with you, but I don't lurk /b/ and haven't for a very long time and I didn't do it for very long back when I did. It's a chaotic den of adolescent immorality, where children cause abject misery for peer recognition. It's frankly pathetic and not worth visiting.

True, Social Security numbers are next to useless on their own, but some of these pukes oftentimes trick the elderly and the foolish into giving out their information, or some of these people use Spyware to steal info from the unsuspecting. I like /b/, but only for the fact that it provides plenty of laughs. Tack onto that the fact that I am about as desensitized as you can get, and twice as stupid!

 

[ninjajoeman]

I'm not really sure how to describe it,

A bunch of trolls with power that sometimes choose to good?

Sorry, I don't mean to be cruel, but is English your first language?

you know I get asked that alot and yes it is. Doesn't mean I'm good at it though.

also I might be drunk

 

[ninjajoeman]

True, Social Security numbers are next to useless on their own, but some of these pukes oftentimes trick the elderly and the foolish into giving out their information, or some of these people use Spyware to steal info from the unsuspecting. I like /b/, but only for the fact that it provides plenty of laughs. Tack onto that the fact that I am about as desensitized as you can get, and twice as stupid!

I like people like you... not homoeroticly though but more like someone who happens to be stupide...as stupid me

and on that homoerotic thing it's the rainbow isn't it?

 

[GreyWolf257]

True, Social Security numbers are next to useless on their own, but some of these pukes oftentimes trick the elderly and the foolish into giving out their information, or some of these people use Spyware to steal info from the unsuspecting. I like /b/, but only for the fact that it provides plenty of laughs. Tack onto that the fact that I am about as desensitized as you can get, and twice as stupid!

I like people like you... not homoeroticly though but more like someone who happens to be stupide...as stupid me

and on that homoerotic thing it's the rainbow isn't it?

Yay stupidity! And yes, the rainbow does give off a touch of the homoerotic, but not as much as <a href=http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicorn-attack-twitchy-online-game.html>this

Now let's see if you click on it...