Anonymous Members Arrested for Performing DDOS Attacks

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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Anonymous Members Arrested for Performing DDOS Attacks



Five supposed members of the hacker group Anonymous were arrested in the United Kingdom today.

Anonymous recently made available an application called LOIC to assist its members in performing internet attacks, but the program doesn't do anything to hide the users' personal information. Perhaps that's how the Scotland Yard Police Central e-Crime Unit was able to target five individuals early Thursday morning in coordinated raids throughout lower England. These five hackers, aged 15 to 26, are no longer anonymous.

"The arrests are in relation to recent and ongoing 'distributed denial of service' attacks (DDoS) by an online group calling themselves Anonymous," read a statement released by Scotland Yard about the raids.

Taking place in the jurisdictions of West Midlands, Northants, Herts, Surrey and London, each of the alleged hackers were taken to their local police precincts for questioning. The e-criminals will likely be charged under the UK's Computer Misuse Act but no formal arraignment has been made.

The hammer was bound to drop. Anonymous was born from the miasma that is the 4chan forum where users can post whatever crazy crap they can make, adapt or get their hands on. As a somewhat more militant or socio-political arm of 4chan, Anonymous became famous for its protests against Scientology and its DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on websites from PayPal and Visa in support of Julian Assange's Wikileaks [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/104513-Gene-Simmons-Declares-War-on-Anonymous].

As more and more seek to join the ranks of Anonymous, not all of them will be as adept at hiding their tracks as the hackers of yore. Cyberpolice such as the Scotland Yard e-Crime Unit have also apparently stepped up their own hacking skills so what may be a game for these young men has quickly become dangerous.

*Sigh* Hacking's just not like it used to be...

Thanks to [user]The_root_of_all_evil[/user] for the tip.

Source: The Register [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/27/anon_hacking_suspects_uk_arrest/]

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Vault Citizen

New member
May 8, 2008
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Nice to see my home county (Surrey) in the news, even if it is an article about anonymous. Can we avoid references to "when they came for.... I don't not speak up" please?
 

DazZ.

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2009
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It annoys me that typing an IP into a program and pressing a button is classed as hacking.
 

Roboto

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Nov 18, 2009
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Maybe the designer of LOIC did not make it hide the source on purpose as a form of sabotage.
 

Ghostkai

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Jun 14, 2008
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Compatriot Block said:
I wonder what was going through their heads when they were arrested.
I believe it was probably "Oh....FUCK".

Would have loved to have seen their faces haha.
 

thethingthatlurks

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Feb 16, 2010
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Roboto said:
Maybe the designer of LOIC did not make it hide the source on purpose as a form of sabotage.
No, I don't think it's even possible to hide your information when doing a DDoS. If you're behind a proxy, it is going to take the attack.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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I can't say as I'm disappointed by this.

It is kind of sad that this is a "hacking" attempt, though.
 

Danpascooch

Zombie Specialist
Apr 16, 2009
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DazZ. said:
It annoys me that typing an IP into a program and pressing a button is classed as hacking.
Unfortunately that's how things are nowadays.

The real hacking is in cracking games and such now, like the PS3 hacker.
 

Braedan

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Sep 14, 2010
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Though I've never posted on 4chan it still kinda irritates me that NO ONE understands what "anonymous" is. It's not a group, or a team of hackers. It's a state of being. And not in some spiritual douchey way. It's in the way that anyone you cannot identify is considered anonymous, like the unknown author of a quote. When people call themselves anonymous, they're using it in the literal term. Of course as soon as people know who you are you loose the "prestige" of being anonymous.

OT: This is not hacking... these are just script kiddies running programs from home. Attacking major corporations without using a proxy is pretty dumb....
 

Popido

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Oct 21, 2010
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Good. Hopefully they adapt to bigger guns from now on. DDoS'ing sites down is so uninspiring and gives them publicity that only last for month or two.
 

iLikeHippos

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Jan 19, 2010
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Looks like they were one of the weaker parts of the group. Amateurs.

Well, now we know the police somewhere got SOME shred of potential. Good to know...
 

Randomologist

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Aug 6, 2008
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I really don't want to sound too much like a /b/tard here, but...

 

Raven's Nest

Elite Member
Feb 19, 2009
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Not really much they can charge them with. There are so many people involved with DDoS attacks that It'd be a huge waste of resources just to track them down and charge them with something. Individually they'd have done as much damage as lending Guy Fawkes a single match. If these guys weren't tech savvy enough to disguise themselves online, you can sure as hell bet that they wouldn't be capable of doing any real damage with a computer in the first place.

Companies using such important websites for business such as eBay and Visa should invest in more stringent security measures for their websites, it shouldn't be up to the tax payer to provide the resources to track down and charge every pseudo-hacker with a seemingly minor computer crime.
 

Echo136

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Feb 22, 2010
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Its my personal belief that they are getting exactly what they deserve. The whole anonymous thing is bullshit.
 

maddawg IAJI

I prefer the term "Zomguard"
Feb 12, 2009
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So...now that they're identities are known, do they have to turn in their Guy Fawkes masks?
 
Aug 25, 2009
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Man, you'd almost think members of Anonymous thought they were immune from the law or something.

Interestingly, I know some people would go on about how there is no 'Anonymous,' and it's more a state of mind etc but it really isn't in this case. Anonymous as started by 4chan is a group, it's a group you can choose to actively participate in as often as you want, and leave anytime you want, but by doing so, for the duration of the attack you take part in, you are a member of a group identifying itself as 'Anonymous.'

Say these guys weren't really hackers, and weren't really 'part of Anonymous' but they carried out a DDOS attack, Anonymous' preferred method of assault, used software from an Anonymous user, and probably identified themselves as being part of 'Anonymous.'

I think it's dangerous to thinkn of Anonymous as not being a group nowadays, because the users of 4chan who also take part in Anonymous are identifying themselves, they have distinctive signs (The V masks) distinctive methods (DDOS attacks), and often target big companies in what can be very easily described as cyber terrorism.

This is a group, and when you choose to take part, you make yourself open to legal retribution because most of what Anonymous does, whether small or big, with good intention or not, is illegal.