Anonymous Strikes Back, Hacks "Internet Security" Firm

[AnonOperations]

Some of the stuff Anonymous has done paints them as a bunch of utter dickheads,[footnote]They hacked the epilepsy help site and replaced everything with flashing pictures. Don't tell me that's not fucking evil[/footnote] but this totally justifies their existence. How cool is that?

That was 4chan. If you want to hate on 4chan, start a new thread. When will people learn this? AnonOps is separate.

Anonymous is no longer merely a hate machine, Anonymous is an independant entity with its own goals outside of restrictive political procedure.

 

[Bobbity]

Some of the stuff Anonymous has done paints them as a bunch of utter dickheads,[footnote]They hacked the epilepsy help site and replaced everything with flashing pictures. Don't tell me that's not a prick of a thing to do.[/footnote] but this totally justifies their existence. How cool is that?

That was 4chan. If you want to hate on 4chan, start a new thread. When will people learn this? AnonOps is separate.

Anonymous is no longer merely a hate machine, Anonymous is an independant entity with its own goals outside of restrictive political procedure.

Was it? I was poking around the wikipedia articles today for both groups, and I guess I got them somewhat confused. Although yes, that does sound more in character for an internet chatboard that does it for shits and giggles than a serious organization.
Thanks for the correction

 

[Ponce Master-General]

GOD FUCKING DAMN!!!!!!

Anonymous rules. They're like the pirates of the internets (not torrent pirates, real fucking pirates). I fucking love pirates.

 

[Teeth Kicker]

How fast and hard do you think that guy that gave them the passwords got fired?

 

[QuadFish]

Prediction right now: the internet gets turned off. Yes it's an incredibly drastic move, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em.

I don't think that's actually possible right now (although they apparently proposed plans to create a 'kill the internet' switch, which got rejected). If that did happen, at least I live in Australia and not the US.
Assuming the Aus. government doesn't freak out about it...

 

[Elijin]

It's probably skynet.

^
Only post in this thread that made me smile.

Also, as amusing as the concept of hacking the security firm is, and exposing the not so sound data they were collecting....sooner or later, we all lose. This is the stuff extreme conservatives feed on and use to thrust though concepts like internet censorship and monitoring etc.

Because as everyone keeps pointing out, Anon isnt a group, its just anyone with the internet and the inclination to call themselves Anon, so sooner one side will do something to make us all suffer...

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Seriously: Game; Make; Now!

 

[QuadFish]

How fast and hard do you think that guy that gave them the passwords got fired?

If by "fired" you mean "sued for massive damages"...

 

[CrazyMedic]

wow they actually went above just ddosing something congratz anon but still this is probably gonna get you in deeper shit something tells me they cannot outwit the nsa still even though I think they are retarded and I think they don't care about their current "cause" still gotta appreciate one of the only groups that seems to be carrying on the "Fight the power attitude"
attitude that makes humanity great now a days you are either living in a cave then doing the occasional suicide bombing or staging nice peaceful protests rather then the good ol' 60s-70s rabble rousing marches.

 

[icaritos]

Dont this people have anything better to do? If they used all that time and energy on legal things they could make lots of money.

wow anonymous really needs to be taken out there too dangerous and too good at what they do

Agreed. 'Anonymous' are really just criminals who use ID theft to fund their crimes. Calling themselves 'heroes' is insulting to anybody who works for a living.

What crimes, pray tell? Protesting against Scientology? Defending Wikileaks? Revealing a sham of a security company that is taking peoples private information and selling it to the FBI? What?

I don't get it either, they haven't really done anything bad. If anything all they have been doing is protecting freedom of speech but with a dark sense of humor, there was never any profit involved at all. Guess some Americans really do have to see enemies in everyone they disagree with...

 

[Still Life]

The war on anonymous makes about as much sense as the war on drugs.

I think that's a very bad comparison when you consider what drugs do to people.

 

[KingTwelveSixteen]

Dont this people have anything better to do? If they used all that time and energy on legal things they could make lots of money.

wow anonymous really needs to be taken out there too dangerous and too good at what they do

Agreed. 'Anonymous' are really just criminals who use ID theft to fund their crimes. Calling themselves 'heroes' is insulting to anybody who works for a living.

What crimes, pray tell? Protesting against Scientology? Defending Wikileaks? Revealing a sham of a security company that is taking peoples private information and selling it to the FBI? What?

I don't get it either, they haven't really done anything bad. If anything all they have been doing is protecting freedom of speech but with a dark sense of humor, there was never any profit involved at all. Guess some Americans really do have to see enemies in everyone they disagree with...

If you read the thread there have been several mentions of anonymous directly provocing crazy governments into killing people. Also, every anonymous action I've heard of other than the anti-scientology protests has been crazy-illegal.

Oh yeah, and they apparently consider themselves to be bringers of "justice", and they do this by hacking sites and replacing things with insults. Even if the people they say are guilty actually are, (I wouldn't trust anyone using the name "anonymous" to be truthful) then they still are bringing pretty much zero justice on them, just petty annoyences the vast majority of the time.

As another point, a bunch of people in anonymous make big internet speeches that all say pretty much the same generic "justice" "Government is evil" "WE are the ones who will stop this stuff" crap. I hate that. All those speeches just make them sound like they have a very tenious grasp on the world and that they are doing this stuff to make themselves feel more important, and not out of any actual desire to help people in need. If they want to help people in need they should volunteer at homeless shelters or something else actually constructive instead of just trashing websites.

 

[RDubayoo]

IMO the best option is to leave it alone, and bust who you can when you find them. Going after them when they are in a "vegetative" state only inspires more dick-headery and leads to things like this.

No, the best thing is to find them in spite of their attempts to remain anonymous, punish them severely for whatever crimes they've committed, and leave them as examples to others of their ilk. Just leaving them alone won't work because asshats of this nature will always seek out new victims to alleviate their boredom. They're like bullies, and being nice or ignoring them just won't work.

Frankly I don't think Anonymous is half as good as they're puffing themselves up to be--they're just a bunch of disorganized jerks, after all. They just took advantage of employees that got too complacent for their own good. But the most ridiculous part of this how they're also acting like they're upholding some grand cause or something. They're not. They don't stand for anything at all, except for their own whims and petty acts of spite, and anyone who believes otherwise needs a serious reality check.

This company thought it found a way to make a name and money... instead they found a fight. Something tells me they will be changing direction soon enough.

I wouldn't bet on it. And furthermore, if I want someone to defend my "Interwebz Rights" or whatever, it's not going to be these Anonymous pricks. I don't want them and I don't need them. Besides, their definition of freedom is suspect in the first place, given how they'll do their script kiddie BS on anyone who dares to speak out against them or whatever political demagogues Anon has decided they like.

Crossing for my fingers for more Anonymous arrests, hahaha!

 

[AnonOperations]

You have seen the internal email lulz right?
Internal Email lulz:
http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7462/hbgary.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5227/1297142809030.jpg
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2475/pwntweet.jpg

Informative article on this: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107596-Anonymous-Strikes-Back-Hacks-Internet-Security-Firm

Another good article on this: http://memeburn.com/2011/02/online-security-firm-feels-the-wrath-of-anonymous/

The compiled report along with the identities of the so called ?high ranking? members were openly distributed by Anonymous, nullifying the price-tag the FBI was meant to pay but also severely damaging the credibility of the report. Since the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, privacy laws in the US have gradually eroded. Critical aspects of the investigation conducted by HBGary would simply be illegal in most countries.

Control of information is critical in corrupt governance as was demonstrated in Egypt when the Mubarak dictatorship used the very controversial ?Internet kill switch?.

Anonymous is a leaderless, hierarchy-less group where good ideas and bad ideas are naturally permeated or ignored respectively. Any form of directorship is quickly quelled as pride is one of the few taboos in the Anonymous community.

Except the article referees to anonymous as a anarchist movement. ffs, they should stop putting labels on anons. "hackers" "terrorist" "4chan" "anarchist" - None of are them are helpful or accurate. "Hacktivist" wasn't so bad I guess.

A lot of you have little idea to the extent of what AnonOps gets up to. You hear about the DDoS attacks because we want you to. As I already said, it was for the media articles to draw attention to what was done to wikileaks. What you don't hear about are the countless smaller things anons have done. I can't list them all because there is too many but here are some of them:

*Faxing information to Egyptians on how to connect to international dial-up. Faxing Cables to Egypt: This was done to inform the public of more Government corruption to gain support for the revolution.

*Developed software for Tunisia in relation to stopping censorship and phishing scripts put in place by their corrupt government.

*Contributing to the Tor network to help those in countries like Tunisia experiencing censorship.

Anonymous flyers provide practical and tactical advice for confronting riot police, and besieging government offices Illustration from an Egypt protest leaflet Egyptians have been urged to come out after Friday prayers tomorrow and demand the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's government, along with freedom, justice and a democratic regime. Anonymous leaflets circulating in Cairo also provide practical and tactical advice for mass demonstrations, confronting riot police, and besieging and taking control of government offices....

But it is on the internet that a new generation of activists has been credited with driving the movement forward. A steady flow of protest videos, tweets, and political manifestos has continued to make its way onto the web in a variety of languages: Arabic, the Darija Tunisian dialect, French and English.

In Egypt: http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/8593/tumblrlg2nglfbud1qej8va.jpg http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/5992/1294622700696.jpg

 

[TheRealCJ]

wow anonymous really needs to be taken out there too dangerous and too good at what they do

Nah, they're too busy being "funny" to actually do any real damage.

No but they can certainly do a lot of damage by being stupid. Namely in Tunisia, Egypt, and Zimbabwe where they have been instituting attacks against those governments' websites. Resulting in: you guessed it, more crackdowns, more activists being rounded up (the very ones anon claims they were doing these actions in the service of), and people being disappeared. Anonymous has unwittingly aided in the murders of people in Tunisia and Egypt. I count that as doing real damage.

Fair enough.

I really don't follow them, so I can't tell you what they do and don't do aside from the occasional escapist news post.

 

[Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs]

Once again, a thread that contributes to the mistaken glory of /b/. Doesn't anyone know you can go onto their decrepid shithole of a website and see how pathetic half of the shit on there is? Sure, displays like this are impressive but that's like saying EVE online is the coolest game ever because once in a blue moon some big corporation gets destroyed from the inside.
Anonymous implies there are thousands of them, when in actual fact it's just a few geniuses surrounded by oceans of faeces and people who want to do something but are far too passive to do anything but DDoS servers (WHICH ISN'T FUCKING HARD)

 

[AnonOperations]

I guess you missed the part where this isn't 4chan chester.

AnonOps Press release on this: http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=378


ANONYMOUS doesn't believe hacking is the solution, But if there are media articles, then attention is brought to the injustice in Tunisia.+ It can be of some use for Tunisians who come out on the streets and make their voices heard. I really don't think anyone genuinely believes hacking can change the world ... But I see your point. ANONYMOUS just tries to help in the fight for freedom.

If you have some realistic, practical suggestions on how Anonymous can better spend their time trying to help with wikileaks, egypt etc - I am all ears, or eyes in this case, lol.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

GOD FUCKING DAMN!!!!!!
Anonymous rules. They're like the pirates of the internets (not torrent pirates, real fucking pirates). I fucking love pirates.

Oh so their like a bunch of raping, pillaging criminals then? Good to know.

I would use the term "lynch mob", myself. I think that adequately captures the mentality of Anonymous when they indulge in cybervigilantism like this.

-- Steve

 

[Marik Bentusi]

Aside from the hilarious irony of hacking security experts, I am truly fascinated by "Anonymous". Not because of what they do, but because of the idea behind it that makes me believe Cyberpunk is knocking on our door. And of course the self-image of Anonymous being a vigilant group makes for interesting moral debates from time to time.

Oh and since The Escapist is a lovely nerd magnet, anyone think you could call this a Stand Alone Complex?

 

[AnonOperations]

Anton, maybe you're right but when this arrogant "security expert" Arron is openly saying he infiltrated anonymous and gained intel of their leaders. Then plan to sell the information to the FBI. I think that is grounds for being taught a lesson. I mean just check his internal emails.

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7462/hbgary.jpg
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5227/1297142809030.jpg
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/2475/pwntweet.jpg

I see anons may have made an enemy here but from his previous actions. I don't think its of much concern.

From IRC negotiations with Penny. The security companies representative:

I mean come on, Penny, I messaged Aaron in PM and told him about a "secret" Washington OP, then he emailed the company (including you) being entirely confident that we were directly threatening you, and he thought we didn't know who he was.