Anonymous' Target Planned to "Take Down" WikiLeaks

[Saltyk]

Sounds like something you'd hear in a bad conspiracy theory movie. Still, if there's any truth to this, it's quite a sad state of affairs.

Is it sad that I can't think of a good reason to dismiss it as crazy conspiracy theories? That I actually think it might be true?

Not everything Anonymous does I agree with, but this is the kind of thing I like, stopping folks engaged in acts of hypocrisy when it puts nobody in danger. Acts like this make Anonymous useful. Attacking PayPal is just plain silly

I agree with you. I'm rather neutral when it comes to Anonymous. They always seem to balance good with equal evil. And even when they do some good, they tend to go a little too far. In this instance, they hacked the CEO's twitter account and used it to post his home address, cell phone number, and social security number. That was petty and went too far in my humble opinion. It also serves to give those in power a reason to place restraints on the internet. Something that Anonymous claims to fight against. Its like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Anonymous does seem to have changed somewhat recently, methinks another group may have started running under this name for whatever purpose. Anonymous in the past has never had the co-ordination to pull off something like this.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Ok...yeah...this is a whole new layer of awesome that we weren't aware of. But yeah, this group that uses that title "Anonymous" seem to be real pros, well informed and possibly well funded. I smell even more layers of awesome behind that, but those we will probably never know.

Might you be suggesting that Anon is in fact the technology division of the Illuminati, who have the overarching goal of unifying the world under a single government? If so, would you please look into this light?

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Anonymous does seem to have changed somewhat recently, methinks another group may have started running under this name for whatever purpose. Anonymous in the past has never had the co-ordination to pull off something like this.

Yes, they have. Anything from Habbo raids, to Operation Chanology was done and organized by Anonymous. Face it, even the biggest dicks online can band together if you call them out.

 

[cerebus23]

anon being a loose knit hacker group with god knows how many members, and the core guys seem to be way above the noobs the other week that got poped using easily traceable tools, it is not hard to guess there is a core group of anon and everyone else that subscribes to anon, but anon itself has never said wait a minute we did not do x y and z so it seems like if someone else pulled something off in their name they might mention it along the way.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

So basically, in translation:

"Oh fuck, we might be discovered here! Quickly, try to discredit the discoverers as fast as possible! We need our paychecks, damn it!"

..Yeah.

It's worrying that the presumption of honesty is with the people who refuse to reveal their identities. If there is a group out there with the sheer manpower to do this and the track record of dishonesty it'd be them. Question: Can you ever imagine Anonymous realising they're wrong and backing down for any reason?

I don't really know either way which is the truth here, but don't go thinking Anon don't lie.

A fair point. However, your question and response can also be directly echo'd towards an organization such as the Bank of America, in whom would (if true) have rather harsh repercussions if a deep-scale cover-up of corruption within it was uncovered.

Quite frankly, it is the sequence of events in which makes HBGary and the Bank of America seem as guilt as potentially charged in this situation.

 

[mikecoulter]

I love how some of the most important business' in America are quickly beginning to look as if they are some mystical, dark and evil corporation. Funny.

 

[Carnagath]

Ok...yeah...this is a whole new layer of awesome that we weren't aware of. But yeah, this group that uses that title "Anonymous" seem to be real pros, well informed and possibly well funded. I smell even more layers of awesome behind that, but those we will probably never know.

Might you be suggesting that Anon is in fact the technology division of the Illuminati, who have the overarching goal of unifying the world under a single government? If so, would you please look into this light?

Spoiler

Didn't claim anything about Anon, but about this specific group of people who happen to be calling themselves Anon. I don't think they'd be so well informed and skilled if they were your typical basement dwelling 20-something trolls, and I don't think they are performing all those impeccably timed "hacks" randomly and for free. I think it's more likely that Assange might have hired some "personal defense", and there's nothing conspiratory about that.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Yes, they have. Anything from Habbo raids, to Operation Chanology was done and organized by Anonymous. Face it, even the biggest dicks online can band together if you call them out.

Habbo: "Hey guys lets go piss off some 12 year olds on a crappy social game"

Chanology: "Hey guys scientologists are being dicks online, lets go troll them irl lulz"

They require minimal to no organisational capabilities, pretty much the same level as getting everyone to phone up gamestop and ask for battletoads.


These however are MAJOR online attacks against large and powerful organisations. Even against Scientology who's online security must be somewhat laughable compared to a major bank they did little in the way of hacking against them, they damaged the odd website here and there and faxed them random crap but that was about it.

Didn't claim anything about Anon, but about this specific group of people who happen to be calling themselves Anon. I don't think they'd be so well informed and skilled if they were your typical basement dwelling 20-something trolls, and I don't think they are performing all those impeccably timed "hacks" randomly and for free. I think it's more likely that Assange might have hired some "personal defense", and there's nothing conspiratory about that.

Not too sure about Assange hiring some form of protection but this does seem a 'little' perculiar. The regular anonymous was never capable of this.

 

[Zaik]

Well, hurray for Anonymous! I'm also glad I don't have an account at Bank of America, 'cuz otherwise I would have closed it. I'd hate for a bank to finance stuff like this with my money.

I have a bank of america account with exactly $5.23 in it, they have sent me probably hundreds of dollars of paper and ink worth of bank statements and advertisements i've shredded.

It's great.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Ok...yeah...this is a whole new layer of awesome that we weren't aware of. But yeah, this group that uses that title "Anonymous" seem to be real pros, well informed and possibly well funded. I smell even more layers of awesome behind that, but those we will probably never know.

Might you be suggesting that Anon is in fact the technology division of the Illuminati, who have the overarching goal of unifying the world under a single government? If so, would you please look into this light?

Spoiler

Didn't claim anything about Anon, but about this specific group of people who happen to be calling themselves Anon. I don't think they'd be so well informed and skilled if they were your typical basement dwelling 20-something trolls, and I don't think they are performing all those impeccably timed "hacks" randomly and for free. I think it's more likely that Assange might have hired some "personal defense", and there's nothing conspiratory about that.

I will admit that they seem more aggressive now, but freedom of expression online has always been the guiding principle of Anonymous (and lulz, obviously). Remember the scientology thing? You had people all over the world protesting, and not just online. I think it's more likely that one member incites others to follow. The wikileaks story did rile Anon up, hence the attacks on Visa, MC, paypal, etc, and this is just the continuation of this. Besides, the security firm did call them out, so I guess it was also a matter of pride.
As for Assange paying them? Meh, ain't nothin wrong with having your own personal army of hackers available.

 

[Loonerinoes]

Holy shit!

Erm...I mean, I'm sure that this might get a fair bit of crying over how this 'isn't real news' and how it's probably 'all bogus anyway' because the people in those positions are *totally* not smart enough for this kind of thing and the public media should always be taken as the defacto source of The Truth (tm)...

...damn interesting sum-up indeed. I may take some time to check up on this later, so for those of us who enjoyed it - thanks for bringing it to our attention.

 

[thethingthatlurks]

Yes, they have. Anything from Habbo raids, to Operation Chanology was done and organized by Anonymous. Face it, even the biggest dicks online can band together if you call them out.

Habbo: "Hey guys lets go piss off some 12 year olds on a crappy social game"

Chanology: "Hey guys scientologists are being dicks online, lets go troll them irl lulz"

They require minimal to no organisational capabilities, pretty much the same level as getting everyone to phone up gamestop and ask for battletoads.


These however are MAJOR online attacks against large and powerful organisations. Even against Scientology who's online security must be somewhat laughable compared to a major bank they did little in the way of hacking against them, they damaged the odd website here and there and faxed them random crap but that was about it.

You do realize that Chanology led to large protests in major cities all over the world? It wasn't just an online thing, it was massive.
And I should point out that online attacks are laughably simple. A DDoS attack requires no skills, and works by entering simple information into a program. If you can get enough people to join, you will take down any website, like Visa. The security firm was different, but it's hardly rare to see somebody hack into a server. The only difference here is that they posted the stuff they found online. Sorry, but I don't see any change in Anon's behavior, aside from it being less asshole-y.

 

[matrix3509]

As a Tolkien nerd, I am absolutely disgusted that some shitty security company would used the word Palantir for exactly the purpose of an actual palantir. It reminds me of fucking Sauron. Can we start referring to Bank of America as "The Enemy" now?

Also: wasn't it just a few years ago during the financial collapse that Bank of America was labeled as "Too Big To Fail" by God knows how many Congressmen/women?

 

[MetalGenocide]

Looking forward to criminal investigations into the bank.....that are not likely to happen, due to everyone who can judge them, is on their payroll.

 

[HellspawnCandy]

My country is so fucked. I need to get out soon

 

[Iwana Humpalot]

How can i support these guys?!

 

[deth2munkies]

Anonymous will not nor will ever be honorable in any sense. They are assholes first and foremost, any good things that come from their activities are mere coincidence.

A slightly lesser form of this argument goes for Julian Assuange and Wikileaks,they are attentionwhores looking for 15 minutes and anything that comes from it that's positive is mere coincidence.

 

[Popido]

I don't really know either way which is the truth here, but don't go thinking Anon don't lie.

Hmm..Can anon lie? Its like having thousands of children all looking and giggling at you while keeping their mouths shut about the pigeon's crap on your head.

I know they can make troll stories and trick ignorand inviduals to fall for these trollings, but whenever they go too far they explain to the fools how they're being trolled.

If that information happens to be forfeit, the invidual who made it would be separated from the mass and labelled.

 

[Booze Zombie]

That was awesome... and there weren't even any shoot outs!