Anonymous Threatens Internet With "Operation Blackout"

[The Great JT]

Serious and Reasonable Response: Please don't do that. We like the internet. And how does kicking the plug out stick it to some suit-and-tie slimeballs?

Panicked Response: OH NO, THE PORN! DON'T DO IT, ANONYMOUS!!

"Wait A Second..." Guy Response: But don't you guys use the internet to coordinate these things? Why would you purposely kneecap yourselves like this?

Actually Serious Response: Please don't do that, Anonymous.

EDIT: This is making me think that Anonymous is made up of the Nosferatu from Vampire: The Masquerade and they're just doing this because someone got close to hacking the Schrecknet.

 

[Ukomba]

Wow that's a stupid idea. Targeting sony or a news web sight is one thing, but doing this would immediately piss off heavy hitters like google and facebook. Companies with resource and personnel quite capable of hitting back at Anonymous far harder than anything the government is capable of.

 

[LostintheWick]

Anon logic here

-Shut down internet - the primary source of fighting such corruption, which ended up getting SOPA and PIPA killeed.

-Shut down the primary source of entertainment for most of the people you claim to be working for, as well as screw over students and small businesses for the sake of screwing over a few large businesses

-Paint Anon with cyberterrorist/criminal connections, giving the general masses a reason to demand a formal investigation/accept censorship - the kind Anon is fighting against

-Piss off the 99% just to maybe piss off the 1%
________________________________________________________

Forgive me, but if the mafia is going to kill your wife, you don't kill the dons wife and leave a card saying "We cool?".

What they are planning to do isn't going to help their cause, its going to paint them as a serious threat and probably pave the way for legistlation that allows for censorship. Its just stupid

Idk... It kind of makes sense. The banks and these corporations aren't the real problem. We are. We are the enablers of this corruption because we let it happen. We do it with our ignorance and our lack of conviction. We do it by consistently choosing distraction and entertainment over anything else. Meanwhile, we will complain about how the world is circling the drain. WE need to change.

Now is this the way to get the word out? Idk. I think it will just piss people off in the wrong way. There have been people that try to get us to wake up and see with more friendly ways for a long time... but nothing works. All our toys are just too damn enthralling and our denials too strong.

Remember, that 1% can't exist without the rest of us holding them up.

 

[Simonoly]

YEH! *fist pump*

Anyone who doesn't know how to work around HTTP protocols is obviously mentally ill and should be shot out of a canon into space!

Yes yes, I get it, well played.

Sorry :-/

 

[Chad Brumfield]

I fail to see how "killing" the internet is going to stop the government, the banks, wallstreet, and all the other bad guys that Anonymous has named in this threat. The internet is used by many more people than just those groups. If you do something like this, even if all your doing is making an empty threat, you don't get people to join your cause.

 

[mxfox408]

Good I support anonymous, if this shows people what its like to return to good old fashioned pre internet era fun then so be it.

 

[Shemming]

How do I find out the IP's of sites? Just in case.

 

[veloper]

They have the courtesy to do it on a saturday atleast. If they pull it off it will be a good lesson. It will mean someone less benign can do it too. Adequate security measures are not the responsibility of the intruder afteral.

 

[gameknight]

They're not going to do it, they're all talk.

 

[Agent Larkin]

Well it's official folks.

Were gonna have SOPA, PIPA and ACTA everywhere in about a week then.

If Anon does this it's just going to embarrass the governments of the world. And governments don't like to be embarrassed. So you can bet your life savings that if this goes through it will be all the excuse people need to police the internet.

Seriously Anon this is just fu**ing stupid.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Let them get on with it. They say this crap but never follow through. Wasnt they supposed to shut down Facebook on Nov 5th? They didnt. They are like an attention seeking kid. They will shut the internet down and a few hours later it will be back again. Big whoop.

 

[lostlevel]

It still doesn't sound as annoying as annoying as Kony 2012... that and I'm working on the 31st so I think I'll cope - it would probably do me some good to not have as many distractions =]

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

Evidently unlike these people, my life does not revolve around or depend upon the internet. So even if they somehow managed to do this: why should I care? Boo-hoo I can't update my Facebook status or be bombarded with spam emails; and I might have to buy goods from real-world shops rather than Amazon.co.uk. Gimme a break...

 

[Bostur]

How do I find out the IP's of sites? Just in case.

open up your command prompt, type "ping www.website.whatever"

and it will give you the ip address.

Though it should be noted that some websites wont let you direct connect to the IP, one such is the Escapist.

Some sites will block ping requests though. A more reliable method is to use the nslookup command:

> nslookup www.example.com


Many sites rely on the actual domain name as part of the URL, so typing in the IP in the browser will often not work. The simplest transparent way of using IP adresses directly is to add them to the hosts file, present on most OS'es. A small guide for Windows 7 here:
http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/windows-7-hosts-file/

Adding this line for the www.escapistmagazine.com should bypass DNS queries completely and allow it to be used as normal:

209.34.224.73 www.escapistmagazine.com


In practice all internet applications use direct IPs to connect, which is why DNS services are needed. Using the hosts file simply tells the OS to use that information instead of looking it up on the net.

 

[Storm Dragon]

They always post the technical details of how they plan to enact these things. Has it ever once occurred to them that this tells their targets how to protect themselves?

 

[thepyrethatburns]

Feels a little cOLD in here.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.351177-Anonymous-Threatens-To-Shut-Down-Internet-Next-Month?page=1

And, in line with Aegix Drakan's post, I said a similar thing back then as well.

Does Anon realize that the government could very feasibly just leave the internet down, blame Anon for killing the net, and then slip in some spying code or something while it's down, so that when the government "heroically" restores the internet, we will all be spied on or something?

*/tinfoil hat*

Honestly, Anon...this is just stupid.

I would get into how this won't work and the issues with trying to hit the 13 DNS servers.

However, I'll just let you read about the last real attack which shut down 9 of 13 servers.

http://www.sans.org/reading_room/whitepapers/dns/secure-root-dns-servers_991

Honestly, I'd actually be tickled if they did it. What better way for the governments to take full control of the internet? All they'd have to do is keep the servers down while claiming that the attack did more damage than was advertised. (And how would Anonymous claim otherwise?) In the meantime, while the root servers are down, it wouldn't be too hard to either add a few steps to the process to help provide tracking information for who goes to what site or have the servers "accidently forget" the links between the DNS name and the IP address for troublesome sites such as Wikileaks. So, when they start bringing the servers up one at a time (to make sure their new steps work), the governments of the world now have both an internet more to their liking and a patsy to bear the brunt of everyone's wrath.

Hell, thinking about it, most people don't even really know how the servers work. It could be claimed that the servers were damaged beyond repair by the cyber-attack but, fortunately, a number of corporations (such as Comcast or AT&T) have volunteered their servers to be the new DNS servers. Most people would be so grateful to have their internet back that they wouldn't even notice an odd loss of net neutrality.

Honestly, this would be kinda funny in a "wow, you just managed to sink your own cause in one stroke" way.

(Someone then out-conspiracied me by pointing out "Who is to say that it isn't the government posing as Anonymous?" but the point remains.)

 

[Dogstile]

ITT: People who are STILL referring to anon as a singular entity. It really isn't. People should really learn that.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

ITT: People who are STILL referring to anon as a singular entity. It really isn't. People should really learn that.

*Shrug* They like to refer to themselves as a singular entity when it suits their purpose. Who am I to argue?

 

[Dogstile]

ITT: People who are STILL referring to anon as a singular entity. It really isn't. People should really learn that.

*Shrug* They like to refer to themselves as a singular entity when it suits their purpose. Who am I to argue?

In which case, I am a ethereal being from outer space. You can now refer to me as that, because who are you to argue?

 

[Shockolate]

But...but...the new episode of Thundercats is on the 31st!

RAGE AND ANARACHY.