U.S. Senator: We Need to Look Into Anonymous, Pronto

[Formica Archonis]

I mean what exactly is this supposed to do? Drafting laws to fight a non threat by a group of people the likes of which think the internet is made up of a series of tubes?!?

Why not? We let them control vast tracts of land and they have eminent domain laws to rely on if they need to take more, and yet some of them don't understand enough basic geography to grasp that an island is not a floating hunk of dirt.
(Dull as hell until 1:20ish but worth listening to.)

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

But sure, we can trust McCain. He chose Sarah Palin as his running mate. What more proof do you need?

Sarah Palin was a political hail mary to garner female votes, nothing more. had Mac been elected she would have been the most marginalized VP since John Adams

Holy shit! Someone lacking the anti-Republican bias so universal amongst the Escapist community? You, my good sir, deserve one massive ass cookie.

Here,

Spoiler: You've earned it

OT: I see nothing wrong with this other than the fact that, once again, our government is the last to realize there's a problem. However, going on past experiences, they will somehow overreact and create some knee-jerk law. Hopefully this won't happen as Senator De Leon will be nowhere near it...

 

[King Toasty]

*grabs popcorn* Well, it'll be entertaining at least.
Hey, where the hell did Anonymous go? They were huge, then their site was LulzSec'd, then LulzSec quit. So... what's their status?

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Unfortunately for the government, fancy laws mean precisely dick to Anonymous and hackers in general, and these laws would be unenforceable without violating the constitution.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

I'd be amazed if he knew how to turn on a computer. Really 'Let's find anonymous'. Yes, let's find the people who by their very definition have no ties or affiliation to any organisation, with no defined structure, methods or morals and are sporadically spread out across the globe. Idiot.

It's not really that hard to find members of anon. This would really only work in America, but you simply go to a public area and spout some of the lesser known memes. Those who understand are the older generation of anon (simply because the newer generation never goes outside).
Now, most of this older generation of anon have already left, I myself am an example of this. THEY still know people who are currently anon and some of them might still know people who take place in less than noteworthy activities. Give them one of those fancy Presidential papers(basically a piece of paper with the president's signature ordering you to answer the questions or be detained for obstructing an executive investigation) and send them on their merry little way. With enough officers/agents/whoever the hell they would use for this, they might actually catch an important member of say, Lulzsec. It's called the shotgun effect, it's the idea that if you put enough rounds randomly down range in a general direction, you might land a hit.

 

[Jabberwock King]

Oh wonderful, McCain wants legislation written for a purpose that is widely agreeable. Just wait, if this ever goes anywhere, the moment that Barack shows support for it, the bill will be filibustered by every republican they can get, just to give everyone a massive headache and waste time. When the Healthcare reform bill was still being negotiated, republican senators would introduce amendments, just so that they could turn around later and keep using the filibuster on them.
Some people say that McCain is a "maverick", but that's not what he is. He's an angry old man with petty vendettas. When he was defeated by Bush in 2000, he made it a point to try throwing a wrench in the works for him. When Barack beat him in 2008, he decided to change any ideas he shared in common with him. Maybe not even that, maybe he just likes being spiteful over any ideals he actually does hold.

 

[Trivun]

Wow. Bloody hell, I'm shocked here, but I actually AGREE with McCain on this one. I'm all for freedom of speech and such, and free rights for people, but there are always limits that need to be in place for very good reasons (just one of the many reasons I disagree with Wikileaks and wish Assange would rot in a cell for a good few years...). Hackers, also, are becoming a major problem, and although films like Die Hard 4.0 and so on aren't exactly realistic, the shocking truth is that such scenarios could occur in real life (check Cracked for the sources). Anything that stops hackers, whether they're just an annoyance or something serious, is fine by me, regardless of who comes up with the idea...

 

[ImprovizoR]

The only problem is, Anonymous is not a group. It's just a bunch of random guys doing random things, completely unrelated to other random anonymous guys doing other random things they think need to be done. And they are all over the world. And they can't be stopped because they are just unorganized individuals who share common interests. Looking into it basically means stopping people from expressing their opinion and frustrations. As far as I'm concerned actions performed by people claiming to be "The Anonymous" have been for the grater good most of the time.
Besides, they are pretty harmless. And when they aren't harmless, they are exposing things that need to be exposed and hurting companies that deserved it.

 

[Canid117]

So no one wants to arrest the founder of HB Gary for conspiracy to illegally attack Wikileaks? Sure I dont always agree with WikiLeaks or Anon but sometimes the people they fight are just as bad.

Remember that if you are doing it for the government it ain't conspiracy/murder or anything of the likes... it's patriotism.

And if any organization or group reveals or discloses something which might be "inconvenient" it's either "threat to national security" or "terrorism" and it has to be taken down.

They were actually doing it for a Bank but whatever.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

And therein lies the problem with John McCain: He's a reasonable individual with a good idea here or there, but he works in American politics.

That's like sending a talented landscape painter to the front lines.

Haha, that's a very good way of putting it. I really wish he hadn't picked Palin as his running mate in 2008; i could have voted either way until he did that. I'm sure it would have been a much closer election, and i'd like to see how different things would be right now.

OT: He's certainly right about this. Groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec have far too much power to be ignored.

 

[WanderingFool]

[HEADING=1]John McCain Targets Anonymous[/HEADING]​

Yippe-ki-yea, Mother Hacker!​

Day has been made... Thank you...

 

[Holyeskimo]

I automatically went yar when i saw that mccain picture, i just glad no one was here to hear me.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Bullshit.

Anononmoyous has good internests at heart.

Go after lulzsec.

Actually, I think they are more worried about anon for that reason; they pose more of a threat to goverment secrecy and all that.

 

[2fish]

Well I wish them luck explaining that and getting the funds for it. Well you see computer have security holes and we need a group to protect them.

Congressman a: Would it not be cheaper just to put the computer in a box to block these security holes?

Congressman b: Maybe if we plugged the holes with glue?

I doubt there will be any major action until it is too late and a major breach of security occurred.

Also to those that are questioning the picture I did a quick Google search for images of McCain, didn't find a good one until page 5, all the other he looked, angry, possessed or like he just rose from the grave (I did not count the old photos on page 4).

 

[intheweeds]

but yeah, lets stop those guys by making new laws. i wouldnt be surprised if half of those guys dont even live in usa so yeah, go right ahead and make new pointless laws. and sure, why not, lets make a "ministry of internet censure/control/cyber defense" and lets put our best pals at good paying positions to do absolutely nothing.

yeah. politics.

I think this is exactly why they government is putting together the committee and not the FBI or local police as some have said. People from other countries can sure as hell be prosecuted under foreign laws.

If the U.S.A. wants to bring someone to trial from another country for hacking into a computer in U.S., the government will want to have them brought to the States for trial and punishment just as they would if a visitor broke any other law on U.S. soil(or any other country for that matter). If you hack a computer that lives in the States from another country, you have effectively broken a law in the States. Only the government can talk to the other government to have him brought over for trial though.

That's why the States wanted that Ryan Cleary lulzsec guy extradited btw, (for the crazy amount of people who couldn't understand why the States didn't just go away and let the UK deal with it). You can be tried and punished in both countries, you know. You broke a British law, go to prison in Britain. Break an American law at the same time? Go serve your sentence in the States when your done in the British prison.

 

[Pebblig]

He doesn't even know what a computer is.

The internet? You can't explain that...

 

[Cory Rydell]

Considering all the infrastructure cuts in favor of not raising taxes (yea because inflation doesnt exist for the govt. amirite) this seems contrarian to current republican rhetoric of reducing spending. Unless of course this somehow happens without spending but I can foresee that happening.

 

[The Lugz]

the problem is anonymous are real hackers, you wont trace them all down ever and even if you get most of them they probably wont know all the members themselves so you're asking for allot more trouble before this is over so-long as the government know that and take proper precautions we wont see anonymous pull something crazy in retaliation
basically what I'm saying is only go down this road if you can ensure the safety of the general public and yourselves FIRST and that is a feat in itself

and yes, i know that isn't what anonymous is about but powerful underground organisations have a tendency to become terrorists out of self defence when the government go after them
the problem is the us government have a horrible track record when it comes to terrorists imo they either over react massively or refuse to deal with the situation

hope it works out well, it should generate allot of positive pr if you pull it off.

 

[Lissa-QUON]

Yeah sure add another thing to Congress' to do list so they can continue farting around and avoid making any sort of agreement over the budget situation.

Seriously, I agree that yes, there probably needs to be something done. I just don't think Congress is the bunch to do it.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

No one gets the hint.

Trying to find Anonymous is looking for a shadow in a pitch-black room.