Category Archives: Anonymous

Operation Global Media Domination: the Kylie Chronicles

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Every now and then someone suggests to me that my life would be better if it were more normal. If I spent less time on Twitter. If I had a “real” job. If I were more of a generalist, and focused less on WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and hackers. Maybe do some fashion blogging, try out some AdSense. You know, normal stuff, stuff that is not so…badass.

Keep Calm and FUCK YOU WITH A CHAINSAW!

Keep Calm and FUCK YOU WITH A CHAINSAW!

How about: No?

I know you all mean well, but since when has “normal” ever been normal for me?

So there I was the other day, hanging out on Twitter and watching my timeline, which has become much bloodier than anything you’ll see on CNN lately (since I weeded out all the “social media gurus” and “marketing inspiration artistes”), and I saw something amazing and, without waiting for an editor to assign it I went ahead and Storified it, which is basically putting the tweets in order so that they form a story. Alas, as I mentioned earlier, I can’t embed it here in any form that will work, but I can link to it and to the full story I put on the website and I can tell you that there is more on this story coming Monday. And maybe more after that, if Kylie will talk to me.

And how does this heartwarming story of Anonymous and others coming to the rescue of a suicidal teen come into Operation Global Media Domination? With a hell of a bang, that’s how.

57,000 upvotes on reddit

105,606 views of the Storify

44,000 views on Jezebel

110,000 reads over the past two days

2,600 Facebook likes and shares

508 tweets

77 G+1’s

76 notes on Tumblr

covered in the Province

And even four comments.

Anonymous comes to the rescue of suicidal teen

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anonymous angel

anonymous angel

I don’t do this often, but I’m doing it today: sending you to a different site to read the story, because it’s a Storify and it won’t embed here. But it’s an important story and you will be very, very glad you read it. A fifteen-year-old girl was on the brink of suicide when her real life enemies jumped on Twitter to encourage her to do it. That’s when Anonymous and Rustle League stepped in. I’ve never been prouder of them.

Go Read It Now

Noisemaker Rally for Jeremy Hammond, November 19th UPDATE: Nov 20th instead

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Save Jeremy Hammond

Save Jeremy Hammond

UPDATE: The bail hearing was moved to Tuesday at 11, so the rally has been moved as well, to Tuesday at 10. Everything else remains the same.

Here’s the word straight from his step-mom’s mouth:

OK WE HAVE A NEW TIME AND DATE FOR THE HEARING: The date is Tuesday 11/20 and the time is at 11am. We will meet at Foley Square at 10am and head to courtroom 12A. Can I please get a like from the people who are going to confirm this. I was told that it is likely that the courts are changing the dates to minimize the number of people attending the hearing. DO NOT LET THEM BEAT US!

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time (and if you haven’t, just nod your head as if of course, who hasn’t been following all along?) you’ll know that my day job, usually performed between the hours of 7pm and 6am, is that of a journalist, freelancing at the Daily Dot, Slate, and elsewhere, as well as the Manolosphere (when I’m not AWOL with the flu, sorry boss!). I’m supposed to have a certain degree of objectivity while performing my job, but there are entire minutes of the day when I am not performing (or even procrastinating) my job, and I may make completely subjective statements such at the following:

Jeremy Hammond is a fucking hero whose only crime was fucking up an FBI entrapment operation he had no particular reason to know existed. If I had a son or daughter, I would hope they’d turn out like him. I hope, put to the test, that I would as well.

What is alleged is that when LulzSec (remember LulzSec? You should, people will be reading about them in history books in the future) hacked private security and intelligence company Stratfor, Sabu, the de facto leader, who was also secretly working for the FBI (stories about hackers have a lot of conditionals: phrases, morals, you name it), attempted to entrap WikiLeaks into paying for the secrets, which would have been a whole bundle of felonies. Hammond allegedly said (quite rightly) “Fuck that shit” more or less, “We didn’t hack this for money, we did this because it’s the right thing to do,” and allegedly handed the leaks to WikiLeaks for free, blowing the FBI‘s plan out of the water.

As the FreeAnons site says,

There is ample evidence to show that the Stratfor hack was organized, planned, and orchestrated by the FBI, through the agency of Hector Monsegur, [Sabu] for the expressed purpose of entrapping alleged Anonymous hacktivists. We understand that Jeremy’s years of organizing for social justice show him to clearly possess a more noble character than that of his accuser, Hector Monsegur, best known for hacking into the website of an online casino and using his former employer’s credit card in 2010 to make $15,000 in unauthorized purchases. These things clearly show that Monsegur is not a reliable witness or person of good moral character.

November 19th Hammond, who has been held for months without a hearing, will finally be given a bail hearing. Supporters are calling for all like-minded people to attend, in Anonymous wear if they prefer, at a noisemaking rally and then in court. You can indicate your attendance on Facebook or simply show up. Here are the details:

9:15 am, Monday, November 19th, 2012, ie one week from today

Foley Square, Manhattan

On the 19th of November 2012, the Jeremy Hammond Support Network will sponsor a rally in NYC at Jeremy’s bail hearing to show support for the accused hacktivist. Friends and supporters of Jeremy Hammond will gather at Foley Square for a brief march to the Metropolitan Correctional Center where we will pack the courtroom in solidarity with Jeremy Hammond.

We wish to make clear our intent to peacefully fill the courtroom. We are there to support Jeremy and the more people that actually make it into the court

room the better. We have been told that in the past individuals have been denied access to the court for wearing Anonymous-related emblems. Jeremy wishes to make it clear that he encourages people to wear their Anonymous gear if they so wish.

The event will be covered live on irc.anonops.com #freeanons via sms-irc, courtesy of the the Freeanons Solidarity Network (www.freeanons.org).

If your support doesn’t extend to physical presence, taking the day off work, or you’re not handy to Manhattan (as I, myself, am not), you can support Jeremy Hammond and other incarcerated Anons by:

If you have the mailing address for any incarcerated Anons, you can post them in the comments below. And no, I’m not trying to get your IP. I assume all Americans still use AOL anyway.

OpVendetta Roundup: November 5 hacks, defaces, tricks, and dox

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OpVendetta

OpVendetta by Jason Reeve Photography on Flickr

Remember, remember the Fifth of November. Which you should, as it was only last night.

While much of the world was asleep, at work, or filling out forms in an unemployment office, Anonymous was busy around the world hacking, doxing, defacing, and even marching IRL (In Real Life). And, as always, assorted others were busy making mischief and blaming it on Anons. As Hell opens its mouth and releases its demons on Halloween, as well-kept households sweep out the accumulated dust of the winter in spring cleaning, so Anonymous on November 5 releases all manner of flotsam, jetsam, and doxam of the internets, regardless how monumental, or otherwise. I’ve rounded up the most prominent actions of the last 24 hours.

VMware sourcecode

This proprietary code was leaked November 4 North American time, and confirmed by the company itself in a hastily-issued advisory which pointed out the code leaked dated to 2004, and encouraged users to update their software.

28,000 Paypal ID’s and passwords leaked

A very splashy leak indeed, the money shot of November 5, this sent thousands of netizens scuttling to their keyboards to hastily change their passwords. Very wise; however, this turned out to be a high-profile fakeout, as it was actually data from Zpanel instead, a open source web hosting control panel. It’s never a bad idea to change your passwords anyway. The original paste links are all down now.

ImageShack and Symantec leaks

These were real, although picture hosting site ImageShack no longer cuts quite the swathe it did in its heyday. The actual databases and code were leaked in an enormous paste which also included personal dox. Somewhat more serious for Symantec, an anti-virus, anti-malware personal security provider than for ImageShack. This and the ZPanel hacks were claimed by Hack The Planet, a group which has often been in opposition to Anonymous. They released an enormous “zine” of leaks, which they had apparently been saving for some time.

Law Enforcement Credit Card Leaks

A cornucopia leak collecting Columbian prison emails, Stratfor Latin American intelligence leaks, and alleged law enforcement officer credit card details appeared on the http://sprunge.us/ site. Coincidentally (?) all the credit cards expire this month. No harm no foul, eh?

Anonymous vs NBC

Indeed, something took NBC’s video site offline early in the morning, and credit, such as there may be, was quickly claimed by someone named “pyknic,” but the connection to Anonymous is tenuous. The deface specifically referenced Anonymous and the 5th of November, but Anonymous has no known beef with NBC. The same hacker defaced Lady Gaga site Gaga Daily for a short time.

Defacing Peruvian, Ecuadorian, Turkish, and Australian Websites

No particular reason was forthcoming for the multiple attacks on Peruvian websites, but Australia has been in Anonymous’ sites since its Prime Minister labeled Aussie Julian Assange a “criminal,” and its privacy campaigners are some of the most assertive in the world, in contrast to a government which seeks greater control and surveillance. Defaces included many government sites as well as SharpCopiers.com.au. Ecuador has famously offered asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but that didn’t save it from a half-dozen defacements and outages. In Turkey, the site for the national justice system was taken offline for an indeterminate period today. RedHack has been a very active Turkish branch of Anonymous, and as of this writing the Turkish state railroad site is still defaced.

Canadians getting angry

I know! How likely is that? But #StopHarper and #OpPartyCrasher were a real thing, if only moderately effective. Striking back at Canada’s Conservative government for what many see as draconian privacy invasion, they took victoews.ca offline for several hours (he was the MP who sponsored the most contentious laws) and attempted to DDoS the website of the Finance Minister, which they claim they took offline for 3.25 hours. CanadiAnons were also encouraged to flood the communication lines of Blake Richards, who sponsored a bill making it illegal to wear a mask during a protest or riot.

UK Department of Defence passwords leaked

Again, real. But not Anonymous per se: this was done and claimed by Nullcrew, a separate hacker group, and released on AnonPaste, the leak platform hosted by Par:AnoIA. Was it really an “easy as fuck SQL injection” that got this info? “Your webmaster made a terrible mistake… You may criticize us on the simplicity of the vulnerability. But if you can get so much useful data so easily, why wouldn’t you? We hope that all governments and organizations realize that #FuckTheSystem is definitely not a joke.”

Anonymous vs Zynga, Facebook, and Karl Rove

Alas, despite massive PR buildup, this was a complete squib. Nothing whatsoever happened to any of the three today. Other than that bitch that unfriended you (oops, spoiler!).

Database leak of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

This broke on the Par:AnoIA site today, an apparent database breach of the purportedly high-security OSCE. The statement says, “The material was presented to us to bring attention to the attempted election manipulation in the Ukraine, with which numerous observers concur.

LG Smartworld hack

A very real hack, although it’s not clear what possible advantage could be gained by hacking an appliance app company. If your toaster sasses you this morning, blame these guys.

Alan Moore releases song for Occupy

Nobody saw this coming, but it did. Alan Moore, author of Anon-inspirational text V for Vendetta, released a single in support of the Occupy movement. It’s called “The Decline of English Murder”

TYLER

Anonymous’ touted peer-to-peer, censorship-free platform has apparently entered beta-testing, although with something as opaque as TYLER it’s hard to tell what that actually means.

OpVendetta Trending

The Anonymous hashtag for November 5 operations trended globally and locally according to this map passed along by Cypherpunks.

OpVendetta IRL

Anonymous’ premiere event, OpVendetta, was a real life homage to the finale of Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. Thousands of mask-wearing Anons marched on the Houses of Parliament in London, in a simple show of solidarity and power. Lowballers set the attendance at a mere 200, and boosters set it at “over 9000,” but photos, along with more credible onsite reports estimated about 2000 real life V’s converging on Westminster at 8pm, the fateful hour of November 5. Neither explosions nor fatalities were reported. The press release said, “This is the centrepiece of a worldwide Anonymous operation of global strength and solidarity, a warning to all governments worldwide that if they keep trying to censor, cut, imprison, or silence the free world or the free internet they will not be our governments for much longer.Change is coming.”

Whether or not the world is any different today…well, that’s up to all of us.

Thoughtcrime does not entail life: thoughtcrime IS life.

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Pope Vader finds your lack of faith disturbing

Pope Vader finds your lack of faith disturbing

And so, with a paraphrase from 1984 and a quote from Star Wars, that concludes our sermon for today.

Here is your catechism.

True believers are wonderful, right up to the point where they subjugate their individual moral responsibility to their loyalty. At that point, it’s time for a revolt. If they are part of a revolutionary, empowering movement and they suddenly start casting aspersions on one another’s loyalty, of all things, then you know something’s rotten in the state of Cyberia. They may or may not be acting on orders from above; in fact, I find fandoms do this spontaneously at a certain point, particularly those which perceive themselves as beleaguered.

It is possible to resist them at the same time as you pity them.

Up with thoughtcrime!