Then they targeted MasterCard.com and Visa.com and guess what?
http://isitup.org/mastercard.com
and
http://isitup.org/www.visa.com
PayPal is next, I believe.
A close, but anonymous, hacker friend of mine said something great to me today, that I wanted to quote:
"No need to stand in front of a tank, just sit behind a keyboard. Civil disobedience 2010 style!"
To that I say to keep up great work! Although, mirroring Wikileaks is another excellent method of keeping the flow of information free. They may use these DDoS attacks as a reason, read excuse, to "clamp down" on freedom of speech and the internet. Although, they don't need an excuse for something they intend to do anyways.
So these denial of service attacks on the web servers is merely a message that says they are advocates of freedom of information. This current Government is trying to pass a bill to do the SAME THING!
Update: "On July 25, 2002, Representative Howard Berman (D-Cal.) introduced a bill, (Berman P2P Bill) H.R. 5211 in the House of Representatives that would give copyright owners the right to violate the law (proposed law amounts to government-sanctioned vigilantism) in their efforts to stop the unauthorized circulation of their works on peer-to-peer networks." (eff.org)
And people call hackers criminals? Hypocrisy at its finest.
Patty acted worried and asked if we had cash in the Paypal account to which I replied "Anyway, we have a couple of paypal accounts, it links to our checking but have no fear. Pay pal and [Bank] guarantee against fraud and replenish any moneys taken. But like [hacker friend] said, 'Hackers are all about freedom of information.' Not theft and fraud! They are making statements, not criminals. They are activists in civil disobedience."
They are standing up for the God given rights of liberty, no government has the right to take that away. Fight! Fight!
You can follow "Operation Payback" on twitter @Anon_Operation now @AnonOpsNet (http://irc.anonops-irc.com)
We all should give a "denial of service" to our current Government and take back our rights!
Update2: Apparently Twitter and facebook took them down also. Go go gadget DDoS
Update 3: "There has been a tremendous backlash against WikiLeaks from governments around the world. In the United States, lawmakers have rashly proposed a law that threatens legitimate news reporting well beyond WikiLeaks. We expect to see similar efforts in other countries. Like it or not, WikiLeaks has become the emblem for one of the most important battles for our rights that is likely to come along in our lifetimes. We cannot sit this one out." (eff.org)
Update 4: To avoid some of this political nightmare caused by Wikileaks, Openleaks.org sounds more promising.
"This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering gluttons, and you call us criminals. We explore... and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias... and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive me for."
REF: The Hackers Manefesto
Genome,
ReplyDelete"With great power comes great responsibility." This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? I'm Spider-man.
"I know you don't know
ReplyDeleteWhat life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!"-Marley
Yeah, hackers definitely aren't about theft or fraud.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, this blog continues to be an unwitting advocate of the virtues of public education. Or perhaps more practically, the virtue of Googling before you type.
It is my understanding that the original "hackers" were people with a very high interest in computers and, yes, high curiosity as well. Many of them did break into system, not for money, not for denial of service, but as a challenge. And the only indicator that they were ever there was that they would leave messages telling the administrators that their systems weren't as secure as they thought. As I understand it, they took no money, no account numbers, they didn't disrupt service; but they did deliver a huge blow to the egos of the professionals. And, after all, we all know that the laws are more to serve the powerful than to serve the populace.
ReplyDeleteNow, these, more modern, people who break into systems in order to steal money are the ones that concern me. Yes, the originals did things that were officially illegal. But they posed no threat. It's the people that pose an actual threat that concern me. Oh, and Dan, before you ask me what part of "illegal" I don't understand, I would like to point out that you, yourself, are complaining about bad law.
Pvb,
ReplyDeleteValid point but my answer is too involved to address while "kindling" It will have to wait.
Whoa, I never expected you to show support for Assange. What do you think of the conservative response to Wikileaks? For example, Palin said Assange should be hunted down like Al Qaida. Others have said the person who leaked the cables should be executed for treason. Do you agree with those views?
ReplyDelete@Whateverman and partially @Pvblivs
ReplyDeleteThe term 'hacker' originated in and around MIT in the model railroad club. They 'hacked' the equipment to do things it wasn't intended to do. Thinking outside of the box can be a broad definition of a true hacker.
Todays media has been portraying 'hackers' as malicious teenagers hellbent on getting your account numbers. Get into any true hacking community and you will quickly learn that there is a bit of confusion in the jargon.
(see :http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/index.html)
A cracker, or a script kiddie would be more of a correct term for someone who is trying to steal account numbers or utilize software vulnerabilities for personal gain. We are just debating semantics now though.
From someone who has personally scraped around in the dark belly of the internet with some of the more notorious hackers out there let me assure you that is not what I/We/They are about. Dissemination of information, Challenging personal knowledge and skills just for the excitement, helping fellow IT professionals, mastery of the computer world, and plain fun are all reasons a real hacker does what he does. Monetary gain is not in the list.
The scum that try to make a quick buck off of 'hacking' have generally never written a line of code in there life. Don't know any programming languages, and have no understanding of the exploits they are utilizing further than how to launch the commands.
A quick google search will reveal all of this as well. ;)
Too embarrassing not to correct my spelling:
ReplyDeleteWem,
Thanks for the irrelevant thesis fallacy but no where did I say that all hackers are harmless. Many are not, but this group as I pointed out is doing something that is acceptable, to me as a law abiding Christian.
If our liberty is being taken away then civil disobedience is the only recourse we have, especially those who take cues from civil rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. like myself.
Yes, there are criminals out there. Is it your position that these people are criminals? If not, your words, and links, have no meaning. If so, how would you suggest they voice their protest of the government's hypocrisy?
Read Genome's quote again. It was my point exactly!
That's it, no more "kindling" without a spell checker. :7p
Brummer,
ReplyDelete>>Whoa, I never expected you to show support for Assange.
Why not? I am ALL about truth revealed. Look at Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, he was dubbed the most dangerous man in America. Not only did he stop the Veitnam war but got President Nixon impeached from that Watergate scandal! Talk about effective!
Its good to have something like wikileaks so the government cannot do things without the public knowing. Its a good check to the balance. Now, if they post nuclear bomb specs, then no that would be bad, but a whistle blowing portal? Sure, if they do it in the spirit of Ellsberg that is. People need an avenue, it used to be the press but they are in the pockets of the government these days and they spill sources quickly ( no morals).
Someone, a good man, said to me "To check your morals, if what you do is plastered all over the Sunday paper and it embarrasses you then your morals might need to be reevaluated." Same with the governments. Just ask Nixon if his morals were sound.
Pvb,
ReplyDeleteGenome said it best, but I will tap a bit on my "perceived" hypocrisy.
>> Oh, and Dan, before you ask me what part of "illegal" I don't understand, I would like to point out that you, yourself, are complaining about bad law.
Buying illegal drugs is not the same as civil disobedience, because it funds dangerous cartels that kill innocent lives especially children. Same with the unconstitutional Vietnam "police action". But more importantly its against God. Truth is NOT against God, in fact a move towards truth is a move towards God. So if God said that getting drunk, or high, is perfectly acceptable then you would have a valid argument against me. Since that is not the case and God is the ultimate authority on ALL matters, I stand by my choices.
So the point is when you say "bad law" you have to ask yourself, who is it bad for? Is it merely subjective? I am sure if you had family hurt by some evil dude that you would wish murder to be legal, for example. No, the authority for right and wrong still stands with God. So lying to go to wars, doing drugs, and censoring governments, are all wrong because they violate God's Laws. They must be fought against. Hackers do a fine job for voicing for the downtrodden.
You do know they stole Assange's cash! The government, and banks, are pining against someone that gave an avenue for truth. Shame on them. So to their Blacklist bill and thefts I say:
Go go gadget DDoS
:7)
correction: I meant pinning against...
ReplyDelete"On July 25, 2002, Representative Howard Berman (D-Cal.) introduced a bill, H.R. 5211 in the House of Representatives that would give copyright owners the right to violate the law (proposed law amounts to government-sanctioned vigilantism) in their efforts to stop the unauthorized circulation of their works on peer-to-peer networks." (eff.org)
ReplyDeleteAnd people call hackers criminals? Hypocrisy at its finest.
If Ron Paul agrees with me, you know I am on the right path.
ReplyDeletelisten at around 4:00 min mark, "Technically yes, they (people like Assange) are breaking a rule, But what is the Government doing? They're breaking the law!"
ReplyDeleteAmericans that practice civil disobedience, to expose our Government's wrong doings, are true patriots!
Dan:
ReplyDelete"Buying illegal drugs is not the same as civil disobedience, because it funds dangerous cartels that kill innocent lives especially children."
Well, that bears little resemblance to my post. But if you want to change the topic... If our government were to do the sensible thing and legalize drugs, no one would be funding the dangerous cartels anymore. Those cartels rely on big government making the black market, the only market. If there were an open market, the cartels would lose their customers.
Oh, if you want to go back to talking about breaking into computer systems and what constitutes a hacker, you just let me know.
"Why not? I am ALL about truth revealed. Look at Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, he was dubbed the most dangerous man in America. Not only did he stop the Veitnam war but got President Nixon impeached from that Watergate scandal! Talk about effective!
ReplyDeleteIts good to have something like wikileaks so the government cannot do things without the public knowing. Its a good check to the balance. Now, if they post nuclear bomb specs, then no that would be bad, but a whistle blowing portal? Sure, if they do it in the spirit of Ellsberg that is. People need an avenue, it used to be the press but they are in the pockets of the government these days and they spill sources quickly ( no morals).
Someone, a good man, said to me "To check your morals, if what you do is plastered all over the Sunday paper and it embarrasses you then your morals might need to be reevaluated." Same with the governments. Just ask Nixon if his morals were sound."
You sir, are awesome(At least when it comes to this issue). Just goes to show that nothing is ever black and white.
H_brummer:
ReplyDelete"Someone, a good man, said to me 'To check your morals, if what you do is plastered all over the Sunday paper and it embarrasses you then your morals might need to be reevaluated.'"
I can't go that far. Someone might be embarrassed were something in his private life made public because the local community would treat him differently, even though it should not be the case. For good examples, just think "consenting adults" in association with nosy communities especially in the "bible belt." However, the governments actions are supposed to be representative of the general public. If the government has to hide official actions because the public would disapprove, then it is not fulfilling its proper function.
Brummer,
ReplyDelete>>You sir, are awesome(At least when it comes to this issue).
All that glory goes to God.
>>Just goes to show that nothing is ever black and white.
Actually, it is black and white, written in the Bible. If we follow it, awesome ensues.