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Griefers Assault Epileptics Via Message Board
An anonymous reader tips us to a story up at Wired reporting on what may be the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on victims. Last Saturday, griefers posted hundreds of bogus messages on the support forums of the nonprofit Epilepsy Foundation that used JavaScript and strobing GIFs to trigger migraines and seizures in users. For about 3% of the 50 million epileptics worldwide, flashing lights and colors can trigger seizures. "'I don't fall over and convulse, but it hurts,' says [an IT worker in Ohio]. 'I was on the phone when it happened, and I couldn't move and couldn't speak.' ... Circumstantial evidence suggests the attack was the work of members of Anonymous, an informal collective of griefers best known for their recent war on the Church of Scientology. The first flurry of posts on the epilepsy forum referenced the site EBaumsWorld, which is much hated by Anonymous. And forum members claim they found a message board thread — since deleted — planning the attack at 7chan.org, a group stronghold."
The members of Anonymous that did these hacks, if, in fact, that is who planned them, are likely not the same people protesting the Scientology organization.
One of the things about Anonymous that makes it different than most groups is that there are no real leaders and that, due to its very nature, nobody really knows anyone else in the group short of a few people that they might know outside the anonymous forums (this is because on a lot of the boards that Anon originated on, posters are forced to post anonymously, hence the name).
So it's really impossible to tell whether the people doing this are the same ones behind the masks at the protests.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Two particular L. Ron Hubbard quotes are especially instructive in this regard- And- Certainly makes you wonder...
Also, Epileptics need to build themselves a Firefox plugin that'll detect any harmful behaviour, and block it Adblock-style. As the tech progresses this plugin could even be integrated into special sunglasses....
"Be light, stinging, insolent and melancholy"
Why did they go through all that trouble? They could have simply redirected 'em to Myspace.
Newbie griefers pretending to by Anonymous are caught posting from IP addresses associated with Scientology.
Obviously 'Anonymous' did this, because the Church of Scientology is so moral as to never stoop to breaking the law and framing others to remove a detractor.
Just how they would never try to drive a critic to suicide or cause the death of one of their own due to denial of basic medical treatment.
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
Some Anons say there is but one Anon.
I express solidarity with the Anons who fight the CoS, but I refuse to accept the Internet Hate Machine as being the same Anonymous. It is why I said before and I say again: There are TWO Anonymous.
-uso.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
And so, the Scientology strategy of blaming their detractors through a blackbag job worked. They got you to believe this was by Anonymous.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
See Wikipedia for a pretty complete explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griefer
In a nutshell, it's someone that does a deliberately obnoxious or destructive thing to another person, simply for their own personal entertainment.
So, it's not exactly being used correctly. If it was done by Anonymous in response to a supposed threat, that was a premptive strike, not a griefing. If it wasn't anonymous, but simply someone that thought it would be funny, then griefing is a correct term for it.
And I am supposed to believe that this is Anonymous branching out from their protest against Scientology, and not some asshat member of Scientology trying to give Anonymous a bad name because...?
Anonymous has a beef with Scientology, and that is the sole extent of their agenda to date, so there is absolutely no reason for them to suddenly decide to launch an attack against epileptics. On the other hand there is every reason for Scientology to try and smear Anonymous in order to gain a more sympathetic ear in any future court actions against Anonymous. Given the track record Scientology has with the use of smear campaigns against people and organisations that try to stand up to them, I'd say it's pretty obvious what's really going on here.
Oh, and expect incoming pro-Scientology astroturfers in 3... 2... 1...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
In other words, I do believe they would do something like you are suggesting.
I also would expect another phone call from them tomorrow for this post :~(
Careful What You Wish For....
I have a relative in the Fire Alarm business and he tells me about the restrictions on strobe lights on long corridors, they have to flash simultaneously because the random flashes could cause a seizure during a fire. I thought, "wow, that's right. I wonder if they actualy thought about it before hand, or if they wrote the regulation based on a real incident."
Anyway, having that on my mind, I was looking at some of the more garish web sites and thought to myself, "I wonder if someone would construct a site that could trigger an epileptic seizure. Well, now we know.
As for "Anonymous" be the same anti-scientology "Anonymous," I would bet with 99% confidence that if there is such an accusation, it is scientology that did it. We know "why" anonymous is going after scientology, whether you agree or disagree, they have a cause. The epilepsy incident has nothing to do with that cause, and furthermore undermines it. It only makes sense that since it undermines the cause of "anonymous," it was likely done by scientology since they are the ones with the actual motive.
Maybe this is how Anon rolls on 7chan, but the Anon of 4chan simply does not work like this. Perhaps someone encouraged them, but usually such an idea would be met with accusations of using /b/ as a personal army. The raids I have seen always target pornographic webcams, racist radio shows, or rival internet groups such as Gaia. Anon may laugh at harm that happens on others, but they aren't actually malicious when it comes to their own actions. It is more their style to troll a dyslexia forum with garbled paragraphs. I suppose this could be the doing of a minority of truly evil people who take advantage of the anonymity, but this just seems too convenient of timing. I believe the Co$ is to blame for this.
Is that true?
Not the actual "attack" itself, of course. But immediately, someone mentioned "anonymous" and everyone knew who they were, that they had a beef with scientology, and that scientology was possibly behind it to discredit them.
This shows that scientology is losing the PR war. They are completely out of their league when they can't actually identify and personally harass their detractors.
For linux tips: http://www.linuxtipsblog.com
Obviously you were just in the wrong newsgroups.
Er, how about this: people who run websites need to be competent at it.
Many forum software packages have the ability to selectively or globally disable the upload animated GIFs. Given that they're forums for suffers of epilepsy, you'd think it'd be fairly high up on the list given that photosensitivity is a well-known symptom.
Similarly, a sticky forum post on "How to avoid a seizure when browsing the web" would be helpful. Links to Firefox plug-ins, and the like.
this is not true. There is not One or Two anonymous, there is NO anonymous.
It's not useful to associate "anonymous" as a group or entity. "Anonymous" is a completely chaotic, anarchistic, loose association. It is akin to race. There are (excuse this analogy) white people, and there are other white people who do bad things, and there are yet more white people who do good things. It is not useful to say "white people" are anything, except that "white people" came from europe and have a history of colonialism.
It is exactly the same with "anonymous". Anonymous is simply a subset of most people in the world who use the internet, and there is a subse tof them who do other things, and a subset of THEM who attack things, and a subset of this which may have assaulted an epilepsy board. But none of them are really related beyond circumstance.
The point is "anonymous" does not have any goals or means or anything. They don't even share interests, the only real connection is a mode of communication (and often web sites). Some anonymous coalesce to do things, like protest scientology or mess around on the internet, but they are not related except by modes of action. Attributing causal notions to this Anonymous is fallacy.
Man, I thought I was 1337, but it seems those days are gone. Great, now what am I going to do when my dad finds out I don't understand the internet anymore?
To disable animation in Opera you go to Tools > Quick Preferences > uncheck "Enable GOF/SVG Animation"
You bet. This sounds exactly like a false-flag attack to discredit Anonymous. They have already struck back once after Anonymous sandbagged their servers with DDoS and Gigaloader attacks. Co$ has been twisted up since the 2/10 and 3/15 peaceful demonstrations. Now that the /i/nsurgents are under the tutelage of Gregg Hagglund, Tory Christman, and Mark Bunker, it's only going to be a matter of time before OSA kicks it into high gear to start tracking these kids down.
This is just a salvo of an upcoming battle, the likes of which Co$ hasn't ever seen before. So long as Anonymous can remain decentralized and have more than one forum to communicate, this could be interesting to see play out.
Never attribute to Hanlon that which can be adequately attributed to Heinlein.
...Says the Anonymous Coward. Grow up.
Or could it be that, due to the original anonymous group against scientology being well, anonymous, they are easy to impersonate...
Thus, the second anonymous group attacking epileptics is actually compose of members of the church of scientology seeking to discredit the original anonymous group?
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Hello, Slashdot. We are Anonymous.
.info with the most horrendous filth porn and human gore imagery to be found online.
Anonymous, peacefully campaigning against the Church of Scientology, condemn this attack.
There is also little doubt that those who would attack a site such as this, and unprovoked, are the same 'Unnamed People' who covered the anti-Church of Scientology Campaign wiki page, Projecct Chanology on partyvan
It is possible that these were both orchestrated by anti-moralist members of 'the chans', but it is also not impossible that the 'Church's' online operatives managed to instigate this unprecedented attack to discredit the peaceful protesters.
Perhaps 'the chans' do not realize they are being manipulated.
Sadly anonymity is a catch all, literally anyone can and will say "I am Anonymous", even The Church of Scientology is "Anonymous" when they connect to public FTPs. You can not have the security of anonymity both inside and out, without the problems of defending against anonymous insurgents, just ask Wikileaks.
Condolences to any harmed.
This attack, as any violent attack, is condemned by Anonymous.
Though the 'Church' will push this at every opportunity, it will feed their policy of ad hominem attack. It does not in any way negate the crimes of the 'Church', they cannot hide behind another.
We will legally fight the corrupt pyramid scheme organization that is the Church of Scientology regardless.
Knowledge is free.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.
Mod parent up- Fact is that "anonymous" means nobody knows who did it. So blaiming the people who are attacking scientology for an anonymous attack is the same as blaiming every crime whose perpetrator is unknown on the group protesting scientology.
It seems the only ones looking to benefit from making this connection would be the church of scientology itself, and this "article" just helps the scientology propaganda.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag
The cult is doing this to make Anonymous look bad.
I used to be a Scientologist, and I can tell you based on first hand experience that this is EXACTLY what the cult would do.
This is not the work of those who fight and oppose the cult of Scientology.
The cult has already taken to creating fake videos and messages that appear to be from Anonymous and that contain threats of violence against the cult itself. This latest stunt is simply the next step in their campaign of demonizing Anonymous.
The problem with Anonymous is that anyone can pretend to be part of the group. While they are highly resistant to efforts by the cult to target them as individuals, they are vulnerable to false-flag tactics such as this one.
This is not the first time the cult has done this. Back in the 70's they targeted a woman for writing a book that revealed the evil nature of the cult. The cult responded by forging evidence linking her to a fake bomb threat, among other things:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Freakout
She was facing a long prison sentence until the FBI accidentally discovered that the cult had set her up while conducting another investigation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White
Scientology is evil. It is something that most people who have never dealt with the cult have a hard time understanding or believing. To describe the nature of this cult to someone who is unfamiliar with it is very difficult because polite society lacks the terms needed to accurately convey the depth of evil found within this organization. It is also difficult because an accurate description defies belief. Most people are unable to contemplate something so evil actually existing in the real world.
But scientology is that bad, and it is real. Its victims are a multitude and its crimes are horrific.
But don't take my word for it, read up on it yourself:
http://www.xenu.net/
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
you are the 4th or 5th person with a low post count asserting that Scientology could not possibly have done this and that they aren't afraid of anonymous.
a pattern emerges
the pattern says go back to clearwater
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
To disable animation in lynx you go to ... uh... carry on.