Hacker Admits To Scientology DDoS Attack

lbwbl writes with news that a New Jersey man will plead guilty to one felony count of 'unauthorized impairment of a protected computer' for his distributed denial of service attacks on Scientology websites as part of 'Anonymous' earlier this year. From Wired: "He faces a likely sentence of 12 to 18 months in prison based on stipulations in his plea agreement, which also obliges him to pay $37,500 in restitution. ... Friday's case, in US District Court in Los Angeles, marks the first prosecution of an Anonymous member for a series of attacks against the Church of Scientology that began in mid-January. The secretive religious group strayed into Anonymous' sights after trying to suppress the publication of a creepy Tom Cruise video produced for Scientology members."

Comments

scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[TheSovereign]

against them. Its high time these scammers got whats coming. Its time for a new age of reason! inspiring eh?

Re:scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[camperslo]

Will someone help protect me against the free-trade exploit tool (DMCA takedown notice) that I'm told the church would use against me if/when I try to sell my E-meter on Ebay?

The E-meter isn't a fake or an unauthorized copy.

Re:scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[Brad Eleven]

I remember a chapter in a text for a health class in junior high school. The topic was "Quacks," and the direction was to "beware of them." I remember being interested in the first view of doctors I'd seen that didn't portray them as completely trustworthy and somehow authoritarian.

One section described a particularly heinous form of quackery that involved "gizmos purported to measure the electrical charge on the surface of the skin." This seemed outrageous to me. Electricity on the skin??? Obviously this was a big-time scam. These gizmos were obviously fakes; I could tell just by reading the damning text and staring at the weird black and white photos.

I thought about this from time to time as I grew up, especially when I learned about the vast array of electrical charges and how ubiquitous electricity is. I still held onto this strange form of pity for those who had fallen for the scams of these quacks and their bogus gizmos. Something about the tone of the textbook made the whole thing seem very dangerous, e.g., there were people spending all of their money on something that couldn't possibly work. And what if they had a serious ailment which was being ignored in favor of the, the ... quackery !!!

Well, a few years ago, when the Scientology documents were exposed to the public, I perused them out of curiosity. Even though I knew about Xenu, I was still surprised to see it all there in print. Then I ran across the man's story of getting to some advanced Thetan level, and he described the self-auditing with the e-meter. Something in his narrative caused the neurons in my own brain to fire just so, and I realized that this was what was being described in the textbook.

I think it would be interesting to research how detectable electrical currents in the human body relate to physical, mental, even emotional processes. I believe it's dangerous to toss around half-baked notions of the same, in exchange for money and time, based on the ramblings of a science fiction author on alcohol and barbiturates.

I mean, the guy should have been on psilocybin, or mescaline. Alcohol and other depressants are cruel drugs.

Re:scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[Anonymous Coward]

This is happening. http://www.whyweprotest.net. DO IT NOW.

Re:scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[camperslo]

Well, a few years ago, when the Scientology documents were exposed to the public, I perused them out of curiosity. Even though I knew about Xenu, I was still surprised to see it all there in print. Then I ran across the man's story of getting to some advanced Thetan level, and he described the self-auditing with the e-meter. Something in his narrative caused the neurons in my own brain to fire just so, and I realized that this was what was being described in the textbook.

I think it would be interesting to research how detectable electrical currents in the human body relate to physical, mental, even emotional processes.

The E-meter isn't about anything as weird as trying to pick up signal currents in the body (at least not the model I have from about 30 years ago). It's just a resistance bridge, a device with a meter that can show small changes in resistance (inverse of conductivity). One puts a juice can in each hand and tensing of the grip and/or changes in perspiration cause a measurable shift as one responds to questions etc. It's basically doing just one of the things a so-called lie-detector does.

I was never a member of the church. I guess I should dig out the various booklets that are with the E-meter to see just how they used it. It's probably helpful in telling if someone has been successfully brainwashed or is holding back during questioning LOL.

Re:scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[Anonymous Coward]

Sample E-meter questioning:

Holden: You're in a desert, walking along in the sand when all of the sudden-
Leon: Is this the test now?
Holden: Yes. You're in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down-
Leon: What one?
Holden: What?
Leon: What desert?
Holden: It doesn't make any difference what desert, it's completely hypothetical.
Leon: But how come I'd be there?
Holden: Maybe you're fed up, maybe you want to be by yourself, who knows? You look down and you see a tortoise, Leon, it's crawling toward you-
Leon: Tortoise, what's that?
Holden: Know what a turtle is?
Leon: Of course.
Holden: Same thing.
Leon: I've never seen a turtle. (pause) But I understand what you mean.
Holden: You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on its back Leon.
Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write them down for you?
Holden: The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun beating its legs trying to turn itself over but it can't, not without your help, but you're not helping.
Leon: What do you mean I'm not helping?
Holden: I mean, you're not helping. Why is that Leon? (pause) They're just questions, Leon. In answer to your query, they're written down for me. It's a test, designed to provoke an emotional response. (pause) Shall we continue? Describe in single words, only the good things that come in to your mind about: your mother.
Leon: My mother?
Holden: Yeah.
Leon: Let me tell you about my mother. (shot fired)

Re:scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[Alien54]

Here are the patents and patent dates

The major technical difference between the earlier models and later models is the introduction of the transistor vs the use of vacuum tubes.

Patents by Mathison

Patent number: 2684670
Filing date: Aug 1, 1951
http://www.google.com/patents?id=L7tDAAAAEBAJ

Patent number: 2810383
Filing date: Sep 1, 1954
http://www.google.com/patents?id=mXVLAAAAEBAJ

Patent number: 2799269
Filing date: Feb 7, 1956
http://www.google.com/patents?id=wxNbAAAAEBAJ

Patents by Hubbard

Patent number: 3290589
Filing date: Jun 7, 1965
http://www.google.com/patents?id=OVpxAAAAEBAJ&

Patent number: D264877
Filing date: Mar 8, 1979
http://www.google.com/patents?id=pAMqAAAAEBAJ

Patent number: 4459995
Filing date: Sep 22, 1981
http://www.google.com/patents?id=YYsxAAAAEBAJ

Re:scientology needs a worldwide campaign launched

[Anonymous Coward]

Good deal. That Anonymous guy has been all over slashdot for years. He's a total racist.

Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[TheLink]

Yep no tears for him.

But what counts as "Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer"?

DRM that stops your OS or drives from working properly?

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[nightfire-unique]

But what counts as "Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer"?

DRM that stops your OS or drives from working properly?

No, because DRM is installed by corporations, not a person.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[Anonymous Coward]

Corporations are people too!

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[Idiomatick]

1~1.5 YEARS in prison for a relatively minor script kiddie DDOS? Thats way way WAY too harsh. He would have got less if he went their climbed up the pole and manually cut their connection. Thats WITH a plea. Totally not fair.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[nightfire-unique]

Corporations are persons in the legal sense.

No they aren't; corporations cannot vote and they have an unlimited lifespan. They cannot be jailed.

The corporation is a legal entity to shield shareholders from some liability (both criminally and from civilly), and provide a common entity to direct. Nothing more.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[lysergic.acid]

maybe corporate crimes should be prosecuted using the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act.

people use corporations to protect themselves against legal liability in case they are sued or otherwise break the law. this is similar to how mafia bosses distance themselves from the criminal activities they profit from in an attempt to buffer themselves from potential legal repercussions.

the military chain of command and other hierarchical organizations also have a similar effect of absolving personal responsibility. but when people are not held accountable for their own actions (including ordering unethical actions or authorizing criminal activities) this encourages corruption and has facilitated many injustices and atrocities in human history.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[kurzweilfreak]

Soylent Green is corporations?

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[sfraggle]

Script kiddies are still script kiddies. I don't feel any sympathy for him just because it was Scientology he attacked. It's good to see that anonymous have put their initial tactics behind them (ie. attacking websites) in favor of organised protests instead. Global protests with hundreds of people holding placards is both more effective *and* lets them keep the moral highground.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[jmickle]

How is it not fair? What about bandwidth charges for the network? THe time that he took away from some engineer's life to get up at 2am to go and mitigate the attack? what about all the people who were affected simply by his attacks? Who cares about the website..... This should be a lesson for all the script kiddies out there. i think the sentence should be 5 years..... this guy is not a hacker... hes just another person who got a computer for christmas and learned some tricks.... now he thinks he is all so powerful and think hes the best developer in the world.....

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[.orvp]

Regardless of if it is a "minor script kiddie DDOS" or not, it was disruptive. Let's take out who the actual recipient of the DDOS was and put in another organization, such as Amnesty International, just for the sake of argument. Would it have been ok to DDOS Amnesty for whatever purpose? Remember, if you don't treat everyone the same (allowing for due processes and the court of law) you don't have justice.

Now to take a look at the "script kiddie" aspect of the argument. Spammers are not that sophisticated, most of them do not actually write their own spamming software, they hire out for that and use pre-existing software, just as script kiddies do. So does that make it less of a problem than if they wrote the spamming software themselves? In my opinion, no it doesn't. Spammers, virus writers, and script kiddies all take time and resources away from citizens and corporations, which I see as a detriment to society. Now the best way to correct this, I am not sure, but I do not see a problem with locking up a script kiddie or spammer for 1-2 years, as I would really prefer to see more of them caught and sent to jail. This may not be a huge deterrent to many of them, but it would get more of them thinking about the consequences of their actions. What we do need though are laws that are enforced against these individuals.

I know that some see a difference with spammers and script kiddies because the spammers are doing it for a profit. This is not a reason for kiddies not to be prosecuted though. Arsonists are not burning buildings and cars for a profit, they do it for shits and giggles, just like the script kiddie. Not having profit motivating aspects to a crime does not make it any less wrong.

So I say, let him go to jail, good riddance. Yes it is my tax dollars at work, and yes we dis proportionally jail individuals longer for some crimes than others, but sometimes it is important to let individuals know just how much society disapproves of their actions.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[Digital End]

The only difference between that and cutting the line would be the bandwidth costs, which would be countered by line repair costs.

If you honestly believe a person deserves 1.5 years in prison for this you're damaged. It was some kid doing what amounts to vandalism. ANY amount of prison is overkill and more damaging to society then helpful. He should get probation at worst, a fine and community service.

You honestly have no grasp of justice if a year and a half of your life is the price to pay for shutting down a website for a day. I'm guessing you're the kind who would put a highschool kid in jail for a year for taking a bat to a mailbox too eh?

Punishment must fit the crime.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[Anonymous Coward]

Suffrage isn't intrinsic to legal personhood. Many people have been and are denied the right to vote. If you're in the United States, then corporations are extended many constitutional protections that "persons" enjoy. If you're in a different country, it varies. Generally, corporations can own property, be party to contracts, initiate lawsuits, and are required to pay taxes. All of these are common to your garden-variety person (except women, children, or minorities in various places and times.)

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood_debate.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[mpe]

people use corporations to protect themselves against legal liability in case they are sued or otherwise break the law.

Which wasn't the original idea behind a "Limited Liability Corporation" in the first place. That was that investors would have their financial liability limited to amount they had invested. Whilst they might end up with stock/share certificates which were effectivly worthless they would have no financial liability. Shareholders would be last on the list of creditors. Which whilst this might mean they would lose their money in the case of a failed business they could still get their money back (even make a profit) where one to cease trading whilst profitable.
The idea that a corporation must exist for a long period of time, together with the idea of a corporation protecting its executives from their actions are more recent "innovations".

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[Requiem18th]

Don't be silly, corporations ain't no people, there are some minimal requirements like a heart and minimal morality.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[gad_zuki!]

>ANY amount of prison is overkill and more damaging to society then helpful.

No. This is a felony and he easily deserves the time. Most likely whats going to happen is that he'll get the one year minimum and serve six months. I see that as entirely reasonable for computer crimes. I dont see any difference between this as breaking into the CoS datacenter and kicking over a server or two.

He's actually very, very lucky that he wasnt charged for a hate crime, which would have added a couple of years more to this case. He and his friends are attacking a religion, which in America is an attack on speech and freedom to worship.

In civil society, protesters shouldnt be causing any harm, real or virtual. They should be pushing out their message and letting others decide. Look at how much the catholic church has fallen with their child molestation scandals, without anyone ddosing anyone or anyone blowing up a church.

Once your ideology makes you a criminal and justifies it, then youve become the bad guy. Expect jailtime.

Re:Unauthorized impairment of a protected computer

[mcrbids]

What's retarded is just how easy it is to show that your understanding of law is deficient. I clocked myself: a legal definition of what legally constitutes a person took me almost exactly 14 seconds, including the time it took to launch a new tab in Firefox to do the searching in.

Not checking your information is idiotic in this age of freely available information; you'd do well to double-check yourself next time so you don't look like a pompous (but wrong) doofus.

And for those of you too lazy to click the above link, a corporation IS legally considered a "person" in a number of contexts, as defined by a LEGAL dictionary. Don't confuse "person" with Natural Person which is more in line with your comments.

Anonymous

[Hatta]

I guess they're not as anonymous as they thought. This anti-scientology campaign is well meant, but they should really try harder not to get caught.

Re:Anonymous

[owlnation]

Xenu sees all.

Oh, and sues all too.

Re:Anonymous

[alvinrod]

Or they could just stay on the legal side of the line. I know a guy who protested outside of a scientology center and as far as I'm concerned there's nothing illegal about that. You could go around handing out flyers explaining to people who you view Scientology as dangerous and still not get arrested. Encourage televised debates about it in a public forum and take it to them there.

You don't need to try and not get caught if you're not doing anything illegal to start with. If the CoS tries to get you arrested for peaceful protesting they'll be the ones that end up looking like assholes.

Re:Anonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

If the CoS tries to get you arrested for peaceful protesting they'll be the ones that end up looking like assholes.

Judging from their past behavior, I'd say they don't give a damn if they look like assholes.

Re:Anonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't need to try and not get caught if you're not doing anything illegal to start with. If the CoS tries to get you arrested for peaceful protesting they'll be the ones that end up looking like assholes.

Keith Henson wasn't that lucky.

Re:Anonymous

[Anonymous Coward]

You must not be familiar with the XenuTV channel on Youtube. People stage protests around Scientology facilities all the time, and because Scientolog has such deep pockets, they've paid off the local cops to not enforce laws when the Scientology thugs start fucking with the protesters.

The entire police force for the city of Clearwater is owned by the church. They've got video of Scientologists destroying video cameras, and the cops just say things like, "Your camera collided with his fist, that's not a crime."

Until we can get Scientology to be responsible, and follow the same rules as everybody else, we have to fight them from outside the system, because they've totally corrupted the inside of it.

Your Rights Online?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because you disagree with a group (as I do, in this case) does not mean that you can DDoS them. That is not your right, and the law says that you should be punished. If you want to take the moral high ground (in your opinion), prepare for the legal consequences.

Re:Your Rights Online?

[Endo13]

You can also be arrested for creating a public nuisance.

my take on anonymous vs scientology

[gadabyte]

a bunch of foolish kids with nothing better to do than form a mob, and be outraged at the freedom to be foolish and join another mob.

irony floats off, unnoticed.

Re:my take on anonymous vs scientology

[Mesa MIke]

Yes, but if you don't have the freedom to give up your freedom, then that's not freedom!

Re:my take on anonymous vs scientology

[CharliePowers]

You know, the protests in the 60's were also full of "foolish kids" but they changed the world in many ways for the better. I don't see anything wrong with people banding together to fight against evil. I don't condone what this kid did but in every movement there are bad apples which are not representative of the group. Anonymous is unlike anything the world has ever seen before and they are fighting against an evil Space Opera Cult. God Speed Anonymous.

Re:This anti-scientology campaign is well meant

[RiotingPacifist]

Erm last time i checked anonymous didnt:
*use copyright law to prevent any embaresing details being released about them
*get its members to discomuniacte from others who disagree with their teaching/methods
*get tax discounts for being a registerd church
*break into federal offices
*get people arrested for crimes they didn't commit
*not have cake

Infact while anonymous may act like a bunch of twats (although they often use the slogan "one of us, isn't as dumb as all of us" or something like that to cover there asses) other than breaking the law they are nothing like Scientology.

Anonymous Script Kiddies

[kromozone]

I can't see how this guy got caught. If he was running a botnet over IRC, he should have been able to simply log in, issue commands for which target to attack, and disconnect. Or was he posting copy and paste scripts on the chans who then divulged his IP to the feds? Seems like the majority of Anonymous are idiots. Recently, we have the guy using cTunnel to access Palin's email account, when he could have easily used TOR and had essentially 0% chance of being caught, or if that's to hard, at least multiple web-based proxies. Anyway, I'm curious to know how this guy got nailed. Does anyone have any info on how they tracked him down?

Re:This anti-scientology campaign is well meant

[Dan541]

Some members of Anonymous are just assholes this guy is one example. allot of asshats are jumping on the Anonymous bandwagon just to do things like this.

As an enemy of this vicious cult im glad this asshole got caught, You can't say you oppose something due to it's opposition of free-speech, morals, illegal activity ect by committing the exact same offences against it.

Re:Link to creepy Tom Cruise video

[rhesuspieces00]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFBZ_uAbxS0

Re:This anti-scientology campaign is well meant

[Nerdfest]

If you're going to make spelling mistakes, at least have some fun with them. Instead of 'a registerd church', try 'a registurd church'.

Just tryin' to help out.

business practices

[paniq]

scientology is not a religion, it's a business. if you want to drive them out of business, compete with them. make up a story that is even crazier to woo film stars and rake in the big rewards.

Join the just founded Roflology. we believe that God, who actually DID create the earth, was in turn created by a being named GLaDOS, an artificial intelligence from the future which traveled back in time, to the moment before time was about to be created. since then, many men are being born with a device attached to the inside of their noses called the Super-Human-Inhibition-Transponder, which, as the name suggests, inhibits superhuman abilities that men actually possess, like reading minds, seeing into the future and doing the dishes. This device powers itself from the resonant properties of metal threads in paper sheets, which come disguised as dollar or euro bills.

Roflology promises to help you regain your superhuman abilities. The first step is to store your money in a safe place, where it can't hurt you. The second step is a 120 years training process, which helps you to achieve immortality. Once you can no longer die, there follows another 50 years of training (piece of cake for an immortal), until superhuman qualities emerge. As a finale, you will receive a certificate and a little present.

Do one of our tests today to find out whether you are full of S.H.I.T.!

Re:business practices

[LKM]

Scientology isn't a business, it's a scam. They sell things which don't work, brainwash the people to whom they sell their things, and harass people whom they can't sell their things to.

Re:business practices

[John Hasler]

> scientology is not a religion, it's a business. if you want to drive them out of
> business, compete with them. make up a story that is even crazier...

How about one that involves priests who can magically transform cookies into human flesh which the followers then eat? Think that would fly?

Re:Scientology...Bad. Pentagon...Good?

[Zibri]

Scientology is bad compared to...?

Sanity.

Alternate Methods

[Anonymous Coward]

To the best of my knowledge, the DDOS attacks stopped in January. The people who are currently protesting are not using those methods.

You can check out what they are up to at
http://forums.scientology-exposed.com/
http://forums.whyweprotest.net/

To find out why people are still protesting start reading the stories here
http://www.forum.exscn.net/forumdisplay.php?f=2
http://www.exscientologykids.com/voicesinunison.html

Former scientologists are finally starting to have the courage to speak out and need to be supported.

In my home town alone, a former scientologist's apartment has been broken into & had file boxes stolen (left the TV, DVDs & laptop), slashed her car tires, cut the wires in her car (including the brake lights), ran her off the road, stalked her at the neighborhood swimming pool & tried to intimidate her there with her kids, have been trying to mentally fuck with her by turning off her circuit breakers for her apartment, have had vans & PIs staking out her home & following her.

These are not nice people. They need to be exposed.

cruel and unusual?

[wakingrufus]

fair enough that this guy is being convicted, but is a prison sentence really fair for a DDoS attack?

Actually...

[Moraelin]

Actually, I doubt that any campaign needs this kind of an asshat in the first place. It just creates the image of Scientology being the innocent victims, and their opponents being a bunch of criminals. We can do without that kind of making martyrs.

E.g., no offense, but you seem to do that generalization yourself when you paint the whole campaign as needing to try to not get caught. I'm not saying that to pick on you, but just to illustrate the kind of association that gets made. If even you, presumably a smart guy, fall for that kind of guilt by association, imagine how much easier that is for someone who understands computers and scientology even less.

Seriously, read any advocacy FAQ (e.g., start with the Linux one) and you'll see that all progress is actually made by the people who keep a professional and helpful attitude about it. Rabid zealots and asshat script kiddies are the kind you _don't_ want your movement to be associated with, because it ruins your whole credibility. That kind of "friends" are literally worse than your enemies.

And in this case it also ruins the whole moral high ground aspect. This guy infected (or help create a market for infecting) a bunch of innocent people's computers, and stuffed their internet connection to do his DDOS attack. That's actual harm done to innocents. It's an evil act. Once you show that kind of lack of morals or of respect for your fellow human, you just don't have a high ground from which to look down upon scientology.

If you will, it's a bit like reading about Mao denouncing the Soviet Union leaders. You're not inclined to rally on his side, because he's an evil fuck himself. Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is still a sociopathic prick.

Re:Link to creepy Tom Cruise video

[mweather]

Anyone have a link to the creepy Tom Cruise video?

You're going to have to be more specific.

Re:This anti-scientology campaign is well meant

[lysergic.acid]

i guess you could say Joe McCarthy meant well in the same sense that the church meant well during the Spanish Inquisition or Salem witch trials.

Far more dangerous than Scientology

[Anonymous Coward]

Now here is a cult I am much more scared of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYEnDepMKwE

Meh.

[drunkennewfiemidget]

Aside from the obvious fact that Scientology is a cult, I really wish they'd stop referring to fucking packet kiddies as 'hackers'. Most of them (and I'll bet this kid is no different) don't even fall in line with the definition of cracker or hacker. They're just children with buttons.

Re:This anti-scientology campaign is well meant

[horza]

What are the results from my Bayesian troll filter:
* lie, they "do not hurt anyone" - check
* contradiction, they are a "group nobody pays attention to" but they have "grown in ridiculous numbers" - check
* straw man argument, citing Heavens Gate and gang warfare - check
* invoking Godwins Law by mentioning Nazis - check
* mentioning vi or emacs - negative

Troll rating 4/5 - post rejected.

Phillip.

Re:This anti-scientology campaign is well meant

[jonaskoelker]

'a registurd church'.

I would've went with 'a registard church'.