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Anonymous Speaks About Australian Gov't. Attacks
daria42 writes "The loose-knit collective of individuals known as 'Anonymous' has broken its silence about the distributed denial of service attacks on the Australian government. An individual (who insisted he or she is not a spokesperson for the group) said the attacks were more effective at stopping the government's Internet filtering project than signing a petition, and that the attacks could go on for months." The site where some members of Anonymous are said to hang out, 4chan, got a visibility boost yesterday when its founder moot spoke at the TED conference.
Lol, stupid reporters.
We are legion.
Let's just check this box to post as AC and...
I've never heard of this site, "fourchan". It seems like its a pretty cool activist site. Can someone tell me more about it? I'd go there, but my ISP is blocking it :(
"An individual (who insisted he or she is not a spokesperson for the group)"
So, basically, a nobody commented.
All right.
I am Canadian and so I say the Canadian government disapproves too. Though I insist I'm not speaking in the name of the Canadian government.
Yay?
It's more of an activity. Possibly a culture. It certainly doesn't have anyone who speaks for the group as a whole.
Pool's Closed.
Yeah, let me know when you see Anonymous on there. They're totally a bunch of black shadowy figures hanging out in /b/. Also, last time I checked, this was 4chan rule #4:
4chan has a reputation for being a launchpad for this sort of thing, but it's not, at least, not any more. Go blame IRC, go blame any of the dozen clone boards, but it's not 4chan now.
--- Mr. DOS
Way to go, guys. You need to learn some history and some sociology. Then you will understand that the most successful criminals DO NOT ADVERTISE their existence. At a certain nuisance level, the cost of your attacks will exceed the cost of fixing the system to stop you. And the rest of us will be made to pay for it.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
It is an appropriate response to a figurehead politician making these rules, because it is a bunch of anonymous peons that are implementing them. The peons hide behind the facade of a government which they don't have to take responsibility for their actions.
Governments love when an individual speaks out, because they can release a bureaucratic horde of government employees to crush them. An individual who cannot be expected to address numerous rules, regulations and pressures a government can bring against them.
So Anonymous vs the government, as far as I am concerned is a fair fight.
Summary says:
"An individual (who insisted he or she is not a spokesperson for the group) said..."
TFA says exactly the opposite:
"...received a reply from an individual claiming to be a spokesperson."
Authenticity of said spokesperson: YMMV.
Sig matters not. Judge me by my sig, do you?
DDOS is civil disobedience. They're just loading a site a bunch of times, making the site useless. It's no scarier than protesters having a sit-in, making the area they occupy useless. In fact, it's very similar.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
If your response to a DDOS attack on the a few websites is "a state of intense fear", you need to get out more.
could transform the humble Icelander into a legal superman, virtually untouchable abroad for comments written
It's a word! It's a claim! No, it's FreeSpeechMan!
Whatever will we do when Iceland is overrun with people with the power to say whatever they want?
Freedom Of Speech -- It's Scary!
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
of the stupidest lamest waste of time on the internet
comes the most effective force for progressive change
the one thing that an idiot has, that a wise man does not seem to have, is freedom to act
when your education acclimates you to acceptance of a lame status quo, then your education is worth less than being an idiot
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Jailed toughguy vs free coward. Hmm... have you seen any rambo movies lately? Ask someone in the army if they need more people like him. /b/tards with capital-A Anonymous. They might overlap in some areas but they are different enough to not be seen as one.
And stop confusing the
The will of the people is the true purpose of democracy. Regardless of the fact that people are doing this anonymously, this is similar in line to the rebellion against a tyrannical government. Just because the tyranny is not as bad (censorship of porn), and the attack by the people (DDoSing government websites) does not make it a "joke" or an immature prank. If the government was actively rounding up thousands of people from a certain ethnic group for "cleansing", you could expect everyone to gather guns to kill them. Since it is not that serious, you get a less serious, albeit effective response. It made them realize what the public wants. And I don't believe this is a symptom of the "vocal minority" simply because people don't get involved with something for no financial gain, unless they genuinely believe in it, and while it could be the act of a few, it is most likely the act of many. Even if it were a vocal minority, in the US, the constitution was created to protect the freedom of the minority. I don't know how Australia views it's minorities, but I would hope a country that everyone considers "western" holds the same ideal. Anonymous is the true unhindered will of the people. It does not give in to socially acceptable norms, or anything that hides what someone truly wants. If people want porn, they will do so under anonymous. Anonymous is legion.
It's not like annonymous is running around chopping people's arms off with machetes and raping them.
/b/. The rest of the boards are pretty laid back.
No, that's just
Where can I sign up to be ddos'd by this?
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
This is what's called "Hacktivism".
It's no more a form of terrorism as is honking a horn at a car that cuts in front of you. (car analogy, just for you)
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Blowing up the buildings housing the filters would also be more effective than a petition, but that's not legal either.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Why does it matter whether it's terrorism or not?
It is arguably damage. It isn't killing anybody. It is a political act. Labelling it terrorism just muddies the water by using emotive language.
If they used their *own* machines to do the loading I'd agree. But they almost certainly used a small botnet or at least the compromised machines of others to do the dirty work, so they would remain, er, anonymous. Taking over other peoples machines isn't civil disobedience, its quite uncivil. Part of civil disobedience is getting hit by the water hoses to make a public point. If there are no repercussions, its just ignoring laws you don't like, not civil disobedience. A more appropriate analogy would be stealing cars from everyone along a block and putting them in front of a store's entrance so no one could use it until they were removed. Everyone loves car analogies.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
The higher the punishments for civil disobedience the deeper underground the protest will go.
It would be the equivalent of a 'sit in' if the response would be the equivalent of getting hit with the hose. When instead the response is 'evil child-porn-network-supporting terrorist hackers' you know no-one is going to stand up to identify themselves...
This could possibly escalate to the point where freethink will get you executed, by that time the only protest by that point is deep underground and more and more likely to have lethal consequence.
How isn't this a form of terrorism?
*ahem*
terror is defined as a state of intense fear
My work here is done.
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
I think the Jake Brahm incident (when he threatened to bomb stadiums) may have been a better avenue for saying that anonymous sites can still track someone stupid down and work with government officials.
Don't mess with football
Jake Brahm
Anonymous is a non-hierarchical group with no objectively defined membership and no legitimate representation, but saying that it is nonexistent is strange.
That would be like saying coffee-drinkers or speakers of American English are nonexistent, just because they have no representative and there is no objective way to determine who belongs to this group. (Does drinking a single cup of coffee once in your life make you a member or only regular consumption? And what qualifies as regular? ... )
Anonymous exists, it is currently troubling the Australian government and has troubled Scientology before. It seems to be hard to grasp - for some minds and prosecuters alike ;-)
However, for that reason it is a non-story. I totally agree with you there.
"Hannibal's plans never work right. They just work." Amy/A-Team
Except that a very small number of angry people can make a very large impact, whereas in your sit-in example it takes a lot of people who feel strongly to pull off a decent sit-in which means that the protest is more likely to reflect public opinion. DDOS is too easy for an individual or a very small group of individuals. This cheapens the process and makes the voice of one count more than the voice of many. The bottom line is that Australians need to be working against this in their political process not a bunch of holier-than-thou American youth. Let's see someone actually organize a big protest in Australia about this--that would be worthy and honorable. This is not.
I'm glad you pointed out the definition of 'terrorism'. Those particular words were well thought out, I believe.
How much real fear in instilled in you, the Australian people, the Australian government, or the target site's admins as a result of this event? Any fear at all? Is this fear a reasonable response to this event? It's just computer systems and public websites, after all. Do you equate 'inconvenience' with 'danger'?
We're being conditioned to experience fear when we're told, on demand. We're told that an attack against a server is an attack on the people and therefore the expected response is fear, nee 'Terror'. As an individual, I ask you if you choose what you are afraid of? Do you hold in yourself the determination behind your actions, your beliefs, and your responses to external events? Do events out of your control cause you to fear them and their instigators because you believe that you are truly in danger, or because you have been conditioned to respond as if it were so by people who have a specific interest and benefit by your fearful response?
If you want to call these events 'Acts of Terrorism', if you want to be afraid, please do so on your own terms and not those handed to you along with the blindfold and handcuffs. You are a powerful individual, my friend, and you are capable of deciding for yourself what is right if you will only objectively view the events and effects that you experience. Keep that power to yourself, instead of simply handing it off to those who would manipulate you for their gain.
-write unit tests, or else.
Please. The sit-in is still a minority gaining a voice. The difference is that it is a minority that actually had to do something difficult to make a stand. They have to go and publicly be in a place to make a protest which signals who they are and what they care about. Anonymous DDOSing someone is not going to change a politicians mind. They probably aren't even citizens. Why would any government official in Australia care about some anonymous trouble maker from outside the country costing them a couple of bucks. An Australian government official WOULD care about a vocal minority of his own constituency actually pounding on his door or making other public actions that won't be construed as illegal. Anonymous' actions are not akin to a sit-in at all, they are akin to a graffiti protest of the government building's steps. No-one important will take notice. You can't honestly believe that this stupid prank will change a politicians mind.
And that's what such a DDOS should be called. Don't call for a DDOS, call for a sit-in, via-reloading the page. Assosciate anti-censorship with civil rights as much as possible.
Not a sentence!
And finally, what have YOU done today to combat social injustice? At least the memebers of Annonymous are putting forth some effort, even if they aren't displaying the gumption of your old-school civil-rights strawman.
As cheesy as it is to take phrases from anime, I really can think of no better term for this.
Anonymous is a Stand Alone Complex, a group of individuals acting as copycats with no clear original, produced by the confluence of thoughts caused by mass exposure to similar media. This sort of thing is easily caused by the Internet in general, and especially the echo-chamber effect and high information volume on 4chan (and others, including Slashdot, though we tend to be less active about it).
Also, though Anonymous no longer shows this, SACs tend to be composed of people acting independently, with no knowledge of the others actions. Or, they can be thought of as a leaderless group caused by networked, subconscious groupthink on a massive scale.
I highly encourage the adoption of this term, not because I like the anime it came from, but because I think it is an extraordinarily accurate description of phenomena like Anonymous.
According to Merriam-Webster, terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion while terror is defined as a state of intense fear.
Sounds to me like quite a few fear mongering politicians are guilty of terrorism.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
If anything I think of Anonymous as a sort of physical collective superego and id for the internet with no mediating ego, they're more like a force of nature than anything else.
Stop trying to put a fucking label on me jackass. It's people like you that eat babies because they are so very fresh and rather delicious but then have the nerve to go and never file your tax returns because the government 'disagrees' with your child molesting church hobby deduction. I mean seriously, when are you going to respond to the fact that in 1997 you raped and murdered a 97 year old man just to see if it was something you'd be interested in majoring in up at the local community college?
Not posted anonymously because I don't fucking feel like waiting.
yes, completely agreed. it's so stupid. i mean, governments all over the world have been so reasonable - there are no censorship attempts at all, flying is very pleasant, we haven't heard about any torturing taking place for centuries.
now, just now, because of this action people will turn against any free speech attempts and governments will have to take the only legitimate choice left to them - revoke all the free speech that's currently freely available, install cameras - first on streets, then in pubs, then in homes - because you can never be sure where a freespeecher-childpornographer is !
fear. blame. be a good citizen.
Rich
A denial of services attack by numerous individuals is civil disobedience, obviously.
A bot-net based denial of services attack is more like civil clashes between economic entities, like if amazon pulls some publishers books, although the bot-net was obviously illegal anyways.
A even more criminal version of a denial of services attack would be identifying all the government employees involved, identifying their personal information, and giving it all the nigerian scammers.
A good rule of thumb is "It's not terrorism if it does not involve an attempted killing."
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Here's the list of party positions determined: http://shockseat.com/communications/internet-filtering-scheme
/disclaimer, I run shockseat.com
However, the DDOS attacks are preventing me from determining the votes of Lower and Upper House on issues like Copyright for the upcoming Federal Election, so whenever some of the government sites are up I am unable to access it at all, especially Copyright Amendment Bill 2006 at aph.gov.au (http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;db=;group=;holdingType=;id=;orderBy=priority,title;page=3;query=Dataset%3AbillsPrevParl%20Decade%3A%222000s%22%20Year%3A%222006%22;querytype=;rec=5;).
Some media are talking about it occasionally, it's not front page news and mostly it's just aggravating the government, the officials and site visitors. This isn't making the government abandon it or raising strong awareness with the public.
I implore you guys not to attack the government websites for months on end. If you're going to protest, try something else that's better at raising awareness.
Hmm... have you seen any rambo movies lately?
No. Never. But I've heard of them.
Ask someone in the army if they need more people like him.
OK. Will anyone in particular at ADFA do?
Now where're both confused. Apparently Rambo is a very short guy, who doesn't wear a shirt, likes to body wax and oil - and what's that? Huh - I though you blokes weren't allowed to discriminate??
Well, whatever point you're trying to make is lost around here. Disclaimer - we are not as smart as you - we are not even sure what WOW is all about. Or "Leet".
Apparently some of this forum has been printed out and put on the fridge in the CyberWarfare section - next to Dilbert. - you've got fans. Maybe
You seem to think America invented the internet...
A you for fucking real??
Allowing them to collect rust underground unused
Stop right there! Open the windows, stop snorting that shit, get off my fucking lawn you hoser. Neither optic fibre nor copper rust!
Do you smell shit everywhere you go?? Surely it's because you have your head up your arse!
DARPA is not, and never has been the entire internet. Nor was it set up entirely by people from Berkley.
Get a life you moron and check your history. One day you may want to leave the basement without people throwing dung at your head.
Oh, and peace out, fatboy - for patriotism surely is the last refuge of scoundrels.
Can anyone think of a historical (as in pre-internet :) ) example of something similar?
Christians.
Wrong answer - thinking is something you do with your "brain". Christians became well - dead - wiped out and every effort made to obliterate them and their records. See Dead Sea Scrolls - did you think they were hidden from the Buddhists??
Or do you believe the whole Constantine line.
Try "heretics" "gnostics". Next you'll be confusing "first birth" with "virgin".
Try history over shooting your mouth.
Wishing you peace, love. and a very Merry Christmas.
I just spent 6 months volunteering in Western Africa to combat social justice. What have YOU done? What anonymous is doing is, again, like graffiti: attempting to use means that won't convince anyone important. The fact that you equate what anonymous does with civil rights protestors is extremely offensive. I am not saying anonymous isn't fighting for something admirable, but using any illegal means that you feel like is not akin to civil disobedience. Why don't they just break into the government offices and throw stuff around and then escape and call that civil disobedience? What you are saying is that anyone can do whatever they want even if it is against the law as long as they claim its for a good cause. This is not the case and you shouldn't so easily accept what other people do just because you agree with the outcome. The ends do not justify the means.
and by combat social justice, I meant combat social injustice.
Actually if someone really were so stupid to even *want* to speak for Anonymous, he would be in for some of the worst harassment you can imagine, apart from all the things they'd do just to make him and them look bad.
OTOH, it would probably lead to one or more trials with defendants telling the judge ITIFTL. Which would be lulz indeed.
Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
Argh. IDIFTL, not ITIFTL.
Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
Well, I, for one, am extremely disappointed that this does not involve some IRL mass, shirtless demonstrations. I think the sight a few thousand pair of pasty, flopping man-boobs would make people sorry they ever crossed horns with anonymous. Then we'd see who's really looking out for the kids. (The goggles; They do nothing!)
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
Don't you?
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.