Angles On Anonymous

A number of readers are sending in links related to Anonymous, the Internet phenomenon — don't call them a group — behind the controversial DDoS attacks on commercial entities that fail to support WikiLeaks. The best insight into Anonymous comes from the Economist's Babbage blogger, who hung out in one of their IRC channels. Reader nk497 points out that UK users looking to join Anonymous's DDoS army should be aware they could face a jail term of up to two years; simply downloading the LOIC software used in the DDoSing could suffice to earn a conviction. One 16-year-old has been arrested in The Netherlands and is charged with participating in the DDoS. Reader ancientribe sends in coverage of a claim by one security outfit that several existing criminal botnets have joined forces with Anonymous's Operation: Payback. And reader Stoobalou notes a Thinq.co.uk story on a manifesto of sorts that purports to come from "ANON OPS," even though Anonymous disclaims any central spokesperson or entity (press release here, PDF).

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WikiLeaks hosts file for mirrors

[vinsci]

Slightly off-topic: get your hosts file with IP-addresses for each of the WikiLeaks mirrors here:

WikiLeaks hosts file for mirrors

This is a complete list of IP addresses and host names for all WikiLeaks mirrors, in standard hosts file format. You can add the contents of the file to the hosts file already on your computer. The advantage of this is that you are no longer dependant on external DNS service providers in order to access WikiLeaks, as the file provides the necessary domain name to IP address mapping needed to access the sites.