Slashdot Mirror
Designer Arrested Over Anonymous Press Release
An anonymous reader writes "A Greek designer named Alex Tapanaris, whose name appeared on the PDF press release circulated by online trouble-makers Anonymous has had his web site disappeared and, according to reports, the unfortunate chap has been arrested. THINQ managed to talk to Alex on the phone, and while he wouldn't confirm his arrest, he 'certainly sounded spooked,' the web site reports. 'No comment,' he said and hung up. The press release sought to explain Anonymous's aims and lack of any formal organization. It explained that the Anonymous name is applied to a shifting roster of individuals who come together on an ad hoc basis, depending on individual concerns and practical, day-to-day matter such as who happens to be online at the time. Clicking on the document's properties revealed Tapanaris as its named author."
Attacking financial services, banks and government websites is probably the best idea in the world.
Clicking on the document's properties revealed Tapanaris as its named author.
Congratulations, Mr. Tapanaris, you've won the "Wow, I'm an idiot for signing an 'anonymous' document" prize!
... if you're going to do something dodgy, you put fake names into your software registration fields. :p
When someone is arrested, isn't there a public record of it? Why not call the local police to verify instead of calling the guy directly? In fact being able to call him directly suggest that he has not been arrested.
Creating a press release describing how Anonymous isn't some group with centralized leadership doesn't seem like a crime to me either.
I can't help but to think that this sounds like media whoring at its worst. Basically a big prank pulled on the public at large.
I read the internet for the articles.
sage
If I come out with a press release saying that "Us KKK members killed hundreds of black people." I wouldn't be arrested right? I mean, I am saying I am part of a group that committed murder but that isn't enough to arrest me right?
He sure is not very anonymous. Come on now kid, if you are in a group that is attacking big name sites, are you honestly dumb enough to put your real name into software registration? I know you didn't pay for the software. Wait, he got arrested, so apparently he is that dumb.
And people are getting all up in arms about the skiddies. That is too funny. Hey, you can get a group of 10,000 retards together and they can cause some havoc, but in the end, it is still a group of 10,000 retards
The world is how you make it
The news media continues to focus on the drama surrounding Wikileaks and Anonymous instead of focusing on the cables.
How many US new organizations reported on the Cable from Tegucigalpa detailing that the Honduras Coup was illegitimate? This was a big news story, and an important situation in Honduras that has immediate impact on understanding the Obama administration.
It also shows that the Obama administration lied, and helped support the coup government by their actions.
So.. who is covering it? And compare that to another article on the drama surrounding it.
And that's just one cable. How many more will come out of great importance that everyone will ignore to instead focus on what Assange is doing.
It's not Assange or Anons fault, it's the News doing it. But this is their out.
This allows them to totally ignore the importance of the cables. And keep repeating that "nothing significant" is coming out.
http://use.perl.org
Word processors that remember your name and fill in author metadata for you are sure helpful, aren't they?
This situation is exactly the situation I warned about. I said cyber vigilantes would find these anonymous Wikileaks supporters. I also said cyber vigilantes from anonymous would find the anti wikileaks opponents. The anonymous crowd or not, hacked McDonald's and Gawker's 1.5 million user database complete with passwords which will surely be leveraged by hackers to dig into their lives.
The cyberwar is going to be ugly as the victims mount up. It's vigilante group vs vigilante group and the only people we should feel for as the civilians in between. They don't deserve to be stalked merely for speaking out for or against Wikileaks. They don't deserve the gangstalking BS.
What can be done to protect innocent civilians from the fallout?
Seriously, a name in a document led to an arrest?
Confirmed for law: write the name of your enemies in a document threatening another persons life or business and you can get them arrested!
Jesus, i hope it isn't serious, otherwise those people are terribly stupid.
Is he charged with designing graphics? With sympathizing with an unsavory group? How the heck would that arrest warrant look? How is the creation of that document even something in the vicinity of a crime?
The worst possibility is to be stalked by legions of anti-wikileaks vigilantes.
This guys life may very well be ruined over this as now he's going to face the Greek version of COINTELPRO. Read about operation Gladio.
And because he's Greek the CIA, NSA and US Military can use full force on him. They don't even have to pretend to respect his human rights or civil rights like they would if he were an American. Extrajudicial justice from the vigilantes will be what he could face just by having associated himself with this sort of manifesto.
It's like having signed your name to the US Constitution or Communist Manifesto and somehow it leaks out and now they all know who you are and where you live.
When someone is arrested, isn't there a public record of it? Why not call the local police to verify instead of calling the guy directly?
Oh, they have their sources.
A bloke named Alex Tapanaris, whose name appeared on the PDF press release circulated by online trouble-makers Anonymous has had his web site disappeared from the web and, according to a post on pastebin.com, the unfortunate chap has been arrested.
Everyone knows that pastebin is irrefutable.
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
It could very well be that he made the info site about anonymous without having participated in the attacks against banks, etc... Just because he in some way assosciates himself with the anonymous, some of whom do occasional crimes, doesn't really prove that he is a criminal... But well, I'm interested to see how this one turns out.
And it's even today's comic:
XKCD 834.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Clicking on the document's properties revealed Tapanaris as its named author
Well that settles it then, because these computer people would never figure out that you could put the name of someone that you don't like in a document like this and cause them problems too while you are doing your original mischief.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
He had his website "disappeared?" Really? Who is editing these summaries? A chimp with Down's Syndrome?
The government vigilantes mean business and are completely ruthless. He just got outed as being a member of anonymous, this is like being outed as a communist back during the anti-communist era.
At this point counter intelligence agencies are going to run his name through their national security databases. Then they'll find out what they can use against him, or what they can use to entrap and or destroy him. Then they'll give that information to the anti-wikileaks vigilantes
You can bet on that.
Why will they go after him? To get the names and identities of the others.
So if an arrest has been made on the basis of software user registration details, surely the appropriate response is to start flooding the Internet with questionable documents (kitty porn, bomb-making instructions etc.), all in the name of a specific celebrity target?
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
That (as they say) is all.
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
Because if you use your computer you wont be anonymous. If you use the library computer then you are on camera and not anonymous. If you use an internet cafe they'll ask who was on the computer at that time and so you aren't anonymous.
It's a lot harder to be anonymous than you might have thought. It's not impossible but it's not something a 16 year old hacker can do from their living room or a 40 year old hacker can do from his parents basement. It's something a sophisticated Russia or Chinese state sponsored hacker could do, or an experienced amateur hacker could do.
A Tapanaris
Anonymous FAIL
And the punishment is lifetime COINTELPRO.
Counter intelligence agencies certainly want to know who he is and how to destroy him. They probably also want to know who and what he knows.
Slashdotters,
Here is a case-in-point (rather old) showing that mainstream US media just doesn't get it. Anonomous and Lulz
U.S. Media,
Anonymous is not a secret hacker organization. It is the literal definition of the word. It is not a proper noun. It is just individuals acting without large-scale coordination, all pissed off for their own reasons, acting in semi-cohesion, and participating in groupthink. It is people either trolling for lulz, or lulzing for lulzing.
People downloading music are like anonymous. There is not a collective group organizing the individual downloaders. They just do it. The people "at the other end of the stick" view it as us against "them", and to have a proper OMGSCANDAL, you need a perpetrator, so they made one. And if they didn't cognitively make one for the purposes of degrading freedom on the internet, then it's more lulz for us and more idiot points for you.
Sincererely
The Lulz.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Authorities know who they are and are using this guy to prove a point.
Subversive revolutionaries are usually mistreated by the authorities in any country. Governments hate subversives.
Do you even know what you are talking about? What part of Coup do you think people don't understand? What happened in Honduras was a Coup and everyone knew that long before the Cables came out. All the cables expose is some diplomats opinion of how Honduras should have delt with the Coup. Like the crew that just took over the ship is going to have a trial about how that was not legal. Since when is a Coup legal? Who cares that behind closed doors our diplomats were cursing up a storm. In the end their job is to work with who ever is in charge. We have the choice of withdrawing from the world and saying what we really think of dictators to their faces or we can play in the world and talk behind their backs as long as we don't say it directly to their faces.
This isn't news this is Gossip!
Anonymous knows that it isn't a collection of geniuses. What it does know is that it has the power of a mob. Arrest one person in a mob? You still have a mob.
They know that some of them are going to get busted. See party van for clarification.
I just want to come clean and be honest in disclosing - GLEN BECK is a member of anonymous. There I've said it. Whew - load off my mind that is.
Anonymous' aims
Anonymous's aims.
Has anybody noticed that the New York Times seems to have stopped printing more cables articles since the 9th?
Have they caved already?
expandfairuse.org
Just as hacking should be left to the real hackers, not the script kiddies, press releases should be written by real PR people, not word processing kiddies.
"You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.."
-- Inigo Montoya
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Good. Glad they arrested the fvcker.
Hope they arrest all the other retards who downloaded LOIC and used it to attack websites.
You aren't supposed to sign your name to an anonymous press release. Also, check your metadata.
Messing around with sovereign governments is not a game. If you dont understand how you leave footprints on the web you should not get involved. More mature hackers can avoid this.
If I get a few thousand of my friends to drive down a road at a particular time to create a traffic jam, is that a crime? I'm really asking...
Of course it is.
You have launched a conspiracy to deny others the right to travel without interference and delay. You and your friends are obstructing the public roads with potentially life-threatening consequences.
Police. Ambulance services. Fire and rescue...
It won't matter if you are a thousand miles away when someone gets hurt.
It's your game. Your ball.
Conspiracy law usually does not require proof of specific intent by the defendants to injure any specific person to establish an illegal agreement. Instead, usually the law only requires the conspirators have agreed to engage in a certain illegal act. This is sometimes described as a "general intent" to violate the law.
The conspirators can be guilty even if they do not know the identity of the other members of the conspiracy. Conspiracy (crime)
so, the official statement from a representative of "Anonymous" is; "No Comment". that makes my l0ll3r tickle
Did some checking, both are acceptable, it all depends on what the intended pronounciation is.
I.E. if you want people to read that and say "anonymouses" then write your version.
you will see why soon enough....
1. He did it, they arrest him, that's where it ends. He doesn't know any names he could give them (how could he, Anonymous is ... well, guess). The others will just continue as before.
Oh, you mean they'll shit themselves and stop? Yeah, it worked really well for the whole RIAA lawsuits for fantastillion bucks, P2P sharing instantly floundered.
2. It's a HUGE prank along the lines already outlined above, with the name basically being "I. C. Wiener" or "I. P. Freely" and some poor guy actually having that name. /b/ will ZOMFGROFL (or whatever the acronym du jour is) over it for weeks. Might even spawn a meme.
Both may or may not result in Greece becoming the new prank target and prime source for new anti-government memes.
That's basically the net result to be expected.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Check out the austerity measure riots going on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuJZdWTiaJM
I don't see them having time to mess with this kid.
Now what happens if you hire some PR firm to write a press release for your group? Is the person who published your press release guilty of a crime?
Just when you think something so ridiculous wouldn't work
1. Find a news story which is putting the government on the brink of declaring martial law
2. Issue an anonymous press release claiming responsibility with a ludicrously simple "mistake" which attributes authorship to the target
Then the only way to solve the problem is with a mass "I am Spartacus" defense.
Most mobs don't know how to deal with counter intelligence.
Anonymous In Name Only
Is this anonymous the same kind of anonymous who are hackers on steroids and love to blow up vans or are we talking about some kind of anonymous user not linked to the chans? I keep hearing 4chan this and 4chan that but it often switches away from 4chan to 'Anonymous' so I'm pretty confused here. Well whatever, PUDDI, PUDDI, PUDDI.
It's a 'press release' explaining that anonymous is not a organized group but a kind of movement; there is no call to action whatsoever anywhere in the document.
This guy is a random dude who wrote something trying to clear up the confusion about what anonymous is. If authorities think they somehow arrested anonymous' PR guy who'll lead them to the rest of the gang, it only shows they haven't read his document.
Good for the fucking Greek. Government and Business screw up and leave the average person with the bill. Perhaps this is a good time for them to water the Tree of Liberty.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/774
A real life stand alone complex: "a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals create a seemingly concerted effort". The anime connection isn't farfetched given the youth of those reported to have been arrested for the DDoS.
Remember those little setup/install screen asking for your name and your organization? Type in random characters will make it work.
New Economic Perspectives
http://slashdot.org/journal/201888/In-Soviet-xkcd, Journal entry by a /.'er who met Randall Munroe IRL, which leads to this picture: http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/1855/01721azf4.jpg
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
And he was prosecuted for what? Distributing a document?
If I can give my 10 .c, then there's something more behind this, most likely a children pornography case which would also explain the blocked website as I can see no other reason for this.
In case anybody wonders what this .pdf described only as "The" is all about, here's a link: (as if there is only one .pdf on the internet or something, FFS)
http://dump.no/files/467072ba2a42/ANONOPS_The_Press_Release.pdf
Anonymous doesn't mean people who keep their identities secret, shadow figures nobody knows about, mysterious strangers. No.
Anonymous is synonym for "Joe Average". An anonymous person you pass by on the street. Somebody who doesn't mean a thing to you. Name not hidden, but unimportant, totally not worth writing down. Somebody who means nothing as a single person, whose loss won't be mourned by anyone significant, just a disposable person. They are aware of being meaningless people with no worth as individuals. But as a bulk, they form a formidable force. And if one or ten or a hundred is lost, this changes nothing. They were just some anonymous people, but The Anonymous lives on.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
...this guy!
Next time, use seven proxies AND MagicJack.
They have a website,
Which one is that?
a common cause,
Just one?
and some degree of leadership involved in coordination.
Anyone can be "leader" at any time, depending on who is online, has the necessary technical skills, and gains the trust of whoever is online at the time. Anyone can be disposed as leader just as quickly. The "leaders" don't lead, they help coordinate the execution of whatever consensus.
It refers to exactly what it should refer to: the coordinated goals, members, and efforts, however temporal, of people who rally under that banner.
The goals are many and can be conflicting. As can the efforts.
Anyone can be a member at any time, without even knowing.
It is not a banner either; that would imply they are a party of some kind. Rather, they are what happens when enough people cooperate spontaneously, each for their own goals and reasons. A stand-alone complex, if you will.