NATO Report Threatens To 'Persecute' Anonymous

Stoobalou writes "NATO leaders have been warned that Wikileaks-loving 'hacktivist' collective Anonymous could pose a threat to member states' security, following recent attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce and defence contractor HBGary — and promise to 'persecute' its members." From the article: "In a toughly-worded draft report to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, General Rapporteur Lord Jopling claims that the loose-knit, leaderless group is 'becoming more and more sophisticated,' and 'could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files.'"

Comments

Gross Oversimplification of the HBGary Incident

[eldavojohn]

The group demonstrated its capabilities in February, says the report, when it hacked into US-based defence contractor HBGary.

I neither defend nor condone Anonymous' actions but I take issue with this statement. Indeed, upon reading the report I get a little more accurate of a description:

Observers note that Anonymous is becoming more and more sophisticated and could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files. According to reports in February 2011, Anonymous demonstrated its ability to do just that. After WikiLeaks announced its plan of releasing information about a major bank, the US Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America reportedly hired the data intelligence company HBGary Federal to protect their servers and attack any adversaries of these institutions. In response, Anonymous hacked servers of HBGary Federal’s sister company and hijacked the CEO’s Twitter account. Today, the ad hoc international group of hackers and activists is said to have thousands of operatives and has no set rules or membership.[36] It remains to be seen how much time Anonymous has for pursuing such paths. The longer these attacks persist the more likely countermeasures will be developed, implemented, the groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted.[37]

(Emphasis mine). I don't know how certain members of Anonymous found themselves on the receiving end of Aaron Barr's maligned attacks on them but I don't see their reaction to such as all too out of line. Barr went after Anonymous and it's not entirely clear to me why persecution of Anonymous is sought. What would I do in that situation? Would I lash back out at this person tracking you? Probably although I might have taken a more litigious route (and I hope those named by Barr do, regardless of any possible involvement in Anonymous).

Whoever leaked these documents is at fault here, be it Bradley Manning or anyone else who had access to the documents and leaked them. I'm guessing they signed something saying they wouldn't do that so they're at fault. Wikileaks, the press, Anonymous, the whole internet, etc are not to blame for coming into possession of them through legal means. Attack the person who broke the rules and fix the problem from its source. Whether Manning was whistle-blowing or breaking his promise of national security will be decided by what he leaked. NATO should be telling the nations to deal with their own problems and not trying to enforce more ridiculous global control.

Re:Gross Oversimplification of the HBGary Incident

[Anonymous Coward]

After WikiLeaks announced its plan of releasing information about a major bank, the US Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America reportedly hired the data intelligence company HBGary Federal to protect their servers and attack any adversaries of these institutions.

False. Read the emails, the Chamber of Commerce and BOA requested ideas about how to combat the threat of wikileaks. HBGary Federal put together a presentation about methods that could be used. No one actually hired HBGary Federal, and in fact, HBGary Federal never won any government contracts. Probably because they suck, but the main point is that the Chamber, BOA, and the US government never employed them.

I don't know how certain members of Anonymous found themselves on the receiving end of Aaron Barr's maligned attacks on them but I don't see their reaction to such as all too out of line. Barr went after Anonymous and it's not entirely clear to me why persecution of Anonymous is sought.

Anonymous had already launched major attacks against many different targets, so they were obviously on the shit list of many people. Barr was apparently trying to social engineer his way into the group and gain insight into their identities. He put together a powerpoint about it and was scheduled to talk at a conference about how p2p/proxies/irc/etc doesn't hide your identity as well as you think. His initial press release indicated he wouldn't put any names in the paper.

Anonymous then took it upon themselves to hack him. They found some random draft of his powerpoint and published it, claiming it was all wrong... but when they leaked his email spool they quickly found out that he had actual names and locations... you should have seen the shit storm in IRC with people freaking out about their real name being in the emails. This was the beginning of a major divide in Anonymous, and it has caused a splintering among various AnonOps factions.

I have zero doubt that many members of AnonOps were picked up by the FBI. I also suspect that some of them have been forced into a double-agent role and are now FBI spies. And this is why I no longer participate in Anonymous: They have been compromised.

What if?

[ArhcAngel]

What if the individuals they employ to do the persecution are members of anonymous? What if members of anonymous worked for Sony? Everyone seems to assume anonymous is made up of script kiddies with no real jobs or responsibilities. Granted what I have heard about their behavior on 4chan could lend credence to that presumption but don't we all get a little emboldened when we think we are "anonymous"? What if your co-worker is actually a member of anonymous? It could explain why your PC crashed after you pissed him off the other day.

Re:I guess we'll find out...

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me know how that works out for you.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/hacker-builds-tracking-system-to-nab-tor-pedophiles/114?tag=col1;post-5351

Re:Acts of War

[Anonymous Coward]

So the little kids decided to keep poking and poking and poking. They thought they had all the answers. They honestly thought they were in control, that they could deal with any metaphorical "sleeping giant" that would awaken from any of this, that as long as they had TEH INTARNETS!!!, they could cause as much trouble as they wanted and never have to deal with the consequences.

Then they kept poking further and eventually, they found the metaphorical "sleeping giant" was more like a metaphorical Chthulu.

Then he woke up and began devouring the innocent and the guilty alike, and the little kids cried as they realized that throwing all the internets they had at it couldn't stop it. All their proxies, all their hentai, all their memes, videos, music, emulators, flamewars, bitchfests, trollings, DoSes, scare tactics, domestic terrorism, none of it worked. They couldn't understand it. And then it devoured their internet.

The the little kids then realized how weak a bunch of disorganized pockets of borderline sociopathic nerds hundreds of miles apart with no form of communication really were...