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UK Police Charge Suspected Anonymous Spokesman

Posted by samzenpus on from the not-so-anonymous dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Scotland Yard has tonight charged 18-year-old Jake Davis, who was arrested in the Shetland Islands last week, with five offenses including unauthorized computer access and conspiracy to carry out a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack against the SOCA (Serious Organized Crime Agency) website. When announcing his arrest on Wednesday, police said that they believed Davis used the online nickname 'Topiary' and acted as the spokesperson for the Anonymous and LulzSec hacking groups. Topiary's final twitter message said 'You can't arrest an idea' just before his arrest."

5 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Today's lesson by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Today's lesson: You aren't V. Neither the British or US government is an evil fascist state which brutally subjugates the populace. This isn't to say that they are perfect. Far from it. But the basic point is clear. Moreover, if either of the governments were so bad as to deserve fighting back then the method to respond would not involve hacking every single website you can most of whom are corporations which have nothing to do with anything. Sure it is probably fun to convince yourself that you are doing good, but your just a bunch of script kiddies who aren't being helpful while real activists spend their time and sometimes lives improving the governments and saving lives.

    1. Re:Today's lesson by DurendalMac · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh bullshit. This kind of skiddie hacktivism is what spineless yobs do when they're too scared to go out and try to make a difference in the real world. It's just another breed of armchair combat, and a pretty sorry one as well. If you want to make a difference then do something out in the real world. Most people can actually relate to that. Do it through a computer and far less people will give a shit. Those who think they do are deluding themselves into believing that they're actually doing something great from the basement. It's lazy self-justification. Get your ass out into your community and do something in the real world. Few people give a shit about your online community.

  2. Re:Because thats how to handle things. by bakarocket · · Score: 5, Funny

    You really have to work on shortening your revolutionary slogan. Try something catchy like "Corruption Shmorruption!!" or "Stupid Government, We Hate You!"

  3. Re:You can arrest the person by mat+catastrophe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/internet-abuzz-with-claims-that-uk-police-picked-up-the-wrong-topiary.ars

    It's possible that they are tossing the police ringers.

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  4. Evidence suggests wrong person by rickzor · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=22280
    Evidence such as previously leaked information, IRC logs, and the age, identity and location of the suspect arrested suggest that they caught the wrong person.