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25 Alleged Anonymous Hackers Arrested By Interpol
PatPending sends this quote from an AFP report:
"Interpol has arrested 25 suspected members of the Anonymous hackers group in a swoop covering more than a dozen cities in Europe and Latin America, the global police body said Tuesday. Operation Unmask was launched in mid-February following a series of coordinated cyber-attacks originating from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain,' Interpol said. The statement cited attacks on the websites of the Colombian Ministry of Defense and the presidency, as well as on Chile's Endesa electricity company and its National Library, among others. The operation was carried out by police from Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain, the statement said, with 250 items of computer equipment and cell phones seized in raids on 40 premises in 15 cities. Police also seized credit cards and cash from the suspects, aged 17 to 40."
Wording is what society makes it. Sorry hacking is now associated as much with the latter definition as the former and posting that is not going to change anything.
It's standard procedure in policing to sieze anything and everything for which even the slightest excuse exists. There are three reasons:
- Because it's easier to take the lot at arrest and work out later what is actually relivant rather than get that done beforehand.
- Intimidation value. The most miserable the suspect, and the more their life is ruined, the more other potential offenders will fear the police.
- Profit! Much of the equipment is never returned even if the suspect is later found innocent, or even released without charge, and eventually gets sold at police auction.
The thing is that Anonymous is really just an idea. and as we all know, you can't just arrest an idea and throw it in jail.
Yeah. Next, let's arrest a revolution, or a book and other stuff like that. Congrats for wasting taxpayers money!
And that's why we can still say "nigger".
Geeks are so full of shit that "beating the crap out of them" takes a whole new meaning.
Anonymous is more like a publishing and public rage outlet. There's hardly a member card required for it either, if I went to some random secret document repository, tossed everything in a photocopyer, escaped and then published it as "Anonymous", all on my own, it's quite unlikely that someone would pop up to claim "Oh he's not Anonymous, we are!".
The standard meaning of the word still applies even though there's a lot of internet and 4chan memes associated to it also nowdays.
Anonymous is a national security threat.
They are, but not in the way you or I would think.
Are they a threat in the sense of "getting control of nuclear missiles by whistling over Skype?" Absolutely not.
Are they a threat in the sense of making our government look as corrupt and incompetent as it really is? Absolutely, and that's why Interpol and the like are so hardcore about stopping them.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Or perhaps you thought kidnap, extortion etc were instinctive? Perhaps in your utopia we shouldn't arrest any criminals because you can't destroy their ideas?
Grow up.
filthy nosepicking miscreants
The thing is, it's not your language, my language, or any other one person's language. English is constantly evolving, and insisting on using outdated definitions of words limits your potential audience. In order to efficiently convey ideas, it's important to use words that everyone understands; this is the information age, and scientific, political, and social debate isn't limited to the elite anymore.
Jesus loves me, he loves me a bunch, because he always puts Jiffy in my lunch.
Except, of course, the headline states: "Interpol Arrests 25 Suspected Anonymous Hackers"
I know that headlines need to be short, to the point etc, but they could have rephrased it with "Interpol has 25 Suspected Anonymous Hackers Arrested", and it would be accurate.
Let us further put this in perspective.
Interpol finds 25 drones,who, while a microscopic part of a greater good, were too dumb to cover their tracks. Interpol pats itself on the back for generating headlines cheaply through ineffective, but showy action.
We should also consider that Anonymous exists for the purpose of Meta-vigilance in a world of unwatched watchmen and corrupt governments. Participants who stray to unofficial actions like " C.C.Fraud" have no business claiming the Anonymous banner as theirs.(obviously not too anonymous if they got caught, duh)
Let's call a spade, a spade and a club, a club.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Hardly. Interpol helps arrest 25 drones who participate in semi-organized cyber-guerrilla warfare against political targets. The idea that Anonymous is serving the "greater good" is not implied by their targets or by their results. Anonymous is not _coherent_ enough to have a well defined purpose. They consistently mistake what is effectively electronic graffiti for meaningful protest, and fail to convey or enunciate what they actually want. Anonymous may well have a few technically competent core hackers, but they rely heavily on their much larger community of script kiddies and poorly skilled hangers on to form the necessary crowds.
Like the fools at political rallies who throw bottles at police and overturn cars, they actively _discredit_ the political causes they occasionally espouse. They encourage police and voters to think of the genuine political movements as similar vandals. And they're not _competent_ enough to be genuine threats to those they claim to battle: they've demonstrated that again and again. If they were competent enough to actually raid corporate email or financial records and get them to Wikileaks, then I'd take them far more seriously.
If I was trying to hide a USB storage device, I wouldn't hide it in a joystick, or in anything else you could connect to a computer.
Actually, I wouldn't even hide it in a USB stick. I'd copy the data to a MicroSD card, and put it somewhere hard to find, like taped to the back of a painting, or taped to the underside of a drawer in the kitchen. Some kitchen knives have removable handles so you can clean them, and there's usually plenty of space in one of those to hide a MicroSD card.
That being said, I have no reason to bother with any of that. I'm not involved in anything criminal, and have other ways to secure stuff like my banking data. (incognito window, on a computer that doesn't have Flash installed?). I don't really care if the police find a copy of my monthly budget or my professional resume, as it's all information they could find quite easily by either googling me, or subpoenaing my bank records.
Let us further put this in perspective. Interpol finds 25 drones,who, while a microscopic part of a greater good, were too dumb to cover their tracks. Interpol pats itself on the back for generating headlines cheaply through ineffective, but showy action.
Oh, of course. Kind of like
FBI arrests Homegrown Terrorist who tentatively decided to blow stuff up because the FBI contacted him, convinced him it was a good idea, provided him with fake explosives, and came up with the plan.