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Member Claims Anonymous "Might Well Be the Most Powerful Organization On Earth"
wasimkadak writes in with an interview with Anonymous member "Commander X" in which he talks about how the hacktivists are the most powerful group on the planet. "Christopher Doyon, a.k.a. Commander X, sits atop a hillside in an undisclosed location in Canada, watching a reporter and photographer make their way along a narrow path to join him, away from the prying eyes of law enforcement. It's been a few weeks of encrypted emails back and forth, working out the security protocol to follow for interviewing Doyon, one of the brains behind Anonymous, now a fugitive from the FBI. Doyon, who readily admits taking part in some of the highest-profile hacktivist attacks on websites last year — from Tunisia to Orlando, Sony to PayPal — was arrested in September for a comparatively minor assault on the county website of Santa Cruz, Calif., where he was living, in retaliation for the town forcibly removing a homeless encampment on the courthouse steps. The 'virtual sit-in' lasted half an hour. For that, Doyon is facing 15 years in jail."
Oh really?
The new issue of Internet Tough Guy Magazine is out already?
... Being able to interrupt poorly-secured websites for a matter of minutes makes you "the most powerful organization on earth"?
People running around and doing the equivalent of tearing down billboards and defacing storefronts. Big whoops. Last I checked, the major players in the global financial network have actual power. And most central/federal governments, too. This guy needs a cold beer and a sense of proportion. Ok, maybe not the latter; we know that's the one thing that no one in the universe can afford to have. Make it two beers, then.
So how many guns and tanks does Anonymous control?
And yes, I realize this is like Stalin asking how many divisions the Pope has, but hey, at least I didn't Godwin it!
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
So far there are only two types of 'powerful organizations':
1. Governments, funded by tax payer money, using force (police, armed forces, etc.)
2. Corporations, funded by consumers and banks, using economic power
These two have a bit of a love-hate relationship, so their interactions are a fragile balance (how/how much to tax them, incentives, what they can get away with) and often work closely together (ACTA, TPP).
Having a new, unaligned powerhouse will of course upset that balance. The thing is the old adage 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely' will also apply to Anonymous.
the US secrete service
Yes, those secretions are to be avoided at all costs.
So Anonymous first defines itself as being the collective voice of everybody (with a disproportionate representation of 4chan), then claims it's the most powerful organization in the world. Good for you, guys, really... Now you can take on the Tautology Club.
Unfortunately, I've just formed my own organization, called "Irresponsible", and everybody who doesn't know they're a part of Irresponsible is also a part of it! Because they're irresponsible in knowing what groups they're a part of, see? Since geological processes also don't take responsibility for their actions, they're also part of the organization. Who's the most powerful now, huh?
Now, Irresponsible! Scream at a wall! Tear down posters! Show how mad you are at everything that doesn't appease you by inconveniencing others!
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
It's funny how if a group is *actually* powerful, you never see them making claims that they're powerful. Their actions say more than words.
Anonymous are just poseurs. Not only are they poseurs on world-scale power, they're poseurs on computer hacking, all they know how to do is run DoS attacks. They're an embarrassment.
the US secrete service
The sewer authority? I never knew.
Thats what she said
Indeed.
Quick! Do an IPO before people realize how stupid this assessment is!
Anonymous is another (clearly not the first) example of what I'll for lack of a better term, call a "virtual nation".
It's obvious that the internet allows rapid worldwide communication. It's also obvious that it allows new aggregations of people to sort themselves out - that you can draw together like-minded people from all over the globe.
What's less-than-obvious is to call these aggregates "virtual nations".
But take a look at it from a slightly different perspective. People whose primary news source is Fox news live in the Unites States of America, and are quite proud of the fact. People whose primary news source is NPR also live in the United States of America, and are also quite proud of that fact. But when you ask the two groups of people what they thing the United States of America really is, beyond simple geographic attributes, you get two very different answers, two very different sets of allegiances. It's almost like they live in different nations. Perhaps in some sort of virtual way, they do.
But perhaps the best and worst example of a virtual nation is Al Qaeda. There is a group of people whose allegiance has little to do with physical boarders. Their sense of belonging, their cause, their peers transcend the mere physical. (Note that interesting characteristics don't make it good, and in this case, far from it.)
Anonymous is a less mature, less cohesive, less dangerous version.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Can we stop with this stupid meme already? 15 years is the MAXIMUM sentence he COULD receive if convicted on all counts. Do you know what the maximum sentence is for murder? Life in prison without possibility of parole, or death, depending on where you are.
the US secrete service
The sewer authority? I never knew.
80% of the US is on a sewer system, they can rain down a shit storm of epic proportions.
Knowledge = Power
P= W/t
t=Money
Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
Last I checked, the major players in the global financial network have actual power. And most central/federal governments, too.
Only the people have the actual power. Financiers, governments, crackers, drug cartels, religions, etc. exist solely at the will of the people.
The most powerful organization on the planet doesn't give interviews from an undisclosed location.
I like what Anonymous represents, and much of the hacking that they've engaged in has had a populist appeal, but they are self-limited by their anonymity, and obviously they're no more the drivers of our social change than OBL was . . . he also gave his interviews from an undisclosed location.
If I were Anonymous or a member thereof, I'd be looking for a wealthy socially-conscious sponsor to legitimize what I was doing . . . and take the conversation they are trying to have out in the open, where it can't be dismissed.
Until they do that, they're just going to be treated like cyber-terrorists. I suspect that the need that Anonymous is attempting to fill will be met by someone else, wiser and cleverer.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
I am afraid that Commander X would seem to have been introduced neither to the FSB nor to Mossad. We know that because he hasn't yet had either a polonium milkshake or a Semtex phone.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
He defaced a non-critical local government website. It did not cause any disruption of important services, he did not benefit fiancially or in any other tangible way, and the attack only lasted 30 minutes.
For that he gets a penalty similar to what he'd get if he'd committed murder one. wow.
Not that I condone the crime, but any system that far out of touch with reality deserves to be taken down.