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Journalist vs. the Syrian Electronic Army
New submitter Drunkulus writes "Journalist Ira Winkler has an article about his personal run-in with the Syrian Electronic Army. While admitting that the SEA has succeeded in hijacking the Wall Street Journal's Twitter accounts and defacing the RSA conference website, he calls them immature, inept script kiddies in this Computerworld column. Quoting: 'These people purport to be servants of the genocidal dictator of Syria and came together to support him, but they wasted their hack on what amounted to cyberbullying. This is not behavior that the SEA's Syrian intelligence handlers would condone. The SEA wasted an opportunity to promote its message, while divulging previously unknown attack vectors. ... I don't think that sort of immaturity will go over well with the SEA's Syrian intelligence bosses. And that could have implications for the influence of the group in the future.'"
The troll who first posted this is probably beyond hope, but it is worth pointing out that the SEA is on the side of Assad, not the Islamist rebels. Sure, Assad privileges his own Alawite sect and it's not easy to publicly be an atheist in Syria (though when I was there before the war, lots of young people would discreetly identify as such), but if you want to talk about a Syrian group wanting to impose "theocracy" right now, you wouldn't point to Assad.
Ira Winkler is a journalist now? That seems odd to me. Attrition.org has an excellent summary of all the different smells of bullshit that emanate from this guy. He also got thrown out of Microsoft after conning them into hiring him to teach a class on application security where he literally used little dinosaur figures to try and teach the class. He was feckless...and this was *before* Microsoft got as good at security as they are now, before they developed their own SDLC, etc.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Exactly correct. Assad is a "bad dude", but is he worse than the Islamists? Really?
The U.S. is much better at attacking journalists.
Who needs hackers.
He's worse in that he's a lot better-equipped, with his own mechanized army and all...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I used to deal with cleaning up the aftermath of the SEA daily. I see no evidence of nation state intelligence agency backing. They're mostly script kiddie exploits. They hit vulnerable older versions of popular software like WordPress and its plugins. Then they upload PHP web shells that are basically no different from r57 or c99. Spidershell would an improvement. Before the civil war they typically defaced sites with new pages decrying Israel's existence and calling for others to join them in defacing sites. Every other site defacing operation was basically the same or better.
" Just look at how they shutdown Occupy. That was the most powerful force for social change the world has ever seen. "
BWAAAHAHAHAHAhahahahaaahaaahaaaaa!!
Good one. Really.
Quote from TFA:
"These people purport to be servants of the genocidal dictator of Syria [...]"
Assad is a dictator... BUT NOT GENOCIDAL - on the contrary, he protects Syrians (of all ethnicities/religions) from the GENOCIDAL (Sunni Muslims) Islamists (their "moto" is: "Shia's in the grave, Christians in Beirut"! So... genocide-ethnic/religion cleansing!)
I am a Greek, living in Greece - i don't have any relations with Syrians but since i am a close neighbor i think i understand good enough the situation there. Keep in mind that in Syria there are many Greeks -living there from even before Christ times- that support Assad (even if he is a dictator - and not Christian as they are) because those GENOCIDAL Islamists have shown from the begining who they are and what they want (despite what the Western "journalist" may report...).
The Syria War and the US involvement in it smacks of Vietnam, but worse.. The US is supporting zealots and haters while a legitimate civil govt, who has alliances with Russia, is attacked.. ugly and very smelly.. no idea about this goof the article refers to, but it seems like more foolishness to me... signed - a US Citizen
is what this is
They're still alive?
http://www.theonion.com/articl...
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that he may be bad, but the alternatives are far worse. In most countries it seems the Arab Spring has had little beneficial effect in terms of Freeeeedom!
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
Yes, you're wrong. The Arabs are supposed to be descended from Ishmael. It was the Edomites who were descended from Esau.
Figured I was (by my asking for correction). They're relatives though in any event that cause trouble not only for themselves but all others as well. Well, instead of that? Just fight it out like men, not whimps, and get it over with once and for all after all these millenia of this crap! I've seen the AIPAC workings here in the USA (jew PAC group) and the monies sent that way by them (or rather "the JewSA" vs. USA) are phenomenal and insane. Instead of paying for others to fight for you, do it yourself, get it over with, for good.
Sounds like he's trying to get back at them by making their bosses mad at them.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Get a job you freakin hippie.
Assad is a strong-man, indeed, but he protects a multi-ethnic, woman-empowering and minority enabling nation-state. Secular modernists, Christians, Druze, Alawi, Sunni and Shia, along with unusual proto-Islamic and pre-Christian minorities are treated equally as Syrian.
The armed, "Syrian" opposition, that seeks to topple him? Not so much. These are the Wahabbist fighters sponsored by US and Qatari dollars - who'd implement whippings and stonings for teaching girls to read. They are imports from all the world's disaffected - but particularly Saudis - where it is a state policy to send these dead-enders abroad on "holy mission" and deflect their rage from the Saudi state itself, which is the natural source of their deprivations and disenfranchisement.
Who's calling Assad "genocidal"? Winkler - a spook from the NSA. That's who. He is also NOT unaffiliated with that little regional country which seeks disruption and neutralization of its neighbors. It is a pity that he is allergic to Truth.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Their affiliation with any Syrian government is likely nil.
They seem to be an uncontrollable incoherent, loosely affiliated group without any hierarchy who just use the brand as a PR banner. Like Anonymous or Al-Qaeda.
Computerworld is not even considered a trade rag anymore, it's generally considered a Microsoft advertisement. Hell, even the Windows geeks I work with hate that magazine. When factoring in the writer, the magazine, and the rhetoric used in the article, I can't help but wonder if this is a ploy by the propaganda machine to start drumming up for war with Syria again.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
So would we really want the islamists to win and end up better equipped?