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.'"
They're just emulating their heroes. They love the way the Republicans rule here and have implemented a theocracy where you are often murdered for opposing religion. Just look at how they shutdown Occupy. That was the most powerful force for social change the world has ever seen. The Republicans with a few arrests and murders shut it down completely. Yes, Occupy had some great wins, but in the end, most of the leaders are in hiding.
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.
The U.S. is much better at attacking journalists.
Who needs hackers.
"Gosh - I wonder if he'll say something bad" (not): Of course he will! I wish that those "middleeasterners" had the BALLS to just once and for all FIGHT IT THE FUCK OUT amongst themselves, instead of dragging the rest of the planet into their mess! Afaik? They are RELATED IN ANTIQUITY (Jacob & Esau jealousy in blessings from their father iirc - correct me IF I am wrong here though TIA)... this is a family feud, for Pete's sake - a hatfileds vs. mccoys. They should have taken care of ALL OF THIS, during the 6 days war in the sixties, but no: They have to keep this crap up, till doomsday (which may be sooner than we all think).
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.
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
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
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
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.