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AntiOnline Accuses, Attrition.org Responds
borehawg writes "John Vranesevich of AntiOnline is accusing Attrition.org staff members of being involved with the "hacker" groups called "United Loan
Gunmen" (ULG) and "Hacking For Girlies" (HFG). Attrition.org responds with this press statement. "
This has to be AntiOnline's most blatant attack against their enemies yet. Their accusation relies on two unproved points: 1.) HFG == ULG This looks shabby, since the two pages are totally dissimilar, and even if they were the same it wouldn't *prove* anything. 2.) HFG == Attrition Again, totally unfounded. Attrition supplies actually documentation with their assertions, making them much more credible. JP has yet to do anything but slander. I think JP's really reaching on this one. His web page, which could be a real source of news for the underground, is instead being used to throw his vitriol. To the people who are saying "kids will be kids": we're talking about the potential ruining of careers, not slanging matches between gangs of kids. JP is in a position of power, and he's abusing that. He's the underground contact of the uninformed, and as such he can say pretty much anything with impunity. I personally think the guys at Attrition should pursue legal action.
-- I can't think of anything witty to put here. Sorry.
I can think of better ways to use time than to piss off HNN, Slashdot, Attrition, etc. - some of us argue that they actually do a bloody good job. Before this came out, I did recall seeing a few days ago on Hacker News Network some stuff about the two groups being completely dissimilar: I'm wondering if this has been going on for a week or so and it just hasn't surfaced.
Joel.
Smegma.
SCENE 1:
That's IT Johnie, give me your portscanner! I'm putting it away, and you can't have it back until you and Timmy learn to get along without fighting and calling each other names! You can just have a TIME OUT until you learn your lesson! And then go and wash up for dinner like a good little boy!
(Oh, what's wrong with kids these days -- I thought he might start playing nicer with the other children after he graduated from college and all, but he's just as bad as ever)
SCENE 2, NEARBY:
Timmy!! You bad boy! Do you want a spanking? No? Well, in that case... absolutely NO smurf attacks or SYN flooding for a WEEK! Don't roll your eyes like that! Stand up straight! Don't talk back to me! Go to your room!
(Sigh... kids these days. They say thay learn to behave after they hit 20, but sadly, I think they're wrong about that)
Well its time to teach someone a lesson that libel is a serious crime. I know I dont like lawyers any more than the next geek, but when someone is printing such potentially ingurious falsehoods something needs to be done. Apparentally Johnny doesnt care who is hurt by his unfounded allegations. It would be nicer if he felt some moral duty to verify his claims before he makes them. The sad thing is his claims are clearly laughable by anyone who has any understanding of image making or web authoring etc, but its just the sort of dribble that the media love. It should not go unchallenged just because we can all see through it. It needs to be challenged and shown to the media how laughable it is, so they dont trash someones career.
This was posted on the CyberWire Dispatch; don't know of an archive for this, so I've put it here. I think this piece says all that needs to be said. Like any spoilt child, if Vranesevich was just ignored, he would shut up.
He is such an uptight little kid. Once upon a time, I wrote a script that spammed his hack attempts database. I sent it out to a few people who faithfully ran it. When he finally disabled it, I got an email from him taunting me and how he was keeping logs of me for future use.
I swear he is the national enquirer of the internet. The time when he put up that "Eye on the underground" thing, and someone on a webboard he was "monitoring" inserted a little bit of code, he instantly blamed the webboard owners. Not only that, but he put out a press release stating something along the lines of "AntiOnline.com was not hacked. What happened is one of the owners of a service we monitor decided to change his content..." He faithfully declared this as the gospel truth.
I swear, he will do anything for a little more press recognition. He is the ultimate media whore.
Every time he gets in one of his pointless flame wars, he uses every possible media outlet as a means of trying to humiliate his adversaries. I saw during the last little bout, he used not only all 7 of his domains, but the happyhacker site, the happyhacker mailing lists, several other that he controls, and every time he was interviewed in that time, he mentioned it.
Not to mention, he considers himself so computer savvy, but when I got that email from him, guess what the client was...yup...Outlook Express.
Wow, I amazed myself by criticizing him without saying "crack baby media whore"
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"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
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Try to look at the actions of antionline.com from the point of view someone not familiar with technology has (to get an idea about the readers, who believe the stuff written there, look at the awards the site displays). ./ readers (meant to include all with at least a basic knowledge of how the net works), are no more the majority amomg the people using services the net offers. There's so many J. Does out there by now, who like their point&click-apps, that allow them to get a stock quote, to send e-mail to a friend across half the globe in a second. And they are easy victims to things like antionline.com, in electronic form or not. They represent the "public opinion", they also are considered experts among their family, their friends. They might never know, that antionline's theories are, at least, controversial.
The
Disclaimer: yes, I did simplify matters. On purpose.
fl
My opine on this is ULG is doing some important work...their hacks demonstrate visibly that major commerce sites and government is unsecured and IT IS A VALUABLE SERVICE they are doing by showing to the public these flaws. Wouldn't you WANT to know if Nasdaq was unsecured? I sure as shit would!
JP is a total flak so I'm not even thinking about him, but I am disturbed by this new trend in security sites to NAME the people involved in groups or to prove the groups' existances. What the hell is that? Are people ratting on each other to earn gold stars with the Feds?
I see hacking as 1. a public service and 2. art. (Stealing is different and I don't condone that)
So whoever ULG is-- who cares? What's important is that their voices are heard.
My 2 cents...
New stuff: I'll also add that Brian and all of Attrition provide one of the most valuable services in security news in that they analyze journalists' articles and point out the mistakes and mis-information; in other words, they find the "bugs" in the reporting...this service is INCREDIBLY valuable and needed as most writers don't know anything about the underground and so sometimes rely on total flaks like JP or Clown Princess for information, which in turn makes them look bad. So Attrition is really SAVING a lot of writers' asses from looking like total fools and they should be thanked for that.
And for all you admins/security/Feds reading these posts, if you've never read Attrition, start doing so now. You owe yourself and your bosses the education.
--diva
diva Pasty Drone NewsTrolls, Inc.