Social engineering is just as viable and acceptable a tactic as any. It can also save time if the targets are fooled easily enough, like with HBGary:
Cracker: What's the password?
Local Sys Admin: Imadoofus
Cracker: K thx. cracks system wide open
I'll just leave this here for you to evidently reread..
mind you I don't firmly believe it, it was just a guess as I originally stated [...]
The overall point I was trying to make from the beginning has been that we know the governments want to discredit (or reinforce, depending on which Anonymous you have in mind) the Anonymous name as a whole regardless of which moral standings (if any) that other people using the name choose to take. Using it to do immoral things is the perfect way of going about accomplishing that because a lot of people will never understand the whole concept of Anonymous being anyone and everyone. A lot of people will believe it when they're told that Anonymous has some form of organization behind it, even if they had previously heard otherwise.
My guess is that LulzSec == government entities (joint or not is no matter) looking to discredit Anonymous. The real Anonymous of yore wouldn't point their cannons in such arbitrary manners.
Eh? They would not? How do you know? Do you claim to speak for anon? Oh right, anybody can speak for anon. Perhaps you can begin to see the problem here...
My point exactly!:D Governments and most of the media are intent on Anonymous being one large structured organization, labelling all who wear the name as evil when in fact that's not necessarily the case. In reality using the name of Anonymous is entirely interchangeable with "an unknown group of people", whereas governments and most of the media tend to have it be interchangeable with something like "Microsoft" (in terms of loosely knit group of people versus structured organizations).
Also, I'm not speaking for Anonymous, this post isn't AC.:)
Basically, I was a big fan of the Anonymous who DDoSed Visa and Sony and and even those who rooted Sony after that. Call it "war fatigue" or something but the attacks on arbitrary entities afterwards does seem rather unwarranted. LulzSec is just.. pfeh. Attention seekers indeed (note that this doesn't preclude my original guess of LulzSec being a gov't group).
Meanwhile you do have good Anonymous groups who are doing things like taking down or defacing Turkish gov't sites because that gov't is currently working on measures for enforcing censorship. That's the sort of thing I approve of. It's the modern way for people to speak out in a way that governments can't just let the cries of hundreds of thousands of voices be drowned out by large wads of dollar bills by the corporate elite, because it's actually disruptive to the government without necessarily being disruptive to the people.
Paranoid much? Just accept that your heroes are no such thing. They do what they do, "for the lulz".
Well...
When everyone is out to get you, paranoia is just good thinking.
;) It's true that LulzSec is rather wreckless. But the "original" Anonymous still exists somewhere, how can't it? It seems to me that it only works towards my argument (mind you I don't firmly believe it, it was just a guess as I originally stated, I'm only defending the "original" Anonymous as a devil's advocate if you will).
There is no higher purpose. No false flag. They just enjoy making other people miserable and laughing at their misfortune.
I saw something online a month ago or so. Apparently Anonymous responded to a bunch of dating site ads by lonely men, pretending to be interested women, and inviting them to a date at a predetermined place and time. They secretly filled the spot, hoping to live-stream the misery of these people as they realized no one was coming. Was that a false flag attack too?
These people are just bullies, getting off on the suffering of others.
Yeah, LulzSec does seem to be rather loose. Their actions in the example you give are rather cruel, too.:|
Ah but initially Anonymous primarily used DDoS as a primary form of attack. This causes minimal damage and disruptions if you compare with rooting systems, rooting systems means the admins are required to take the affected systems and potentially those connected offline until the damage has been assessed and remedied somehow. That doesn't even take into account the fact you should assume a system or network that has been rooted will have had data copied off it.
Anonymous is nobody's personal army, they coordinate because of shared beliefs and because of the obvious fact that there is power in numbers. Those who don't share the beliefs simply don't join in the attacks. Anonymous is Hive-mind or "peer-to-peer" thought. This is what governments would likely capitalize on. Shards of the group splitting off and "going rogue" with the unspoken objective of discrediting the original values of Anonymous is entirely believable and possible. That's why we need to be careful of who to believe and trust even if they wear the same name tag as "the Anonymous of yore", so to speak. There's no reason for Anonymous to have lost its core values. A different group is just borrowing the name for their own purposes, whatever they may be.
I'm 99.9% certain my boss rarely showers because when he sits next to me, I'm not kidding here, I have to move my chair (while keeping my feet firmly planted so that he doesn't get tempted to move over) lean waaaay over to the opposite side he's sitting on just to reduce the affects of his nasty stench. Think rotting vegetables and vomit and that's what I have to put up with. How he managed to get married and have kids is beyond my understanding. The only reason I'm still here is because the idea behind the project I'm working on is extremely cool for my resumé, I have trouble getting in at an early hour and he puts up with that. If people you sit near have the same reaction, please save yourself the humiliation and them their health. Shower! I imagine you were kidding anyway, but I still felt like..venting, I guess would be the appropriate word.
My guess is that LulzSec == government entities (joint or not is no matter) looking to discredit Anonymous. The real Anonymous of yore wouldn't point their cannons in such arbitrary manners.
LOL So these people are suing Google despite them being the ones who are infringing. What retards! They've painted huge bull's eyes on their own foreheads by doing that.
Slashdot Mirror
Come here, I have a brick just waiting for your face imprint.
PS3s I understand because of the Condor cluster. Xboxes? Wtf?
Hah. That would indeed be pretty cool.
Same happened with me in the 90s with AOL.
I'll just let that sink in, for laughs.
AOL.
Good point, but also, why not?
Adrian Lamo == LulzSec
Adrian Lamo could be LulzSec.
A-FUCKING-HA.
Social engineering is just as viable and acceptable a tactic as any. It can also save time if the targets are fooled easily enough, like with HBGary:
Cracker: What's the password?
Local Sys Admin: Imadoofus
Cracker: K thx. cracks system wide open
mind you I don't firmly believe it, it was just a guess as I originally stated [...]
The overall point I was trying to make from the beginning has been that we know the governments want to discredit (or reinforce, depending on which Anonymous you have in mind) the Anonymous name as a whole regardless of which moral standings (if any) that other people using the name choose to take. Using it to do immoral things is the perfect way of going about accomplishing that because a lot of people will never understand the whole concept of Anonymous being anyone and everyone. A lot of people will believe it when they're told that Anonymous has some form of organization behind it, even if they had previously heard otherwise.
I didn't mean that particular Anonymous, but they did indeed come first.
To stand out while remaining otherwise anonymous.. I don't know how else to say it.
After seeing the /. summary title I found myself reading that in Duke Nukem's voice. 0.o
-1 Troll? What the hell? Did LulzSec just show up?
That's plausible, sure. :)
You're not the only one. This is so cringe-worthy it's sad.
My guess is that LulzSec == government entities (joint or not is no matter) looking to discredit Anonymous. The real Anonymous of yore wouldn't point their cannons in such arbitrary manners.
Eh? They would not? How do you know? Do you claim to speak for anon? Oh right, anybody can speak for anon. Perhaps you can begin to see the problem here...
My point exactly! :D Governments and most of the media are intent on Anonymous being one large structured organization, labelling all who wear the name as evil when in fact that's not necessarily the case. In reality using the name of Anonymous is entirely interchangeable with "an unknown group of people", whereas governments and most of the media tend to have it be interchangeable with something like "Microsoft" (in terms of loosely knit group of people versus structured organizations).
:)
Also, I'm not speaking for Anonymous, this post isn't AC.
Basically, I was a big fan of the Anonymous who DDoSed Visa and Sony and and even those who rooted Sony after that. Call it "war fatigue" or something but the attacks on arbitrary entities afterwards does seem rather unwarranted. LulzSec is just.. pfeh. Attention seekers indeed (note that this doesn't preclude my original guess of LulzSec being a gov't group).
Meanwhile you do have good Anonymous groups who are doing things like taking down or defacing Turkish gov't sites because that gov't is currently working on measures for enforcing censorship. That's the sort of thing I approve of. It's the modern way for people to speak out in a way that governments can't just let the cries of hundreds of thousands of voices be drowned out by large wads of dollar bills by the corporate elite, because it's actually disruptive to the government without necessarily being disruptive to the people.
Paranoid much? Just accept that your heroes are no such thing. They do what they do, "for the lulz".
Well...
When everyone is out to get you, paranoia is just good thinking.
There is no higher purpose. No false flag. They just enjoy making other people miserable and laughing at their misfortune.
I saw something online a month ago or so. Apparently Anonymous responded to a bunch of dating site ads by lonely men, pretending to be interested women, and inviting them to a date at a predetermined place and time. They secretly filled the spot, hoping to live-stream the misery of these people as they realized no one was coming. Was that a false flag attack too?
These people are just bullies, getting off on the suffering of others.
Yeah, LulzSec does seem to be rather loose. Their actions in the example you give are rather cruel, too. :|
Ah but initially Anonymous primarily used DDoS as a primary form of attack. This causes minimal damage and disruptions if you compare with rooting systems, rooting systems means the admins are required to take the affected systems and potentially those connected offline until the damage has been assessed and remedied somehow. That doesn't even take into account the fact you should assume a system or network that has been rooted will have had data copied off it.
Anonymous is nobody's personal army, they coordinate because of shared beliefs and because of the obvious fact that there is power in numbers. Those who don't share the beliefs simply don't join in the attacks. Anonymous is Hive-mind or "peer-to-peer" thought. This is what governments would likely capitalize on. Shards of the group splitting off and "going rogue" with the unspoken objective of discrediting the original values of Anonymous is entirely believable and possible. That's why we need to be careful of who to believe and trust even if they wear the same name tag as "the Anonymous of yore", so to speak. There's no reason for Anonymous to have lost its core values. A different group is just borrowing the name for their own purposes, whatever they may be.
I'm 99.9% certain my boss rarely showers because when he sits next to me, I'm not kidding here, I have to move my chair (while keeping my feet firmly planted so that he doesn't get tempted to move over) lean waaaay over to the opposite side he's sitting on just to reduce the affects of his nasty stench. Think rotting vegetables and vomit and that's what I have to put up with. How he managed to get married and have kids is beyond my understanding. The only reason I'm still here is because the idea behind the project I'm working on is extremely cool for my resumé, I have trouble getting in at an early hour and he puts up with that. If people you sit near have the same reaction, please save yourself the humiliation and them their health. Shower! I imagine you were kidding anyway, but I still felt like ..venting, I guess would be the appropriate word.
My guess is that LulzSec == government entities (joint or not is no matter) looking to discredit Anonymous. The real Anonymous of yore wouldn't point their cannons in such arbitrary manners.
Why not post it all as a submission? I'd vote it up.
LOL So these people are suing Google despite them being the ones who are infringing. What retards! They've painted huge bull's eyes on their own foreheads by doing that.
If he can for rocket science what he did for gaming I think he'll be leaving the world in better shape.