anonymous

Old-time hacktivists: Anonymous, you've crossed the line

In December 1998, a U.S.-based hacker group called Legions of the Underground declared cyberwar on Iraq and China and prepared to protest human rights abuses in those countries by disrupting their Internet access.

About a week later, a coalition of hackers from groups including Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), L0pht, Chaos Computer Club in Germany, and hacker mags 2600 and Phrack issued a statement condemning the move. "We - the undersigned - strongly oppose any attempt to use the power of hacking to threaten to destroy the information infrastructure of a country, for any reason," … Read more

U.S. 'not winning' war with hackers, says FBI bigwig

With hackers around the world taking aim at business and government sites seemingly at will, one would think the FBI would have a solution. Think again.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an interview published yesterday, FBI executive assistant director and cyber czar Shawn Henry said that despite recent arrests of alleged hackers "Sabu" and others, "we're not winning."

It might be hard to argue with Henry's assertion. Although dozens of hackers have been arrested worldwide, the attacks keep coming. Earlier this week, for example, hackers took aim at a military dating Web site … Read more

The 404 1,016: Where we need a social network for our social network (podcast)

Leaked from 404 Podcast 1,016:

Thank you, Facebook: A way to demote annoying 'friends' on the sly. Want a vibrating tattoo that alerts you to a call? Nokia does. Three online dating sites agree to screen for predators. AT&T's vibrating steering wheel tells you when to turn, claims less distracting than visual cues. Miami judge says BitTorrent downloads are protected anonymous speech. Wait, nevermind. Bathroom break video : Wes Anderson's 'Made of Imagination' Sony TV commercial.

Anonymous OS: Worth the risk?

The hacking group Anonymous may or may not have launched its very own operating system.

Dubbed Anonymous OS Live, the operating system, which is available as a free download on Sourceforge, is based on the Ubuntu version of Linux. According to a description on the Sourceforge page, the operating system is designed for "educational purposes" and can also be used to check "the security of Web pages."

The people behind the software have set up a Tumblr page providing news and updates on the software. Those folks yesterday announced that the OS had been downloaded over … Read more

Vatican: Anonymous hacked us again

The Vatican has confirmed a second attack against its Web site by the Anonymous hacking group, and an infiltration of its radio database.

"There was a second attack we are aware of directed against the [Vatican IP] address," said a Vatican spokesman today. "[Concerning] Vatican Radio, a database on an old server was accessed. Thirty percent of the information on the server was so outdated it was of no use."

Anonymous claimed to have hacked Vatican Radio in protest against the Vatican Radio allegedly using "repeaters with power transmission largely outside the bounds of the … Read more

FBI says $700K charged in Anonymous' Stratfor attack

When the Antisec branch of Anonymous hacked into security think tank Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, at the end of December, one of its claims was the theft 200GB worth of data, including e-mails and clients' credit card information.

Days after the hack, the group published 860,000 e-mail addresses and 75,000 unencrypted credit card numbers on the Web.

Now, the FBI's Milan Patel says that between December 6, 2011, and February 2012, "at least $700,000 worth of unauthorized charges were made to credit card accounts that were among those stolen during the Stratfor Hack," according … Read more

Anti-abortion Anonymous hacker arrested in U.K.

Shortly after hacking into Britain's biggest abortion provider's Web site and stealing 10,000 database records of women registered with the service, self-proclaimed member of Anonymous James Jeffery proudly touted his triumph on Twitter.

It was this misstep that quickly led to his arrest, court hearing, admission of guilt, and impending sentence, according to the Guardian.

It all started on Thursday when the British Pregnancy Advisory Service reported that there were 26,000 attempted break-ins to its Web site over a six-hour period. According to the Guardian, the site was also defaced with the Anonymous logo and a … Read more

SXSW debate: Social networks must require real names

AUSTIN, Texas--Social-networking sites need to curb users' anonymity in favor of requiring real names and logging Internet addresses, an attorney said at a debate at the South by Southwest Interactive conference here moderated by CNET correspondent Declan McCullagh.

Collette Vogele, a Microsoft senior copyright counsel who said she was not speaking on behalf of her employer, suggested that anti-anonymity, anti-pseudonymity policies were a better business practice that would attract more users and reduce the number of cases of online harassment, especially of women. Google+ initially disallowed pseudonyms but earlier this year adopted a more liberal policy; Facebook is more restrictive.… Read more

Disillusioned ex-Anonymous first outed Sabu last year

The trail to the New York apartment where a hacker named "Sabu" of LulzSec and Anonymous fame was arrested last June can be traced back to a former Anonymous participant who turned against the group over its WikiLeaks activities.

Sabu, whose name is Hector Xavier Monsegur, pleaded guilty to computer hacking charges in August and spent the last six months or so working as an informant for the FBI. The undercover operation led to hacking-related charges being filed against four alleged cohorts in the U.K., Ireland, and Chicago yesterday.

Sabu was the proverbial big fish who was … Read more

AntiSec hacks security site to protest LulzSec arrests

An online hacker group associated with Anonymous responded to the arrest of six suspected hackers by hacking and defacing a security firm's Web site.

Members of AntiSec hacked the Web site of antivirus company Panda Security after it was revealed today that five men in the U.K., Ireland, New York, and Chicago had been charged with hacking-related offenses, as well as news that LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, known as Sabu, had assisted federal officials in their probe of the group.

"Yeah yeah, we know, Sabu snitched on us. As usually happens FBI menaced him to take … Read more