You can call Anon a bunch of script kiddies, but they hit the front page of nearly every major news source today. What have you done for free speech lately?
They have hit the front page of nearly every major news source with a story that cements the connection between Wikileaks and anti-social vandalism and hacking in the minds of the public.
Well done, Anon.
All they have done is make it harder to get accross the point that Wikileaks is a legitimate news organisation (like The Guardian and the NYTimes who are also publishing the cables) and as such should be protected as exemplars of a free press.
Their actions are harmful, narcisistic and juvenile.
PayPal has a right to refuse to do business with anyone, and does so on a very frequent basis. Indeed as any of us do. Wikileaks can write their own payment system.
Messing with PayPal messes with a lot of small businesses that make their money through the internet.
It's a stupid move because anyone who was in the 'undecided' category with anonymous, and relies on things like PayPal, is now in the 'against' category.
PayPal is already back up and running. And Anonymous just lost a lot of support, as evidenced by this page. That's an own-goal in my book.
These type of actions are also very likely to backfire. PayPal is not going to change it's policy, neither is Visa or Mastercard. If anything, it will harden their opinions.
If you want to do something about free-speech then there are much better ways of going about it than this.
Just wanted to point out - I don't support what Anonymous is doing. These businesses have been given two shitty choices - piss off the online community or piss off Governments that can roll them over 1000x worse.
And remember, businesses are just people - Anonymous is going to hurt mostly innocent people who work for these companies or work with them, not people who did anything to Assange.
Anon isn't doing anything to hurt the people who work for those companies. Those people are paid to handle exactly these kinds of attacks, so if anything Anon is just making sure they're actually earning their paycheck.
The fact that there are only two choices and both are shitty is just a symptom of the fact that we are at a transition point in the relationship between government/business/everyone else.
And some of those people make scads of money with no repercussions when they do something like cut off a man's legal defense fund.
Do you honestly think a DDoS that lasts a day or two is going to cause Visa to have to downsize? What innocent people are possibly going to be harmed? Except for the poor hapless sysadmins over there, who are probably not getting much sleep at the moment.
What gets me is that what Anonymous is doing isn't terribly sophisticated. Imagine if they had an overarching military-like strategy and intelligence system to back them up, rather than a stand alone complex like "LET'S DDOS STUFF" and obtaining "docs" on people.
Shit. It makes me want to join in.
Also been thinking for awhile, what's needed is an intelligence clearinghouse.
An open revolution wiki that goes beyond dropping docs to one that mimics the world's intelligence systems. Collating information on organizations, people, things. Linking them together. What makes them culturally tick. Their logistical backbone. Their economic makeup. Their command and information gathering apparatus. Their political connections. Their geo and temporal locations.
A target-centric database that people can extract useable tactical information from, so when the times comes ...
You can't do what you suggest in an open, collaborative model. It's too susceptible to malicious actors.
What Anon needs is hackers, not spies. They need people who know what the fuck they're talking about to build tools and strategies. LOIC may be slightly improved, but it's still terrible. Having a bunch of angry skiddies is a great resource, if used properly to shield the activities of more capable members.
They aren't stupid, there is an agreement that Twitter and Facebook would only attract haters and stop the recruiting process. Been checking their IRC for some time, the OPs aren't stupid.
For those interested, connect to their IRC through the IP, not the hostname as it isn't resolving aparently: 199.19.226.231
Also, the official Twitter accounts are: @Op_Payback and @AnonOpsNet
What Anon is doing today makes me thoroughly proud of The Internet. It's not just Anon's attack on some way-out-there reactions to what WikiLeaks is doing, it's the whole internet's attack.
Days like today restore my hope in humanity and our ability to resist our oppressors.
Sure, it might be illegal. Yes, it will probably cause inconvenience to many innocents. It is very likely somewhat foolish. But there sometimes "The Mob" simply has to retaliate.
Who was it that said People should not be afraid of governments, governments should be afraid of people?
The actual quote by Thomas Jefferson is "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
So it is OK to harm anyone with no more reasons than a) you don't like him b) you can?
And that makes you proud?
Mastercard, Visa, Twitter and Facebook are our oppressors? Seriously?
Government you elected should be afraid of you? Not accountable, but afraid?
[+] [-] smokeyj|15 years ago|reply
edit: If you want to help http://pastehtml.com/view/1c8i33u.html
[+] [-] russellallen|15 years ago|reply
Well done, Anon.
All they have done is make it harder to get accross the point that Wikileaks is a legitimate news organisation (like The Guardian and the NYTimes who are also publishing the cables) and as such should be protected as exemplars of a free press.
Their actions are harmful, narcisistic and juvenile.
[+] [-] naner|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brc|15 years ago|reply
Messing with PayPal messes with a lot of small businesses that make their money through the internet.
It's a stupid move because anyone who was in the 'undecided' category with anonymous, and relies on things like PayPal, is now in the 'against' category.
PayPal is already back up and running. And Anonymous just lost a lot of support, as evidenced by this page. That's an own-goal in my book.
These type of actions are also very likely to backfire. PayPal is not going to change it's policy, neither is Visa or Mastercard. If anything, it will harden their opinions.
If you want to do something about free-speech then there are much better ways of going about it than this.
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rimantas|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aaronontheweb|15 years ago|reply
And remember, businesses are just people - Anonymous is going to hurt mostly innocent people who work for these companies or work with them, not people who did anything to Assange.
[+] [-] Qz|15 years ago|reply
The fact that there are only two choices and both are shitty is just a symptom of the fact that we are at a transition point in the relationship between government/business/everyone else.
[+] [-] Vivtek|15 years ago|reply
Do you honestly think a DDoS that lasts a day or two is going to cause Visa to have to downsize? What innocent people are possibly going to be harmed? Except for the poor hapless sysadmins over there, who are probably not getting much sleep at the moment.
[+] [-] cma|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] whatwhat|15 years ago|reply
Shit. It makes me want to join in.
Also been thinking for awhile, what's needed is an intelligence clearinghouse.
An open revolution wiki that goes beyond dropping docs to one that mimics the world's intelligence systems. Collating information on organizations, people, things. Linking them together. What makes them culturally tick. Their logistical backbone. Their economic makeup. Their command and information gathering apparatus. Their political connections. Their geo and temporal locations.
A target-centric database that people can extract useable tactical information from, so when the times comes ...
[+] [-] redthrowaway|15 years ago|reply
What Anon needs is hackers, not spies. They need people who know what the fuck they're talking about to build tools and strategies. LOIC may be slightly improved, but it's still terrible. Having a bunch of angry skiddies is a great resource, if used properly to shield the activities of more capable members.
Also, it's dox, not docs. /pedantic
[+] [-] rcamera|15 years ago|reply
For those interested, connect to their IRC through the IP, not the hostname as it isn't resolving aparently: 199.19.226.231
Also, the official Twitter accounts are: @Op_Payback and @AnonOpsNet
[+] [-] Swizec|15 years ago|reply
Days like today restore my hope in humanity and our ability to resist our oppressors.
Sure, it might be illegal. Yes, it will probably cause inconvenience to many innocents. It is very likely somewhat foolish. But there sometimes "The Mob" simply has to retaliate.
Who was it that said People should not be afraid of governments, governments should be afraid of people?
[+] [-] MichaelApproved|15 years ago|reply
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_said_people_should_not_fear_th...
[+] [-] rimantas|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aquinn|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] balac|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Rhapso|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
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