'Anonymous' hacktivists become web vigilantes

[MIJ-VI]

'Anonymous' Is Coming For
The Westboro Baptist Church
words by: jd, queerty.com

Anonymous, the hacktivist group responsible for bringing down Gawker Media and major credit card companies, has set its sights on a new target: The Westboro Baptist Church.

In an open letter to the country's leader hate parade, the black hat operators put the Phelps clan on notice:

We, the collective super-consciousness known as ANONYMOUS – the Voice of Free Speech & the Advocate of the People – have long heard you issue your venomous statements of hatred, and we have witnessed your flagrant and absurd displays of inimitable bigotry and intolerant fanaticism. We have always regarded you and your ilk as an assembly of graceless sociopaths and maniacal chauvinists & religious zealots, however benign, who act out for the sake of attention & in the name of religion.

Being such aggressive proponents for the Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Information as we are, we have hitherto allowed you to continue preaching your benighted gospel of hatred and your theatrical exhibitions of, not only your fascist views, but your utter lack of Christ-like attributes. You have condemned the men and women who serve, fight, and perish in the armed forces of your nation; you have prayed for and celebrated the deaths of young children, who are without fault; you have stood outside the United States National Holocaust Museum, condemning the men, women, and children who, despite their innocence, were annihilated by a tyrannical embodiment of fascism and unsubstantiated repugnance. Rather than allowing the deceased some degree of peace and respect, you instead choose to torment, harass, and assault those who grieve.

Your demonstrations and your unrelenting cascade of disparaging slurs, unfounded judgments, and prejudicial innuendos, which apparently apply to every individual numbered amongst the race of Man – except for yourselves – has frequently crossed the line which separates Freedom of Speech from deliberately utilizing the same tactics and methods of intimidation and mental & emotional abuse that have been previously exploited and employed by tyrants and dictators, fascists and terrorist organizations throughout history.

ANONYMOUS cannot abide this behavior any longer. The time for us to be idle spectators in your inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex, and we shall now be moved to action. Thus, we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites.

Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS: We will target your public Websites, and the propaganda & detestable doctrine that you promote will be eradicated; the damage incurred will be irreversible, and neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover. It is in your best interest to comply now, while the option to do so is still being offered, because we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines.

The warning has been given. What happens from here shall be determined by you.

A preemptive admission of illegal hacking? Well this wouldn't be the first time the group invited the attention of federal authorities. But something tells me exactly zero people would have a problem if Anonymous went on an anti-Westboro bender. Least of all, well, us.

Aside from the general pallor of depression the above news is sure to engender, the links in this article are an eye-opener for those unacquainted with Distributed Denial of Service attacks and the culture of some of those who perpetrate them.

This sequence of links...

'invited the attention of federal authorities.'-->'push-button program'-->leads to a page titled "What Is LOIC?" and on that page is a paragraph whose link (marked in red) appears to be fraudulent...

It's a pushbutton application...

The idea behind LOIC is that it can allow you to participate in attacks even if you've no clue how to hack. Just download a copy of LOIC (available for Windows, Mac, and Linux!), punch in the target information like a URL or an IP address and zap.

...and thus may be a trap set by the authorities with the aim of identifying those who would wish to contribute the use of their computers in a DDoS attack. Or it could be a way to infect one's computer. PLEASE DON"T CLICK IT. Thank you.

More background on LOIC:
http://www.simpleweb.org/reports/loic-report.pdf

Researcher Links anonops.ru IRC with Cyber Criminals

In late December a Senior Threat Researcher with McAfee, Francois Paget, raised questions regarding the relationship between purported elements of the Anonymous movement and suspected Russian cyber criminals in a post on the McAfee Labs' blog site.

Paget outlined the series of events that began with attacks on the WikiLeaks site claimed by hackitivist The Jester in late November and culminated with the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against Bank of America by Anonymous.

Through analysis of the chain of events Paget noted that the infamous Heidachi.net, which he refers to as "a den of criminals", had become associated with Anonymous activities via the establishment of the anonops.ru IRC.

Paget's December analysis is as follows:

* The Anonymous group claims to have stopped DDoS attacks
* The security community sends an alert about a suspicious WikiLeaks mirror site hosted on the dangerous Heihachi.net (a den of criminals)
* Spamhaus suffers DDoS attacks but says neither LOIC nor LOIC-like tools are involved in the attacks
* In some semiprivate forums AnonOps members deny responsibility
* A new Anonymous communication network is created in Russia. Ten or so IRC servers are linked to the same Heidachi.net.
* One of these IRC servers–irc.anonops.ru–drove #operationBoA

Paget followed up his earlier assertions with an article posted Wednesday on the McAfee Labs blog site in which he outlines more evidence supporting is conclusions that there may indeed be links between hacktivists and cyber criminal networks.

Paget lists the IP addresses linked with anonops.ru and their McAfee email reputations:

* 92.241.190.202: High Risk
* 92.241.190.228: High Risk
* 88.198.135.228: Minimal Risk
* 178.162.238.112: High Risk
* 78.47.219.50: Minimal Risk
* 86.59.36.242: High Risk
* 85.17.103.23: Minimal Risk
* 109.70.3.24: High Risk
* 69.65.55.22: High Risk
* 94.102.49.200: Medium Risk
* 109.235.53.142: Unverified
* 77.91.227.233: High Risk

Paget goes on to examine other evidence, including some IRC chats and their relationship to subsequent DDoS attacks against government sites in Zimbabwe.

Rounding out his latest post, and given the weight of the available evidence, Paget again asserts that there may be organized criminal elements involved with some of the operations attributed to the Anonymous movement.

What is not known is whether the association is condoned by the original Anonymous activists, referred to by Paget as the Failship IRC team, or if the international gathering of script-kiddies has been infiltrated to some degree.

Paget states:

"Whenever a big event occurs around the world (earthquake, celebrity death, popular feast day, etc.) cybercrime jumps at the chance to exploit it. And this appears to be the case with WikiLeaks and Anonymous. What an opportunity for criminals to take advantage of a volunteer army eager to take part in a struggle!"

"Are the individuals managing anonops.ru the same as those running operations leakspin, paperstorm, black face, bling, and anonymiss?"

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More background re Operation Payback
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Payback

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Also of interest is this:

Tons of Computers Still Infected With Conficker Worm, Apparently
http://gizmodo.com/#!botnet

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For newbie web site operators this may be of interest:
cloudflare

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I finally found a copy of the W.B.C.'s response
to what was alleged to be an ultimatum from Anonymous:

[OtterOnBass]

Isn't this just one group pushing their views on another for pushing their views on others?

[Deluge Of Sound]

Originally Posted by OtterOnBass

Isn't this just one group pushing their views on another for pushing their views on others?

+1.

[Pilgrim]

This appears to be one group imposing their opinion upon another. The fact that the group targeted is bigoted, loathsome and despicable doesn't change the fact that they have the same freedom of speech that the hacker group has.

One of the most challenging aspects of the legal structure in this country is that one must sometimes defend people that they despise, because it's too easy to succumb to the temptation to not apply law equally. This is one reason that I admire the ACLU - because they defend both sides, regardless of whether they need a barf bag to do so.

The recourse for this is legal, not denial of speech rights.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by Deluge Of Sound

+1.

Exactly. Both groups are just inadequate people with an inflated sense of their own significance. They're equally dysfunctional and irrelevant.

[colcifer]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

This appears to be one group imposing their opinion upon another. The fact that the group targeted is bigoted, loathsome and despicable doesn't change the fact that they have the same freedom of speech that the hacker group has.

One of the most challenging aspects of the legal structure in this country is that one must sometimes defend people that they despise, because it's too easy to succumb to the temptation to not apply law equally. This is one reason that I admire the ACLU - because they defend both sides, regardless of whether they need a barf bag to do so.

The recourse for this is legal, not denial of speech rights.

QFT! Where's the clapping emoticon...

[Steve]

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,"

E.B. Hall

[McHaven]

Westboro's act is all a con anyway.

[Jay Ralston]

While I do not agree with a lot of what the Westboro Baptist church does, I respect their freedom of speech because it is a freedom we all have in this country. What I find funny is the statement these folks make to them. "We, the collective super-consciousness known as ANONYMOUS – the Voice of Free Speech..."

So basically, they are only for free speech if it is free speech that they agree with. Otherwise, they will threaten you.

[MIJ-VI]

Westboro Baptist Church Taunts Anonymous Hackers: 'Bring It, Cowards'
http://ca.gawker.com/5765521/westbor...ing-it-cowards

...The only reason the Internet exists is for Westboro Baptist Church to tell this nation & the world that your destruction draws nigh...

It's been called off:

Message to the Westboro Baptist Church, the Media, and Anonymous as a whole
http://anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=494

'Just a guess, but the W.B.C.'s servers are likely to be quite secure...

[sloasdaylight]

lol anonymous.

[Bard2dbone]

Bummer. Anything that makes for unhappiness amongst the member of the WBC is pretty much okeydokey with me.

My favorite was posted on CollegeHumor about a year or two ago. One of the students at a college where they were spewing their bile set up a counterprotest. Any particular group that the WBC targeted could recieve a donation made in the name of the WBC. 'God hates fags' huh? Okay. That you Rev Phelps for your donation to GLAAD. 'Jews are evil.' huh? Thank you WBC for your B'nai B'rith donation. etc... etc...

The guy who came up with that is my hero. Well okay, ONE OF my heroes.

[jp58]

I don't mind that they are being entirely hypocritical (for once).

[MIJ-VI]

Originally Posted by Bard2dbone

Bummer. Anything that makes for unhappiness amongst the member of the WBC is pretty much okeydokey with me.

My favorite was posted on CollegeHumor about a year or two ago. One of the students at a college where they were spewing their bile set up a counterprotest. Any particular group that the WBC targeted could recieve a donation made in the name of the WBC. 'God hates fags' huh? Okay. That you Rev Phelps for your donation to GLAAD. 'Jews are evil.' huh? Thank you WBC for your B'nai B'rith donation. etc... etc...

The guy who came up with that is my hero. Well okay, ONE OF my heroes.

Lately I've been floating this proposal on LGBT sites: a Halloween costume contest where various groups of LGBT'ers dress up like members of the W.B.C. (with additional points being awarded for placard creativity).

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by OtterOnBass

Isn't this just one group pushing their views on another for pushing their views on others?

And I'm completely fine with it. I honestly don't see the problem. What good has the WBC done? What benefit does their existence bring the the world around it? Practically none, so why not destroy it? Frankly, I couldn't care less why Anonymous is doing this I just like the end result they have in mind and support that entirely. So what if they have some ridiculous inflated sense of justice the fact of the matter is that they're going after a group that does next to nothing but hate and are absolutely proud of it. That's good enough for me.

There has been speculation though, that the open letter to the WBC was actually written within the WBC and posted to a their message board as apparently that was the first place it was published. Essentially there is no way, yet, to determine if the people who sent it actually are Anonymous (the group).

[sloasdaylight]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

And I'm completely fine with it. I honestly don't see the problem. What good has the WBC done? What benefit does their existence bring the the world around it? Practically none, so why not destroy it? Frankly, I couldn't care less why Anonymous is doing this I just like the end result they have in mind and support that entirely. So what if they have some ridiculous inflated sense of justice the fact of the matter is that they're going after a group that does next to nothing but hate and are absolutely proud of it. That's good enough for me.

There has been speculation though, that the open letter to the WBC was actually written within the WBC and posted to a their message board as apparently that was the first place it was published. Essentially there is no way, yet, to determine if the people who sent it actually are Anonymous (the group).

The most important speech to protect is speech you disagree with or even hate. Never forget that.

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by Steve

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,"

E.B. Hall

For better or worse, I feel that I'm disagreeing with this more and more as time goes on. Some people just need to be shut up and shut down. Call me hypocrite and I'd probably agree with because I have a lot to say on a lto of subjects but never does it even approach what I've seen from the WBC.

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

The most important speech to protect is speech you disagree with or even hate. Never forget that.

I wish I coud understand this concept. Maybe it's something that comes with age.

[sloasdaylight]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

For better or worse, I feel that I'm disagreeing with this more and more as time goes on. Soem people just need to be shut up and shut down.

Your opinion would change drastically if some one thought you needed to be shut up and shut down. If we start saying people like WBC need to have their rights taken away because what they say offends some people, then it's nothing for some one to say your rights should be taken away because you're saying offensive things. The entire concept behind freedom of speech is that people have the right to say what they choose, regardless of how offensive it may be. As detestable as it is, you've got to protect Joe Blow's right to call some one a ****** just like you have to protect some one's right to give an acceptance speech.

[sandmangeck]

Ah yes. Quite a few people have shared the same sentiments Kwesi, can you guess which ones?