February 15, 2012
February 15, 2012. New York. The rebel hacker collective known as Anonymous made good on its threat to escalate its war on censorship, tyranny, oppression and the US government. They added Israel and Syria into the mix as well. In a slew of attacks across the nation, the cyber group successfully infiltrated some of the most sensitive corporate and military networks yet in its battle against privilege, power, injustice and authority gone wild. And so far, US authorities haven’t been able to stop them, much less make any arrests.
Anonymous launches offensive, cyber attacks against governments and corporations worldwide. Image courtesy of deliberation.info.
Just in the last two weeks, Anonymous has taken credit for dozens of strikes across the globe. With the spike in activity recently, it’s not even certain if the ever-increasing attacks on governments and corporations are actually being carried out by members of the group or copycats sympathetic with the elusive organization’s mission. Regardless, government officials here and around the world are rapidly moving Anonymous, LulzSec, AntiSec and the rest of the cyber revolution to the unofficial rank of public enemy number one.
Read the Whiteout Press article, ‘Anonymous Strikes back, Digs in’, for details on how the group infiltrated a multi-jurisdictional conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard two weeks ago, only to release a recording of the meeting on YouTube. The subject of the meeting – Anonymous.
US Army
In addition to the FBI, the group has attacked other heavily defended US installations. Today, it was announced that Anonymous infiltrated the US Army computer system. In the successful assault, the group stole and published 400 megs worth of documents from the Army’s Intelligence Knowledge Network. Early this morning, The Hacker News published not only the link to the Army’s network, but two zip files containing the stolen data. Also, a group calling itself AnonymousIRC reportedly published parts of the Army’s hacked intel network via Twitter. The Army network is billed as an international tool for operatives to securely communicate and share information while half a world away.
Stock Exchanges
Officials at the NASDAQ, CBOE and BATS stock exchanges confirmed they were successfully attacked yesterday. Perpetrators flooded each exchange’s servers with so much fake traffic, it shut down their sites. Spokespeople insist they are either working on the problem or the issue has been resolved. They also assure users and investors that no important data was breeched. This one assault shows the group’s escalation in tactics. In 2010, Anonymous shut down the NASDAQ. This time, they not only brought down the NASDAQ in New York, but the CBOE in Chicago and the BATS exchange in Kansas.
RT News reported a release put out by a person or group calling itself ‘LONGwave99’. The statement takes claim for the multi-city assault yesterday saying, “This DDoS Operation over NASDAQ is done in support of the great and rooted 99% movement.”
Central Intelligence Agency
Just four days before the above attacks, Anonymous or their affiliates launched an assault on the CIA. The news broke with an announcement over Twitter. @YourAnonNews released the statement, “CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous”. Visitors to the CIA website found it completely disabled. In addition to the CIA attack, PCMAG.com reports details of last month’s attacks on the FBI, Dept of Justice and the US Patent Office.
Anonymous assaults aren’t limited to the US government. PCMAG also details how the group recently infiltrated Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s computer network, stealing and leaking a trove of documents, including prep materials from a recent interview with Barbara Walters.
Israel
Showing that they don’t take religious sides, the group released a warning to the Israeli government this week – “Expect us”. Citizens for Legitimate Government published not only the statement from Anonymous, but also the corresponding video released by the group.
From Citizens for Legitimate Government, the Anonymous statement reads:
“To the government of the state of Israel.
We are Anonymous.
For too long we have tolerated your crimes against humanity and allowed your sins to go unpunished. Through the use of media deception and political bribery, you have amassed the sympathies of many. You claim to be democratic yet in reality this is far from the truth. In fact your only goal is to better the lives of a select few while carelessly trampling the liberties of the masses. We see through the propaganda that you circulate through the mainstream media and lobby through the political establishment.
Your Zionist bigotry has displaced and killed a great many. As the world weeps, you laugh while planning your next attack. All of this is done under the veil of peace but so long as your regime exists peace shall be hindered. You label all who refuse to comply with your superstitious demands as anti-Semitic. And have taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust.
You are unworthy to exist in your current form, and will therefore face the wrath of Anonymous. Your empire lacks legitimacy and because of this you must govern behind a curtain of deceit. We will not allow you to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies. Your grip over humanity will weaken and man will be closer to freedom.
But before this is accomplished the people of this world will rise against you and renounce you in all your worth. Our crusade against your reign of terror shall commence in three steps.
Step one will be initiated after the release of this video and will be comprised of systematically removing you from the Internet. Step two will be later disclosed and is already in initiation. And as for step three, think of this one as a present from Anonymous to you. We will not stop until the police state becomes a free state.
We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Israeli government, expect us.”
If there’s any consolation for the Israeli government, Anonymous sent a similar video and message to the United States Senate. It was in response to the Senate’s SOPA legislation that would have shut down practically the entire internet. It was also a warning after President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act. The law gave the US military the right to police the streets of America, detain US citizens in military prisons and do it all without charges, trials or civil rights. Anonymous’ message to the US Senate ended by warning:
“Together we stand against the injustice of our own government. We are Anonymous. We are Legion. United as One. Divided by zero. We do not forgive censorship. We do not forget oppression. US Senate, expect us.”
Showing their heightened level of activity the past two weeks, at the same time all of the above incidents were taking place, Anonymous also struck the Greek Justice Ministry over austerity measures. Last week, they struck one of their favorite targets – the Oakland city government. This time, city officials woke up to find their personal information made public online. And surprising some of their critics, Anonymous also attacked the servers of an American neo-Nazi group.
The embarrassing incident last week where Anonymous infiltrated a meeting between the FBI and Scotland Yard shows that the two agencies are trying to reign in the cyber rebel group. It also shows they’re having absolutely no success.
