[The website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission], an independent agency of the judicial branch, was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago “a line was crossed.”
Update: Much better link here.
The anarchists have become an ally in the fight against totalitarianism.
I actually lean towards the notion that “anonymous” is the project of a foreign state.
Mostly just little script kiddies. There is no real skill here. I could do way more damage than these fools. Should be fun to read some more wiki leak material though.
I doubt anonymous is the project of a foreign state as they also support the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Mostly its probably a bunch of kids… and the FBI will probably round most of them up now.
“The right to keep and bear computers shall not be infringed”? Maybe that will be the next revolution.
Some of anon designed the operating systems that run the web browser you are typing into.
Could they hack and fire a missile?
Depends on the level of remote access…
Nothing is hack-proof.
Is there an 3-rd world dictator with an old Soviet ICBM?
That does not know this?
Hope they target Washington D.C.
d
I doubt they are a “project” of a foreign state but playing with US Nuke capability plays into enemy hands. This is a little stunt that could go horribly wrong. I don’t have much confidence level in an anonymous organization who are so addicted to juvenile dramatics. I may have empathy for their cause (justice/law reform) but their methods are dangerous and too transparently melodramatic to change minds.
On this occasion I take my hat off to these hackers. The US justice system is now so corrupt that it is probably beyond repair, so why not give it a kick in the pants.
If you are a terrorist, all they worry about are your rights. Poor little terrorist. Are you being treated fairly. Do you have your Koran to read. But if you are a hacker that steals academic journals they want to lock you up forever, and are quite prepared to bully and threaten you.
Everywhere you look the US is falling apart, and their justice system is just one more example of that. Their witch hunt and threats over taxes for US citizens who live outside the US and who don’t even earn any money, is another. Their despicable and largely, if not entirely baseless prosecution of Conrad Black another.
Too much government, too little freedom. That is unfortunately the US today, and Obama will be sure to tilt the balance even further in the wrong direction.
And as the body rots, the vultures will move in to pick away at it.
Talk is cheap.
Normally I don’t like these Anonymous punks, they’re OWS in drag. But this time, I can’t fault their actions. Blowing the whistle on dirty deeds is almost never a bad idea. If it reveals thuggery in the Eric Holder justice department I’m not going to complain.
Frankly, this is a better option than mass civil disobedience. Sneak in, blow open some damaging secrets, discredit the hell out of the regime, no water cannons or hospital bills.
But they’re still a bunch of punks.
Sure you could. *yawn*
I agree with TJ.
The hackers behind Anonymous (and they are a large, loosely assembled group) are waking up to the reality of what Obama is trying to pull. They’re definitely not all North American.
Er, read the release/watch the video. They are NOT talking about hacking/launching a US nuklear warhead, but they have made encrypted USGOV documents available for download, and will release the encryption keys if their demands are not met.
Relax. Nobody’s threatening to start thermonuclear war, the video’s including scenes from “War Games” notwithstanding.
Sheesh
mhb23re
“nuclear”, rather
The folks who think that Anonymous is targetting the US nuclear missile capability aren’t paying attention. They are figuratively talking about a warhead of supposedly revealing information about the government that they will release (by releasing the encryption key) unless the US government backs down.
This is very similar to the tactics used by the Climategate whistleblower, and you may recall that the Climategate whistleblower has also left us a huge encrypted file said to contain further embarrasing documents.
More power to the Anonymous.
And as the body rots, the vultures will move in to pick away at it. and it will attract flies that can sense the rot within.
I’ve often mused that the government’s attempt to control and restrict the internet will be the event that agitates those in Generation Y and younger enough to ‘wake them up’ so they can see the truth of the socialism they desire. The government has been able to move in stealth because of generations of ill-educated kids, who have acquired useless degrees, and have become dependent on the government through employment, or unemployment. Very smart! It’s no accident that successive generations have been herded into fruitless fields of study; instead of productive ones that are in market demand, which there are plenty of; but I digress. The problem though, is the assault on the internet affects this demographic giant directly; in a way that is wholly unacceptable to them. I can only hope that this assault on their liberty will be enough to drag them into reality.
Now I’m not saying that this “hacking” is the beginning of a generational political awakening, but I can’t help but think, we need something to shake-up this demographic of young voters; because in truth, they really are our salvation if we are to save liberty and western civilization.
Just my thoughts.
You’re right on the pin. Include Gen X with Y and younger, though. They also grew up with computers and bulletin boards.
I haven’t seen a time requirement for their demands. Are they expecting Congress to jump when they say, “jump”?
I doubt Congress will act on this, and so, they’ll release damning exposes on certain government figures?
How will we know if they’ve only sent it to the typical MSM outlets? The same media outlets that look the other way when damning evidence points to corruption at every level of government.
You may well be right, ma’am.
On the other hand, I was always taught to believe that the only knock on the door at five in the morning that you’re likely to get in this country is from the milk man.
The English-speaking peoples can handle full-disclosure. It’s what makes us who we are. Anybody else threatening full disclosure, on the basis that we can’t handle the truth, is playing with fire, in my estimation.
I agree Kate…this kind of infiltration expertise and cost can only come from a foreign government or…possibly…an agency within the US gov’t that is seeing the rising tyranny from within. What does frighten me is the overt threat is to take down the government via a de-encryption dump on the global market but the visual threat is that of a warhead. Silly question…Do they have control of missiles?
“CALL”
I believe that the prosecutors were hounding Swartz because he downloaded a large chunk of the JSTOR archive and was trying to upload it online. Personally if it were uploaded I’d probably like to read an article or two but just because they are targeting the Obama administration doesn’t mean they’re necessarily opposed to him specifically. Which isn’t to say that I’m not bemused by this but the enemy of your enemy is only your friend until you’ve won.
This video is pretty sophisticated and obviously not done by amateurs.
Indiana, hopefully you are right, as us old f*rts are quickly running out of steam and it is the brainwashed young who will have to wake up to the danger that growing government control of the citizens poses. There is hope though, as that is what happened in the former Soviet Union, the younger generation woke up to the bill of goods they and their parents had been sold.
I also agree with The Phantom about who and what these people appear to be.
It would be interesting to know where this group comes from and who is actually behind it.
I use JSTOR quite a lot. The material I access is mainly old mathematical and astronomical papers. The popular interest would be approximately zero. Probably not even university libraries would go to pirated material – the licensing fees are not onerous (especially compared with what Elsevier charges).
As for the video, uttering a threat can be a criminal matter (for Canadian law see
the Canadian Criminal Code 264.1. So the hackers may have put themselves in the way of criminal prosecution for very little in return.
Kate >
“I actually lean towards the notion that “anonymous” is the project of a foreign state.”
Could be.
For what it’s worth there are corporations, individuals, and special interest groups with more money than “many” countries in the world today.
Regardless it’s nice to see anyone step in to do what the MSM fails to do – Investigate and expose these b*stards instead of working for them.
The only MSM alternatives to real truth outside of the online blog sites are biased MSM “from the other side” like Russia Today or Al Jazeera (Middle East). They spread an equal amount of propaganda of course, but at least it’s generally an opposing view of western propaganda so that you try to fish for the truth from somewhere in the middle.