British Court Convicts Anonymous Hacker "Nerdo" For DDoS Attack Over WikiLeaks Funding

British Court Convicts Anonymous Hacker "Nerdo" For DDoS Attack Over WikiLeaks Funding

Another alleged Anonymous hacker faced cour rule. A British court has convicted a 22-year-old for allegedly being a ‘key figure’ behind Anonymous DDoS attack on PayPal in revenge for its freezing WikiLeaks payments. A 22-year-old British student Christopher Weatherhead, self described "hacktivist", going by the name of "Nerdo" was convicted by the jury on a count of conspiracy to impair computer operations. The conviction came after guilty pleas of three of Weatherhead's co-conspirators.

"Christopher Weatherhead is a cyber criminal who waged a sophisticated and orchestrated campaign of online attacks on the computer systems of several major companies," prosecutor for the CPS Organized Crime Division Russell Tyner said in a statement. "These were lawful companies with ordinary customers and hard working employees. This was not a victimless crime."

This court rule came as a part of its ongoing pursuit to strike back at hackers, U.K. courts have convicted a member of Anonymous for conspiracy.

That very cyber attack, for which Christopher Weatherhead has been charged was dubbed "Operation Payback" where Weatherhead and several other Anonymous members targeted those companies that opposed internet piracy, but switched to companies like Mastercard, Visa and PayPal after they refused to process payments to WikiLeaks. Recently in our report, we described that Operation Payback cost a massive damage, for PayPal it cost more than €4.3 million. According to CPS, those campaigns carried by the hacker cost the companies more than $5.6 million in additional staffing, software, and loss of sales. 

The student denied the accusation claiming he was merely an Anonymous chatroom operator and never took part in the attacks. The judge allegedly demanded that Weatherhead provide “as much information as possible” and threatened him with a jail term. The court ruling in Mr. Weatherhead's case will be announced later. 

-Source (Cnet)

 

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DDoS Attack From Anonymous Cost PayPal £3.5 Million of Damage

DDoS Attack From Anonymous Cost PayPal £3.5 Million of Damage 

The distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) from hacktivist Anonymous has cost PayPal more than €4.3 million. The attack which was named Operation Payback were initially aimed at companies that opposed internet piracy, but switched to companies like Mastercard, Visa and PayPal after they refused to process payments to WikiLeaks. After that attack PayPal -the global leader in online money transfer and payments has paid around £3.5 million defend and arm itself against such kind distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. In a report BBC said that more than one hundred skilled employees from eBay, PayPal's parent company, spent almost three weeks working on DDoS-attack-related issues and that PayPal had bought software and hardware to defend itself against further attacks. In all, the total cost of this work came to £3.5 million. This details have been revealed in a court case at Southwark Crown Court where a defendant, Christopher Weatherhead (studying at Northampton University when who allegedly took part in the campaign), is facing charges of conspiring to impair the operation of computers. He has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to impair the operation of computers between 1 August 2010 and 22 January 2011.

Sandip Patel, prosecuting, said the group caused PayPal "enormous economic harm". Mr Patel said they used distributed denial of service, or DDoS, which flooded the targets computers with enormous amounts of online requests. Target websites would crash and users would be directed to a page displaying the message: "You've tried to bite the Anonymous hand. You angered the hive and now you are being stung."

Mr Patel said: "This case, simply put, is about hackers who used the internet to attack and disable computer systems - colloquially described as cyber-attackers or vandals." He said Mr Weatherhead, who used the online name Nerdo, posted plans on an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel encouraging an attack on PayPal. 

He said PayPal was the victim of a series of attacks "which caused considerable damage to its reputation and loss of trade". 

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WikiLeaks Launches Vote WikiLeaks 2012 Donation Campaign (Presidential Election Intervention)

WikiLeaks Launches Vote WikiLeaks 2012 Donation Campaign (Presidential Election Intervention)

While Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are both rising their chances for the 2012 election as their respective party’s candidates who stood  in the coming US president election. In the mean time  WikiLeaks has launched "Vote WikiLeaks: 2012 Donation Campaign". Through this campaign WikiLeaks has threatened the pentagon once again.  According to the press release of WikiLekas on last Friday - Pentagon spokesman George Little demanded WikiLeaks destroy its publications, including the Iraq War logs which revealed the killings of more than 100,000 civilians. Little said: “continued possession by WikiLeaks of classified information belonging to the United States government represents a continuing violation of law”. The Pentagon also again “warned Mr Assange and WikiLeaks” against “soliciting” material from U.S. military whistleblowers. In response, WikiLeaks has decided to intervene in the U.S. election campaign.

The United States government claims Mr Assange and the WikiLeaks organization are within its jurisdiction. In reply, we place the Obama administration within our jurisdiction. All American school children are taught that being subject to laws without representation is an injustice. This is the backbone of the American Revolution. We claim our representation and now initiate a campaign to transform Democratic and Republican votes into economic and political support for WikiLeaks and its First Amendment values. This election day, do not vote for the Republican or Democratic parties. Instead, cast the only vote that matters. Vote with your wallet – vote for WikiLeaks.

The Democratic Party promised to open government. But instead it is building a state within a state, placing nearly five million Americans under the national security clearance system. It has classified more documents than any previous administration, classifying even the process used to decide who will live and who will be killed. The U.S. administration hurtles towards dystopia: secret laws, secret processes, secret budgets, secret bailouts, secret killings, secret mass spying, secret drones and secret detention without charge. The collapse of the Soviet Union could have led to the withdrawal of the U.S. security state, but without moral competition from another system it has grown unchecked to influence almost every American policy. Four more years in the same direction cannot be tolerated.

Watch WikiLeaks’s Campaign Video below:-

You can donate to WikiLeaks using a variety of easy methods, including workarounds for Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. These donations go to fund WikiLeaks’ publishing and infrastructure costs and our legal costs to fight the financial blockade. For Detailed information about the campaign click Here. 

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Donations Reopened- WikiLeaks Opens New Path Through Banking Siege

Donations Reopened- WikiLeaks Opens New Path Through Banking Siege  

After the court victory against the financial blockade imposed by Visa and MasterCard to WikiLeaks donation, now WikiLeaks is opening a new path  in its battle to breakthrough the banking siege. In early Wednesday morning, WikiLeaks announced  via its twitter feed while saying it could now accept donations through a French non-profit. 

In The Press Release Wikileaks Said:- 

"After almost two years of fighting an unlawful banking blockade by US financial giants VISA and MasterCard, WikiLeaks has announced it is back open for donations. After WikiLeaks’ publications revealing US war crimes and statecraft in 2010, US financial institutions erected a banking blockade against WikiLeaks wholly outside of any judicial or administrative process. The blockade came during a time of substantial economic growth for WikiLeaks but blocked more than 95% of donations, costing the organization in excess of USD 20 million.

The Wau Holland Transparency Reports for WikiLeaks’ finances, released today, illustrate the financial consequences of 18 consecutive months of economic censorship. For the year 2011, the blockade resulted in WikiLeaks’ income falling to just 21% of its operating costs. WikiLeaks has been forced to run on its cash reserves at the Wau Holland Foundation, which have diminished from EUR 800,000 at the end of December 2010, to less than EUR 100,000 at the end of June 2012. As the graph shows, WikiLeaks’ reserve funds will expire at the current austere rate of expenditure within a few months. In order to effectively continue its mission, WikiLeaks must raise a minimum of EUR 1 million immediately.

Against this background, WikiLeaks is launching a new payment gateway, designed to work around the blockade. The French credit card system, Carte Bleue, is coupled with the VISA/MasterCard system globally. VISA and MasterCard are contractually barred from directly cutting off merchants through the Carte Bleue system. The French non-profit FDNN (Fund for the Defense of Net Neutrality- Fonds de Défense de la Net Neutralité) has set up a Carte Bleue fund for WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks advises all global supporters to make use of this avenue immediately before VISA/MasterCard attempts to shut it down.

However, WikiLeaks and FDNN are ready for the fight. Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ founder said: "We beat them in Iceland and, by God, we’ll beat them in France as well. Let them shut it down. Let them demonstrate to the world once again their corrupt pandering to Washington. We’re waiting. Our lawyers are waiting. The whole world is waiting. Do it."

NEW LINKS FOR DONATION:-

FDNN-WikiLeaks Payment Gateway (Donate here): https://shop.wikileaks.org/donate#dccard

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WikiLeaks Get Court Victory, Donations By Visa & MasterCard May Resume Soon

WikiLeaks Get Court Victory, Donations By Visa & MasterCard May Resume Soon

Court victory to WikiLeaks, this Thursday an Icelandic court declared victory in the first round of its campaign against the financial blockade imposed by Visa and MasterCard to WikiLeaks donation. Judge ruled 'Valitor' -Icelandic payments processor to reopen a gateway handling Visa and MasterCard donations to Wikileaks. The court ruled that Valitor must resume processing payments for Wikileaks' partner DataCell within two weeks. If Valitor doesn't, then it must pay a fine of 800,000 Icelandic kronur (USD$6,200) per day until the company complies with the ruling, the Reykjavik district court ruled. 

WikiLeaks says that the ensuing blockade has led to a 95 percent fall in revenue, something which founder Julian Assange says has forced him to focus on fundraising at the expense of his site's publication work.

The judgment, handed down by Reykjavik District Court, is "a very important milestone in our campaign," WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said in a telephone interview. Lawsuits remain active in Denmark and in Belgium, he said, but the Icelandic win was "a small but very important step in fighting back against these powerful banks."

DataCell CEO Andreas Fink said the court had dismissed Visa's argument that DataCell should not be allowed to process donations for third parties.

"The verdict is an important one as the court had to rule on the conditions of the contracts we had with a payment processor which indirectly imposes Visa general rules on us," said Fink. 

Still neither Visa Inc. nor MasterCard Inc. immediately returned emails seeking comment on the judgment.

-Source (Newsday & PCW)

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Global Payments Inc -Security Breach Compromised 1.5 Million of Visa and MasterCard

Global Payments Inc -Security Breach Compromised 1.5 Million of Visa and MasterCard

Earlier in this year cyber criminals had breached the security system Global Payments Inc. a leader in payment processing services. During breach experts have estimated that more than 50,000 Visa and MasterCard information was stolen. And now after the investigation Global Payments says that no more than 1.5 million credit card numbers were harvested during the intrusion into its systems disclosed earlier this year. The incident only affects North American Visa and MasterCard customers. The Company has, however, provided a larger quantity of card numbers to industry brands to enable them to proactively monitor cardholder activity.  The evidence continues to indicate that the potential card exportation was limited to Track 2 data. 

This type of track data on the magnetic stripe of a credit card includes numerical data such as the card number and the expiry date but doesn't include information like the card owner's name.

Additionally, Global Payments says that it believes that not all of the nearly 1.5 million cards have been compromised. However, the payment processing company has notified credit card companies of all potentially affected numbers so that they can "proactively monitor cardholder activity"; Global Payments has previously said that it might pass on further card numbers for monitoring purposes. Paul R. Garcia, the Chairman and CEO of Global Payments, has apologised for the incident and said that his company is working diligently to conclude its investigations. At the end of its fiscal year in July, the company plans to present its shareholders with a final report on the incident. Once investigations are complete, the payment processing firm plans to reapply as a "PCI DSS Compliant Service Provider" with MasterCard and Visa: after the incident was made public, the credit card companies revoked Global Payments' certification.

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Global Payments Hacked, 50K Cardholders At Risk (Visa & MasterCard Investigating The Breach)

Global Payments Hacked, 50K Cardholders At Risk (Visa & MasterCard Investigating The Breach)

A security breach at Global Payments Inc, a third-party U.S. based processor, may have compromised 

50,000 Visa and MasterCard cardholder accounts. Both Visa and MasterCard have sent out non-public alerts to banks notifying them of the breach.

Major credit card issuing agencies have alerted customers and asserted that their own systems are still secure. MasterCard has hired an independent data security firm to look into the hack, while Visa has given the affected account number to the banks so that steps can be taken to protect those customers and to help find the hacker. However, the breach affects all major credit card brands, including Discover and American Express.

Visa and MasterCard are investigating whether a data security breach at one of the main companies that processes transactions improperly exposed private customer information, bank officials said Friday. The event highlighted a crucial vulnerability that could affect millions of credit card holders. The breach occurred at Global Payments, an Atlanta company that helps Visa and MasterCard process transactions for merchants. One bank executive estimated that about one million to three million accounts could be affected. That does not mean that all those cards were used fraudulently, but that credit card information on the cardholders was exposed. The bank official, who insisted on anonymity because the inquiry is at an early stage, said that Visa and MasterCard notified his company on Thursday, but that banks had been frustrated with the pace of disclosure by Global Payments. He said that Global Payments, which is one of the biggest transactions processors, had provided little information on where the breaches took place, how accounts were hacked and other details that could indicate which customers might be vulnerable. This is the second breach at Global Payments in the last 12 months, according to two individuals briefed on the investigations who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Another similar attack was disclosed by Heartland Payment Systems in 2009, a breach that began in 2007 and resulted in the exposure of data on 130 million credit cards. Heartland estimated that breach cost it $140 million in fines, settlements and legal fees.

If you use a Visa or MasterCard credit card, you may be affected by this breach. The good news is that most credit cards have fraud protection, so even if you are affected by this security breach, you most likely will not be affected by fraudulent charges if you catch them early enough.

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National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) Celebrates Data Privacy Day

National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) Celebrates Data Privacy Day & Launched Privacy Forum 

The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a non-profit public-private partnership focused on cybersecurity awareness and education for all digital citizens and official coordinator of Data Privacy Day, will formally celebrate Data Privacy Day 2012 by hosting a privacy forum  at the George Washington University School of Law. Data Privacy Day is an annual awareness initiative that focuses on educating people about the importance of protecting the privacy of personal information and promotes individual control over private data. The awareness effort is celebrated in many places around the world.

Panelists include: David Hoffman, director of security policy and global privacy officer, Intel; Gerard Lewis, vice president, deputy general counsel and chief privacy officer, Comcast Cable; Ari Schwartz, 
senior Internet policy advisor, U.S. Department of Commerce; Rick Buck, head of privacy GSI, eBay Inc.; Erin Egan, chief privacy officer, policy, Facebook; JoAnn C. Stonier, 
global privacy & data protection officer, MasterCard Worldwide; 
and Bob Quinn, senior vice president-Federal Regulatory & chief privacy officer, AT&T.

The list of supporting organizations for Data Privacy Day 2012 includes the recent addition of AT&T and Facebook as official sponsorship partners along with Google, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft, Intuit, Comcast, and NQ Mobile (formerly NetQin Mobile). The current list of official sponsors includes Intel and eBay Inc. To Know Full information and resources surrounding Data Privacy Day Click Here.

-Source (sacbee & Stay Safe Online)

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WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Extradited

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange lost a court battle to stay in the United Kingdom Wednesday and will be extradited to Sweden to face questioning over sex charges, a court ruled. Appeals court judges Lord Justice John Thomas and Justice Duncan Ouseley rejected all four of the arguments Assange's defense team used to fight the extradition.
They will hold another hearing later this month to determine whether he can appeal.
"I have not been charged with any crime in any country," he said on the steps of the High Court in London. "Despite this, the European arrest warrant is so restrictive that it prevents UK courts from considering the facts of a case, as judges have made clear here today."
Assange is accused of sexually assaulting two women in Sweden in August 2010. Although he has not been charged with a crime, Swedish prosecutors want to question him in connection with the allegations.
The court comprehensively rejected his defense against being sent there to face prosecution, and was particularly scathing about a dispute with one of the women over whether she had consented to having sex with him.
Swedish authorities allege that the unnamed woman agreed to have sex with him only if he wore a condom, and that he then had unprotected sex with her while she was asleep.
"The allegation is that he had sexual intercourse with her when she was not in a position to consent and so he could not have had any reasonable belief that she did," the court said.
Assange drew cheers from the crowd as he left the court. A "Free Assange" rally was planned for Wednesday outside the Royal Courts of Justice.
Assange, an Australian, decided to fight the case at the High Court after a judge at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court ruled in February that the WikiLeaks head should be extradited.
Assange denies the accusations, saying they are an attempt to smear him, and he says it would be unfair to send him to a country where the language and legal system are alien to him. His attorneys have fought his extradition on procedural and human-rights grounds.
Assange's lawyers have suggested that Sweden would hand him over to the United States if Britain extradites him. The prosecutor representing Sweden has dismissed that claim.
The extradition case is not linked to his work as founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, which has put him on the wrong side of the U.S. authorities.
His organization, which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information, has published some 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables in the past year, causing embarrassment to the government and others.
It has also published hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents relating to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the organization has come under increasing financial pressure in recent months, leading Assange to announce last week that WikiLeaks was temporarily stopping publication to "aggressively fundraise" in order to stay afloat.
A financial blockade by Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union has destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks' revenue, Assange said.
Many financial institutions stopped doing business with the site after it released the U.S. diplomatic cables late last year, and donations have been stymied.
U.S. authorities have said disclosing the classified information was illegal and caused risks to individuals and national security.

-News Source (CNN, BBC)

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Top 5 DDoS Attacks of 2011, Exclusive Report By Corero Network Security

Corero Network Security (cns:LN), the leader in on-premises Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Defense Systems for enterprises, data centers and hosting providers, named its list of 2011's Top 5 DDoS attacks. Corero's findings show an increase in newer, intelligent application-layer DDoS attacks that are extremely difficult to identify "in the cloud," and often go undetected until it is too late. Corero also found an uptick in attacks against corporations by "hactivists" DDoS-ing sites for political and ideological motives, rather than financial gain. Attacks against Mastercard, Visa, Sony, PayPal and the CIA top Corero's list.
"The cat-and-mouse game between IT administrators, criminals and hactivists has intensified in 2011 as the number of application-layer DDoS attacks has exploded. Coupled with an increase in political and ideological hactivism, companies have to be extremely diligent in identifying and combating attempts to disable their websites, steal proprietary information and to deface their web applications, " said Mike Paquette, chief strategy officer, Corero Network Security.

Corero's 2011 Top 5 DDoS Attacks:-

1. Anonymous DDoS Attacks on WikiLeaks "Censors" Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. The most significant DDoS attack so far this year, the WikiLeaks-related DDoS attacks on Visa, MasterCard and PayPal were both Anonymous' "coming out" party, and the first widespread example of what has been dubbed "cyber rioting" on the Internet, with virtual passersby joining in the attack voluntarily.

2. Sony PlayStation Network DDoS. A shocking wake-up call for many gamers, customers and investors, the Sony Playstation Network DDoS attack began a series of cyber attacks and data breaches that damaged Sony financially and hurt its reputation.

3. CIA and SOCA Hit by LulzSec DDoS Attacks. The appearance of LulzSec on the cyber attack scene, highlighted by bold DDoS attacks on the CIA and the U.K. Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), made us wonder if anyone was safe on the Internet.

4. WordPress DDoS. A massive DDoS attack disrupted one of the world's largest blog hosts--some 18 million websites. The huge attack hit the company's data centers with tens of millions of packets per second.

5. Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This DDoS attack had a major impact on the financial world, disrupting stock market trading in Hong Kong. This was a highly leveraged DDoS attack, potentially affecting hundreds of companies and individuals through a single target.

For all the pain and suffering DDoS attacks have caused, there are a number of best practices that companies can implement to reduce their risk. The most effective defense against DDoS attacks requires expert preparation of defensive resources, ongoing vigilance and a rapid, organized response.

-News Source (Corero Network Security)

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Anonymous Planning to Attack The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

The FBI is investigating threats purportedly from the hacking collective that calls itself Anonymous to bring down the New York Stock Exchange on Monday by hacking into its computer system.
Members of the notorious hacker group appear to be threatening to bring the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York to a dangerous new level, sounding a call to “declare war on the New York Stock Exchange" on Monday by “erasing" it from the Internet.
FBI spokesman Tim Flannelly told that “The FBI is aware of these schemes and threats and is looking into the matter,” 
The hackers say they plan to launch a DDoS attack on the NYSE’s computer systems -- the same type of computer attack that brought down numerous websites last Spring, making them inaccessible.
Anonymous has also separately declared the Stock Exchange announcement a hoax, and it remains unclear whether this is an official effort by Anonymous, a group of rogue hackers or someone else entirely. Either way, the FBI is investigating.
“It is a crime to show the intent to carry out a hack when you are in possession of software or computer applications to do so and we take it seriously,” FBI spokesman Flannelly said.
In one of the videos, which was addressed to the media, a narrator states, “We can no longer stay silent as the population is being exploited and forced to make sacrifices in the name of profit. We will show the world that we are true to our word. On October 10, NYSE shall be erased from the Internet ... expect a day that will never, ever, be forgotten.” In a video addressed to the public, the narrator states, “We are the 99 percent. You have complained that something needs to be done. You now have an opportunity to make a difference. Join the protests. Organize your own. Watch online. Be a part of the movement.”

A digital flier has circulated online with the banner “Operation Invade Wall Street: This is not an occupation. This is an invasion,” and instructions how to participate in “three simple steps.”
It provides a link to download a program to participate as well as the URL for the Stock Exchange (www.nyse.com) and the date and time, October 10th at 3:30 p.m., to attack.
Would-be participants are also urged to “spread the F----- word.”
Still, other Anonymous representatives denied the plans.
A second letter has been posted online, also with Anonymous on the masthead, that references rumors of the planned attack and disclaims the group’s association:
“We have taken notice to a planned attack which has been named #InvadeWallStreet ...We strongly advise against this action and everything it entails to,” the letter says.
“We do not want history to repeat itself, and are sincerely worried,” the letter adds, referencing past attacks on Visa, Paypal, and Mastercard after they refused to accept transactions for payment to WikiLeaks.
Some have taken to Twitter, claiming the DDoS threat is a hoax, or even a setup.
“Smells like a trap! Don't participate,” said one tweet with the hashtag #invadewallstreet.
“HOAX: #invadewallstreet is not a valid OP. Beware of provocateurs!!!” said another posting.

-News Source (FOXNews)

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Leaked FBI Documents is Calling "Anonymous is A National Security Threat"

According to a PDF containing what purports to be a leaked psychological assessment of the leaders of LulzSec and Anonymous by the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (which also profiles serial killers), Anonymous is not only not a collection of individuals, it's a coherent group that poses a threat to national security.
Neither the FBI nor Dept. of Homeland Security have commented on the "leak," which may be a fake according to the TechHerald, but seems to reflect accurately the thinking behind a series of DHS warning bulletins and crackdowns that have resulted in 75 raids and 16 arrests of Anonymous members just this year.
Anons themselves refer to the group as a rough, almost coincidental collective of individuals that occasionally cooperate on projects to protest specific things. There are approximately eight vortices of special interest within the collective, according to interviews, postings and counter-arguments posted by various Anonymi in response to invective by those it attacked.
Attacks are the work of small groups of interested individuals who, on their own initiative and using public argument as their weapon, gather like-minded Anonymi to protest governmental outrages or attack injustice in whatever form they find it, according to de facto leaders in the non-existent but vocal #OPpublicrelations.
In March, for example, members of Anonymous and 4Chan debated, in the finest traditions of American Democracy and citizen activism, whether to attack and defeat the Internet scourge that is Rebecca Black – the annoying but harmless pop "singer" whose made herself famous with a mom-and-dad-funded music video on YouTube that repeated the same lyrics so often it became apparent those might be the only words she knows.(Other, less world-shaking Anonymous projects resulted in significant attacks against the embattled governments of Egypt and Syria, the exposure of government atrocities in Bolivia, civil protest against censorship on the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, attacks on Visa, Mastercard and Paypal in support of whistleblower site WikiLeaks and a long-simmering, high-profile protest against unrestricted greed, corrosive dishonesty of Wall Street and the and economic destruction from which the rest of the country suffers while financiers continues to prosper.)
The FBI has analyzed various instant messages, forum postings, emails, Twitter posts and other documentation and decided Anonymous behaves more like a coherent organization led by a small number of powerful and focused activists, not a politically involved group of individuals using the Anonymous banner as gathering point.

• "The Anonymous ‘collective’ has risen from an amorphous group of individuals on the Internet to the current state of a potential threat to national security. Due to the nature of Anonymous, they believe that they are a leaderless collective. However, it has been shown that there is a defined leadership group," the document reads.

• "A thorough assessment of each UNSUB’s online activities, speech patterns, and general writings was collected by the FBI. Each UNSUB was individually assessed by members of the SBU (sic) and a psychological profile created from these datasets."

• Most of the members of Anonymous are under 30, but the bulk of its leadership are not teenage hacker/script-kids as many portray themselves, according to the FBI.

• "It is likely" that Sabu, one of the more vocal spokestrolls for the LulzSec mini-collective of Anonymous, "works in the information security sector and has been doing so since the early days of the internet and hacking activities. His use of net speak is interspersed with proper American English diction and grammar that implies he is an American citizen and has been educated,” the FBI notes said.

BS, quoth the Anon:

"Anonymous is not a group, it does not have leaders, people can do ANYTHING under the flag of their country," according to one member in an email interview with the AP. "Anything can be a threat to National Security, really," the member said in an email interview. "Any hacker group can be."
If the document is real, it ends on a disturbingly dangerous and presumptive conclusion: that attacks and protests by Anonymous will eventually lead to the death of members of Anonymous, law enforcement or the public that will drive many supporters away from Anonymous.
Until then, Anonymous, whether collectively or individually, may be unstoppable in practical terms.

The overall assessment for the movement however is the following:

1. The movement is out of control and there seems to be no real coherent motivation
2. The leaders have begun to hide themselves a bit more due to arrests that have been made
3. Their reliance on technology will eventually be their downfall
4. Their interpersonal relationships are weak points, as such they should be leveraged
5. Their increasing attacks on infrastructure will eventually lead to serious results that could in fact lead to deaths

-News Source (IT World)

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LulzSec Spokesman Busted By Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard's cybercrime unit has arrested a teenager it suspects of working as the spokesman for the Lulz Security hacking collective, officials said Wednesday.

The Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit arrested a 18-year-old at an address in Scotland's remote Shetland Islands, the force said in a statement. His name wasn't released, but police said he was believed to be "Topiary," one of LulzSec's most prominent members.

Police originally gave his age as 19 but later issued a correction. 

LulzSec shot to prominence in May with attacks on the US Public Broadcasting Service - whose website it defaced by posting a bogus story claiming that the late rapper Tupac Shakur had been discovered alive in New Zealand.

The group is a spin-off of Anonymous, an amorphous collection of Internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included the Church of Scientology, the music industry, and financial companies including Visa and MasterCard.

Topiary was linked to both groups, serving as the on-again, off-again media liaison for the publicity-hungry hackers.

In his only known television interview, on the "David Pakman Show" earlier this year, Topiary phoned in via Skype to feud with Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group notorious for picketing the funerals of slain American soldiers.

Anonymous vandalised the church's website live over the course of the interview.

In conversations with The Associated Press, Topiary said he controlled LulzSec's Twitter feed, which garnered some 300,000 followers over the course of its six-week-long Internet rampage.

LulzSec has claimed responsibility for breaches at pornography websites, gaming companies, and law enforcement organisations. It's also claimed credit for harassing seemingly random targets including an obscure New Jersey-based magnet manufacturer.

One its most spectacular hacks was against Sony Pictures Entertainment. The group posted the usernames, passwords, email addresses and phone numbers of tens of thousands of people, many of whom had given Sony their information for sweepstakes draws. Another stinging series of breaches last month targeted Arizona's police force in protest against its contentious immigration law. Officers had to scramble to change their numbers because their phones were being jammed with calls.

Shortly thereafter the group abruptly announced it was disbanding, although Topiary said at the time that the group wasn't bowing to police pressure.

"We're not quitting because we're afraid of law enforcement," he said in a Skype call. "The press are getting bored of us, and we're getting bored of us."

Attempts to reach Topiary since then have been unsuccessful, although his group recently re-emerged from retirement, defacing The Sun newspaper's website with a fake story claiming that media tycoon Rupert Murdoch had died. In one of its last messages, LulzSec said it was working with unnamed media outlets on a WikiLeaks-style release of emails it claimed to have stolen from the tabloid.

Topiary's once-plentiful Twitter feed was practically wiped clean Wednesday. The only remaining post, from nearly a week ago, read: "You cannot arrest an idea."

The latest arrest is one of an increasing number claimed by law enforcement in Britain and the United States in connection to their investigations into Anonymous and its offshoots. Last week, the FBI, British and Dutch officials carried out 21 arrests, many of them related to the group's attacks on Internet payment provider PayPal Inc., which has been targeted over its refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks.

Last month another 19-year-old, Ryan Cleary, was charged with attacks on Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency and various UK-based music sites. Although at least one of the attacks he was charged with seemed linked to LulzSec, Topiary claimed at the time that Cleary was at most only tangentially involved with the group.

Scotland Yard said Wednesday it was also searching a residential address in Lincolnshire, in central England, and interviewing an unnamed 17-year-old in connection with the investigation. The second teen has not been arrested.

-News Source (IBN)

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Anonymous & Lulzsec Declared #OpPayPal (Antisec)

Anonymous and LulzSec's PayPal boycott campaign gathers momentum. Following the arrests of members in connection with an attack on PayPal's Web site, hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec have launched an online campaign calling for people to close their accounts with the e-payments firm.
Earlier this month the FBI arrested 14 people accused of involvement in last year's cyber-attack on PayPal's Web site by Anonymous in retaliation for the company's closure of a donation account for Wikileaks.
Anonymous has teamed with LulzSec under the #AntiSec banner to issue a joint statement, declaring themselves "outraged at the FBI's willingness to arrest and threaten those who are involved in ethical, modern cyber operations".
In a change of tack, the partners are now calling for a legal form of protest, saying "we encourage anyone using PayPal to immediately close their accounts and consider an alternative" and asking people to tweet pictures of their actions.
The call to arms appears to have gathered some momentum, with the #OpPayPal hashtag the number three trending topic worldwide by 12.00 GMT, prompting @AnonymousIRC to tweet

 

"We hoped for a little impact, but honestly did not expect this. Waiting for NASDAQ to open. Our tip: SELL EBAY! WikiWiki! #AntiSec #OpPayPal"

 

In a tweet posted late afternoon, Wikileaks says it intends to file suit against eBay and Paypal in the US and Europe in line with its ongoing legal and anti-trust actions against Visa and MasterCard.
Separately, Anonymous' Austrian branch has accessed the bank data of 96,000 people in an attack on the GIS television licence agency's Web site, according to AFP.

To See the official press release of Anon & Lulzsec click here

To join the Official IRC of #opPayPal Click Here

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Again WikiLeaks Donations Has been Blocked By Icelandic Bank

An Icelandic bank that unknowingly provided a way for WikiLeaks supporters to fund the controversial website best known for publishing classified military and diplomatic websites earlier this week has closed the proverbial loophole, according to Reuters reports.

In a story published Friday, Maria Aspan of the wire service revealed that Valitor had agreed earlier this week to accept payments processed by DataCell, a data hosting service provider and a WikiLeaks supporter. However, bank officials later told Aspan that they had not been informed that the transactions would include donations to the Julian Assange owned website.

Credit giants Visa and MasterCard have banned DataCell from processing such donations for months, and on Friday, Valitor spokeswoman Jonina Ingvadottir sent an emailed statement to Reuters stating that the bank "was not informed that DataCell would be conducting these activities when their business agreement was made," and another source told Aspan that Valitor had "blocked the Visa and MasterCard WikiLeaks donations and terminated its contract with DataCell" earlier in the day.

That source told Reuters that less than 100 donations were processed before the agreement was terminated.

"The failed Valitor partnership is the latest blow to Assange, who has struggled to gain funding since the major payments networks stopped processing payments to WikiLeaks," Aspan wrote.

"The Internet vigilante group Anonymous temporarily shut down the public websites of both Visa and MasterCard in December after the companies began their embargo."
She added that Olaf Sigurvinsson, the founder of DataCell, "confirmed that Valitor had terminated the contract with his company" and that when the contract was signed, he had made it "absolutely clear" to the Icelandic financial institution that the company would "continue… to collect donations" for various organizations, including WikiLeaks.
On a special page dedicated solely to donations, Sigurvinsson's company posted a statement in which they said, "DataCell advocates free speech and jurisdiction independence. We plead the public support for the independence of media and jurisdiction; and to bring truth, integrity, dignity and justice to the world… You can help by donating financially to the following organizations."

Further down on the page is a form which individuals can donate by credit card to WikiLeaks.

In addition, the web page claims that, "DataCell is taking on legal case against Visa and MasterCard for suspending its account, for which DataCell was processing credit card donation for WikiLeaks. Please contribute to DataCell legal fund to support in its legal battle against credit card giants for their unjustified and prejudicial action."

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Again WikiLeaks Shuts Down Visa Card Payments

The brief, accidental lull in the fighting between WikiLeaks and the card companies that refuse to allow the group donations has ended. After WikiLeaks announced Thursday that a “workaround” had appeared for those hoping to contribute to the group via credit card, Visa has moved to shut down that channel and reinstitute the card companies’ financial blockade of the secret-spilling group. Payments to WikiLeaks from all card companies have been blocked again since early Friday, according to Sveinn Andri Sveinnson, an Icelandic lawyer for WikiLeaks and its payment gateway DataCell. More than six months after the Danish payment processor Teller shut down Visa and MasterCard payments to WikiLeaks at the card companies’ request, DataCell had made a new contract with the Icelandic processor Valitor,which unbeknownst to Visa allowed payments to WikiLeaks.

“When we signed this contract, it was clear to Valitor that this was for WikiLeaks donations, and they assented,” says Sveinnson. “Visa was saying that they hadn’t ended their financial blockade but people could see they could make payments. So it was very embarrassing for Visa and very hilarious.”

But Visa, which has claimed that WikiLeaks may violate its terms of service for encouraging illegal activity, didn’t find the situation so funny. It quickly shut down that new line of payment, pressuring Valitor to end its relationship with DataCell and WikiLeaks Friday morning. A spokesperson for Visa confirms in a somewhat convoluted statement that “An acquirer briefly accepted payments on a merchant site linked to WikiLeaks. As soon as this came to our attention, action was taken with the suspension of Visa payment acceptance to the site remaining in place.”

That means all card payments to DataCell and WikiLeaks–including MasterCard and American Express–are blocked again, says Sveinnson.
DataCell chief executive Andreas Fink told Bloomberg News that in the brief window in which WikiLeaks could receive credit card donations, it amassed “five-to-six digit figures” in contributions.
WikiLeaks and DataCell had been planning to file a complaint Thursdaywith the European Union Commission against Visa, MasterCard, and the Danish payment processor Teller. Sveinnson said they held off on filing that complaint after it seemed the card companies might have reopened payments. Now Sveinsson says they will go ahead with their complaint against the card companies early next week, and will file an additional protest against Valitor with the Icelandic Financial Authority.

“Now we’re back to the same position,” says Sveinnson. “It’s a strange world we live in.”

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Wikileaks Will Take Legal Action Against PayPal, MasterCard & Visa

There hasn't been much talk lately over the fact that PayPal, MasterCard and Visa all cut off Wikileaks late last year, after the US government freaked out about the release of some State Department Cables. None of the firms has done a very good job explaining why this makes sense (or why they continue to allow other groups, such as the KKK to receive funding, while singling out Wikileaks). I'm sure those three firms, which took quite a public bashing when the news originally dropped, would prefer that there not be any more talk about it. However, Wikileaks and the payment firm they used, DataCell, are apparently planning to file a legal complaintthis week against all three firms in Europe. A draft of the complaint, which was obtained by Andy Greenberg at Forbes (linked above and embedded below), claims that the three firms violated Articles 101 and 102 of the EU Treaty, effectively a form of antitrust law. While I tend to think many antitrust claims are merely attacks on successful companies, this seems like a case where they could make sense. Here you have basically the only three ways for most people to transfer money easily, all agreeing to block a single (small) client from receiving money, despite no legal ruling against the operation (hell, charges haven't even been filed). It certainly would make for an interesting case.

-News Source (techdirt)

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MasterCard Commercial (VIDEO) Has been Spoofed By WikiLeaks

The latest spoof on a classic MasterCard ad campaign comes from one of the credit card company’s best known adversaries. “There are some people who don’t like change,” ends the short video that was recently posted to Vimeo. “For everyone else, there’s WikiLeaks.”

On-screen text encourages people to learn more about the financial blockade that a number of major financial institutions announced they would instate in December. According to the video, these companies’ refusal to process any of WikiLeaks’s payments has cost the group $15 million in lost donations. “What do MasterCard, Visa, Bank of America, Paypal and Western Union all have in common?” reads the video’s description.”They help you pay for what you want? Well, yes… that is unless you want to help WikiLeaks make the world a better place.”

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been under house arrest in Britain since December when Sweden issued an extradition request on accusations of sexual misconduct, makes a cameo appearance. By its own calculations, WikiLeaks is spending $500,000 on his house arrest and $1 million in legal fees. The video directs supporters toward alternate donation methods (some of these methods, The Atlantic points out, do not support WikiLeaks’s greater goals, but rather Assange’s legal expenses). Because, it argues, “change as a result of your work: priceless.”

Click HERE to See  The Video On Vimeo Posted By Wikileaks

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Mastercard.com Down (Wikileaks Motivated the DDOS Attack)

MasterCard's website is currently inaccessible following what appears to be a WikiLeaks-inspired internet attack against it. In what appears to be the latest salvo by hactivists, the mastercard.com website is thought to be suffering from a denial-of-service attack - where an internet site is bombarded with a large amount of traffic making it impossible for genuine visitors to access it.

A Twitter user called ibomhacktivist seems to be taking responsibility for the attack, and links the action to the WikiLeaks-inspired attack on MasterCard by the Anonymous group last year.

MasterCard angered the hacktivist community after it suspended the ability for WikiLeaks to accept payments via the firm. Police in the Netherlands arrested two teenagers for allegedly playing their part in the attacks last year. WikiLeaks is a subject which tends to generate strong emotions - whether you're in favour of what the organisation stands for, or against it.

Computer users would be wise, however, to remember that even if you feel WikiLeaks is being persecuted by the authorities or abandoned by online companies, denial-of-service attacks are still illegal.

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Anonymous Gave Warrig to NATO

Responding to a recent report from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization condemning  Anonymous, the online "hacktivist" group has issued a public response warning the global organization not to challenge it. Claiming that the NATO report singled it out as a threat to "government and the people," Anonymous defended some of its recent actions in the name of freedom and dissent. In its message (Google cached version), it also asserted that NATO fears the group not because it's a "threat to society," but because it's a "threat to the established hierarchy."

Issued last month by Lord Joplin, general rapporteur of NATO, the report warned member nations about the rising threat of "hacktivism," or carrying out cyberattacks for political purposes. Singling out Anonymous, NATO described several of the group's most recent actions, including the distributed denial-of-service attacksagainst MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Amazon, and others that had cut off services for WikiLeaks.

Noting that Anonymous has become more sophisticated, the NATO report cautioned that it could hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate information and described a strong response against the group. "Today, the ad hoc international group of hackers and activists is said to have thousands of operatives and has no set rules or membership," said the report. "It remains to be seen how much time Anonymous has for pursuing such paths. The longer these attacks persist the more likely countermeasures will be developed, implemented, the groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted." In its response, Anonymous tried to soften its stance in parts by saying that it doesn't want to threaten anyone's way of life or terrorize any nation. But it made clear its reaction to NATO's report. "Finally, do not make the mistake of challenging Anonymous," warned Anonymous in its message. "Do not make the mistake of believing you can behead a headless snake. If you slice off one head of Hydra, ten more heads will grow in its place. If you cut down one Anon, ten more will join us purely out of anger at your trampling of dissent." NATO's report also provided a larger look into the growing danger of cyberattacks and how governments should respond to them. In the report, Joplin asked the question of how NATO should react if one of its member nations was the victim of a cyberattack. "Can one invoke Article 5 of the Washington Treaty after a cyber attack?" asked the report. "And what response mechanisms should the Alliance employ against the attacker? Should the retaliation be limited to cyber means only, or should conventional military strikes also be considered? Both the U.S. and the U.K. have recently made their own positions clear--that they consider cyberwarfare another form of warfare, and one potentially subject to a response using conventional military weapons.

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