Skiddies throwing a meaningless tantrum. ::yawns::
Don't give 'em any press. It only encourages them.
(note that I'm no fan of the terrorist state of isreal)
Anonymous claims to have disrupted more than 100,000 Israeli web sites and caused over $US3bn in damages with a new campaign, called OpIsrael, launched over the weekend. Israeli officials say the effort was largely unsuccessful in breaching the nation's online defences. In a typically understated piece of pre-op PR last …
Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, of the National Cyber Bureau, told The Indy that there is “hardly any real damage”, claiming that “Anonymous doesn't have the skills to damage the country's vital infrastructure”.
What you will probably never hear any National Cyber Bureau puppet saying, to retain any sort of credibility, and not to reveal any secrets in the field, is that "Anonymous doesn't have the skills to damage the country's vital organs" ...... for they are easily targeted and damaged and/or destroyed, and on the flip side of that SMARTR ByteCOIN, just as easily restructured and/or recreated into a wholly better beta phorm with necessary intelligence on board and master piloting expeditionary and quite revolutionary evolutionary vessels and platforms.
Everything under the Sun revolves around Words Controlling Worlds with Intelligence Following Leads which are Novel Noble Ideas Applied42Make Reality ..... via Virtual Means and HyperRadioProActive Memes in NEUKlearer Technology Augmenting AIRealities.
NEUKlearer ..... an AnglodDutch Power Control Initiative?
Well, that was considered a valid defense twice.
One worked, due to the due diligence of Bush the Lesser.
The other didn't go so well at Nuremberg.
Can't figure out *why* a Republican didn't attain the office after that insanity.
Oh, wait, I can. We veterans didn't support that turd's party.
Many hackers are motivated by their 15 seconds of fame so I agree the media should not give them that motivation.
As far as I am concerned all hackers should be hung by their thumbs for six months until they understand that their behavior is not only unacceptable, it's a violation of law for which they will be held accountable. Treble damaged and 10 years in the slammer would be a good means to discourage such uncivil behavior by hackers.
I'm a hacker. Have been for over 40 years. I've never done anything illegal, immoral, or fattening. Never been on the news, never been subject to observation by the authorities, and will never be subject of an article here on ElReg. Why? Glad you asked. Because I have ethics.
The skiddies you refer to as "hackers" have no ethics. They need to be slapped, and hard, by their mummies. Hung by their thumbs is a little over the top ...
"I'm a hacker. Have been for over 40 years. I've never done anything illegal, immoral, or fattening. "
I call shenanigans ... isn't junk food a prerequisite for a good hacking session? I know when I get on a good coding mission I can survive* days only needing to leave my PC to relieve some organic meat sack waste I'm forced to have to deal with.
* Possibly not the best term for the diet.
I agree that it is illegal and in many ways wrong. However what the state of Israel is doing to the Palestinians is very very wrong: they have ignored UN resolutions with impunity and little international reproach, when Saddam Hussein ignored UN resolutions governments around the world screamed loudly.
The actions of the Israeli government need to be said as what they are: internal oppression against an ethnic minority. When that minority (inevitably) fights back this is taken as an excuse to hit back even harder. If this were happening anywhere else in the world there would be loud condemnation. Why does this not happen here?
A wrong to fix another wrong is not the right way either. I both support and disagree with what Anonymous have done at the same time.
Let us hope that this sparks real debate as to what is happening; however I suspect that it won't.
Before someone accuses me of it: I am not anti semitic. Just because I disagree with some of the actions of the Israeli government does not mean that I hate Jews; just as when I loudly complain about the actions of whoever is currently in power at Westminster does not make me anti British.
@alain williams
So what's the solution? Bear in mind that more than half the population of Israel is either Arab or Middle Eastern Jews ethnically cleansed from all the other Arab states. They have nowhere else to go. When Israel did leave Gaza, they didn't get peace, they got daily rocket attacks. So what should Israel do, and what should the Palestinians do?
"So what should Israel do, and what should the Palestinians do?"
Oh, I dunno ... acknowledge they are the exact same people, who never had anything resembling borders, until the Brits invented Jordan and then convinced the Allies to invent Israel?
@jake
Is it your honest belief that Jewish people can safely go and live (and worship) in any Arab-majority state in the Middle East? Really?
And a lot of the countries in the Middle East date back to pre-Muslim countries or Ottoman provinces. It's no more artificial than, say, the current borders of Hungary/Slovakia/Serbia/Romania.
They are still the same people, Bumpy Cat. Genetics doesn't lie. It just is.
Religions are an artificial construct, designed to cause strife.
Why the Brits (and later, the allies) thought that stealing the lands of migratory Arabs was a good idea, and that it was part of a solution that would lead to world peace, is beyond me ...
Your "safely worship" question is a strawman. And a bad one.
And please note that *everything* is pre-muslim. Except the modern world.
Yes, I agree that they're the same people genetically. It's pretty likely that the three Jewish tribes in southern Arabia/Medina/Mecca in the 7th century were absorbed into the Abbasids, so a large portion of the Quyraish were actually Jews.
My point is, if you stripped away the borders today and made one state, you would end up with an Arab-majority, Muslim-majority state. Most likely with no Jews. Most of whom come from that area, and would thus have to flee ... where?
I fail to see how "safely worship" is a strawman. Are you saying that anyone who lives in that area can freely practise any faith? You might want to tell the Jew who tried to renovate Libya's last synagogue, or the Copts who aren't allowed to build churches, or the Baha'i who aren't even allowed passports in Egypt.
"My point is, if you stripped away the borders today and made one state"
As it was (essentially) before Western Europe decided they knew otherwise, you mean? Which was my point.
"I fail to see how "safely worship" is a strawman"
Faith is an artificial construct of the human mind. Thus the term "faith". It's a meaningless term, logically, and only used emotionally.
"Are you saying that anyone who lives in that area can freely practise any faith?"
Of course. If they just shut their yaps about it. "Practicing your faith" isn't the same as babbling about it to all and sundry at every opportunity. See the former soviet union and organized religion.
Or, the other side of the coin, the Four-Square Baptist "missionaries" who knocked on my door a couple evenings ago ... I asked 'em which version of "Creation" they believed in. They replied "The one in Genesis!" I asked "which version, the one that starts at Genesis 1, or the one that starts at Genesis 2.4?" They had no comment, but the dude was quick to point out that "that was the OLD testament" ... to which I replied "Which of the apostles truly reported the last words of Christ? Matthew, Luke, or John? All had different opinions ... Mark was silent on the subject." They slowly backed down my driveway ...
Organized religion is the root of all evil, and should have nothing to do with politics. Ever.
@jake
I agree with you on religion - it has no place in politics, and is the source of all sorts of evil. However, you're dreaming if you think that most Arab states have anything resembling religious freedom. Your own attitude - your very words - would be enough to get you arrested by the police or attacked by a mob in most countries in the region. Excluding, funnily enough, one - Israel.
What you're basically calling for is for a single large state where a specific religious group can run things, and persecute anyone they don't like. You're big on the abstract, but I haven't seen any concrete plans or specific answers to how things would work. Is it worth reminding you that the last such state had slavery, stole children of other faiths to make holy warriors and perpetrated the first genocide of the 20th century?
"However, you're dreaming if you think that most Arab states have anything resembling religious freedom."
Where, exactly, did I type that?
"Your own attitude - your very words - would be enough to get you arrested by the police or attacked by a mob in most countries in the region."
I've spent roughly 30 months of my life in that neck of the woods, on and off, over the last 30 years. I kept my yap shut on the subject, and had no issues.
"What you're basically calling for"
I haven't called for anything. Just pointing out the obvious history of the region, and the stupidity of humans who think that they can change 5,000 years of history and tribal conflict in a couple of generations.
Jake,
Why don't we start with erasing the borders of Syria, Jordan, and all the other Arab Muslim states since they're all artificial? They do nothing but enable one dictator or dynasty to be geographically disjoint from another. Across these borders we have the same genetics, the same language, the same religion. We wouldn't lose much cultural diversity if those countries formed a single pan-Arab state. On the other hand, we'd lose much more cultural diversity if we erased the borders of Israel.
Mutually Assured Destruction.
Israel has nuclear weapons, and in the MAD twist of fate that is nuclear, it will wipe itself out shortly with a pre-emptive strike against Iran.
Anonymous and Mossad will probably do the same in CyberSpace very soon too.
Not taking sides, just pointing out the M.A.D. world we live in.
I'm not sure claiming you've done $3 billion of damage is very smart. All very nice for the PR of course, but a bit of a bugger when some prosecution lawyer uses that figure in court against a random skiddy, and no-one bothers to notice that it's utter bollocks.
As for all those Israeli sites being down, is it possible that they're still available inside the country? Cut connections to the sites being attacked from outside, then you can happily run them for the domestic audience with minimal disruption and minimal resources used. Either that or their cyber-spokesdroid is talking rubbish...
It is a tad arrogant, to say the least, and much more likely to be a confirmed madness, that established conflicted and conflicting population/nationality control systems, be they political or social or fiscal or whatever on Earth [and there are so many of them doing a spectacularly bad job of it, aren't there] would actually believe the nonsense that they can exercise similar controlling lead administration in CyberSpace .... Virtual Team Terrain.
A tad arrogant and sad be such as that as is displayed by sincere ignorance personified.
The cease fire hasn't been respected by either side. You get rockets and terrorists coming out of Palestine and tanks running over people and houses coming out of Israel. Frankly the reporting of the whole thing gets old. Palestine endlessly fires rockets into Israel at civilian targets but all we ever hear about is Israel's 'hostility' (I'd call it self defense) when they fight back and human rights violations (which are appropriately labeled). Why can't the press just acknowledge that Palestine, with it's terrorist tactics, is just as guilty as Israel?
And then you have people like Anonymous who apparently haven't bothered to read past the surface and see that there are crimes-a-plenty on both sides and lash out it Israel.
Sure, maybe it would end if Israel would leave the Palestinian occupied areas alone, but I doubt it. Palestine will never be satisfied till Israel is destroyed and Israel, being Israel, will never allow an enemy who hates them that much to live in peace on their border.
Anyway, my point is why do we only hear about the crimes being committed by one side? Can't we get some balanced reporting on the issue so that groups like Anonymous can spank both the children when they step in and send them to separate corners?
Can't we get some balanced reporting on the issue so that groups like Anonymous can spank both the children when they step in and send them to separate corners?
Nice idea, but I can't think of any balanced/impartial news outlet...
The whole Israel-Palestine thing tends to polarise opinion - there is no middle ground. You either love Israel/despise Palestine or despise Israel/love Palestine.
Same shit, different day.
That's bollocks. Some of us don't care about this Middle East business, and don't take sides with disputes that don't concern us, but we do enjoy reading the comments when the topic crops up, because it's always interesting to watch people go bananas on either side.