You know...
...I don't know who this 'Man' guy is, but he sure gets himself into a lot of trouble.
Police in the UK have arrested a 22-year-old county Cleveland man in their investigation into web attacks waged by the Anonymous hacking collective against companies accused of retaliating against WikiLeaks, The Telegraph reports. The unnamed suspect was questioned by specialist computer-crime detectives at a local police …
I'm going to hazard a guess here but I'm thinking your righteous zeal meant you overlooked the fact that the people attacking Wikileaks seem to have not been as stupid as the Anonyputzs. The Wiki stuffers seem to have hidden their IP addresses and not used tools names by a five-year old, making detection, capture and trial a might harder than the "look-at-me-I'm-so-morally-superior" morons useing LOIC.
OK, I'll bite. Hey Mr Wikileaks we don't like what you do using your site, but we gonna protect it ennyhoo.
Oh, whilst we're cleaning your windscreen and changing your oil perhaps you could kick us in the nutz, kick us in the shins and stamp on our feet?
It's Okay, no problemo. We like it when you do that.
... is that its not exactly a collective as the media portrays it as. People want this to be a solid group with members and a hierarchy.
Incidents like this are created by people who are either bored or whipped into action due to a forum topic or shared interest. I can post now under the anonymous banner but I am not one of the people who perpetrated this.
People like labels I guess.
Yes, there's most certainly a Hierarchy. I've been hanging out on the irc.anonops.ru server for a couple months now, mostly trolling them to distract them from their attracts and causing arguments between them.
When it comes down to it, there's only a handful of people deciding the targets, releasing info to the press and such like. Yes there's some user voting, to a degree, but overall it comes down to these few people.
Then you have all the sheep who don't really know much about anything, they just know how to run the LOIC client. They get that bloated big head feeling, thinking they're doing something to stand up for free speech.
It always strikes me as ironic that they irc chans dredge on about free speech but then anyone who dares to question the legitimacy of an operation is instantly banned from the server.
I'm hoping that soon enough these top guys will be caught and we can forget this whole mess.
AC because I want to continue causing them problems.
To whom are you referring?
WikiLeaks informants or the government thugs who treat democracy as a joke and something that doesn't apply to them?
For one of the few times in history, WikiLeaks has given us citizens a tool to pull wayward governments into line with. And when finely tuned, it will alter for the better our governance and will do so for the foreseeable future.
Of course, Kim Jong-il, Hitler, Stalin and the perpetrators who've been recently exposed would, I suspect, strongly disagree with the sentiments of the majority.
Guaranteed this guy was one of the nameless many who after reading some of the news stories about Wikileaks and Assange thought it’d be a great idea to jump onto the band wagon. He downloaded the software and used it having no knowledge or thought about protecting himself. I would not be surprised that in the interview process he admitted having little or no knowledge of the software and how it worked or even what a DDOS attack actually entailed
Considering the Police did not do a major news release on the arrest indicating they had one of the organizers of the attacks, we can only assume the above. Assuming the above you must wonder why the police continue to waste resources on arresting the sacrificial lambs that so willingly joined the “movement” if for no other reason for the bragging rights with their mates
Don’t reply that he broke a law willingly and therefore must be penalised for his actions. The Police have discretionary powers in these matters. Though it appears more and more often they do not exercise them or exercise them in the wrong situations
You do it with a botnet.
So now the plods on both sides of the Atlantic are going around picking up people who really thought that "Clean your computer now" message box was a good idea.
(It wasn't? Oh damn good thing I clicked on the red x and canceled the thing, eh?)
Darwin Awards candidates? Or not?
Best not to do illegal stuff like DDoS'ing websites and the such. Leave that for the experts rather.
So if a botnet DDoS some site, will the poor ignorant blighter whose PC got infected with a botnet trojan/worm be held responsible?
The wibbly wobbly web just got more dangerous...
There is an award for these people, if they achieve something like detention at her madge's pleasure:
Bobo Award
The ultimate achievement in the Kook Arts. Given in recognition of the lifetime work of those who rise above and beyond the call of net.looniness, the Bobo is reserved for those whose sheer quest at whatever it is they're pursuing knows Absolutely No Bounds, whether they be global humiliation, jail time, even death. Several Bobo honorees are, in fact, in jail or deceased. Think of it as the Internet's version of the Darwin Award.
http://www.coloneljake.com/AUK/AAD/
Maybe we can start nominating when they are convicted. Julian Assange will be the big one, if he is pulled down for what he's been doing on line.
Please not the emphasis on net.looniness. The Sweden rape charge allegations do not qualify.