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16 Arrested as F.B.I. Hits the Hacking Group Anonymous
- jontas 15y agoI wonder if this Reddit thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/iu93n/fbi_raided_my_house_with_a_search_warrant_today/ http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/iu93n/fbi_raided_... Is the unnamed suspect (I would guess due to being a minor).
- dotBen 15y agoI think it's really strange how the father of the minor went onto Reddit to discuss what happened. And somewhat naive if this is a significant FBI investigation.
- laluser 15y agoI would assume that the person is a troll. I don't see them having any significant proof for such a significant claim.
- Ronkdar 15y agoI find it hard to believe they would enter a house with 20 armed agents to arrest someone who did not commit an act of violence.
- sneak 15y agoAmerica is a terribly strange and terrifying place to those that didn't grow up there.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Pointsly 15y agoI'm interested to see if the Government throws them away in some max security prison in Colorado or asks them to work along their sides.
- sudonim 15y agoHmmm... it seems like the FBI decided to go after some low hanging fruit. People using Low Orbit Ion Cannon are probably not the brains of the operations. And arresting a bunch of people who have no influence probably gives validation to the message of anonymous and lulzsec.
- llimllib 15y agoMaybe the idea is to scare people off from participating in LOIC bombings in the future?
- redthrowaway 15y agoThe temporary DDoS attacks really aren't their main concern, however. The infiltration of companies and dumping of their data is a much more serious risk. Given that this all took place in 2010, we'll see if they arrest anyone from LulzSec in a year or so. My guess is no. I have no doubt that the NSA could probably track them down if they wanted to, but that's way outside their scope of interest, and the FBI just doesn't have the capability.
- lhnz 15y agoIt might do that, but it won't make very much difference. Who brings down sites: a couple of people with LOIC or hundreds of people with LOIC and a handful with actual substantial botnets under their control.
- xyzzyz 15y agoIt will also scare the shit out of the kids who thought that they're "anonymous" and safe from prosecution. It's not the severity of the punishment that deters from committing crimes, but rather the inevitability.
- BCM43 15y agoIsn't this the same strategy that the RIAA and MPAA used? And as far as I can tell it did not work very well.
- hallowtech 15y agoSeven proxies couldn't hold them back.
- trotsky 15y agoThe suspects, in 10 separate states, are accused of conspiring to “intentionally damage protected computers.” This seems to relate to refer to Title 18, Part I, Chapter 47, § 1030, Part a) 5) A): knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization, to a protected computer; http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html There was quite a bit of debate during the December DOS's about what you could even charge folks with. This seems to be their answer. You can indict for almost anything, though, as grand juries are notoriously easy especially in technical cases. I find it hard to believe a judge would actually buy slowing a computer down equals damage. If that was the case people who maliciously search too often. Smells like plea bargain bait at best to me, what US Attorney would want to try that?
- molecule 15y ago> ...a judge would actually buy slowing a computer down equals damage... cough flash ads cough
- redthrowaway 15y agoVista
- Vivtek 15y agoAsk Aaron Schwartz.
- watty 15y agoIntent is the obvious differentiator. Intentionally abusing a system with the intent of taking it down and causing damage should be illegal.
- jfricker 15y agoAnonymous civil disobedience just gives the powers-that-be the excuse to arrest anyone they choose.
- Nrsolis 15y agoCivil disobedience usually requires that you perform your action openly and notoriously. Running a program in your home and using an alias hardly qualifies. Seriously, you're defending DDoS attacks?
- jfricker 15y agoDefending? No. Stating an observation that tyrannical institutions can use Anonymous as a pretense to arrest anyone with a computer. At least in the USA there is a shred of evidentiary requirement, but much of the world is not so lucky. I suppose it's arguable that Anonymous is acting out of a sense of "Civil Disobedience". Perhaps it's more along the lines of "vandalism". Philosophically speaking, that is.
- Nrsolis 15y agoVandalism? If I break your window, that's vandalism. If I burn down your home, that's arson. DDoS attacks I've seen have completely shut down some major sites and had some pretty significant second-order effects. There are real dollars and real problems created for real life individuals who depend on the availability of these systems. You can justify it all you like but civic action doesn't justify what these people do. It's mob mentality at work and it resembles a riot more than anything else. Innocent people get hurt in riots and no self respecting individual should be involved in one. Virtual or otherwise.
- noglorp 15y agoPutting gum in a lock == vandalism == DOS of a physical location. Real dollars are lost etc. in that scenario. Seriously... please just stop posting. You are strictly putting words in his mouth so you can have something to argue with.
- tlrobinson 15y agoIn the San Jose case, all 14 suspects are accused of using a free program called Low Orbit Ion Cannon ... When you have a decentralized group,” Ms. Granick said, “the question is, Are there big fish, and are any of these people big fish?” No. They're basically going to ruin a few kids' lives in order to deter other kids from "hacking" with things like LOIC.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Nrsolis 15y agoYou act like that's a bad thing... DDoS attacks are serious business and I was on the front lines for the "fun" that Anonymous was ginning up. If you didn't think there would be consequences, you are sadly mistaken. A little deterrence goes a long way.
- _delirium 15y agoIt's not clear from that description that they have people who are members of a group in any meaningful sense at all, versus just random people who downloaded/used the app.
- antihero 15y agoI forked it on GitHub. Should I worry?
- ars 15y agoNo. Were you serious? Just downloading it is not illegal - it's using it to DOS someone that is illegal. You can even DOS your own site with it and be fine. Just not someone else.
- darwinGod 15y ago"..even DOS your own site with it and be fine" What if there are other sites/services are hosted on the same physical box?
- bbsabelli 15y agoRecruitment?
- nsomaru 15y agoAnd mounting an attack is..., with the right skills, relatively simple. Do people think any more? Yeah, driving a formula one car is, with the right skills, relatively simple. Anything is simple from the perspective of the person who has invested time to learn how to do it.
- redthrowaway 15y agoRight, but LOIC actually is ridiculously simple. You either enter the url of the server that's doing the fire control, or just enter the url of your target and click "fire lazorz". It's built to be used by masses of /b/tards, so simplicity is a key design choice.
- dagrz 15y agoI think this article summaries the whole big fish, small fish, decentralized discussion: http://risky.biz/anonymous http://risky.biz/anonymous
- cft 15y agoPayPal has very good personal contacts at FBI due to FBI's interest in payment fraud. So attacking PayPal from the US will more likely lead to FBI action than attacking any other similarly sized consumer website.
- marcamillion 15y agoHate to say it...but they brought this on themselves.
- Devilboy 15y agoApparently now a 16 year old was arrested in London. He is supposedly a prominent member of Lulzsec: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/19/leading-member-lulzsec-hacker-squad-arrested-in-london/ http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/19/leading-member-lul... Apologies for the source, every other source just points to this one at the moment.
- maeon3 15y agoThe fact that hackers are burned at the stake and made an example of, in America for crimes similar to 'reckless blocking of a store Entrance' is what will make our networks weak and feeble against the (100 to 1) army of professional hackers in India and China. But I suppose if we get hacked by other nations we'll just get our hackers together and with their mad elite skills, will stop them. right? right guys? Oh yeah, PS, America has a massive shortage of security experts, if you are interested in hacking, call the FBI, they need you.
- Ronkdar 15y agoAm I the only one bothered by the fact that the New York Times just said "lulz" (as in LulzSec) with a straight face?