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Anonymous Protests Aaron Swartz's Death By Twice Hacking A U.S. Gov't Website

19 points by xijuan 14y ago

moccajoghurt 14y ago
I guess you could call something like that "cyber terrorism". Anonymous is spreading their opinion about a political issue by destroying stuff. This is not changing anything. Do they really believe they are helping? I can't even tell what they are trying to achieve. Are they trying to impress the masses by showing what they are capable of? In that case you could compare their "activism" with the defaces script-kiddies do on random websites. I guess some people who act under the name of Anonymous have good intentions but the vast majority doesn't.
- notdrunkatall 14y ago
  You certainly could call it cyber-terrorism, which is why I vehemently disagree with ineffective measures such as these. They accomplish nothing except to give the government ammunition to use in the fight to expand its scope and power over online activities in the name of fighting some new, vague threat. Anonymous, you're wasting your goodwill on this bullshit, and in the end, you're almost certainly just hurting all of us. Just stop it.
  - kaybe 14y ago
    Terrorism as a word is far too strong here. It rather falls into the area of vandalism, I'd say. Or are you feeling terror at the thought of a website defacement? The use of "terrorism" is quite inflationary these days, just as "war against.." was before. We have to take care, this can easily lead to more 'anti-terrorism measures', since there is so much more 'terrorism' (because all kinds of 'terrorism' are unquestionably horrible!). (I'm not saying there is no terrorism, but.. let's just be careful how we use the word.)
    - hawleyal 14y ago
      Agreed. Equivalent of spray-painting over a billboard.
- hawleyal 14y ago
  Everyone is anonymous with a small "a". FTFY: I guess some people who act (regardless of affiliation) have good intentions but the vast majority don't.
jiggy2011 14y ago
I don't understand how the gov't websites are so easy to hack, unless they have someone on the inside? I'm guessing they are not just running old wordpress etc and getting owned by out of the box exploits. So it must be custom exploits written for each site, so unless they have a copy of the server-side code to fuzz offline the admins are going to notice a lot of very weird traffic which will clue them that something is up.
- throwaway2048 14y ago
  you are massively overestimating the competence of various departments IT deployments. Stuff like the department of justice isnt the NSA/CIA, exploiting CMS misconfiguration and holes works for government sites just like it does anywhere else.
jahewson 14y ago
Given that the public outcry over Schwartz's prosecution has been enormous, this action is unproductive. The real damage being done here is to the image of the young computer-savvy male.
dutchbrit 14y ago
Protesting in real life, on the streets, now that'd be better.
SparrowOS 14y ago
Satan likes to do mock executions for me. Retard think I imagine myself like Swartz. That's what I am to him. I wrote an operating system. I see myself as a capitalistic Torvalds. Suppose you took a capitalist and started an operating system. It's a completely different picture than a leftist nigger who steals shit. God says... ascended fury counsel infirmity travails I am not a saint who lets 3-year-old amateurs contribute so they can be proud of having their name. Yuck. nasty. At age 20 in 1990, I was hired by Ticketmaster to work on the VAX os. I am a professional and I laughed at Pearl Jam when they sued Ticketmaster. Of course we need service charges. Fucken leftist niggers! I hate reverse engineering -- engineering is for white people; reverse engineering is for niggers. ---- God says... C:\Text\BIBLE.TXT d, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 3:18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. 3:22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice,

19 points by xijuan 14y ago

I guess you could call something like that "cyber terrorism". Anonymous is spreading their opinion about a political issue by destroying stuff. This is not changing anything. Do they really believe they are helping? I can't even tell what they are trying to achieve. Are they trying to impress the masses by showing what they are capable of? In that case you could compare their "activism" with the defaces script-kiddies do on random websites. I guess some people who act under the name of Anonymous have good intentions but the vast majority doesn't.

notdrunkatall 14y ago
You certainly could call it cyber-terrorism, which is why I vehemently disagree with ineffective measures such as these. They accomplish nothing except to give the government ammunition to use in the fight to expand its scope and power over online activities in the name of fighting some new, vague threat. Anonymous, you're wasting your goodwill on this bullshit, and in the end, you're almost certainly just hurting all of us. Just stop it.
- kaybe 14y ago
  Terrorism as a word is far too strong here. It rather falls into the area of vandalism, I'd say. Or are you feeling terror at the thought of a website defacement? The use of "terrorism" is quite inflationary these days, just as "war against.." was before. We have to take care, this can easily lead to more 'anti-terrorism measures', since there is so much more 'terrorism' (because all kinds of 'terrorism' are unquestionably horrible!). (I'm not saying there is no terrorism, but.. let's just be careful how we use the word.)
  - hawleyal 14y ago
    Agreed. Equivalent of spray-painting over a billboard.
hawleyal 14y ago
Everyone is anonymous with a small "a". FTFY: I guess some people who act (regardless of affiliation) have good intentions but the vast majority don't.

jiggy2011 14y ago

I don't understand how the gov't websites are so easy to hack, unless they have someone on the inside? I'm guessing they are not just running old wordpress etc and getting owned by out of the box exploits. So it must be custom exploits written for each site, so unless they have a copy of the server-side code to fuzz offline the admins are going to notice a lot of very weird traffic which will clue them that something is up.

throwaway2048 14y ago
you are massively overestimating the competence of various departments IT deployments. Stuff like the department of justice isnt the NSA/CIA, exploiting CMS misconfiguration and holes works for government sites just like it does anywhere else.

jahewson 14y ago

Given that the public outcry over Schwartz's prosecution has been enormous, this action is unproductive. The real damage being done here is to the image of the young computer-savvy male.

dutchbrit 14y ago

Protesting in real life, on the streets, now that'd be better.

SparrowOS 14y ago

Satan likes to do mock executions for me. Retard think I imagine myself like Swartz. That's what I am to him. I wrote an operating system. I see myself as a capitalistic Torvalds. Suppose you took a capitalist and started an operating system. It's a completely different picture than a leftist nigger who steals shit. God says... ascended fury counsel infirmity travails I am not a saint who lets 3-year-old amateurs contribute so they can be proud of having their name. Yuck. nasty. At age 20 in 1990, I was hired by Ticketmaster to work on the VAX os. I am a professional and I laughed at Pearl Jam when they sued Ticketmaster. Of course we need service charges. Fucken leftist niggers! I hate reverse engineering -- engineering is for white people; reverse engineering is for niggers. ---- God says... C:\Text\BIBLE.TXT d, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 3:18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. 3:20 Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. 3:22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice,