Anonymous's Public Face Indicted
Barrett Brown an alleged former spokesperson of the hacking group has been indicted on twelve counts of information theft.
The charges include one count of stolen authentication features for more than 5,000 credit card account numbers pulled from the Stratfor Global Intelligence database, one count of access device fraud affecting at least 15 unauthorized access devices, as well as ten counts of aggravated identity theft, which gave Brown full access to credit card accounts and related information.
Brown never confirmed that he served as a spokesperson for Anonymous, but was linked frequently to the activities of the group, giving the organization a public face. The indictment, for example, states that Brown transferred the file including more than 5,000 credit card account numbers from the #Anonops IRC channel to his own channel #ProjectPM. Brown describes ProjectPM as a "distributed think-tank" to promote online activism.
In an article published by ArsTechnica, Brown indicated that he was part of Anonymous, telling the publication that he got involved in the group 2010. The indictment covers charges between December 25, 2011 and March 6, 2012.
For gods sake, it's just a bunch of people around the world. Nothing more.
At least there's been no report of them stealing money or resources, which is what governments do all the time (one example is the federal reserve banking systems).
For gods sake, it's just a bunch of people around the world. Nothing more.
This, even if you were to somehow arrest every member of anon at once. It would just be repopulated within days.
At least there's been no report of them stealing money or resources, which is what governments do all the time (one example is the federal reserve banking systems).
The whole anonymous idea is really a scheme to make evading capture easier, and it works sometimes.
Words like "extremists" are too liberally passed around today. I fear for when your generation is running things because of the methods of thinking being passed down to you. This isn't your fault, in-fact it's partly mine for not standing in the way of such false teachings soon enough. And for that I am deeply sorry.
I want you to imagine a kid. The kid is small for his age and gets picked on by the other boys. They are even physically abusive to him and one day a much larger and powerful child shoves the kid. Instead of just taking it he snaps back and shoves right back. Is this kid the extremist in your eyes for shoving back? I certainly hope you aren't so consumed by this train of thought that you would villainize the kid and call him a extremist.
But this is what Anonymous is, they are the reaction not the villainous act that first take place. They are pushing back with the methods that they know how. They also have never forced anyone to carry their beliefs like you have suggested they have. You are willing to be dishonest just to be opposed to them, what does that tell you about the influences that have lead you to think this way?
When does the time come before you point out all that differ as "extremists" or some other objectionable group? Furthermore what does this make you in the end?
People will always have different ideas on what is right. This isn't a flaw but a blessing, sadly this blessing is abused to do terrible things. The goal should be to tell one's thoughts and listen to all others. To grow individually and as a global society through these discussions and test and adopt what works best for all of us. However this is rarely ever done and can you really object to the kid that pushes back after all dialogue has been ignored? Martin Luther King Jr, Susan B. Anthony, among so many others pushed back. Are you going to call them extremists too?
I'm not going to ask you to change your position. Rather I want you to truly look at it. Observe and criticize your own beliefs give them fair and real criticisms and see if they can hold up to your own standards.
Yeah... governments dont want other kids to play with their toys...
I wouldn't want my crap stolen just as much as the other guy so why do we condone them when they do those things?
There is no leadership. Just because there's a few moving more than the others does not make them leaders. Pick someone off and someone else gets "promoted". You cannot kill a "cause" with arrests any more than you can defeat terrorism with a war. Arresting them justifies their cause, since the people participating do not respect the authority in place. "Did you hear Bob got arrested? They're really worried about us!"
And what happens to those who are arrested? They go to jail on stupid charges where they live on YOUR tax dollars. They were basement dwellers to begin with so they won't mind the loss of freedom. They'll learn from real criminals how to really commit crimes, then be out in a few years. Since the criminal record has ruined their lives, they will turn to real crimes just to live. We're turning political activists into real criminals and paying the tab. Good work, Justice system.
It's a really good point. Thing is, though, is that they haven't actually done anything "bad" with the data other than stolen it. Governments do a lot worse. I'm not anti-government. I'm just anti-government that is secretive and used to exploit people for the benefit of a few.
Anon is a group who, to me, seems to be trying to say, "hey! wake up people! Governments aren't all that great."
You also have to realise that we only know about what mainstream media wants us to know about (in most cases).
Most civilized nations separated church and state some time ago but it seems the unity is returning through the back door. Convicting someone now merely requires slapping the right label on them.
The word "witch" has been replaced by "a member of a terrorist organization". Have we accepted "anonymous" to be a terrorist organization yet? How many articles in the paper with accompanying mask pictures would it take? It is all those in power need to burn any wizz-kid they don't like.
Besides the fact the their main action is stealing resources (what else could it be?), you seem to not grasp the fundamental difference between a group of self-appointed vigilantes and an elected (read endorsed) government. Governments may not be perfect, but in most places they are the collective representatives of the people (unless, of course, if you don't bother to vote). One is anarchy, the other, however imperfect, is an attempt at representation.
So why is nobody going after the above company for making my credit card number so easy to steal? I want criminal charges for every single person involved in putting my information and realitvely easy access. IF you want to blame someone, blame the company for not spending the time, money and resources on making sure they have a secure network. If they can't provide it or don't have the funds, they shouldn't be allowed to handle anyone's private information, including employee records.
You agreed to their terms. Unless they violated the agreement you signed up with, you merely shouldn't have provided your information. Does anyone actually check the box allowing some random e-commerce site store their credit card info? I don't.
did they stop mubarack or assad from taking down the internet. nope. did they expose the money trail of too big to fails, enron, soylendra, nope. cap and trade? nope. did they write any code to fix viruses criminal hackers use to steal money or wreck other peoples computers? nope did they fix security flaws in vulnerable computers of every day people businesses or to sensitive information? nope. expose corrupt cops judges and politicians? nope.
tell me again what anonymous is good for, since they aren't doing any of these, they have all earned their place in prison.
You should be thankful for your freedom of speech and freedom of thought. You probably haven't done any of what you mentioned, and don't even know if what you just said is any accurate. And according to your own logic, by not doing any of what you mentioned, you earned yourself a place in prison also. But thankfully for you, you have freedom of speech and thought so you can come on THG and spew your literal diarrhea all over the comment sections like you have been doing for so long.
Collective representatives of the people? lol Are you serious? So you're saying that money and connections don't help people get into government? How many people do you get to vote for in your country? How did you find out about them?
People in government have ties with all kinds of industries. This can be an amazing thing because it helps those who lead, understand the runnings of the country better. It can also be a dangerous thing because those who lead can be simply puppeteers to industry mega-giants.
Life is pretty awesome and most of us in the western world are pretty lucky, but don't be fooled that people don't steal from us in a very easy way and, worse, don't be fooled that one of the ways we have an "easy life" is due to our exploitation of those countries that are less fortunate (due to our will).