Lawmakers in New York State are proposing a new legislation that
involves the Web, and no, it’s not SOPA-esque or another CISPA-like
spy-bill. Politicians in the Empire State want to outlaw anonymous
speech on the Internet.
Republican Assemblyman Jim Conte says that the legislation he co-sponsors, Bill no. S06779, would cut down on “mean-spirited and baseless political attacks” and “turns the spotlight on cyberbullies by forcing them to reveal their identity.”
Mean-spirited?
Baseless? In other words, Mr. Conte is one of a handful of elected
officials in New York wanting to make the Internet a more attractive
place by ensuring that people looking to speak their mind aren’t
afforded that right unless they want their personal identity exposed to
the world.
The bill was proposed back in March and is described as
“an act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to protecting a
person's right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting.”
According
to the proposed legislation, the administrator of any website hosted in
New York State shall, upon request, remove comments that were
“posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such
anonymous poster agreed to attach his or her name to the post and
confirm that his or her IP address, legal name and home address are
accurate.” Additionally, the bill calls for all website administrators to have their own contact information “clearly visible in any sections where comments are posted” to allow for irked readers to demand censorship.
If passed, the act will “help lend some accountability to the internet age,”
says co-sponsor Sen. Thomas O’Mara, a Republican, who has been elected
to serve the citizens of the United States yet apparently has been
completely misinformed about the liberties of Americans guaranteed in
the US Bill of Rights. Although most major newspapers in the United
States continue to publish op-ed pieces anonymously or in a voice
representative of that periodicals’ editorial department, on the
Internet — where anything goes — average Americans should not be allowed
that right, apparently.
Other lawmakers, including New York
Assemblyman Peter Lopez (R), are also asking for more accountability on
the no-man’s land that is the Internet, telling The Legislative Gazette
that “a resource that is so beneficial” ought be “used properly.”
Even
if a poster does confirm the authenticity of the IP address that their
computer connects to the Web with, New York Eastern District federal
court magistrate Judge Gary Brown ruled earlier this month that that
data cannot be used solely to link a suspect to a crime, writing “a
single IP address usually supports multiple computer devices – which
unlike traditional telephones can be operated simultaneously by
different individuals.”
That isn’t to say, though, that
lawmakers elsewhere are trying to crack down on “mean-spirited” posts —
earlier this year, a jury in Texas awarded $13.8 million to a couple who
filed a defamation lawsuit after being insulted on the Web.
Kevin
Bankston, a staff attorney with the Center for Democracy and
Technology, reveals that the legislation, if passed, would be damning to
not just an open Internet but the First Amendment. In a statement, the
CDT lawyer confirms that “This statute would essentially destroy the ability to speak anonymously online on sites in New York,” and provides a “heckler’s veto to anybody who disagrees with or doesn’t like what an anonymous poster said.”
Lawmakers in New York have yet to formally vote on the measure.
Showing posts with label Anonymous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anonymous. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
#OpIsrael
The Israeli government has become a victim of cyber-warfare attacks since Operation Pillar of Defense began four days ago. On Saturday, hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive attack on over 700 Israeli websites.
The country’s finance minister has acknowledged the recent wave of attacks, saying the government is now waging a war on a “second front.”
Over the past four days, Israel has “deflected 44 million cyber-attacks on government websites,” Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told AP.
Steinitz said the government has come up with a backup for “essential websites,” should they be taken down by hackers.
"This is an unprecedented attack, and our success has been greater than we anticipated," he said.
He did not say who was responsible for the hacking attempts. He also declined to disclose which countries the attacks were coming from.
His comments come just one day after hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive attack on almost 700 Israeli websites, calling the campaign #OpIsrael.
The group took down the Israeli president’s official website and the blog of the country's Defense Force, www.idfblog.com. The collective posted the news on Twitter using their infamous #TANGO DOWN hashtag. The blog is still down.
Screenshot from idfblog.com
Screenshot from idfblog.com
It also attacked the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s international development program, in a protest against an alleged Israeli threat to cut the Gaza Strip’s internet connections.
Other targeted sites include those belonging to the Kadima party, the Bank of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv Municipality. All of the websites continue to be shut down.
Most of the sites are simply unavailable, but others display pro-Palestinian images and messages. A message on one website read, “This attack is in response to the injustice against the Palestinian people."
Both sides of the conflict are using social networking sites to influence public opinion as the death toll from the violence continues to rise. Sixty-five Palestinians – including at least 13 children – have been killed over the course of five days.
The Israeli government has fully embraced social networking sites – including Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram.
After taking out Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari with a precision guided bomb, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted a warning to Hamas: “We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”
The news about the Jabari assassination was announced on Twitter before it was announced to the media.
Palestinians have joined the Twitter war, too. In response to the IDF tweet, the Al-Qassam Brigades tweeted: “Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You opened hell gates on yourselves).”
Greetings Citizens of the world, This is Anonymous. It has come to our attention that the Israeli government has ignored repeated warnings about the abuse of human rights, shutting down the internet in Israel and mistreating its own citizens and those of its neighboring countries. November 2012 will be a month to remember for the Israeli defense forces and internet security forces. Israeli Gov. this is/will turn into a cyberwar.
Leaked document of 5000 Israeli Officials: http://bit.ly/UAepwL
We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We will not forgive.
We will not forget.
Israel, it is too late to expect us. #OpIsrael #Anonymous
More: Current Internet, telecommunication and death toll situation/status in #Gaza | #OpIsrael: http://tmblr.co/ZNMTdvXOLg0b
Livestream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/operation-pillar-of-cloud
Video: http://youtu.be/O6t9Kr2wWzE
Arabic: http://www.anonpaste.me/anonpaste2/index.php?89452a7861b4af1d#hFCbUSaOGM+ZBIgJPGEOBwxEjxV0lNNnbdPQnx0uQRw= Arabic v2.0: http://www.mediafire.com/?hpnne29xvx1ceuv
Care Package: http://bayfiles.com/file/rPjj/a7ehrr/Op_Israel_Care_Package_For_Gaza.zip
Pls follow @Crypt0nymous to stay updated about the Current Internet, telecommunication and death toll situation/status in #Gaza. By the way @Crypt0nymous reports only news. Greetz to @Op_Israel
Greetings World.
For far too long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called "Occupied Territories" by the Israel Defense Force. Like so many around the globe, we have felt helpless in the face of such implacable evil. And today's insane attack and threatened invasion of Gaza was more of the same.
But when the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all Internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand. As the former dictator of Egypt Mubarack learned the hard way - we are ANONYMOUS and NO ONE shuts down the Internet on our watch. To the IDF and government of Israel we issue you this warning only once. Do NOT shut down the Internet into the "Occupied Territories", and cease and desist from your terror upon the innocent people of Palestine or you will know the full and unbridled wrath of Anonymous. And like all the other evil governments that have faced our rage, you will NOT survive it unscathed.
To the people of Gaza and the "Occupied Territories", know that Anonymous stands with you in this fight. We will do everything in our power to hinder the evil forces of the IDF arrayed against you. We will use all our resources to make certain you stay connected to the Internet and remain able to transmit your experiences to the world. As a start, we have put together the Anonymous Gaza Care Package - http://bit.ly/XH87C5 - which contains instructions in Arabic and English that can aid you in the event the Israel government makes good on it's threat to attempt to sever your Internet connection. It also contains useful information on evading IDF surveillance, and some basic first aid and other useful information. We will continue to expand and improve this document in the coming days, and we will transmit it to you by every means at our disposal. We encourage you to download this package, and to share it with your fellow Palestinians to the best of your ability.
We will be with you. No matter how dark it may seem, no matter how alone and abandoned you may feel - know that tens of thousands of us in Anonymous are with you and working tirelessly around the clock to bring you every aid and assistance that we can.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Everywhere
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
To the oppressors of the innocent Palestinian people, it is too late to EXPECT US
________________________
Join chan #OpIsrael in irc.voxanon.net or irc.anonops.net.
The country’s finance minister has acknowledged the recent wave of attacks, saying the government is now waging a war on a “second front.”
Over the past four days, Israel has “deflected 44 million cyber-attacks on government websites,” Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told AP.
Steinitz said the government has come up with a backup for “essential websites,” should they be taken down by hackers.
"This is an unprecedented attack, and our success has been greater than we anticipated," he said.
He did not say who was responsible for the hacking attempts. He also declined to disclose which countries the attacks were coming from.
His comments come just one day after hacktivist group Anonymous launched a massive attack on almost 700 Israeli websites, calling the campaign #OpIsrael.
The group took down the Israeli president’s official website and the blog of the country's Defense Force, www.idfblog.com. The collective posted the news on Twitter using their infamous #TANGO DOWN hashtag. The blog is still down.
Screenshot from idfblog.com
Screenshot from idfblog.com
It also attacked the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s international development program, in a protest against an alleged Israeli threat to cut the Gaza Strip’s internet connections.
Other targeted sites include those belonging to the Kadima party, the Bank of Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv Municipality. All of the websites continue to be shut down.
Most of the sites are simply unavailable, but others display pro-Palestinian images and messages. A message on one website read, “This attack is in response to the injustice against the Palestinian people."
Both sides of the conflict are using social networking sites to influence public opinion as the death toll from the violence continues to rise. Sixty-five Palestinians – including at least 13 children – have been killed over the course of five days.
The Israeli government has fully embraced social networking sites – including Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram.
After taking out Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari with a precision guided bomb, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted a warning to Hamas: “We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.”
The news about the Jabari assassination was announced on Twitter before it was announced to the media.
Palestinians have joined the Twitter war, too. In response to the IDF tweet, the Al-Qassam Brigades tweeted: “Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You opened hell gates on yourselves).”
Greetings Citizens of the world, This is Anonymous. It has come to our attention that the Israeli government has ignored repeated warnings about the abuse of human rights, shutting down the internet in Israel and mistreating its own citizens and those of its neighboring countries. November 2012 will be a month to remember for the Israeli defense forces and internet security forces. Israeli Gov. this is/will turn into a cyberwar.
Leaked document of 5000 Israeli Officials: http://bit.ly/UAepwL
We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We will not forgive.
We will not forget.
Israel, it is too late to expect us. #OpIsrael #Anonymous
More: Current Internet, telecommunication and death toll situation/status in #Gaza | #OpIsrael: http://tmblr.co/ZNMTdvXOLg0b
Livestream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/operation-pillar-of-cloud
Video: http://youtu.be/O6t9Kr2wWzE
Arabic: http://www.anonpaste.me/anonpaste2/index.php?89452a7861b4af1d#hFCbUSaOGM+ZBIgJPGEOBwxEjxV0lNNnbdPQnx0uQRw= Arabic v2.0: http://www.mediafire.com/?hpnne29xvx1ceuv
Care Package: http://bayfiles.com/file/rPjj/a7ehrr/Op_Israel_Care_Package_For_Gaza.zip
Pls follow @Crypt0nymous to stay updated about the Current Internet, telecommunication and death toll situation/status in #Gaza. By the way @Crypt0nymous reports only news. Greetz to @Op_Israel
Greetings World.
For far too long, Anonymous has stood by with the rest of the world and watched in despair the barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment of the Palestinian people in the so called "Occupied Territories" by the Israel Defense Force. Like so many around the globe, we have felt helpless in the face of such implacable evil. And today's insane attack and threatened invasion of Gaza was more of the same.
But when the government of Israel publicly threatened to sever all Internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza they crossed a line in the sand. As the former dictator of Egypt Mubarack learned the hard way - we are ANONYMOUS and NO ONE shuts down the Internet on our watch. To the IDF and government of Israel we issue you this warning only once. Do NOT shut down the Internet into the "Occupied Territories", and cease and desist from your terror upon the innocent people of Palestine or you will know the full and unbridled wrath of Anonymous. And like all the other evil governments that have faced our rage, you will NOT survive it unscathed.
To the people of Gaza and the "Occupied Territories", know that Anonymous stands with you in this fight. We will do everything in our power to hinder the evil forces of the IDF arrayed against you. We will use all our resources to make certain you stay connected to the Internet and remain able to transmit your experiences to the world. As a start, we have put together the Anonymous Gaza Care Package - http://bit.ly/XH87C5 - which contains instructions in Arabic and English that can aid you in the event the Israel government makes good on it's threat to attempt to sever your Internet connection. It also contains useful information on evading IDF surveillance, and some basic first aid and other useful information. We will continue to expand and improve this document in the coming days, and we will transmit it to you by every means at our disposal. We encourage you to download this package, and to share it with your fellow Palestinians to the best of your ability.
We will be with you. No matter how dark it may seem, no matter how alone and abandoned you may feel - know that tens of thousands of us in Anonymous are with you and working tirelessly around the clock to bring you every aid and assistance that we can.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Everywhere
We Are Legion
We Do Not Forgive
We Do Not Forget
To the oppressors of the innocent Palestinian people, it is too late to EXPECT US
________________________
Join chan #OpIsrael in irc.voxanon.net or irc.anonops.net.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
emails obtained from Stratfor
The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has begun publishing what it says are 5.5 million emails obtained from the servers of Stratfor, a private U.S.-based intelligence-gathering firm known to some as a "shadow CIA" for corporations and government agencies. The emails were reportedly obtained by the hackers group, Anonymous. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the files implicate some of the world’s largest firms in corporate espionage. Firms with ties to Stratfor include Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, Dow Chemical, and sectors of the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Marine Corps and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Coke asked Stratfor to keep tabs on the protest plans of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. "We’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the stories based on the material. They will come out in the next coming days and weeks," said Kristinn Hrafnsson, a WikiLeaks spokesperson who has been a key member of the project to release the Stratfor emails. "What we were doing yesterday was introducing the project, the nature of Stratfor and how they operate and their ties." [includes rush transcript]
Monday, December 26, 2011
pilfering
On Saturday, hackers who say they are members of the collective known as Anonymous claimed responsibility for crashing the Web site of the group, Stratfor Global Intelligence Service, and pilfering its client list, e-mails and credit card information in an operation they say is intended to steal $1 million for donations to charity. The hackers posted a list online that they say contains Stratfor’s confidential client list as well as credit card details, passwords and home addresses for some 4,000 Stratfor clients. The hackers also said they had details for more than 90,000 credit card accounts. Among the organizations listed as Stratfor clients: Bank of America, the Defense Department, Doctors Without Borders, Lockheed Martin, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the United Nations.
The group also posted five receipts online that it said were of donations made with pilfered credit card details. One receipt showed a $180 donation from a United States Homeland Security employee, Edmund H. Tupay, to the American Red Cross. Another showed a $200 donation to the Red Cross from Allen Barr, a recently retired employee from the Texas Department of Banking. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Mr. Barr told The Associated Press that on Friday he discovered that $700 had been transferred from his account to charities including the Red Cross, Save the Children and CARE, but that he had not been aware that the transfer was tied to a breach of Stratfor’s site.
Stratfor executives did not return calls for comment on Sunday. In an e-mail to subscribers Sunday morning, Stratfor’s chief executive, George Friedman, confirmed that the company’s site had been hacked and said his company was working with law enforcement to track down the parties responsible.
“We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posted on other Web sites,” Mr. Friedman wrote in the e-mail. “We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained.”
The hackers took responsibility for the Stratfor attack on Twitter and said the attack would be the beginning of a weeklong holiday hacking spree. The breach was the latest in the online group’s ongoing campaign of computer attacks which, to date, has been aimed at MasterCard, Visa and PayPal as well as groups as diverse as the Church of Scientology, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Zetas, a Mexican crime syndicate.
The breach first surfaced on Saturday when hackers defaced Stratfor’s Web site with their own message. “Merry Lulzxmas!” the group wrote in a reference to Lulz Security, a hacking group loosely affiliated with Anonymous. “Are you ready for a week of mayhem?” By Sunday afternoon, the message had been replaced with a banner message that said: “Site is currently undergoing maintenance. Please check back soon.”
According to the hackers’ online postings, the group voted on what charities to contribute to. Among their choices were cancer and AIDS research, the American Red Cross, WikiLeaks and the Tor Project, a software that enables online anonymity.
Also according to their postings, the breach appears to have been conducted in retaliation for the arrest and imprisonment of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst on trial on charges of leaking classified intelligence information and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks last year.
The attack was also likely intended to embarrass Stratfor, which specializes in intelligence and security. The hackers said they were able to obtain the credit card details because, they said, Stratfor had failed to encrypt them.
“The scary thing is that no matter what you do, every system has some level of vulnerability,” says Jerry Irvine, a member of the National Cyber Security Task Force. “The more you do from an advanced technical standpoint, the more common things go unnoticed. Getting into a system is really not that difficult.”
The group also posted five receipts online that it said were of donations made with pilfered credit card details. One receipt showed a $180 donation from a United States Homeland Security employee, Edmund H. Tupay, to the American Red Cross. Another showed a $200 donation to the Red Cross from Allen Barr, a recently retired employee from the Texas Department of Banking. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Mr. Barr told The Associated Press that on Friday he discovered that $700 had been transferred from his account to charities including the Red Cross, Save the Children and CARE, but that he had not been aware that the transfer was tied to a breach of Stratfor’s site.
Stratfor executives did not return calls for comment on Sunday. In an e-mail to subscribers Sunday morning, Stratfor’s chief executive, George Friedman, confirmed that the company’s site had been hacked and said his company was working with law enforcement to track down the parties responsible.
“We have reason to believe that the names of our corporate subscribers have been posted on other Web sites,” Mr. Friedman wrote in the e-mail. “We are diligently investigating the extent to which subscriber information may have been obtained.”
The hackers took responsibility for the Stratfor attack on Twitter and said the attack would be the beginning of a weeklong holiday hacking spree. The breach was the latest in the online group’s ongoing campaign of computer attacks which, to date, has been aimed at MasterCard, Visa and PayPal as well as groups as diverse as the Church of Scientology, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Zetas, a Mexican crime syndicate.
The breach first surfaced on Saturday when hackers defaced Stratfor’s Web site with their own message. “Merry Lulzxmas!” the group wrote in a reference to Lulz Security, a hacking group loosely affiliated with Anonymous. “Are you ready for a week of mayhem?” By Sunday afternoon, the message had been replaced with a banner message that said: “Site is currently undergoing maintenance. Please check back soon.”
According to the hackers’ online postings, the group voted on what charities to contribute to. Among their choices were cancer and AIDS research, the American Red Cross, WikiLeaks and the Tor Project, a software that enables online anonymity.
Also according to their postings, the breach appears to have been conducted in retaliation for the arrest and imprisonment of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst on trial on charges of leaking classified intelligence information and more than 250,000 diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks last year.
The attack was also likely intended to embarrass Stratfor, which specializes in intelligence and security. The hackers said they were able to obtain the credit card details because, they said, Stratfor had failed to encrypt them.
“The scary thing is that no matter what you do, every system has some level of vulnerability,” says Jerry Irvine, a member of the National Cyber Security Task Force. “The more you do from an advanced technical standpoint, the more common things go unnoticed. Getting into a system is really not that difficult.”
Monday, October 31, 2011
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