Anonymous to NATO: Our kung-fu is stronger than yours
ndividuals appearing in public as Anonymous, wearing the Guy Fawkes masks popularized by the comic book and film V for Vendetta, Los Angeles, February 2008. / Wikipedia
The online "hacktivist" group Anonymous has publicly warned NATO to back off.
In both a video and online posting, the group reacted angrily to the publication last month of a NATO report which pointed to Anonymous as a potentially threatening organization, writing that it is gaining in sophistication and "could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files." NATO's report also noted the group's apparent role in retaliating against companies that had cut off services for WikiLeaks with the launch of online attacks aimed at disrupting operations at.MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, Amazon, and other financial institutions.
"Today, the ad hoc international group of hackers and activists is said to have thousands of operatives and has no set rules or membership," the report noted. "It remains to be seen how much time Anonymous has for pursuing such paths. The longer these attacks persist the more likely countermeasures will be developed, implemented, the groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted."
Anonymous responded by dismissing NATO's depiction of the group's intentions as threatening.
"Do not make the mistake of challenging Anonymous. Do not make the mistake of believing you can behead a headless snake. If you slice off one head of Hydra, ten more heads will grow in its place. If you cut down one Anon, ten more will join us purely out of anger at your trampling of dissent. Your only chance of defeating the movement which binds all of us is to accept it. This is no longer your world. It is our world - the people's world."
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Everytime Anonymous finds a hole the hole gets patched and finding the next hole is harder.
For years the UNIX Sendmail program was full of holes and was used as the main entry point to gun UNIX systems. The Morris Internet Worm used it for example. But I haven't heard about a Sendmail crack for years because all of the holes have been patched up.
COULD? Already HAVE - repeatedly. Sure they "pose" a threat. Any kid that can make napalm poses a threat. Politicians pose huge threats to mankind. Terror! Virtually everything can pose a threat if it is pointed out that it IS a threat, by someone that "knows" that is.
Disillusionment time; "hackers" have been hacking for generations now. THEY have been capable of getting into government, bank and private files for a long time. THEY have always "posed a threat", the same as gasoline or old wood ladders.
The people that "hack" are a segment of society now. The knowledge is no longer arcane or requires a trip to the guru on top of the mountain. Are the hackers "ethical?" is the question. er, which hackers? ALL hackers? Anyone that asks "why" when told to do something by questionable sources by questionable characters? That's hacking. There is some science, there is a lot of determination and skill but all hackers want to know why. VERY important. Ethics figure in. WHY "attack" some government site when you can easily mosey in without questions asked? 25 years it's been going on. More. Phone stuff used to be the rage, long before any internet was about.
IF I were the US government, I'd want to be friendly and decent with these guys. THEY are potential warriors and still one place where WE might still be number 1 - hacking. Still, it's the "old ones" and likely not 18 year olds with a bolt through their ***** that will be around when needed. Some are known corporate entities but most have been under the radar for a long time and still are.
Anonymous has the potential to ____________________?? Same analogy as before. Are they ethical? By who's standards? Mine? Yeah, so far they are. By a suit paid to measure risk? Nope and so are painted with a darker brush. I don't agree with their choices of supported concepts (Assange) but I agree with the concept of "right to know" - with some lines drawn early on. UFOs? Sure, I want to know. Mysterious programs run under the table? Yep. But military secrets? Defense thinking? Attack strategies? Names, numbers, dinner reservations?
I believe there are legitimate secrets that need to be SECRET simply to keep a country running. A big complex one like ours is especially daunting. I see the problem at one particular level: politicians and those elected to safeguard our secrets. For reasons unknown to me, some of these guys have been handed information that came down on a scale never seen before, instantly available, searchable .... the devious nature of man and the always mounting greed of those with access will produce the situation we have.
I think anonymous is a good thing. I worry much that I can not anymore say the same of government. Every day one more of the anointed electorate "exposes" their real natures. I still can't believe a guy that leaves his dying wife to be with his lover on the side on the people!! And HE wants to be President? COULD have been? THAT is why we need guys like anonymous. It's my hope that they are as smart as they appear and not tip over in a political tide. It has been my long experience that management is good - IF they are smart.
It was kids at CERN and university labs experimenting and playing around with Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn's ideas that gave rise to the various technologies that make up the modern Internet. And anon and lulzsec have done their share of whitehatting.