FBI Executes Search Warrants on 40 Anonymous Members

[Loonerinoes]

What is sad is that people will take this as 'triumph against Anyonymous' and using slogans like 'biting off more than they can chew' to try and convince yourselves that this will do jack shit to stop this sort of thing in the future.

Honestly...Anonymous is you and me. It's anyone on the internet who doesn't care to trumpet their personal information. It's just that a part of it happens to also like doing DDoS attacks as well. Though certainly not expert hacking by any length or measure indeed - doesn't take that much skill to set up a damn botnet for chrissakes.

But frankly I've known someone who indulges in this sort of thing on occasion and actually is a decent enough hacker as opposed to a script kiddie. The police question him a few times since they suspect him of stuff, but in the 15 years since I've known him he's never had to do any kind of time for his work. Even if the police obviously know that he is up to some shit, they can't pin a charge onto him because he does his work in a way that cannot legally lead back to him. Or to put it in another way, if you take into account that people go to prison moreso because of their mistakes rather than the police being extra awesome, then he simply makes very few mistakes - not enough for him to get caught.

Bottom line? The FBI doesn't have some kind of super-duper dream team to stop this really. The Wire's quote applies best to them I think: "We may be assholes, but on the upside - there's an awful lot of us!" Their resources allow them to make a big spectacle of a show for the media. But as to how many of these charges will actually stick...heh...I'd like to see a follow-up made to that, since the charges that will stick will actually show how many of these people were indeed just script kiddies and didn't properly secure themselves while biting off more than they could chew. The rest, however, will be just fluff that's been tagged on for the sake of the media perceptions, with their charges quietly being dropped once the rush passes people by.

But really...you people want to buy into the illusion that 'JUSTICE WILL ALWAYS TRIUMPH!" then fine...go right ahead. Meanwhile the DDoSing will continue and not a damn thing will change as a result of these 'arrests' desperately trying to make it into the headline so as to show the public that 'no really - the FBI is totally on top of things!' *sigh*

 

[Do4600]

I've been waiting for years to use this image properly and now seems about the best chance I'll get, too bad they didn't "L2proxy".

 

[nipsen]

"...The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating.."

Get in line, citizen!

See, this is why I liked the military, in spite of things. If happened to tell my commander he was wrong, stupid, and liked to sodomize farm-animals - then he would tell me to go fuck myself and do my job. End of story. None of this "let's all huddle together under the protection of our leaders, and be afraid of everything for the greater good, while not mentioning wrong things at the pain of prison-sentences and prosecution for bogus crimes /clearly/ intended to address a different set of criminal activity"-stuff.

 

[Space Jawa]

Honestly...Anonymous is you and me.

You? Sure. Me? Absolutely frikken not. Why would I want to be part of Anonymous?

On a side note, why is that these people being referred to as 'kids'? I'm not seeing anything to indicate how old any of them actually are.

 

[eljawa]

for the people supprting anonymous, i advise you read cracked.com's article on jessie slaughter. shows u how messed up they all are. plus...yeah, about time the fbi or someone started enforcing laws

Its funny how on main stream gaming forums i see that almost 80% of the people agree with the power in charge while on lesser known forums
e.g Web tool forums, Hacking forums, Independent news websites e.g Real news network
People tend to have a more open minded approach to groups like this, maybe its because those forums attract more sophisticated persons rather then consumer sheep waiting to be told what to think.

...

or because most people agree that breaking laws that exist for good reasons for no good reason is stupid. i mean, if theyd actually taken down mastercard, ikm sure a lot of people (myself included) would be pissed.

 

[theriddlen]

for the people supprting anonymous, i advise you read cracked.com's article on jessie slaughter. shows u how messed up they all are. plus...yeah, about time the fbi or someone started enforcing laws

Its funny how on main stream gaming forums i see that almost 80% of the people agree with the power in charge while on lesser known forums
e.g Web tool forums, Hacking forums, Independent news websites e.g Real news network
People tend to have a more open minded approach to groups like this, maybe its because those forums attract more sophisticated persons rather then consumer sheep waiting to be told what to think.

...

or because most people agree that breaking laws that exist for good reasons for no good reason is stupid. i mean, if theyd actually taken down mastercard, ikm sure a lot of people (myself included) would be pissed.

protip: Cracked is a comedy website
Real story of girl is different.

 

[ApeShapeDeity]

Sorry to those who disagree, but... play with fire, you get burned.

It's a known fact that state, federal and international law/intelligence networks are focusing on this kind of behavior. With good cause.

I defy anyone who thinks what Assange did was harmless, or that EVEYONE has a right to that information. I know for a fact that a number of facilities, the nature of which were kept secret for good reason have had to be speedily reporpoused or relocated (at great expense to YOU, the tax payer!)

If you want to disco with wolves, don't be suprised when they bite you.

Information warfare is real. This is the kid's version. Doesn't mean that it should be overlooked. If you really want to conduct ANY form of cyber-attacks, be advised... You ARE NOT PARANOID. They ARE after you!

And... I hope they get you.

P.S. Numbers in the 40's for prosecution is simply a warning. The rest have been put on notice. These are just the one's they could be bothered busting just now.

Edit: @ Greg Tito, I wonder if you'd feel the same if hackers decided the Escapist needed to be cencored/denied service? Would you still be inclined to defend thier means?

 

[Cyberjester]

Sad it's considered hacking?

A denial of service is an old hack, and it's considered a cyber crime the world over, has been for years. You can break into a router and shut it down/clear the DNS settings, or you can bombard the same router with a couple million pings. Brute force hack is still hack.

And as I explained above, it's not that I condone DDoSing or support anonymous or anything like that, far from it. But to me, using the FBI and "Many international law enforcement agencies" simply to bring down a bunch of kids is like using the Army, tanks and all, to stop a riot.

20+ isn't considered a kid unless you're in your fifties. The majority of the people who actually do the DDoS's aren't five.

Don't let politics cloud your judgment. Yes, the majority of you seem to be USA'ians who all hate the government and love seeing your classified military files up for everyone to see, but a crime is a crime. The USA is part of several countries putting a bigger emphasis on controlling cyber crimes and policing the internet, so this is them picking up the pace. Didn't think the FBI would do it though, from memory they didn't have that much of a cyber division.

 

[RA92]

Funny how much hate Assange garners here. Frankly, I can't wait for the upcoming inside info on the scumbag bankers.

Funny too how the FBI is putting resources into backtracking Anon newfags but no attempt so far to get those guys who DDOS'd WikiLeaks. I mean, that was illegal too, right? I guess they're doing this now only because the sites of large multinational corporations have been affected, considering how the American government is all about fellating corporates.

 

[The Hive Mind]

LOIC is not even close to actual hacking and 4Chan has gotten too big for its boots. They seem to think that just being part of Anonymous makes them a hacker.
That being said, I think 4Chan is a very important -- although a cesspit of the darkest parts of humanity, it also represents the total freedom of expression that can be found only on the internet -- its important as a marker because when 4Chan is tackled (and it WILL be tackled on some trumped up charges of Anonymous being a terrorist organisation) by the government, we will know that the days of the internet being awesome are behind us and it will be ruined by people wanting to control it like everything else is.

Forty? Really? Just forty? You couldn't bring down Encyclopedia Dramatica down with forty LOIC users.

Do you have cakes? Do you have forty of them?

my god... that's... that's....

THAT'S AS MANY AS FOUR TENS!
and that's terrible...

 

[paragon1]

Man this seems like more of a job for the police than the FBI.

I guess they must be bored or something.

The FBI is the United States federal law enforcement agency. These crimes were perpetrated in multiple states, so the FBI is the only organization that has jurisdiction.

 

[Ensiferum]

So 40 members of Anon are about to get the IRL banhammer.

I guess it's bubba's lucky day.

 

[paragon1]

LOIC is not even close to actual hacking and 4Chan has gotten too big for its boots. They seem to think that just being part of Anonymous makes them a hacker.
That being said, I think 4Chan is a very important -- although a cesspit of the darkest parts of humanity, it also represents the total freedom of expression that can be found only on the internet -- its important as a marker because when 4Chan is tackled (and it WILL be tackled on some trumped up charges of Anonymous being a terrorist organisation) by the government, we will know that the days of the internet being awesome are behind us and it will be ruined by people wanting to control it like everything else is.

Don't be ridiculous. You can't be arrested because criminals met in your store/restaurant. The same things applies here. Just because some 4chan users committed a crime doesn't mean that 4chan itself can be held accountable. Anonymous does not equal 4chan. Unless the people who own the site and/or the servers they run on helped to actually facilitate a specific crime, the government won't do a thing.

 

[MetalGenocide]

Uhhhh.... not this shit again.
Ok, I've seen enough of this on "normal tv".

"Alleged" "hackers", allegedly "attacked" an government used internet site. [Insert random amount of time here] later our proud [insert insert organization name] has finally cracked down on what they think, just, kink of, might, possibly have been, people that were on the back roll of the crowd watching the show. Arrest/search warrants were issued for them."

And later nobody was convicted because "the investigation" reached a dead end.
Buuuuuuuut, not before headlining it everywhere for all eyes to see, and trick people into thinking: "they dun goofed" "bite more than...blah blah." "Ha, take that!"
Sadly, after all these years, it still works.

What is even more sad is that, probably all those people arrested, never did anything, and are just being used as scape goats. Who cares who goes to prison right? As long a it looks like we are doing something useful.

Blah.

 

[paragon1]

snip

I dont care about my spelling or my grammer b/c it is very late right now and i have no spell check on this comp please dont waste my time with such comments now back to the conversation. I fully aware those government are legal but not moral and thats the point legal is what ever the person with teh most guns says it is and we have to fight to make sure our gov never become that other wise I agree with you I going to bed now so GB.

You should care for the following reasons:
1) The forum guidelines very nicely asked you to check you spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
2)Not doing so makes your posts very painful to read, and it can become quite difficult to understand your post. This makes it hard to continue the conversation you were so intent on having.
3)Not doing so makes you look like an unintelligent person, and that makes it hard for people to take your opinion seriously.

 

[thahat]

Gotta love the replies of why aren't they doing other ""things""?

Because you mean to say that the FBI dropped every other case, every other court proceeding..etc and the entire FBI concentrated on just this case right?

no, but people like their cops efficient. what, on average, they are not at all XD.
not even the feds. the effort it took to ge these 40 guys could have been spent on getting a murderer/rapist/thief/george bush XD

 

[tzimize]

It was only a matter of time until the Cyber Police wasn't so much of a laughing matter.
I hope they get what they deserve.

Pffff, I recon the idiots using LOIC was not real anonymous but rather the stupid newfags trolling 4chan to be cool. Instead they ended up as tools for the real anon. And the police pats themselves on their shoulders...