Hackers from Anonymous are detained in Spain
By Alex HeiglJune 10th, 2011, 6:15 pmComments (10)
Take that, Internet! Spain has arrested three suspected leaders of controversial hacker group Anonymous. Anonymous was previously known for being the people in V for Vendetta masks vigorously protesting Scientology. Loosely affiliated with 4Chan, they started drawing quite a bit more heat for their computer attacks on Sony's PlayStation network and Visa and MasterCard's sites.
However, the writing may be on the wall for the group — Sony sent a letter to Congress last month saying that they'd found a file that could link the attack on their site to Anonymous, and the arrests in Spain came came after similar breaches against the Spanish National Electoral Commission's website. Police provided few details on the suspects and declined to mention whether or not they were believed to be involved with the Sony or credit-card company attacks, but noted that the detained individuals were all suspects in attacks on other government websites.
Hacking is an interesting cultural phenomenon. Despite or maybe because of its absurd pseudo-popularity in the '90s with films like, well, Hackers and The Net, the general public is pretty grossly misinformed about the realities of hacking. It's not all Angelina on rollerblades.
Anonymous occupies a gray area for me: on one hand, I rooted for their campaign against Scientology — it was endearing in a sort of quirky way, and all those Guy Fawkes masks were kind of pleasingly creepy lined up in a row. And admittedly, there's a vague aura of cool around fucking with people's credit cards: it's nihilism chic of the late-'90s school, like Fight Club. But also, most of these groups tend to hurt a lot of regular people under the guise of some anti-corporate ethos. And for that, they probably belong in prison.
Comments ( 10 )
"But also, most of these groups tend to hurt a lot of regular people under the guise of some anti-corporate ethos." Read: I'm pissed they took PSN down so I couldn't play Call of Duty.
Being that this is a statement of fact, wish the author would back it up instead of just stating it as self-evidently true.
Agreed. While it's easy to dismiss hackers as nostalgics longing for the 90s , last I checked Lisbeth Salander and Wikileaks are all still pretty relevant.
Aside from the small sect of dipshits (this is a very loose organization where rogue members don't have to answer to anyone) that stole credit card information, stacked against the good they've done with the Arab uprisings and ensuring that a whistle-blowing source such as Wikileaks can function, dismissing all of that while suggesting that their actions 'hurt a lot of regular people' is fucking bananas.
Wikileaks does unnecessary harm along with their good. Are they doing more harm than good? I'm not sure.
And Anonymous behaves too much like a random mob of kids with loaded weapons. Shooting them off in random directions without really thinking about what collateral damage they're going to cause. A group that short-sighted doesn't deserve to have any power. Put 'em in prison.
The VISA and Mastercard attacks were a response to those companies pulling funding from Wikileaks. I think that's a noble effort, and not mentioning it makes it seem like the only thing Anonymous stand for is shits and giggles over Scientology. They are for freedom of information, and similarly have sent messages to the Australian and New Zealand governments over internet censorship and stupid file sharing bills respectively.
Well said HH. Got your back.
Detained falls mainly on the plain in Spain.
Just because you don't like something doesn't mean you can hack them and shut down their websites. That's illegal. There are plenty of normal people they have hurt. Besides, since when does your personal opinion mean you have the right to work outside of the law? Their *efforts* are hardly valiant and their guise is an immature reference to ideals they hardly understand. They lead adolescents to idiocy.
Now a second person has stated that they have hurt people as if it was self-evidently true. They may or may not have, but if you're going to make statements of fact you and the author of this piece really should back them up.
Millions of innocent end-users couldn't use their PS3 for weeks after Anonymous' actions. This includes things like my house-bound mom not being able to stream films when she needed some distraction from problems. Developers & testers being unable to work on games on deadlines for E3 (& if they make a poor showing at E3 because they ran out of time, it could cause a game to do poorly and a company to fold). Game releases had to be delayed because they were waiting to complete testing on the network...and a delay means delayed profits which means additional borrowing to stay afloat until costs are re-couped. People who used the PS3 to stay in touch with family via video chat were cut-off. Gamers couldn't play of course. And if clans were practicing for any upcoming cash-prize tournaments, well, they got screwed too. Is it really that hard to figure-out how people were hurt?
Don't you have an important Weiner article you should be working on Heigl? Why don't you leave the meaningful subjects to people who actually know what they're talking about, like Glenn Greenwald.
Add a Comment