Anonymous, LulzSec Respond To FBI Arrests Of Suspected Hackers

Hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec have issued a joint statement in response to recent FBI arrests of suspected Anonymous members thought to have carried out a cyberattack against PayPal in 2010.

In their release, the hackers addressed a statement made to NPR by Steven Chabinsky, deputy assistant FBI director. "We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable," Chabinsky told NPR. "[Even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it's entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts."

The hacker collectives responded with a list of what they define as "unacceptable" practices:

* Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece.

* Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can't fulfil.

* Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough so the status quo will never change.

With regards to the arrests of alleged members of Anonymous by the FBI, the hackers wrote, "Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea. [...] [T]here is nothing - absolutely nothing - you can possibly to do make us stop."

According to the AP, the FBI on Tuesday arrested 14 people across the United States and confiscated computers in connection with the PayPal attack. Another two were arrested for unrelated activities. In addition, Britain's Scotland Yard took into custody one person, and the Dutch National Police Agency arrested four.

Seemingly undeterred, Anonymous on Thursday claimed to have bypassed NATO's online security and swiped "restricted" files. According to a tweet from @AnonymousIRC, "We are sitting on about one Gigabyte of data from NATO now, most of which we cannot publish as it would be irresponsible. But Oh NATO...."

Assistant New York University professor Gabriella Coleman, who has been studying the Anonymous hackers, recently told The Huffington Post that these arrests would not stop the hacktivists' efforts. "Some people surely will get scared off," said Coleman. "Others will feel more emboldened to fight the fight [...] But I don't think at the moment it's going to slow things down."

Comments

[Pandoras Folly]

09:37 AM on 07/25/2011

Let me know when the publish the report on who killed Kennedy.

[stargazer13]

02:07 AM on 07/25/2011

But Oh NATO...."

make ,s me think?

Rut Row

[HumanXv2]

02:04 AM on 07/24/2011

Watch their videos on youtube and check their site out. I did and I hope they keep it

[Phemale]

02:54 PM on 07/23/2011

MUST READ: Activist Sunny Sheu K!113dd After Reporting D.3a@h Thr3@t From NY Foreclosure Judge Joseph Golia

http://dailybail.com/home/must-read-activist-sunny-sheu-killed-after-reporting-death-t.html

http://blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/7472/2011-06-20.html

http://sunnysheu.blogspot.com/2011/06/summary-of-case.html

http://4closurefraud.org/2011/06/21/fraudclosure-sunny-sheu-murdered-judicial-corruption-activist-dead-weeks-after-posting-video-about-his-fears/

[Max Vohra]

02:40 PM on 07/23/2011

Everyone's pissed that the terrorist isn't a Muslim.

[dbrett480]

01:18 PM on 07/23/2011

What a bunch of knuckleheads.

[solarenergy]

05:22 AM on 07/23/2011

My understanding is those arrested were not really Anon "members" but young wannabes who merely downloaded a denial of service program, not very sophisticated really. My source: Sam Seder's Majority.fm

[Valle]

03:49 AM on 07/23/2011

Thank you Anonymous!!! I feel so much more hopeful knowing you all are out there.

[Trittydi]

02:07 AM on 07/23/2011

Nice.
*

[golions]

08:23 PM on 07/22/2011

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. ... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion; what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?" -- Thomas Jefferson

[WSAY]

10:30 PM on 07/22/2011

"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg trials, 1946

[Max Vohra]

02:29 PM on 07/23/2011

That is an excellent quote. I don't know what the hackers hope to achieve by just hacking into things. Daniel Ellsberg changed the government by exposing its lies. Are the hackers trying to do something like that or are they just trying to say 'watch out, big government, we can hack into you.'

[rybalaw]

10:12 PM on 07/25/2011

As Thomas Jefferson was a Freemason, He would not appreciate Anonymous.

[Visionary Excellence]

05:35 PM on 07/22/2011

Altruistic punishment is a human instinct. While this conlict is very noisey and high profile and appears to be some ofrm of dominance reversal. really its a great wargame for security professionals. Both sides mean well. Its more like a family squabble than a real throw down. Once the security establishment has gamed out its systems and is better prepared to deal with data attack it should hire all these kids and pay them bank. If a little pie in the face action, motivates some predators to better citizenship, all the better.

[Grimmsd]

05:48 PM on 07/22/2011

They are going to lock them up for most of their lives as punishment for making them look foolish. There won't be any make nice at the end of this. It will end badly.

[Visionary Excellence]

07:28 PM on 07/22/2011

Sure, many will get a knock on the door from some very grumpy authoritarian bullies. But the security establishment is desperate for skilled and talented individuals in this area. Anon and Lulz have proven themselves to be brave and skilled. They have also proven themselves to be people of honor. I would expect the brains in the security establishment might want to cut a deal. Plus having rogue hacker groups in the land scape gives them cover to .... yunno.... take down Libyan gov networks or whatever iffy stuff that we dont know about. Ambiguity can be exploited.

[Eris23]

12:01 AM on 07/23/2011

Nope. Not everyone gets that deal. Example? Mitnick. Why? Not everyone is for sale in the way the government would like them to be and some people do things that causes the government to fear them perpetually. Some schmuck like "Dark Dante" or Adrian Lamo who hacked for attention or monetary gain? No problem. Their the same as most other consumers in that regard. Someone who did it for other purposes? No. They can never be trusted.

This is not a wargame of the security profession. This is actually a war. Sadly, I don't think the government means well. Our government is more about power than justice. People who break the law out of disrespect for that will never be welcomed within it.

[terribyte]

04:30 AM on 07/24/2011

It's nice to see someone's who's clued into what this is all about, the possible ramifications and realistic outcomes.

Other comments border on "kids will be kids" - these people aren't kids, and they're not playing around.
Cyber-security and security holes the biggest threat we face right now, from within and without.
Most people in this country can't relate. They see this as a public-interest story, but like you said, this isn't a war-game, this is war.

[Visionary Excellence]

06:34 PM on 07/25/2011

Sure some people in authority are bad with ambiguity and can be scared into poor decisions. But ultimately its always going to be about a hyper complex and chaotic power dynamic - just look at biologic systems. we are biology. One way that hackers can bring about dominance reversals and that momentary ideal that they dream of - is by replacing antique and maladaptive systems with better systems. construction. not destruction.

Why arent they programming consumer wiki's that are connected to bar code shopping apps? that way the cloud can report on the anti social activities of corrupt businesses. If you link that to a shopping app, people can vote economically. the moneyscape (neoliberal power structure) can be modified.

etc

[TheMilesHome]

05:24 PM on 07/22/2011

To those who think these are criminals and terrorists, remember that's what our Revolutionaries were called by King George. Treason was the penalty for signing the Declaration of Independence.

To those who think they can be stopped, I ask, if the entire weight of the US pentagon couldn't stop them, who can?

To those who think they should all be jailed, you are the same people that may have thought the war on drugs and the war on terror could actually be won. You can't fight a war against ideas. It's never worked in history and it never will.

To those that pray that no innocents are hurt by these tactics, I share your concerns. But when the legal system seems to actively attack it's own citizenry and selectively allow those they wish to escape from the law or to change the laws to benefit a select few, aren't we all just collateral damage? Do the politicians and justice departments care who gets hurt when they close Planned Parenthood through a structural building law? Do they care that those who planned for Social Security and Medicare may not have those safety nets they have paid into their entire lives?

Let's not even talk about those who were killed in the battlefield, on both sides, for a global chess game that few will benefit from and most will be hurt by.

Republicans and Democrats. Any country, any theology and any ideology.

Find them, expose them, and let us deal with them.

[Eris23]

11:46 PM on 07/22/2011

Our government, after it started torturing people in the "War on Terror," has blocked people who were tortured from pursuing justice in our courts under both Bush and Obama. The gauntlet has been thrown down. Those who have been harmed have no access to justice. Those who did the harm are shielded from justice by the government. It's not that they don't care. They obviously do. Rather, they've given all of us who are not part of their club the finger and are now trying to intimidate those who dare do it back to them. Until our government gets back on track with the ideals of justice expressed and codified in our Constitution, the appeal of Anonymous in the US will only grow. The same can be said in any place that has a government that has embraced lawlessness. I completely welcome it. You don't have a rule of law when the government feels free to break it while expecting everyone else to comply. You simply have tyranny. I'll support anyone who throws a pebble or monkey wrench at that, as will so many others. After all, if that wasn't true, this wouldn't be news.

[Bega]

05:07 PM on 07/22/2011

Exposing wrong and unjust doers is a civic responsibility.

[CaptainRenault]

04:52 PM on 07/22/2011

I look forward to further hacking incidents by these groups that expose the duplicity and lies of various government agencies and corporations.

Go V.

^ ^

[AppleAnon]

07:59 PM on 07/22/2011

Don't worry about that.

http://teamp0ison.tk/

[DoctorDoctor]

04:30 PM on 07/22/2011

There are huge differences between exposing a truth that a so-called representative body is hiding from those whom it represents and, for instance the private conversations about the private affairs of private citizens which have zero or nearly zero social or legal consequence. The former is an act of civil disobedience, but discloses a truth that the public has a right to know. The latter is a gross abuse of the right to privacy held dear in our constitution. It is not ok to be lied to by our government. It is ok to expose those lies. It is not ok to violate privacy rights to further your own self interest as in the case of MURDER (er Murdoch).