Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Australia Security IT

Anonymous Dumps Australian Telco Data Online 87

lukehopewell1 writes "After the threats, admissions and delays, hacktivists protesting a data retention scheme proposed by the Australian Government's National Security Inquiry have begun dumping data gleaned from an Australian telco — presumably AAPT. Anonymous is in the process of dumping government and business customer data onto Pastebin for the world to see under the guise of Operation Australia. This episode is far from over, however. We're likely to see more data trickle out over the coming days, considering that the group has promised 40GB worth of leaks."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Anonymous Dumps Australian Telco Data Online

Comments Filter:
  • It not enough (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Saturday July 28, 2012 @06:45PM (#40804447) Homepage

    Every time things like these new data retention, privacy sacrificing laws are proposed, two things always happen. People exclaim doom and gloom about the theoretical problems associated with the behavior and the government assuring the public that no such abuses will occur. (Think: Social Security #s in the US and how they were never supposed to be for anything other than social security... now it's a requirement for just about any financial transaction, people have been serialized and we're all stuck with the results which were accurately predicted.) The same thing has happened again -- people saying "this is a bad idea" and government saying "nothing bad will happen, you have nothing to worry about." But now we have someone exposing the weakness and vulnerability and the potential harm that can befall the public as a result of such data collection requirements.

    But I think it's not enough to demonstrate it. People have to get angry. They have to understand they shouldn't be angry at the "hacktivists" but at the laws which require data collection and retention which are otherwise needless... the government has only one goal in mind, which is to use the data against the people.

    • Re:It not enough (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Saturday July 28, 2012 @07:43PM (#40804695)

      Korea had something similar [koreatimes.co.kr] - a requirement for government issued citizen-id numbers before one could post a message on any large website.

      That didn't work out so well, not because of activists, but because of actual criminals.

      • You don't say... A government regulation that only affects honest people but not criminals? That's so unheard of!

    • by Toam ( 1134401 )

      People have to get angry. They have to understand they shouldn't be angry at the "hacktivists" but at the laws which require data collection and retention

      This is the hard part.

      When nurses strike over pay/conditions, people (generally) get annoyed at the nurses for risking peoples safety, not the goverment (or governing body) for not resolving the problems

      When teachers strike over pay/conditions, people get annoyed at the teachers for disrupting the childrens education, not the government for not resolving the problems

      When people protest in the steeet, people get angry at the protestors for the inconvenience, not for the government for not resolving the probl

  • if they did this to prove a point, they could have just posted a sample of the data, but no, they reveal everyones data and show they have as little respect for people as the companies that they target.

    • Re:stupid people (Score:5, Informative)

      by grcumb ( 781340 ) on Saturday July 28, 2012 @09:34PM (#40805105) Homepage Journal

      if they did this to prove a point, they could have just posted a sample of the data, but no, they reveal everyones data and show they have as little respect for people as the companies that they target.

      An update in the Gizmodo article [gizmodo.com.au] states that they did not reveal everyone's data - it was a partial dump containing only business and government account records. So, I think they're taking your advice. Ready to support them now? 8^)

      • An update in the Gizmodo article [gizmodo.com.au] states that they did not reveal everyone's data - it was a partial dump containing only business and government account records. So, I think they're taking your advice. Ready to support them now? 8^)

        So, if bank robbers only rob the banks with other people's money, do you support them? If vandals only trash someone else's school, do you support them? If arsonists only burn down other people's homes, do you support them? If hackers (like Anonymous [dailytech.com] ) only steal other people's credit cards, do you support them? What a silly notion.

        • If bank robbers rob only shady investment banks that caused the current recession and causes them to fold, then yes, I support them.
          If vandals only trash places of people who have shown they don't give a shit about society, then yes, I support them.
          If arsonists only burn down the homes of people who have shown they caused grief to others for no good reason then yes, I support them.

          If hackers only publish the data of the people who made the data retention mandatory in the first place, then yes, I support the

  • by Anonymous Coward

    We're likely to see more data trickle out over the coming days, considering that the group has promised 40GB worth of leaks.

    I have a 25GB monthly quota, you insensitive clods!

    • Re:40GB? (Score:4, Funny)

      by jamesh ( 87723 ) on Saturday July 28, 2012 @09:39PM (#40805143)

      We're likely to see more data trickle out over the coming days, considering that the group has promised 40GB worth of leaks.

      I have a 25GB monthly quota, you insensitive clods!

      Don't worry. If it was a raw database extract totally 40GB I bet a lot of it is metadata and the content itself is probably highly compressible. I bet someone can put it in a more useful form and compress it and you'll be able to slide under your quota.

      Failing that, I'm sure the slashdot editors could release a summary. They are excellent at making summaries of things - most of the time they don't even need the original data to do so!

  • Does it count as a release if it is uploaded to Letitbit.net, which proceeds to try and trick me into downloading an .exe file, then presents me with about 20 unreadable captchas in a row, then fails because it uses javascript on some IP address which got blocked by noscript, then after making an exception for that IP address it says I have reached my free limit of one download per day?
  • I think the point that a lot of people/hactivists miss when they focus on privacy and get their knickers in a twist is that data retention regulations aren't primarily intended as surveillance enabling mechanisms, they are intended as evidence preservers so that once a law enforcement officer has enough evidence to go before a judge and get a warrant there will be something there to seize. From a forensic perspective, they mandate the architecting of digital exchange into systems they target. In the physi

Sigmund Freud is alleged to have said that in the last analysis the entire field of psychology may reduce to biological electrochemistry.

Working...