Three Arrested For Sony/Egypt Hacks 119
jimmij0770 writes "Three people accused of being behind cyberattacks on the Sony PlayStation store, the Egyptian government and other targets have been arrested in Spain. Quoting: 'Spanish National Police announced the arrests Friday in a statement that alleged the three in custody are leaders of the Spanish section of Anonymous, a loose-knit international activist group that has claimed attacks on companies such as Visa and MasterCard and on government websites. At least one spokesperson for the group had denied responsibility for the attacks on Sony through its AnonOps blog. ... The statement said police began their investigation in October 2010 following a complaint of a denial of service attack on Spain's Ministry of Culture. They analyzed more than two million lines of chat logs and web pages used by the hackers in order to find the three people who were arrested.'"
hehe (Score:1)
Idiots (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Idiots (Score:5, Insightful)
They mean IRC chanops (Score:5, Informative)
That's basically what makes them "leaders of Anonymous", according to the police. Supposedly one of them ran an IRC server at home and the three were IRC operators. That's all. There's even a hilarious police screenshot [yfrog.com] featuring an IRC client and three huge red arrows. Because everyone knows that huge red arrows means they're the Bad Guys.
They're blaming some of the playstation store DDoS attacks on them (which Anonymous did take responsibility for), as well as DDoSing the SGAE (spanish RIAA) and some government websites as a response to recent legislation and social unrest. None of this has nothing to do with the PSN breach, it was just the usual Anonymous DDoS modus operandi.
New IRC server up in three, two, ... oh, wait, they probably set one up within minutes, certainly before Slashdot managed to pick up the story.
All of this seems to be a useless operation just so they can claim that they got *someone* for some of the DDoS attacks on government sites. Even the police knows this isn't going to stop anything, they're just making it look like some big breakthrough to appease the "victims" of the attacks.
They're charging them with a violation that could get them one to three years in prison. So, for now they're free (you don't get preventative imprisonment for that kind of charge), and I'd say there's a pretty good chance they'll end up dropping the charges due to lack of evidence.
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Interesting, I wonder if they've paid for that copy of mIRC.
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Judging by the uTorrent icon, my guess is they didn't.
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I have been conditioned to believe that huge red arrow means a hunter is trying to kill the person under it.... :P
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They're charging them with a violation that could get them one to three years in prison. So, for now they're free (you don't get preventative imprisonment for that kind of charge), and I'd say there's a pretty good chance they'll end up dropping the charges due to lack of evidence.
Or they will go to prison and get ass raped. I know I wouldn't be sleeping well at night...
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Spain is a civilised country. The Inquisition has moved to the USA.
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The coliseum icon is Nero Burning ROM.
I wouldn't be surprised one bit if they warezed mIRC.
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The DDoS was a retaliation for Sony accusing "Anonymous" of the Playstation Network breach. It's really quite hilarious that the authorities haven't picked up on that. Anonymous has never been in the business of trading credit card numbers and the like, and they probably never will be. They just have a couple ideas regarding "justice," usually involving defending kids that they think were bullied (or cats.. don't post pictures of a cat you harmed on /b/). If you target them, they think that you're bully
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But they never said that. They said leaders of the "Spanish section" of Anonymous.
You are just skipping out words you don't want to read for... whatever weird reason you have.
They could very well be leaders of a group of Anonymous activists from Spain.
They might even go after the lesser members at some point too, but you always take the leaders out to destroy most things.
There are very obvious signs of leadership in most loose groups. That includes Anonymous.
Most likely that most commands of attack are gi
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I wish the media would hurry up and realize how stupid they sound saying "leaders of anonymous."
Someone holds the keys and coordinates attacks. Pretending that there is no one in the middle absurd. Pretending that there isn't an inner circle of occasional participants is doubly absurd. It may well be that the further out you go the more amorphous things become (i.e. all the morons volunteering to run LOIC) but there is definitely people in the middle who could be classified as and are ringleaders.
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I'm waiting for a round of Sparticus-like "I'm the leader of anonymous!"
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The Appian way is in need of some new decorations...
False arrest story or Acquittal story next? (Score:2)
I get this sinking feeling that the three will be released due to insufficient evidence. But then again, this is the Spanish inquisition... nobody expects the Spanish inquisition.
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The fact that one of them ran an IRC server involved in coordination of attacks out of his home I'd say at least one of the three arrested isn't very bright and I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of them goes to jail.
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They're already free - the charges they're pushing aren't enough to warrant preventative imprisonment.
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Most? I don't think a majority of countries have such laws.
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Yes, I too think this one suspect and his accomplice... no, two guys and their-- three men will be promptly released. Wait, I'm going to come in again.
Leader of Anon (Score:1)
is the Higgs boson!
You're EDITORS so EDIT! (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? Three people, along with the Egyptian government and other targets have been arrested in Spain? What was the Egyptian government doing in Spain? Was is on a vacation? That must have made quite the arrest.
Hint, this would have been much clearer:
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Even worse is the fact that TFA reads "Accused not involved in April PlayStation Network intrusion".
mod parent up (Score:2)
fixing summary +5000
editor -5000
video (Score:2, Informative)
surreal speech from the spanish police about the operation: http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20110610/anonymous-va-seguir-pero-hemos-desmantelado-principal-servidor-espana/438788.shtml they compare anonymouse with al qaeda.. and they justify the sophisticated skills of the hackers with arguments like "they use wifi networks".. it looks like a monty python film..
Re:video (Score:4, Informative)
Google Translated:
Basically it says NATO considers cyber attacks to be a real threat, just like Al Qaeda is a real threat. I don't see the Spanish Police saying anything that equates these hackers to AQ.
i wonder.... (Score:2)
An arrest is an arrest i guess. As long as law enforcement has something they'll run with it.
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Isn't LOIC one of the preferred tools of Anonymous? It shouldn't be that difficult to track down the developers. The project has both SourceForge and Github accounts.
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I hate that I cannot edit comments. I'm not saying that the developers of LOIC are involved with Anonymous, but your suggestion was to take down the tools. Granted, you could argue that the tools in of themselves aren't illegal. I could see a tool like LOIC being used for DDoS and security testing of your own network.
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Exactly. Write a shellscript to do aggressive rapid-fire wgets, and OH NOES YOU MAED A DDOS TOOL!
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Isn't LOIC one of the preferred tools of Anonymous? It shouldn't be that difficult to track down the developers. The project has both SourceForge and Github accounts.
Isn't it a valid tool for stress testing websites developed by several individuals collectively? Sounds like you want to blame the creator of dynamite because some people use it to blow up bridges. Just because a tool can be used for a wrong purpose doesn't mean we blame the maker. Blame those who use it that way.
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Are you saying we'll get another set of Nobel Awards if we run horrible articles on the author of LOIC? </completelymissingthepoint>
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Huh.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because you think you know what Anonymous is, doesn't mean that everyone else does.. it's easier to say there is a "leader" than to explain what it really is..not to mention that fact that they are doing this to themselves. When they start releasing statements and using Twitter and shit, someone is in charge of those things, hence the "leader" tag.
Lets try talking about the article instead of pretending we're cool enough to know how Anonymous works.
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Once the evidence comes down on them and there's real jail time they'll spill the names of everyone involved for a plea bargain. That's how it always works.
LMFAO!!!! XD
I'm picturing you as a grizzled old cop sipping coffee on his desk right now, who isn't too good with these computer things, but knows how criminals operate.
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I see you GP.
Yeah there's a hierarchy. A mostly transient, entirely fungible one.
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It's a valid argument.
Anonymous doesn't have "a leader". It has a communications trope, and the "leader" of any particular act taken in its name is whoever gets the ball rolling within that trope and causes those taking action to choose to attribute it to Anonymous.
Anonymous also doesn't really have "a future". Anonymity on the Internet isn't real. It's more like obscurity than anonymity. You can be tracked and located, and that's getting easier. Obscurity, however, only really works if you don't put a
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From my point of view, everyone is discussing the article. Yes, I did RTFA. They stated the three arrested are "leaders of the Spanish section of anonymous." Just because certain people are more active than others doesn't make them leaders. This is just another "tubes" moment where governments have no idea about what goes on in the technological world. The article also stated that no charges have been made, which leads me to believe that this was an order from somewhere high, because someone isn't happy, and wanted to send a message. The thing with anonymous organizations is that anyone can claim to be in them, create twitter groups, and send out "press releases." Everyone is on topic because the topic is the targeting of the "leadership" of anonymous, in this case the Spanish section, whatever that means. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
If they're more active than others it seems reasonable to think they could be the leaders of the attack.. since you know.. they're doing it..
I feel as though everyone is nit-picking the article over it's wording when it was created by someone not necessarily "in the loop" on the terms of the internet, I don't think you can really hold that against them. They arrested three people that were Spanish and actively taking part in Anonymous's action. Why wouldn't you call it the Spanish section of anonymous? It
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I appreciate your point, but do realize that comments telling the /. editors how to correct submission grammar also get modded +4 Insightful. (#36403418)
Grammar nazis are nerds too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM [youtube.com]
The propaganda has begun (Score:3)
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The Usual Suspects (Score:2)
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! (Score:1)
No really! Can YOU prove they expected this raid?! Just sayin'...
Submitter didn't Read the full title (Score:2)
What the hell? Now even the people submitting articles aren't reading them. Or even the entire title. Here is the full title:
'Anonymous' cyberattack arrests made in Spain
Accused not involved in April PlayStation Network intrusion
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We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.
Sorry, I meant to say we're Anonymous Coward.
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We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.
Sorry, I meant to say we're Anonymous Coward.
Sure you did, Juan.
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Mom's calling. Dinner is ready.
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Mom's calling. Dinner is ready.
If you spend any time in their IRC you'll routinely see things like.
"Sorry anons, have to go to school now" and
"My Dad doesn't want me to do this" also
"Mom won't let me use the internet" past the anons bedtime.
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You are not legion, you're a semi-organized group of idiots. Shut up.
(3 people, Egyptian govt, other targets) in Spain (Score:2)
"Three people accused of being behind cyberattacks on the Sony PlayStation store, the Egyptian government and other targets have been arrested in Spain. "
They arrested 3 people, the Egyptian Government, and other targets, while they were in Spain?.. odd.. must have been there on holiday? I mean I know the Egyptian government isn't as stable as it once was... oh well.
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Turnabout (Score:2)
If they didn't want to get arrested, they should have secured their servers.
And by comparison? (Score:2)
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Slashdot Douches: "When will the media learn that calling somebody a leader of biological research makes about as much sense as saying I'm the leader of people who wear blue?"
I've said it a billion times it feels like, so mod this redundant: The people who are focused on the terms used to describe the people that are actually coordinating and implementing and participating in attacks are retards. If they can sa
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I'm being trolled here, right? And all these "anonymous isn't a group" type postings is just a meme that I'm unaware of?
Nope, real thing.
If I refer to somebody as a Christian leader, or a Islamic leader or a * leader it does not mean that I think Christian is a monolithic organization and all of us take orders from the top. Do you think the world is unfamiliar with classifications of people (groupings if you will) that lack top down leadership?
Well first, if someone called the leader of the "God hates Fags" idiots the Leader of the American Division of Christianity, would that be very accurate? Now let's say that guy's position was changed every time they got together, almost at random, with some random dude who had speaking skills volunteering to be the pastor. Wouldn't that make it hilariously inaccurate?