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The Hacker News — Cyber Security, Hacking, Technology News

Sunday, February 08, 2015 Wang Wei

Hacktivist Group Anonymous (#OpISIS) Takes Down Islamic State (ISIS) Twitter Accounts
The hacktivist group Anonymous has launched a massive cyber attack against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) — the radical Islamic terrorist group who were responsible for the terrorist attack against the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

With huge social media presence, ISIS is the most active terror group on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts. But unluckily, over dozens of Facebook and Twitter accounts linked to ISIS has recently been taken by the Anonymous group.

In a video appeared on Youtube, Anonymous group and RedCult announced the operation #OpISIS and claimed to have carried out cyber attack against hundreds of Twitter and Facebook accounts used by ISIS for its own propaganda and to recruit new members.

According to the video, Operation #OpISIS is coordinated by "Muslims, Christians, Jews" alike and a masked individual discusses the aim of the campaign.
They are "hackers, crackers, Hacktivist, phishers, agents, spies, or just the guy next door… students, administrators, workers, clerks, unemployed, rich, poor." They are also "young, or old, gay or straight… from all races, countries, religions, and ethnicity. United as one, divided by zero," video explains.
A list of more than hundred Twitter and Facebook accounts suspected to belong to Islamic militants has been released by Anonymous. Twitter has already suspended more than 1500 ISIS accounts since the group released the first list in June, 2014 and dozens of militant recruiting websites were knocked offline using collective DDoS Attack.

Thousands of Twitter accounts associated with terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) are still active and spreading jihadist propaganda despite a campaign by the hacktivist collective Anonymous to take them down.

According to Anonymous, it's just the beginning of their operation and warned ISIS that there will be "more to come."
We will hunt you, take down your sites, accounts, emails, and expose you…
From now on, no safe place for you online…
You will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure…
We own the internet…
We are Anonymous; we are Legion; we do not forgive, we do not forget, Expect us.
However, ISIS supporters are circulating a new social media guide with instructions for acquiring accounts undetected.

In June, Hacktivist collective Anonymous launched a campaign to take down social media accounts and websites associated with ISIS terrorists as a response to the recent Charlie Hebdo attacks under operation #OpCharlieHebdo.

Anonymous hackers also threatened to target Saudi Arabia and related nations for funding and supporting ISIS group. In a previous note they explained, “We are unable to target ISIS because they predominantly fight on the ground. But we can go after the people or states who fund them.”

Wednesday, November 30, 2016 Wang Wei

Anonymous Hacktivist 'Barrett Brown' Released From Prison
Barrett Brown, a journalist, formerly served as an unofficial spokesman for the hacktivist collective Anonymous, finally walked free from prison on Tuesday morning after serving more than four years behind bars.

The Dallas-born investigative journalist was arrested in 2012 from his home while he was in the middle of an online chat after posting tweets and YouTube video threatening revenge against an FBI agent.

Brown, 35, initially attracted the law enforcement attention in 2011 when he shared a hyperlink to an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel where Anonymous members were distributing stolen information from the hack at security think tank Strategic Forecasting or Stratfor.

The hack allegedly exposed 200 gigabytes of data, which included email addresses and credit card information from Stratfor clients, including the US Army, US Air Force, and Miami Police Department.

Originally facing sentence to more than 100 years in prison, Brown was convicted in January 2015 under a plea agreement with prosecutors to almost five years in jail and nearly $900,000 in restitution and fines.

The two and a half years he has spent in pretrial confinement after his arrest were credited toward his total prison sentence.

Brown eventually pleaded guilty to three federal counts of obstructing a search warrant, making Internet threats and being an accessory to unauthorized access of a protected computer.
According to the Department of Justice, sharing the hyperlink was a crime because "by transferring and posting the hyperlink, Brown caused the data to be made available to other persons online, without the knowledge and authorization of Stratfor and the card holders."

On Tuesday, Brown was released from the Three Rivers Federal Correctional Institution in San Antonio, Texas, where he continued his work as a writer over the past year.

WikiLeaks Publishes 60,000 Emails From Contractor HBGary


On his release five months before the scheduled date, Former National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor Edward Snowden tweeted his reaction, saying:

"Jailed since 2012 for his investigations, #BarrettBrown has finally been released from prison. Best of luck in this very different world."

Meanwhile, the whistleblower site WikiLeaks also published more than 60,000 emails from US private intelligence firm HBGary to celebrate Brown's release.

Hacktivist collective Anonymous initially obtained the emails in February 2011, but WikiLeaks published them in the form of a searchable database on Tuesday. Among other things, the leaked emails discussed targeting journalists and governments.

Friday, December 11, 2015 Swati Khandelwal

Anonymous Declares War On Donald Trump
After targeting the Islamic State (ISIS) group in the wake of Deadly terror attacks in Paris, hacktivist group Anonymous has now turned its attention to controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The hacktivist group has declared war against Donald Trump following his recent radical speech stating he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Anonymous vs. Donald Trump


On Wednesday, Anonymous slams Trump by posting a YouTube video in which a man in a Guy Fawkes mask says:
"Donald Trump, it has come to our attention that you wish to ban all muslims from entering the United States. Muslims and Islam are not the problem. This policy will have grave impact and will serve only to fuel the emotions that ISIS uses to recruit muslims. Certainly ISIS will use this to their advantage in their social media campaigns. Instead of focusing on the innocent, the focus should be set on ways to protect them from the radicalized individuals they flee. Donald Trump, think twice before you speak. This policy is one that cannot be accepted. Denying people of opportunity to escape hardship is not a solution of a future world leader. If anything, this solution will only bear more conflict. We cannot sit idle with the possibilty of detrimental consequences. Should this policy be pursued any further, we will have no choice but to take action."

Watch the Video:

Anonymous Takes Down Donald Trump Website

Moreover, the group started #OpTrump hacking campaign against Donald Trump on Wednesday night and took down the website for New York City's Trump Towers (www.trumptowerny.com) by hitting it with Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.

The website was reportedly down for hours. However, it appears to be operational now.

While the online hacktivist group has yet to officially claim responsibility for the DDOS attack on Trump's website, Twitter users showed their full support to Anonymous and its #OpTrump campaign.

Also Read: Telegram Shuts Down 78 ISIS Channels

This is not the first time the group has targeted Trump. Few months ago, Anonymous broke into Trump.com in an effort to deliver Jon Stewart a message as he was about to leave The Daily Show.

As we await Anonymous's next move, the group has already declared Friday to be a day to troll ISIS, urging Twitter users to troll ISIS using the #Daeshbags hashtag.

This Hack Lets You Find Which of Your Facebook Friends Like Trump


Meanwhile, a website known as FriendsWhoLikeTrump.com has been created to show you which of your Facebook friends have "Liked" Donald J. Trump.

Clicking on the site will land you to a Facebook search feature that shows what your friends have liked, or you can achieve the same yourself by simply typing "My friends who like Donald J. Trump" in the Facebook search bar.

You will get a list of anyone in your Facebook network who has clicked "Like" on Trump's Facebook page.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013 Mohit Kumar

The mother of alleged Anonymous hacktivist Barrett Brown has pleaded guilty to helping her son hide two laptop computers from federal investigators.

Brown's mother, Karen McCutchin, pleaded guilty last week to a charge of obstructing the execution of a search warrant. She faces a maximum sentence of 12 months in prison and a $100,000 fine. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.


On March 6, 2012, officers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Brown’s Dallas, Texas apartment in an attempt to execute a search warrant for computers that could contain information involving hacktivist group Anonymous and LulzSec.

The feds hadn't found all the computers they were looking for during a search of Brown's apartment that morning and Brown, located at his mother's house, refused to volunteer them.

Karen McCutchin Plea Agreement

Barrett Brown is expected to stand trial in September, at which point he will have spent an entire year behind bars without a conviction.

Sunday, July 22, 2012 Mohit Kumar

There was an incident that a group claiming to be the cyber hacker or hacktivist group Anonymous has threatened Dahabshiil an international funds transfer company and the leading bank in Somalia, but the international funds transfer company based in the Middle East, says Anonymous was not responsible for the attack on its banking systems.

According to the report, The group alleged it was the hacktivist group Anonymous, and threatened to destroy Dahabshiil within two months if the company did not stop what the group alleged as supporting terrorist organizations and terrorists in Somalia and across the world.

A group claiming to be Anonymous published thousands of account numbers, names and details online. The hackers claimed it had installed "cyber bombs" within financial institutions around the world and threatened to trigger them if the Dahabshiil did not confess within two months.

In the statement the Anonymous group released, the group alleged that it was investigating the bank’s accounts for months after easily bypassing firewalls.“After months and months of fun against these guys who support Terror on earth, we just decided that it was time to destroy them,” read the statement.

Dahabshiil told "Following our initial investigation into the cyber-attack, we now believe that earlier reports attributing the action to a particular protest group were inaccurate and exaggerated."

“Safeguarding our customers is of paramount importance to Dahabshiil and we will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities to ensure that we identify those responsible,” read the Dahabshiil statement.

If in fact the hacktivist group Anonymous did threaten Dahabshiil this will be a new frontier for the group who have targeted websites of the US Department of Justice the FBI and the websites of governments like the United Kingdom, Egypt, Algeria and Libya.

The group which does not have a leader or head or a member list and virtually anybody can join, has not been known to go after terrorists or alleged terrorist supporters, but in the alleged statement by the group, it did announce officially its “War on Terror”.

Friday, September 16, 2016 Swati Khandelwal

British Court rules Hacktivist 'Lauri Love' can be extradited to USA
British citizen and alleged hacker Lauri Love will be extradited to the United States to face allegations of hacking into United States government computer systems, a UK judge ruled on Friday.

Love, 31, is currently facing up to 99 years in prison for allegedly hacking into the FBI, the US Army, the US Missile Defence Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and New York's Federal Reserve Bank during 2012 and 2013.

US Prosecutors claim that Love was allegedly involved in #OpLastResort, an online protest linked with the Anonymous collective following the persecution and untimely death of activist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in 2013 while under federal charges for data theft.

Speaking at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London, District Judge Nina Tempia said: "I'll be extraditing Mr. Love, by which I mean I'll be passing the case to the Secretary of State."

Tempia said Love could appeal against the court decision. The case will be referred to the home secretary Amber Rudd while Love remains on bail.

Love, his lawyer, and his family members have expressed concern about Love's well-being in the US, saying they fear for his life due to his mental health issues. Love is suffering from Asperger's syndrome.

"I accept Mr. Love suffers from both physical and mental health issues, but I have found the medical facilities in the United States prison estate … are such that I can be satisfied his needs will be comprehensively met by the U.S. authorities," Tempia said in her decision.

Love was initially arrested from his home in Stradishall, England in October 2013, when the British police seized his encrypted laptops and hard drives. The NCA later asked the courts to force Love to turn over keys to decrypt his computer's hard drives.

Friday's ruling came a few months after Love won a case against Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA), which was demanding him disclose passwords to his encrypted computers.

The mother of another British hacker Gary McKinnon, who was accused in 2002 of breaking into NASA and Pentagon computer systems and also avoided extradition to the US on mental health issues, warned Love wouldn't survive life in the US prison.

If his appeal to the home secretary against Friday's ruling proves unsuccessful, Love would have 14 days to file an appeal in the High Court for permission to challenge both the judge as well as the home secretary's decision.

Friday, March 18, 2016 Wang Wei

The 'Hacktivist' collective group Anonymous claimed to have leaked personal details of the controversial US presidential candidate Donald Trump, including his Mobile Phone Number and Social Security Number (SSN).

Donald Trump
  • SSN: 086-38-5955
  • DOB: 06/14/1946
  • Phone Number: 212-832-2000
  • Cell/Mobile Phone Number: (917) 756-8000
The hacktivist group has declared war against Trump under a campaign with the hashtag #OpWhiteRose.

The White Rose Society was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi, Germany and was known for its anti-Nazi pamphlets and graffiti during World War II.

Anonymous posted a YouTube video Thursday afternoon in which a man in a Guy Fawkes mask says:

"Donald Trump has set his ambitions on the White House in order to promote an agenda of fascism and xenophobia as well as the religious persecution of Muslims through totalitarian policies.
He has proposed targeting family members of suspected terrorists for assassination, even while acknowledging they are innocent. It would only lead to more violence from those whose families were killed by the Trump regime.
Donald Trump is an enemy of the constitution and the natural rights it enshrines. We call on all of you and millions of others to take action against Donald Trump."

The hacker collective group also released what it claimed was Trump's personal details, including cell phone number and Social Security number.

Besides his personal details, the group also released Trump’s public information including his birth date, children’s names, and company address in addition to the identities of his agent and lawyer.

However, most of the information provided by Anonymous has been circulating on the Internet since at least late last year, including his New York cell phone number and an address on 5th Avenue in Manhattan.

In response to the video, Trump's campaign has issued the following statement:

"The government and law enforcement authorities are seeking the arrest of the people responsible for attempting to illegally hack Mr. Trump's accounts and telephone information."

Soon after posting the video, Anonymous issued a follow-up tweet, saying "Seems to be outdated information, take it with a grain of salt."

This is not the first time the group has declared war against Trump. Last December, Anonymous declared war against Trump following his radical speech stating he wanted to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

Monday, December 07, 2015 Swati Khandelwal

isis-trolling-day-anonymous
After hacking and taking down social media accounts of ISIS members, the online Hacktivist group Anonymous is back again with its new plan to harass the Islamic State (IS) militant group that was behind the horrific terror attack in Paris.

Anonymous declared total war against ISIS after the last month's Paris attacks and supposedly:
Now, the hacktivist group has declared December 11th to be "ISIS Trolling Day," planning an organized trolling campaign against ISIS by assaulting their image through Photoshopped images, memes, videos and jokes related to the terrorist organisation.


Vanish ISIS Online Presence


This campaign is also part of the group's ongoing effort to disrupt and dishonor the ISIS terror organization's online presence.

Western-living Muslims usually fall for ISIS' intimidating social media propaganda, so rebranding the militant group as a joke may be one of the best ideas Anonymous hackers ever had – attacking the ideas that ISIS is trying to spread online.

Anonymous has also asked netizens to be part of this trolling campaign as an effort to mock ISIS members and supporters for "the IDIOTS they are."


ISIS Trolling Day's Goals


According to a Ghostbin post, the trolling campaign will take place on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and in the real world.
"We'll show them what they really are they don't stand for a religion, they don't stand for a God, they're brainwashers teaching from the young to the old their propaganda against the 'West' when in reality they're just increasing the distance between countries by giving many a bad name," the post reads.
Here are some of the campaign goals:
  • Use #Daesh or #Daeshbags (ISIS hates being called Daesh)
  • Post mocking photographs of ISIS on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook
  • Try to get #Daeshbags trending on Twitter
  • Post photographs of captured ISIS members and mock them
  • Use #'s that ISIS members use, but post mocking pictures instead
  • Make insulting videos of ISIS as well
  • Print out photos or stickers that mock ISIS and spread them around your city

JOIN US! DECEMBER 11, 2015! #OPISIS — Official #DayOfRage (@OpDayOfRage) December 5, 2015

Now, let's see what kind of real impact this campaign will make at the end of the day, but free speech and taunt can be a way more powerful tool when fighting a war of ideas.

Saturday, November 21, 2015 Swati Khandelwal

Anonymous Hacking Group Takes Down 20,000 ISIS Twitter accounts
In the wake of horrific terror attacks in Paris, the online Hacktivist group Anonymous last week declared "total war" against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) that claimed responsibility for the attacks.

While French, Russian, and US military are bombing ISIS from the sky, Anonymous members from all over the world are carrying out their very own cyber attack campaign, dubbed #OpParis, against the terrorist organization.

Anonymous has claimed to have taken down 20,000 ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts in order to take revenge from ISIS for the deadly Paris attacks on November 13.

Anonymous Took Down 20,000 ISIS-affiliated Twitter Accounts


In a YouTube video posted on Wednesday, the group said:
"More than 20,000 Twitter accounts belonging to ISIS were taken down by Anonymous."
The group has provided a list of all the Twitter accounts that have been taken down.

On Tuesday, the hacktivist group claimed to have successfully taken down more than 5,500 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts from the Internet.
In the latest video provided by Anonymous, a spokesman in black behind the group’s signature Guy Fawkes mask said:
"Hello, citizens of the world. We are Anonymous. It is time to realize that social media is a solid platform for ISIS’s communication as well as neutering their ideas of terror amongst youth. However, at the same time, social media has proved it is an advanced weapon. We must all work together and use social media to eliminate the accounts used by terrorists."

Hey ISIS! We Will Hunt you Down from The Internet


ISIS' most interesting aspect is how it leverages the enormous power of social media platform to radicalize young people, spread its message around the globe, recruit foreign supporters to its fight and shock people into taking notice of its actions.

So, taking down the ISIS' social media presence is the real key to defeating the terror group, and it does make an impact at worst.
"ISIS, we will hunt you and take down your sites, accounts, emails and expose you. From now on, there is no safe place for you online. You will be treated like a virus, and we are the cure," the spokesman said in the video message.

IDIOTS Answer to ISIS


Last week, when Anonymous declared war against ISIS and warned it of launching their "biggest operation ever" against the terrorist group, ISIS militants called Anonymous – "IDIOTS".

However, on the other side, the terror organization started spreading instructions through its affiliated official channels on Telegram on how to prevent getting hacked by Anonymous. This shows that ISIS knows the capability of Anonymous.

In the past, hackers and organizations associated with Anonymous brought down websites allegedly connected with ISIS and took down thousands of ISIS accounts, disrupting their social media recruitment efforts.

Also Read: Telegram Shuts Down 78 ISIS Channels

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Swati Khandelwal

How Anonymous Can Disrupt ISIS's Online Propaganda
The online Hacktivist group Anonymous declared War against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) that claimed responsibility for the horrific terrorist attacks that rocked Paris last week.

In response to the Anonymous’ warning of launching their "biggest operation ever" against the terrorist group, ISIS militants called Anonymous – "IDIOTS".

It seems like Anonymous has taken ISIS response very seriously and the group has started carrying out their attacks against the terror organisation.

Anonymous First 'Cyber Attack' on ISIS


Soon after its war declaration, Anonymous claimed to have taken down more than 5,500 pro-ISIS Twitter accounts in #OpParis (Operation Paris).

In the past, hackers and organizations associated with Anonymous brought down websites allegedly connected with ISIS and claimed to have taken down thousands of ISIS accounts, disrupting their social media recruitment efforts.


Anonymous' most famous targets include the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the Vatican, the Westboro Baptist Church (known for its hate speech against the Jews, LGBT community, and liberal politicians), the governments, and even the CIA.
How Anonymous Can Disrupt ISIS's Online Propaganda
So, calling Anonymous idiots doesn’t make them idiots, because the hacktivist group has proved itself to be fully capable of launching successful attacks – and ISIS knows it.

That's why the terror organisation is spreading lame instructions through its affiliated official channels on Telegram on how to prevent getting hacked by Anonymous.

ISIS Online Propaganda: How They Manipulate Social Media


ISIS is a terrorist organisation whose most interesting aspect is how it leverages the huge power of Twitter and Facebook to radicalize young people, spread its message around the globe, recruit foreign supporters to its fight and shock people into taking notice of its actions.


Many ISIS militants maintain extremely active accounts on the popular social media platforms. They also have a strong presence on the most popular encrypted messaging app Telegram with more than 100,000 followers.

According to The Atlantic, there were more than 46,000 ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts with an average of 1,000 followers each.

The group has also established a 24-hour Jihadi Help Desk to help its foot soldiers spread their message around the world, recruit followers and launch more terror attacks on foreign soil, NBC reports.

So How Anonymous can Defeat ISIS?


When taking into consideration ISIS's extensive presence on Twitter, taking down its social media presence is the actual key to defeating the terror group, and it does make an impact at worst.

So, taking down the group's 5,500 Twitter accounts could be the first step towards disrupting ISIS online propaganda.

No doubt, we doesn't have any silver bullet solution to this problem, neither cyber attacks can vanish ISIS from its roots, but at least hackers can disrupt their online propaganda that may disable them to plan or plot Paris-like terrorist attacks.


#Anonymous Takes Down More than 5500 #ISIS-affiliated accounts within 24 Hours http://goo.gl/TcBqqR WHAT NEXT?
Posted by The Hacker News on Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Besides social media takeovers, the hacker collective is using "Distributed Denial of Service" (DDoS) attacks to shut down websites affiliated with ISIS, including its fundraising sites from where ISIS get fed.

Anonymous has previously used successful DDOS attacks to shut down services of companies or organizations the group deems fit for the attack, including the municipal computer system of Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of Michael Brown death.

Anonymous Releases Newbie "How-to" Hacking Guide


Now, this will really panic ISIS:
How Anonymous Can Disrupt ISIS's Online Propaganda
Anonymous group has also released a newbie How-to Hacking Guide for all wannabe hackers, in an effort to recruit more people in their Fight against Islamic State.

The Instruction set includes:
  • NoobGuide — Methods to hack websites associated with Islamic State
  • Reporter — How to set up a Twitter bot for uncovering IS accounts.
  • Searcher — How to identify and take down ISIS related websites and social media accounts
"Instead of sitting idle in the channel or lurking around and doing nothing, you can benefit greatly from the different tools and guides that have been provided to you. Your contribution means a lot and we encourage you to partake in all of the Op's activities if you can, the more the merrier," an anonymous member wrote.
Telegram — Secret Messaging app
It seems like, Anonymous is silently saying to ISIS… Just wait and watch what these idiots can do to you.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014 Swati Khandelwal

Anonymous Hacks Swedish Government in Revenge for 'Pirate Bay' Takedown
An online "hacktivist" group that calls itself Anonymous has claimed responsibility for hacking into email accounts of Swedish government in response to the seizure of world renowned The Pirate Bay website and server by Swedish police last week.

Apart from Sweden government officials, the Anonymous hacktivist group also claimed to have hacked into the government email accounts of Israel, India, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, and revealed their email addresses with passwords in plain-text.

The Anonymous group also left a message at the end of the leak: "Warning: Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all!! Bye :*"

The hack was announced by Anonymous group on their official Twitter account. The tweet also shared a link of Pastebin where leaked data has been dumped with the list of the emails. The tweet reads:
"BREAKING: Emails from Swedish government were hacked in retaliation for the seizure of servers of The Pirate Bay http://pastebin.com/cxmiUSJD" (pastebin removed at the time of writing).
Last Tuesday, an infamous Torrent website predominantly used to share copyrighted material such as films, TV shows and music files, free of charge — The Pirate Bay went dark from the internet for almost half a day after Swedish Police raided the site's server room in Stockholm and seized several servers and other equipment.

The piracy site remained unavailable for several hours, and appeared back online in the late hours with a new URL hosted under the top-level domain for Costa Rica (.cr). However, some torrent users said that the downloads were neither properly working, nor were free of charge, some said that The Pirate Bay service with .cr domain came by a different group, while others referred to it as a scam.

At the moment it is unclear how the group got access to the login credentials of several countries government officials and which server they exactly belong. However, this is not first time, Swedish internet giant Telia was attacked on December 12 following The Pirate Bay raid, reported by The Local.

At the time, the online services by Telia were affected as well as user connections were disturbed, RT reported. Also a chief security researcher from Kaspersky Lab, David Jacoby, said the attack on Telia was a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack and was likely a response to the seizer of The Pirate Bay in Stockholm by Swedish police. The company also encountered cyber attacks on both December 9 and 10 as well.

However, The Pirate Bay has previously been shut down number of times and had its domain seized, prompting the BitTorrent site to change its top level domain many times.

Earlier in September, The Pirate Bay claimed that it ran the notorious website on 21 "raid-proof" virtual machines, which means if one location is raided by the police, the site would hardly took few hours to get back in action.

Thursday, August 14, 2014 Mohit Kumar

Anonymous Hackers Claim to Identify the Cop Who killed Mike Brown in Ferguson
Members of the international hacker collective Anonymous have claimed they have identified the Ferguson, Missouri law enforcement officer involved in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager killed on Saturday, which sparked days of protest and raised racial tensions.

The hacktivist collective said Wednesday in a tweet that it was holding back the name of police officer until it confirmed the name of the police officer with a second source before releasing it publicly.
"We have the name of the shooter," the Anonymous group member tweeted under the Twitter name Operation Ferguson. "We just can't verify. We need to either talk to witnesses or get a second leak source."
Michael Brown, 18-year-old, was shot multiple times by a local police officer on Saturday, which happened around 1:40 p.m. Brown's body was then left on the sidewalk for hours. He was killed following an alleged altercation with the Ferguson police. Since then, the police have been accused of racism and become the focus of retribution by an angry public.

However on Thursday morning, the hacktivist group announced that it has named the officer who killed Brown over the weekend, and have posted Facebook profile photograph purported to be of the man.
"Do not release more info on this random citizen," the Police Department tweeted. "We only release suspect information after the investigation is complete and charges have been issued."
The group claimed that the name of the police officer is B***n W***m**, but the St. Louis County Police department denied the claims and said that the group has identified the wrong guy and that officer is not an officer from Ferguson or St. Louis.
“St. Louis County PD claims B***n W***m** doesn't work for them or #Ferguson PD. We'll see about that,” TheAnonMessage Twitter account tweeted early Thursday.
On the other side, the Ferguson Police Department has declined releasing the name of the officer who actually shot Brown, citing safety concerns for the officer. This prompted Anonymous to vow in order to dismiss the police involved in the incident.

Since Anonymous hacktivists made the claim and unveiled the name of the officer, his name has been shared more than 3,000 times in the first hour.
"The things that are happening in #Ferguson disgust me," one Twitter user wrote."[Redacted] you will be killed soon enough #RIPMikeBrown."
The Anonymous hacktivists have also added that it will release more details about the police officer in the coming hours if the St Louis County police department will not take an action against the shooter. The department is still investigating the matter.

The group claims it has video of his body loaded into a police SUV. It have also released the officer's full address at 12pm local time and if there is no response from the police department, it will release a full cache of information on him at 2pm local time.

Thursday, July 31, 2014 Wang Wei

Anonymous Group Takes Down Mossad's Website Over Gaza Conflict
The hacktivist group Anonymous has reportedly taken down the official website of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad against Israel’s military incursion in Gaza, which has resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties. The government of Israel has yet to comment on the Mossad hack attack.

The ‘Hacktivists’ were able to take down Mossad’s website in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack early morning, claims a statement on one of the Anonymous hacker’s Twitter account. The attack on the website is supposed to be severe as it has been over 10 hours and the site is still down at the time of writing.

OPERATION SAVE GAZA
The Anonymous group has already targeted a number of other Israeli organizations as part of a campaign titled “Operation Save Gaza” in the mission to stop this “massacre.”

Anonymous group has also claimed responsibility of taking down multiple Israeli government sites following the death of one of the organization’s members. The member named Tayeb Abu Shehada, a 22-year-old, was killed during a protest in the village of Huwwara in the West Bank by Israeli forces over the weekend.

ANONYMOUS TOOK DOWN THOUSANDS OF ISRAELI WEBSITES
The hacktivist group launched a hacking campaign Operation Save Gaza against Israeli government coinciding with the Israel’s Operation Protective Edge on July 7. Since then, Anonymous group have taken down “thousands” of Israeli-based websites including Israel’s Defence Ministry and the Tel Aviv Police websites.
“We are calling upon the Anonymous collective, and the elite hacker groups to join our crusade, and to wage cyber war against the state of Israel once more,” said a public statement from the group posted online last Friday. "As a collective 'Anonymous' does not hate Israel, it hates that Israel's government is committing genocide & slaughtering unarmed people in Gaza to obtain more land at the border."
As the news broke that hundreds of “Israeli government home pages have been replaced by graphics, slogans, and auto-playing audio files,” Anonymous claimed responsibility for the attacks, further releasing 170 log-in details last Monday which they claimed belonged to Israeli officials.

PREVIOUS ATTACKS
Two years ago, the same group launched hundreds of attacks on Israeli sites with #OpIsrael targeting Israeli websites, during the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) previous operation ‘Pillar of Defense’ in Gaza.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s data was completely wiped out and the group was able to leak the data of 5,000 Israeli officials as well as hacked into the Israeli Deputy Premier’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, thereby replacing it with pro-Palestinian messages.

Also a year back, the group claimed to have attacked 100,000 websites, stating that their attacks had caused $3 billion in damages to Israel.

Thursday, January 09, 2014 Swati Khandelwal

Government modifying 'Personal Data Privacy and Security Act' to strict Sentencing for Hackers
The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman 'Patrick Leahy' reintroduced a revamped version of the "Personal Data Privacy and Security Act" for tough criminal penalties for hackers, that he originally authored in 2005.

During last Christmas Holidays, a massive data breach had occurred at the shopping giant Target, involving hack of 40 million credit & debit cards, used to pay for purchases at its 1500 stores nationwide in the U.S.
Reason: "Target Data Breach? Seriously"? In a statement, as published below, the Senator wrote:
"The recent data breach at Target involving the debit and credit card data of as many as 40 million customers during the Christmas holidays is a reminder that developing a comprehensive national strategy to protect data privacy and cybersecurity remains one of the most challenging and important issues facing our Nation"
It seems that the TARGET Breach was scheduled, as the best opportunity to ramp up the cyber security laws against all kinds of Hackers.

Finally, on Wednesday he has re-introduced a more strict version of the "Personal Data Privacy and Security Act" bill that aims to protect Americans’ data from cyber criminals. He wrote in a statement,
"The Personal Data Privacy and Security Act will help to meet this challenge, by better protecting Americans from the growing threats of data breaches and identity theft."
In his proposal, the companies with databases containing sensitive customer information will have to adopt a 'nationwide standard' of internal policies to defend against cyber attacks. It will also provide an alert notice to all Americans users, when they have been victims of such data breach.

No Doubt, I am also in favor to give strict sentences to the Cyber criminals who are involved in Malware related crimes,  financial hacks, cyber bullying, espionage or spying, but this Bill now also covers strict sentencing for hactivists and hackers who have nothing to do with financial data. I have explained these facts about the bill as follow:
Government modifying 'Personal Data Privacy and Security Act' to strict Sentencing for Hackers
Obviously, I smell a Rat here!
New Penalty - 20 Years, rather than 10: Another most important modification is proposed to increase the maximum sentence for a first-time offender from 10 years to 20.

Cyber Criminal = Hacktivist = Anonymous = Cyber Fraud ≠ NSA: Unfortunately, this Bill will also apply to all types of hackers, who is involved in Data Breaches, Cyber Fraud activities, Identity theft, Malware developers as well as on the other hackers including Anonymous, Hacktivist etc. who is not hacking for financial benefits.
“The bill also includes the Obama administration’s proposal to update the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, so that attempted computer hacking and conspiracy to commit computer hacking offenses are subject to the same criminal penalties, as the underlying offenses."
Government modifying 'Personal Data Privacy and Security Act' to strict Sentencing for Hackers
If you haven’t forgotten the news of the Hactivist Jeremy Hammond, who was sentenced 10 years in prison under the same Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) for hacking into private intelligence contractor Stratfor and attempting to highlight Stratfor’s work as a private intelligence firm.

He exposed Surveillance operation done by Stratfor on the political protesters at the behest of both private companies and the government. His attack was for political purpose, rather than financial.

Attempt to Hack = Successfully Hacked: If you are even planning to hack someone, then, according to this updated Bill, you are also considered as a Criminal. The Senator also proposed that the hackers who are unsuccessful in their actions are punished as severely as more accomplished ones regardless.

 Considering the NSA's unethical Hacking operation? Now that’s interesting! Whistle-blowing comes under a massive crime, but spying on the whole world by the their own NSA comes under nothing from any above??
NSA unethical Hacking operation
Recently, The Security researcher Jacob Appelbaum accused the NSA of illegally hacking the massive amounts of private data of users under the guise of counterterrorism. “NSA gets to do something like intercepting 7 billion people all day long with no problems. And the rest of us are not even allowed to experiment with improving the security of our own lives without being put in prison or under threat of serious indictment.” he said.

Making Laws more strict for hackers with criminal or Fraud activities is OKAY, but what about the team of hackers who are unethically hacking into world's telecommunication companies, devices or the database of Big Internet companies?

Now, this is something on what U.S Government won't give a damn look!

Tuesday, November 27, 2012 Mohit Kumar

Hacker group Anonymous claims he took down North-side Independent School District's website (www.NISD.net) on Saturday to protest the district's use of tracking badges.

On Sunday, Nov. 25, the same hacktivist released a statement via Pastebin giving the school district “1-3 days” to meet with parents and explain the student tracking program in detail. If the district fails to comply with the request, hacktivist promise to “simply shut down” the school district website once again.

The hacker group also sent a Twitter message to the NISD account on Thursday, teasingly notifying them that their site was down. "They're tracking students! They have rights too. I want a statement about this, nobody agrees with that, even the parents!" Anonymous said.

NISD said it wanted to expand the Student Locator Project to 112 Texas schools and around 100,000 students to curb truancy, apparently a major problem at the school district in question. It was reported that by improving attendance, NISD could receive as much as $20 million in additional state funding, which would more than offset the cost of implementing the program (pegged at over $525,000 for the pilot program and a little over $136,000 per year to maintain).

“Now it is your school and your rules, but you seen what I did to your website, and have a simple deal for you, weather you accept it or not, is up to you,” the statement reads. “If you still want to do this tracking idea on the students, at least have a meeting with each and every students parents, so they know what is going on.”

Thursday, April 26, 2012 Mohit Kumar



Several Lebanese ministry websites were the target of a hack attack Thursday by the group Raise Your Voice, in the second such attack on government-related portals this month.

“We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bare (sic) sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon. We will not be silenced and brainwashed by your media. We will not stop until the Lebanese people mobilize, demand their rights, and earn them,” said the group’s message posted on the hacked websites.

It is unclear whether Lebanon Anonymous is affiliated with the hacktivist group #Anonymous, renowned for its attacks on websites of governments and corporations it considers corrupt or seeking to limit free speech on the web. Last month, they took down the Interpol's website as a response to the arrest of 25 of their members, as well as the United Nations' official site.

Below is the list of the websites that were hacked on Thursday:
http://www.energyandwater.gov.lb/
http://www.presidencyinfo.gov.lb/
http://www.isc.gov.lb/
http://www.isf.gov.lb/
http://futureyouth.org/
http://www.labor.gov.lb/Default.aspx
http://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/
http://www.omspa.gov.lb/
http://www.justice.gov.lb/CP/ViewPage.aspx?id=1&language=1
http://www.transportation.gov.lb/
http://www.moew.gov.lb/
http://www.foreign.gov.lb/

As Raise Your Voice’s message highlights, the issues left over since then have not been resolved, though Bassil claims that he has created a “rescue plan for the sector with consensus for all the parties”.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011 Mohit Kumar

#OpFacebook : Facebook will be down on November 5 by Anonymous Hackers Attack
Anonymous has vowed to "destroy" Facebook on Nov. 5. Or more accurately, somebody has set up a Twitter account and YouTube channel to announce a plan dubbed "Operation Facebook."

In a YouTube video, the hacking group warns, "Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed." "If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy."

The group said in its message that "Operation Facebook" would be begin November 5. It claimed the social network, based in Palo Alto,Calif., provides information to "government agencies" so they can "spy on people." If Operation Facebook is real, it could mark a new phase for Anonymous, which in recent weeks has joined forces with the remnants of the more tightly knit hacker group LulzSec to target law enforcement agencies in an ongoing operation called Antisec.

UPDATE : 
Whereas one of the Anonymous Leader Claim that "Operation Facebook" is Fake. He tweeted as shown below.
Press Release of Operation Facebook :
Here's the Anonymous press release and accompanying video message:
Operation Facebook
DATE: November 5, 2011.
TARGET: https://facebook.com
Press:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/OP_Facebook
http://piratepad.net/YCPcpwrl09
Irc.Anonops.Li #OpFaceBook
Message:
Attention citizens of the world,
We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.
Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.
Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your "privacy" settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you "delete" your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more "private" is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.
http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html
http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iphone/
You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.
The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It's unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don't understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them "for their own good" while they then make millions off of you. When a service is "free," it really means they're making money off of you and your information.
Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.
This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.
We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

Monday, February 05, 2018 Swati Khandelwal

lauri-love-extradition-appeal
British citizen and hacker Lauri Love, who was accused of hacking into United States government websites, will not be extradited to stand trial in the U.S., the High Court of England and Wales ruled today.

Love, 33, is facing a 99-year prison sentence in the United States for allegedly carrying out series of cyber attacks against the FBI, US Army, US Missile Defence Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and New York's Federal Reserve Bank between 2012 and 2013.

The High Court ruled Monday that Love should be tried in U.K. after Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett of Maldon and Justice Ouseley heard he suffered severe mental illness like Asperger syndrome, eczema, asthma, and depression, and may kill himself if extradited.

At Westminster Magistrates' Court in London in late 2016, District Judge Nina Tempia ordered Love to be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, although his lawyers appealed the decision, arguing that he should be tried for his alleged crimes in the UK.

The court accepted both of the arguments advanced by Love's lawyers and ruled that extradition would be "oppressive" due to his serious health conditions and it would be likely that he would be kept in solitary confinement in the American prison system if extradited.

The court burst in applause and cheering when the judgment was handed down by Lord Burnett, who asked Love supporters to be quiet, saying "This is a court, not a theatre."

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which acts on behalf of the US authorities, said it would read the judgment before deciding whether to appeal the high court decision to the supreme court.

According to US Prosecutors, Love was allegedly involved in #OpLastResort, an online protest linked with the Anonymous collective following the persecution and untimely death of hacktivist Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide in 2013 while under federal charges for data theft.

Love, who lives near Newmarket, was arrested from his home in Stradishall, England in October 2013, when the British police seized his encrypted laptops and hard drives.

Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) also asked the courts to force Love to turn over keys to decrypt his encrypted computer's hard drives, but Love won the case against the agency in early 2016.

If extradited to the United States and found guilty, Love could have sentenced to up to 99 years in prison and a potential fine of up to $9 million (£6.3 million).

Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Love expressed his thanks to the judges and said: "I'm thankful for all the support we've had, without which I'm not sure I would have made it this far."

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is also fighting US extradition, congratulate Love in a Tweet, saying: "VICTORY: @LauriLove wins UK appeal against US extradition. Congratulations to Lauri, his lawyers & family, @CourageFound and many supporters on an excellent campaign."

Right now, it is not clear if Love, who denies all wrongdoings, would face a prison sentence in the UK following his five years of legal battle.

Sunday, June 11, 2017 Mohit Kumar

French Police Seize 6 Tor Relay Servers in WannaCry Investigation
WannaCry, the biggest ransomware attack in the history, gained prominence very rapidly in the media globally after the ransomware infected more than 300,000 computers in over 150 countries within just 72 hours.

Governments, Intelligence agencies and law enforcement around the world have already started their investigations and are working closely with affected companies to track down hackers responsible for the global cyber attack launched on Friday, 12th May.

Some researchers traced back WannaCry to a state-sponsored hacking group in North Korea, while other believed the perpetrators might be Chinese.

If you have been following WannaCry coverage on The Hacker News, you should be aware of that the WannaCry ransomware uses Tor hidden service to communicate with its command-and-control server.

Just yesterday, we came to know that French authorities had seized at least 6 Tor's entry guard node servers, hosted on France-based hosting providers, just two days after the outbreak of ransomware attack while investigating the WannaCry incident.

On 15th May, a French hacktivist, who uses online moniker ‘Aeris,’ informed Tor community that the official from Central Office for Combating Crime Related to Information and Communication Technologies (OCLCTIC) raided the Online.net hosting provider and have seized his "kitten1" and "kitten2" (torguard and fallback directory) servers on 14th May.
"Cops raided OVH, Online.net and FirstHeberg hosting providers on the basis of a complaint filed by French Renault company that was one of the victims of the WannaCry infection," Aeris told The Hacker News. 
"I went to court to have access to information about the seizer of my servers, but it refused to provide me with any information, and even the providers are under gag order."
Aeris told THN that he is aware of the seizer of total 6 Tor relays, operated by 5 operators.
tor-relay-wannacry

Perhaps nobody was aware of the takedown of these servers in question until the author of Deepdotweb first reported about this incident on Saturday.

Aeris also claimed that the French authorities had taken this action after a victim company (possibly Renault, a France-based multinational automobile manufacturer) contacted the agency for help and provided network traffic logs to assist the investigation.

Since the Tor nodes have been securely implemented to protect the privacy of Tor users and no actual data had been retained on them, the law enforcement authorities would hardly find any evidence related to the WannaCry gang.
"Private key are under encrypted volume and may be protected, but please revoke immediately kitten1 & kitten2 tor node. Those nodes are also fallback directory." Aeris warned.
WannaCry epidemic that hit victims worldwide was using self-spreading capabilities to infect vulnerable Windows computers, particularly those using older versions of the operating system.

While most of the affected organisations have now returned to normal, law enforcement agencies across the world are still on the hunt.

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