Turkish Police Nab 32 Suspects Tied To Anonymous 153
wiredmikey writes "Following the arrest of three alleged 'Anonymous' members by Spanish authorities on Friday, Turkey's state-run news agency has reported that police have detained 32 individuals allegedly linked to the hacktivist group. The Anatolia news agency said today that the suspects were taken into custody after conducting raids in a dozen cities for suspected ties to Anonymous. The group recently targeted Web sites of the country's telecommunications watchdog, the prime minister's office and parliament as a protest to Turkey's plans to introduce Internet filters."
or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:5, Insightful)
it's also possible that Turkey is cracking down on dissidents, using Anonymous as a cover story.
Re: or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:hmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
i have a hard time believing that they have enough people part of anon, to get 32 caught at once... cover story?
Is it so hard to believe 32 of them were dumb enough?
Like the cloud... (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems people like to consider "Anonymous" to be like "the cloud". The cloud is everywhere and nowhere, boxes and fuzzy lines on a chart. It is a mystery what goes there. "Anonymous" is everyone and no one, no leaders, no members. But at the end of the day, "the cloud" ultimately resolves into individual servers with an IP address, and "Anonymous" resolves into individual people with a computer and an IP address who did or didn't do something as part of the group on any given day. DDOS once, and you were in on that attack, forever, even if it is only once. Now that "Anonymous" is attacking government institutions on a regular basis, I think life will be much more exciting for them, especially since they seem to be showing poor taste in targets.
The interesting thing is, due to the nature of their collective, they can really only admit to attacks, but can't effectively deny them. I wonder how many purely criminal organizations or foreign intelligence agencies are having their members participate as cover?
wat (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, it's not like there isn't rhyme or reason to what comes out of a 4chan mob. The members generally lash out at things -- especially things that are arbitrary and belonging to conventional power structures. Also, there's a strong bias towards things that are in that demographic's field of vision. Just like here, a holy shitstorm gets raised about Sony's transgressions because they actually play their games and use their products -- in absolute terms and with more holistic foresight, it would be something like Goldman Sachs instead.
To piss off Anonymous the most, come in with hypocritical, fit-for-a-fifth-grader morality and attempt to define things like social norms. To please Anonymous, be an attractive young woman who periodically takes pictures of herself, has some degree of confidence and rehashes and without overt intention redefines -chan culture.
Re:hmmmm (Score:2, Insightful)
i have a hard time believing that they have enough people part of anon, to get 32 caught at once... cover story?
I'm pretty sure that a simple scan for LOIC packets by an ISP on the planet would find at least a couple dozen people. They did not say they were core members, or hardcore hackers, or even members. But regardless, they said "With ties to". So... parents, siblings, children, friends, bartender, people who live within a mile, you get the idea.
Re:wat (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:hmmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
The Spanish arrests were simply of people who used LOIC, the DDOS tool directly from their home PC making them trivially traceable by their PC.
It's possible these arrests in Turkey are precisely the same type.
The people who have been doing the real hacks for anonymous like the HBGary hack are probably much less likely to be caught.
Re: or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:5, Insightful)
We do seem to be the new villains. And easy to villainize, I suppose. We have no one voice to decry actions of others, no standard that can be recognized, no motive that can be twisted for someone's benefit. Although some have tried. Once this kind of crackdown comes to our shores (yes I am wearing a tin-foil hat), it will we more along the lines of "Suspected pedophile and member of Anonymous..." Posted Anonymously.
I love how at the _same time_ people think "information should be free", "once something is online it will be there forever", and "the Internet routes around censorship like damage", they believe anonymity exists as if all the above doesn't apply to digital access logs, billing records, CCTV, etc.
Your anonymity is on borrowed time, and I hope you've enjoyed squandering it on stupid shit for laughs.
Re: or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, it's not like there isn't rhyme or reason to what comes out of a 4chan mob. The members generally lash out at things -- especially things that are arbitrary and belonging to conventional power structures. Also, there's a strong bias towards things that are in that demographic's field of vision. Just like here, a holy shitstorm gets raised about Sony's transgressions because they actually play their games and use their products -- in absolute terms and with more holistic foresight, it would be something like Goldman Sachs instead.
To piss off Anonymous the most, come in with hypocritical, fit-for-a-fifth-grader morality and attempt to define things like social norms. To please Anonymous, be an attractive young woman who periodically takes pictures of herself, has some degree of confidence and rehashes and without overt intention redefines -chan culture.
The problem with that logic is that it is based on the assumption that Anonymous == 4-chan and it doesn't allow for the sabotage factor. Bear in mind that even if only one member of 4-chan is involved they'd find it hard not to tell the world about it - and if they're not from 4-chan (cough) they'd deliberately muddy the waters to hide their identity. Anyone wanting to discredit any anonymous action (and the lower-case a is deliberate) only has to add a 4-chan element to it. Feeding stupid people fake proof of their own fears is the easiest way to manipulate them - it's not like they're ever going to check the facts - and even when presented with evidence to negate their beliefs - the massive emotional investment they've made in their (stupid) opinions is one they will never challenge.
Sound a little tin foil hat? Then maybe a little study of history is in order.
The world is a complex place full of people incapable of grasping even limited complexity - with a shortage of facts they jump to conclusions that compliment their own fears and failings. Teenage hackers with paedophile ascendancies and a hatred of the established order - "Yeah I can picture that"
Be careful what you believe. What happens to you could be happening to others. eg. someone accuses you of something you. did. not. do. - then they are saying nothing of you and speaking volumes of themselves.
---
Go back to bed, America, your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed America, your government is in control. Here, here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up, go back to bed America, here is American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it! Watch these pituitary retards bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate you on the living in the land of freedom. Here you go America - you are free to do what we'll tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!
~ Bill Hicks
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:2, Insightful)
They don't think "information should be free" at all. Do you think they'd apply the same standards to themselves as they do to the enemy du jour ? By far, the most used attack vector is the fact that people don't use unique passwords. Do you think they find people have the right to know their password has been downloaded (generally, no cracking tools are involved. Encryption is not the weak point of site's defenses. Idiocy is) ? Get real.
Once you actually visit a few of these boards you have to admit the big part of their motivation is "wow I can steal without getting caught. Free stuff !" and another big part is self-congratulation (esp. in the defacing).
Their motivations are not the fight for freedom, morality and goodwill for all.
I actually get the impression that they are enemies of freedom. They are certainly enemies of any freedom to fairly produce software, even when we're talking about GPL software. I don't really get why slashdotters would support them.
Re:hmmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
The people who have been doing the real hacks for anonymous like the HBGary hack are probably much less likely to be caught.
Indeed. They are people that actually know what they are doing. And if it's indeed users of some simple DDOS tool, then that also explains the fairly high number of people rounded up.
And if I recall my history correctly - all revolutions required sacrifices (red herrings, expendables). That's why rallies are mass exercises - helps the long-term (committed) activists survive - so a certain amount of fools will always be tolerated and encouraged. Take a look around the world at where rebellions are daily affairs - see those kids throwing rocks and being arrested? They're part of a larger movement, they're expendable, and because they are, the authorities are tied up which makes it a lot harder to track down the real activists. Historically rebellions have deliberately sacrificed their own just to force the general population to pick a side - it's hard for Mum and Dad not to think about the issues when number one son is hooked up to the generator. Play the game long enough and sooner or later the operator of the generator will find their own family strapped to the chair.
Re: or, Turkey cracks down on dissidents (Score:5, Insightful)
>"Things like Wikileaks are good, because they deny privacy to other people"
Only if you consider governments to be people. There is a fundamental difference between privacy in official governmental capacity or (to a limited extent) by a public figure and the privacy of an individual person.
I think you'll change your tune about privacy the first time you don't get hired because of something you posted on Slashdot, can't get a loan because you associate with the wrong people on Facebook or can't get health insurance because you visited websites on cancer. It will be too late then, of course.