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Australia Botnet Censorship The Internet Your Rights Online

Operation Titstorm Hits the Streets 458

schliz writes "Hacker group 'Anonymous' is organising international, real-life protests of the Australian mandatory internet filter this coming Saturday. Protests will take place in major Australian cities as well as at Australian embassies around the world. The protests are said to be the second stage of 'Operation Titstorm,' which unleashed a prolonged DDoS attack on Australian government websites last week. Organisers of the so-called Project Freeweb said: 'If passed, this legislation will set a disturbing precedent at an international level. The public, not the Government, should have the right to decide what is deemed appropriate for you or your family to be exposed to.'"
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Operation Titstorm Hits the Streets

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  • by Fotograf ( 1515543 ) on Monday February 15, 2010 @01:44AM (#31141312) Homepage
    Sorry, didnt read TFA, it would spoil my imagination
  • Nice Try (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Legion303 ( 97901 )

    "Hacker group"

    Nope.

  • Well Then... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HamSammy ( 1716116 ) <a.mushroom11@gmail.com> on Monday February 15, 2010 @02:13AM (#31141514)
    If censorship is what our government overlords have decided is best for us, clearly we are in need of a new democracy. Too bad our new democracy is run by Anonymous.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 )

      Dunno if it's that much worse than the crap we have to deal with now in government. Mob rule is mob rule. One is participatory, one is representative, but at the end of the day, what's happening is what the majority hoots for.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Nathrael ( 1251426 )
        Just remember, in Iran, the majority supports having a death penalty for homosexuals as well...
  • IRC (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Emperor Tiberius ( 673354 ) on Monday February 15, 2010 @02:19AM (#31141542) Homepage
    Their ad brings even more negative attention to poor ol' IRC...
  • Curiosity (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mcrbids ( 148650 ) on Monday February 15, 2010 @02:30AM (#31141582) Journal

    So, I became curious when I read about this DDOS on the Australian websites. I wondered: how hard would it be to write a simple, DDOS tool? Something that didn't require anything fancy, that anybody could do without installing anything special?

    So, I wrote something, and tested it on my own local webserver. Surprisingly, it took me less than 10 minutes to write a simple javascript webpage with iframes that generated in excess of a million hits an hour in about 20 lines of HTML + javascript, armed with nothing more than a browser and notepad. I didn't even have to host it; the file was saved locally on my HDD!

    The method was simple: a webpage with a bunch of iframes that sourced the target, and a javascript onload that refreshed the page. How could it get any simpler? My conclusion? A DDOS attack is the digital equivalent of peasants throwing rocks. Anybody can do it. It requires nothing. It's still a rather effective form of attack!

    • by Lehk228 ( 705449 )
      i could do the same thing with a frameset file (about 1000 frames) and F5. it would take me about 3 minutes to make.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Homburg ( 213427 )

      I remember a group of internet anarchists [fraw.org.uk] set up something very much along these lines to coincide with the WTO protests in Seattle back in 1999. They made a good point which I think goes along with your idea that this is "digital equivalent of peasants throwing rocks." Like peasants throwing rocks this kind of simple DDOS can only work if it has the participation of a fairly large number of people. It's very much the internet equivalent of classic protest tactics like picket lines or sit-ins.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      yea except you're a n00b
      considering your HTML + javascript attack comes from 1 ip address
      the result being you're a quick and simple ip ban
      meanwhile you've got no idea your script is no longer working

      sure you could get a bunch of friend to also run the script
      but unless you've got 1,000+ friends it's not going to help
      plus you need a sparse range of ip addresses to run it on

      there's a reason for the extra 'D' at the front of DDoS

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by hitchhacker ( 122525 )

        but unless you've got 1,000+ friends it's not going to help plus you need a sparse range of ip addresses to run it on

        This is where 4chan comes into the picture.

        -metric

  • by commlinx ( 1068272 ) on Monday February 15, 2010 @02:34AM (#31141612) Homepage Journal

    Being an Australian I can tell you most Australians are apathetic to this issue and there likely won't be a huge turn-out. There probably won't be anything but fleeting mass media coverage, and that means politicians will ignore it and side with the "think of the children" majority who have no idea of the underlying implications.

    If there was an upcoming election the issue *might* hit the media if the opposition declared a policy of no filtering and hightlighted all the negative aspects. But given the previous liberal government floated around similar ideas I wouldn't hold my breath on that, I think the position of both the major political parties is unfortunately much the same.

    • by Khyber ( 864651 )

      "Being an Australian I can tell you most Australians are apathetic to this issue and there likely won't be a huge turn-out. "

      Not until a few enterprising Aussie Anons start catching said politicians in dirty deeds and sells the info to the media or publishes it themselves.

      What, you thought protesting and DDoSing was ALL they were going to do? Oh, sir, you need to listen in on these events more often. There are plans to outright run them out of office with torch and pitchfork, down to exposing their hypocris

    • by Sasayaki ( 1096761 ) on Monday February 15, 2010 @04:35AM (#31142168)

      Regretfully, I agree.

      Tony Abbot (The head of the Liberal party- that's the guys NOT in power, for you Americans) visited humble Darwin city recently and it was there that I personally got to ask him, in his public question and answer time, the following question (roughly remembered):

      "The Internet is an important part of the lives of many young Australians, as well as Australia as a whole in this modern age- what do you think of (the Prime Minister- Americans would say 'president') Kevin Rudd's plan to censor the Internet?"

      His answer began:

      "Well, I'm afraid I'm probably going to disappoint you..." and yes, unfortunately, he did.

      Paraphrased his answer was: "Stopping child pornography is extremely important to me and the Liberal party and therefore, if we can prove the censorship plan doesn't work, we will oppose it; but only it. We will continue to seek effective means to block 'filth' (his word) from entering our country any way we can. If the filter works, we will support it."

      Basically the message I got from his reply is that Tony Abbot believes that the filter will work "well enough" and is too much of a hot potato to oppose politically. The subtext I personally divined from his answer was a little more chilling; that the filter didn't go far *enough* for his tastes, and that he'd personally rather a complete whitelist than a blacklist. Therefore, speaking as a card-carrying Liberal... if you think that voting for the Liberal party in the next election will make the filter go away, you are sadly mistaken.

      On a side note, the fact that he himself is an extremely religious man probably doesn't help a great deal, since it seems that too many politicians tend to "trust God about these things" when it's abundantly clear that God knows sweet F-A about the Tubes and how they work.

      • The best chance I think is voting for the greens and giving Kevin the scare of his life. I doubt it will work though.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Sabriel ( 134364 )

        I could only wish that more so-called "Christian" politicians would actually "trust God about these things", instead of constantly using the name in vain as an excuse to meddle in our personal lives.

  • I wonder how they plan to stay anonymous in those protests...

  • by ebonum ( 830686 )

    Finally! The Australians are on their way to a "happy harmonious society".

    Let us know in a few years how that works out for ya.

  • The public deciding (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Reed Solomon ( 897367 ) on Monday February 15, 2010 @02:50AM (#31141708) Homepage

    I'd rather they didn't make the decision either.

  • WRONG! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by consonant ( 896763 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <n.tnakirhs>> on Monday February 15, 2010 @05:26AM (#31142392) Homepage

    The public, not the Government, should have the right to decide what is deemed appropriate for you or your family to be exposed to.

    *YOU* should have the right to deem what is appropriate for you or your family to be exposed to.

  • Maturity (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quiet_Desperation ( 858215 ) on Monday February 15, 2010 @10:46AM (#31144646)

    To be followed by Operation Hooter Hurricane, Operation Mammary Monsoon, Operation Boobie Blizzard, Operation Tata Tornado and Operation Sirocco Of Sweater Puppies.

    I could keep this up all day. :-D

    Yeah, I know. Pathetic.

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