Anonymous Begins Teaching Hacktivism on IRC (softpedia.com) 52
Softpedia reports that "At the end of April, members of the Anonymous hacker collective announced the launch of the OnionIRC, an internet relay chat network where the group says it aims to teach people about hacking and hacktivism." [Chat logs are available through the @OnionIRC Twitter account.] Classes cover topics like open-source intelligence and how to use nmap and bash, but "The teachers and the main people behind this campaign have been focused more on promoting the principles of hacktivism than anything else...classes on the idea of Anonymous itself, hacktivism in general, and civil disobedience."
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
The group's actual hacking activity has died down in the past years, with less "hacks" and more DDoS attacks, which most of the times are carried out by attention-seeking members. Because of this, the group's older members created the OnionIRC as a way to recruit and train new members.
Meanwhile, Softpedia reports that an Anonymous group is now targeting the mayor of Denver for dismantling homeless shelters, by bringing new attention to unconfirmed rumors that he once visited a prostitute.
Meanwhile, Softpedia reports that an Anonymous group is now targeting the mayor of Denver for dismantling homeless shelters, by bringing new attention to unconfirmed rumors that he once visited a prostitute.
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
Host files, Yoda, Natalie Portman, grits, Gorden Girls, GNAA, Slashdot beta...
There's a lot to get out of the way.
Yes , they do (Score:2, Insightful)
And they're usually very experienced coders/hackers you name it - there are very few newbies or script kiddies on IRC mainly because they've never heard of it. I suspect anonymous' lectures will last about 5 minutes before they're laughed off the channel.
Re: (Score:3)
There is a lot of lame users on some IRC servers. Pirated content (movies especially) is still served readily on IRC. They have pretty much automated and anonymized the process too so only the incredibly ignorant get busted anymore.
That settles it. (Score:1)
IRC is obviously a "hacking tool" so best shut it down, hunt down all users, and throw'em in jail for good measure. "Computer hacking" is criminal, it's the law!
Re: (Score:1)
What the first lessons should be (Score:1)
Lesson 1. How to pretend that you have anonymity on the internet
Lesson 2. Never talk about Lesson 1
Re: (Score:1)
I mean, due to it's nature simply saying you are part of Anonymous means you are part of Anonymous. It's not exactly an organization, it's more of a movement.
Re: (Score:1)
General studies (Score:1)
So when does the teaching curriculum cover ethics? How about the legal process required to actually effect change? Does their "civil disobedience" lesson cover the detail that activists are actively trying to be arrested, so their complaints can be addressed in courts? Where's the lecture on the justice ramifications of vigilantism, the need for due process, and the history lesson covering the last few dozen centuries of slow improvement to the process?
I don't see any of that mentioned on the Twitter feed,
Re: (Score:3)
To be fair, I don't think most organises of disruptive protests offline think about that in great detail. The standard chain of reasoning seems to be rather simpler:
1. A problem exists.
2. The government is unable/unwilling to help.
3. So lets break stuff and make lots of noise until we force someone to take action.
Plenty of protesters accept that they may go to jail for their cause, but few actually seek that end.
Re: (Score:3)
Is it illegal to visit prostitutes in that jurisdiction?
The problem with Anonymous is that as often as it picks a good cause, it picks childish bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
But they usually only arrest the women.
Men get a pass.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Denver mayor (Score:5, Informative)
Anonymous is not a unified group. It doesn't really pick a cause, instead using a form of the same algorithm used by bees to select a nest site: Any bee can suggest a site. If they say it's good, other bees go to check it out. They assess the site and return to the meeting, and if they liked it they show their seconding with an appropriate level of enthusiasm. This in turn encourages more bees to look, until by a rough consensus every bee is dancing about the same place - then they all move off together. Unified action without a leader.
(Yes, this is what honey bees do, encoding location vectors in body movements and site evaluation in duration of display. Bees are cool.)
Re: (Score:2)
This is why non-groups like anonymous and hashtags like GamerGate are a bad idea. At best they lack any kind of consistency, and more often than not they get commandeered by a few individuals for their own purposes. Be it the people writing the DDOS apps that they control, or the people creating sockpuppet accounts to steer GamerGate harassment.
Re: (Score:2)
people watching what they post (Score:1)
There was a story half a day ago, about people being afraid of doing things online, including "posting things on social media"
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/05/14/1755210/privacy-fears-deterring-almost-half-of-american-households-from-online-shopping
Now we have this story... Maybe people don't want to get hacked for posting political opinions.
when they figure out how to make a video (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I think you should be cleaned up! Your shallow values and preppy clothes make my eyes bleed.
Being? They've been doing it for years. (Score:2)
Remember Jeremy Hammond from LulzSec?
He was doing this kind of shit years ago. Partly with HackThisSite.com.
But he was also teaching people how to break into systems and sites in IRC.
Unfortunately, the raging dumbass was doing this with systems that belonged to his employer, MacSpecialist (now defunct).
Worse, the the systems contained live customer data INCLUDING CC info.
At the time he wasn't exactly popular in the local hacker scene in Chicago (he's and his crew had been making unmitigated asses of themse
Re: (Score:2)
Honestly, I don't give a shit if they "go away" or not.
However, like Hammond, if they fuck up royally enough, they'll "go away" for a while regardless.
To Federal Prison.
Then, I'll just point and laugh.
Unfortunate name (Score:1)
But whichever way it goes, should be fun.
Sting operation? (Score:2)
This looks like the perfect setup for a police sting operation.
I will teach you how to perform an harmless hack, then catch you for it
Anonymous is embarrassing (Score:2, Insightful)
hacking with political hacks (Score:1)