Hacker Group 'Anonymous' Takes on Australian Government

[Chessnut]

""Information is free" say members of Anonymous. A confederation of hackers, activists, and some would say terrorists has taken it upon themselves to attack Kevin Rudd accusing him of censoring free speech on the internet. The Minister is on record as being firmly committed to a mandatory clean-feed internet to Australian homes, schools and public computers. A trial of filtering software by the ACMA has already been performed, with a "live" field pilot to follow later this year."

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2138367/hacker_group_anonymous_takes_on_austrian.html%22%3E?cat=15

A collective against a country. Provide tools, instructions, and the necessarily communication to organize and recruit for an attack, and you've got a massive destructive force.  They inform and arm people barely computer literate to be able to cause thousands of dollars of damage almost completely anonymously. Since many people have access to the internet, Anonymous's resources are nearly limitless. Let's see how this event pans out.

[Cargést]

"Hacker Group 'Anonymous' Takes on Austrian Government"

"A confederation of hackers, activists, and some would say terrorists has taken it upon themselves to attack Kevin Rudd accusing him of censoring free speech on the internet. The Minister is on record as being firmly committed to a mandatory clean-feed internet to Australian homes, schools and public computers."

[Conservationist]

"Anonymous"/4chan = angry liberal losers.

[Dylar]

The freedom to pipe goat porn and pirated Avenged Sevenfold tracks straight to children is a value all of the great civilizations would have fought to protect.

[Chessnut]

The point is that they have received media coverage across all of Australia for an event that lasted only about an hour long. They manipulate the public in order to achieve their goals. I don't know what ANUS thinks of itself, but I'm getting the feeling people still see it as a group of trolls. For example, our mascot goatse (lol). Although their goals don't seem very important, I think internet censorship would eventually attempt to eliminate all trolling activities, and have further reach as time goes by.

Conservationist, Anonymous represent the general public. I don't think it's helpful to work against the public who opt to attack the government. Do you see the value in civil unrest and the possibilities of indoctrinating these militants? Don't get me wrong though, idiots persist everywhere.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/pms-website-hacked-20090909-fhl8.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,26051015-661,00.html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39745160,00.htm
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26051326-12377,00.html
http://www.watoday.com.au/national/hacker-declaring-war-on-australian-government-20090909-fhl3.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26051326-29277,00.html
http://livenews.com.au/news/prime-ministers-website-hacked-/2009/9/9/218883
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/pms-website-hacked-20090909-fhl8.html
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,26051326-5007060,00.html
http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=371058

[Umbrage]

Conservationist, Anonymous represent the general public. I don't think it's helpful to work against the public who opt to attack the government.

facepalm.jpg

[Chessnut]

Honestly now, what's with all the immaturity? I'd like some constructive input as to where I'm going wrong. Are they considered compromised? Is there some secret I'm unaware of?

[Umbrage]

Well, you said that Anonymous represents the general public to the person who coined the term "crowdism". That made me facepalm. Also why should anus.com work together with anyone who "attacks" the government? I didn't think the goal of anus can be simplified as "causing chaos, yeah!"

On a personal note: anonymous was cool until people started taking it too serious. Now it merely serves as an ego-booster for most people.

[Chessnut]

Ad verecundiam much? No, I don't believe it's possible to work with them, we would just be absorbed into the fray. I'm just saying there are many available tools that we could use for our own purposes, and we can likely gain readership with enough clever propaganda targeting the right audience. I don't care what Anonymous is or what it does, but their actions shouldn't be taken lightly. anus.com/etc seems malicious enough. Nearly all anus.com offshoots are also malicious (i.e. infoterror.com). There are different sites for different audiences.

It's not like the objective is to make everyone visit anus.com, you're making too many assumptions. My goal, at least, is to take dissidence to a more philosophic level.

On a personal note: anonymous was cool until people started taking it too serious. Now it merely serves as an ego-booster for most people.

Yes, Anonymous has lost its virtuosity -- very idealistic aren't we? If they accomplish what they set out to achieve, why does it matter? Is it really an ego-booster if one is anonymous? It seems to me that most people do actions to feel part of the collective, especially if it entails malicious/illegal activity, within the comfort of your own home!

[Umbrage]

I don't care what Anonymous is or what it does

Then why did you start this thread? In between the lines you're saying very strange and contradicting things. Aren't you just saying whatever to get your point across by now? For instance I never mentioned anything about making everyone visit anus.com, so why are you accusing me of making assumptions? And I still don't understand what your point is other than that you're obviously very impressed by Anonymous and expect us all to be as well.

[Bereft]

It's like trolls vs. nanny-state.

I'm not convinced the Anonymous attack will help. Chances are it'll only encourage Conroy, but I'm interested to see how far this goes.

[Chessnut]

Clear and simple: media attention and popularity. Obviously, some people feel that government is doing a shitty job and take action; this works to our advantage. What's the ideal goal of all ANUS-style sites?

[Umbrage]

For those interested here's a list of sites that allegedly would be blocked:
http://88.80.16.63/leak/acma-secret-blacklist-aug-2008.txt

Yep, that's a lot of porn sites.

[Conservationist]

I'm with Fenriz here but I see Chessnut's point, which I'm going to translate as: it would be cool to have this kind of mass-meme activity.

The problem is, as Fenriz points out, that such mass-memes only come about through finding a convenient target and attacking it, not constructive activity.

People want to blame any external thing like government instead of looking inward to see where we as people fail.

So we blame Australia for censorship when our real problem is so many lies truth is buried, and that most people don't want truth but want entertainment; two halves of the same cycle.

I can't imagine Anonymous getting their brains around even that relatively simple thought.

So Chessnut, yes, I agree with you: it'd be great if we had something like this.

But yes, Fenriz, I agree with you: in order to do that, we'd have to become part of The Crowd and that's definitely not what ANUS is about!