Five arrested over 'Anonymous' web attacks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12299137

by ssclafani • 15 years ago

17 15 15 years ago

bbc.co.uk

coderdude4• 15 years ago

Excellent. How dumb do you have to be to try and DDoS the homepage of a major credit card company from your personal computer using a downloaded tool? Script kiddies or not, the law is the law. I'm glad to see them get popped for this. I can't stand all that Anonymous crap -- they've redefined what it means to be lame. This should hopefully set an example for anyone else that decides to do some vigilante work of their own. LOIC, give me a break.

"We are Anonymous. We are legion. We are no one. And everyone."

perspective• 15 years ago

What amazes me more is that the tool they are using isn't all that anonymous - the article references a paper describing this (here: http://www.simpleweb.org/reports/loic-report.pdf).

Surely any 'hacker' worth their salt wouldn't use their home PC for this kind of rubbish.

atomicdog• 15 years ago

>law is the law.

Okay, square.

mycroftiv• 15 years ago

The anonymous DDOS attacks were obviously stupid and pointless. I think what you are missing is that these people are primarily teenagers who really don't know how to engage in social change in a productive way. In fact, I'm an adult, and I don't know how to engage in social change in a productive way. I'm smart enough to know that participating in a DDOS attack is counterproductive, but I'm also smart enough to know that sending Amazon and Paypal an email telling them I disagree with their decision making is also pointless. Do you have any productive suggestions for human individuals wishing to exert pressure on the decision making processes of large corporations? Also, do you believe the attitude "the law is the law" is correct for individuals living in countries with highly repressive governments? I have a lot of empathy for these misguided youngsters, and I hope someone figures out more ethical and effective ways for people who want to contest corporate ethics to do so.

coderdude4• 15 years ago

You're defending the wrong kind of people. I understand the empathy for misguided youth, but these kids (and adults) knew that what they were doing was illegal. They were proud to engage in these acts because it was "cool" for them and their little /b/ buddies. They aren't the repressed political activists you're making them out to be. Besides, look at where they're from. They're not citizens of some third world nation with an oppressive regime in power. The laws they broke aren't unjust by any stretch of the imagination. They simply hopped onto a bandwagon with a bunch of other script kiddies and got popped for it. Don't light a candle for them.

Besides, citation needed on the claim that they were just confused and wanted to enact social change but just didn't know how. That's not typical of your average Anonymous devotee.

Yes, let the trolls and fake accounts people are creating solely for this thread have their way with this comment. I can spare it.

And people, stop complaining about my "the law is the law" remark as though it must be some unwaivering principle of mine even in the face of unjust laws (of which none are present in this situation).

jimmyk• 15 years ago

>the law is the law

Tell this to MLK Jr.

Note: I am not comparing these teenagers to MLK Jr., I am just pointing out that this is a terrible principle.

steveklabnik3• 15 years ago

Political protest is always slightly dangerous. And I feel the sit-in analogy is pretty apt.

But seriously, "the law is the law" isn't a great argument. Sometimes laws are bad. They need to be changed. Yeah, you can expect to serve some jailtime for doing civil disobedience, but that doesn't mean that they're stupid, what they're doing is stupid, or anything else.

You can still hold that opinion for other reasons, of course.

saturdayplace• 15 years ago

Only five? I always assumed that there were hordes of folks taking part in the Anonymous shenanigans. Do they only arrest five people because that's all they could reliably identify, or because to go after more would expend disproportionate effort, and they just needed to make an example?

> This investigation by the Central e-Crime Unit was carried out in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in Europe and the US.

Seems that if we're going to this level of coordination, we should have ended nabbing more of these guys.

xorglorb• 15 years ago

This is a scare tactic. They know that "Anonymous" is really a bunch of basement dwelling geeks between the ages of 14 and 24 and are actually too scared to do anything once their companions start getting arrested.

hcack• 15 years ago

Akin to accusing a handful of participants for massive political demonstrations.

Five arrested over 'Anonymous' web attacks

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