The hacker collective Anonymous has struck government websites again, this time the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the National Consumer Protection Week websites.  According to the Associated Press, “both sites were replaced with a violent German-language video satirizing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA.” A pastebin page to which some of the Anonymous associated Twitter accounts are linking outlines the message that was distributed by the hackers, as well as a link to the violent video mentioned in the AP article.

The hackings were in response both to Google’s recent changes to its terms of service and, more prominently, to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which  22 of the European Union’s 27 member states signed last month in Tokyo. Pressure from Anonymous and anti-ACTA activists caused Poland to suspend the bill last week, where members of its Parliament donned Guy Fawkes masks in protest. Poland and Slovenia are now distancing themselves from the treaty.

ACTA is an international treaty aimed at curtailing copyright infringement, counterfeit and pirated goods, and other forms of intellectual property theft across multiple member states.  Statements from Anonymous   The agreement is meant to provide a framework for member countries, which have differences in legal systems and practices, to work together cooperatively “to address the problem of infringement of intellectual property rights, including infringement taking place in the digital environment, in particular with respect to copyright or related rights, in a manner that balances the rights and interests of the relevant right holders, service providers, and users.”  In light of controversy over the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, ACTA has generated a good deal of discussion and debate in the same political and activism circles.  Some fear it’s too much government intrusion for a solution that they believe may not ultimately address the problem adequately anyway.  Others have argued that while such legislation may be flawed, the need to protect against international stealing online does exist.

(more…)

Now that the Occupy movement has been coat-tailed and co-opted by big labor and big government forces that should by definition be their targets of dissent, the shuffled miscellany of loose-cannoned conniptions that’s become the movement is conspicuous even to ultra-left-wing social critics.

The protests of last week from Oakland to Portland to the Super Bowl to CPAC were testament to this, but perhaps a rally planned today in Beverly Hills will signal a healthy shift.

During the Ohio fight over Issue 2, which would have curbed collective bargaining “rights” of public sector industries including Ohio police forces, Occupy Columbus protesters took to the streets in defense of cops. Meanwhile in Oakland, Portland, and Washington, D.C., Occupiers last week took to the streets to chant “Fuck the police!” “All cops are bastards!” “No pigs!” and to throw bricks in cops’ faces.

The #OccupyOakland rally dubbed their march the “Fuck the Police Rally,” noting to its attendees: “If you identify as peaceful and are likely to interfere with the actions of your fellow protestors in any way…you may not want to attend this march. It is a militant action. It attracts anti-capitalists, anti-fascists and other comrades of a revolutionary bent. It is not a march intended for people who are not fully comfortable with diversity of tactics.” So apparently Occupy protesters have cops’ backs, that is until they’re reminded that cops are hired by the public specifically to stop people just like them.

(more…)

Accusing the state of Israel of displacing and “killing a great many” number of people, the collective of hackers known as ‘Anonymous’ posted a characteristically ominous video message late Thursday evening, vowing to launch a crusade “against [Israel's] reign of terror.”  The threat comes in the wake of ongoing cyber warfare between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli hackers.

To the government of the state of Israel.  We are Anonymous.  For too long we have tolerated your crimes against humanity and allowed your sins to go unpunished.  Through the use of media deception and political bribery, you have amassed the sympathies of many.  You claim to be democratic, yet in reality, this is far from the truth.  In fact, your only goal is to better the lives of a select few while carelessly trampling the liberties of the masses.  We see through the propaganda that you circulate through the mainstream media and lobby through the political establishment.

Your Zionist bigotry has displaced and killed a great many. As the world weeps you laugh while planning your next attack.  All of this is done under the veil of peace, but so long as your regime exists, peace shall be hindered. You label all who refuse to comply with your superstitious demands as anti-Semitic and have taken steps to ensure a nuclear holocaust. You are unworthy to exist in your current form and will therefore face the wrath of Anonymous. Your empire lacks legitimacy and because of this, you must govern behind a curtain of deceit.  We will not allow you to attack a sovereign country based upon a campaign of lies. Your grip over humanity will weaken and man will be closer to freedom. But before this is accomplished, the people of this world will rise against you and renounce you and all your worth.

Our crusade against your reign of terror shall commence in three steps.

(more…)

The collective of hackers known as Anonymous attacked numerous government and recording industry websites this evening, shutting the sites down for hours as of this posting.

The attacks stem from a two year investigation into content sharing website Megaupload.com.  The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment today (after waiting an extra day to avoid coinciding with the SOPA protests), shut down the Megaupload website and arrested up to eight people in connection with the bust, including Megaupload founder Kim “Dotcom” Schmitz.  The actions provoked anger and triggered retaliation from Anonymous, according to Twitter accounts that regularly tweet news related to the collective of hackers.

The list of affected targets includes the Department of Justice, the FBI, Recording Industry Association of America, UniversalMusic.com, and others.  There are also reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office may have been targeted as well.

From the Washington Post:

Federal authorities Thursday indicted two firms and shut down one of the Web’s most popular sites for sharing illegally pirated material, triggering a quick response from hackers who claimed credit for taking down the Web sites of the Justice Department, Recording Industry Association of America and other media companies in retaliation.

The grand jury indictment, which caps a two-year investigation, charges seven people and Megaupload.com and other related sites with running an international organized criminal enterprise. Investigators said the group generated more than $175 million in income and cost copyright owners more than $500 million.

Justice Department officials said yesterday that the timing of its indictment was coincidental and had nothing to do with a debate on Capitol Hill over a bill that took aim at piracy online.

“This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States,” the Justice Department and FBI said in a statement.

Nevertheless, the federal action angered hackers, escalating the growing battle between the Web’s powerbrokers, both legitimate and illicit, and Washington, which has been seeking ways to clamp down on pirated content.

The Department of Justice released a statement on its website tonight, stating in part (since the DoJ site is down, portions of the statement are available at Mercury News, Silicon Valley):

“The Department of Justice web server hosting justice.gov is currently experiencing a significant increase in activity, resulting in a degradation in service,” the agency said in a statement. “The Department is working to ensure the website is available while we investigate the origins of this activity, which is being treated as a malicious act until we can fully identify the root cause of the disruption.” (more…)

At the same time hacker group Anonymous was hacking Stratfor Global Intelligence and now a second veterans’ owned website which sells military-inspired merchandise, giving part of their proceeds to charity, they were also circulating what they call “a snapshot of what Anonymous thinks will be useful for your survival in case of a violent revolution in your country.” The 15 page document is available here via Scribd. The excerpt below is the foreword for the document. As website Zerohedge notes, one or two hacks of system critical financial institutions could easily produce widescale chaos, setting the stage for any number of significant events of this nature.

This Guide is for civilians who feel they are about to be caught up in a violent uprising or revolution to overthrow the oppressive government of their country. Although a revolution in favor of the people is a joyful thing when seen from the outside, it can be a bloody mess for those inside it. This guide will give you some basic ideas and tips for how you and your friends/neighbors/family can stay safe in the violent turmoil around you. It is not a ready-made recipe, but it contains general survival tactics and strategies.

Don’t panic, stay cool headed. • Take a break and rest if your body needs to relax, lack of sleep is a major weakening factor. • Avoid consuming mind altering substances like alcohol and drugs. They will cloud yourand act rationally. You are also arming the regime with propaganda that the crowd is made up of a bunch of intoxicated rioters. Don’t allow your movement to be portrayed in an unfavourable light. judgement and ability to think

The document’s index lists the following sections:

(more…)

The hackers known as “Anonymous,” who helped organize and support the Occupy Wall Street protests this past fall, claim to have stolen emails and credit card numbers from Stratfor, the highly respected U.S. security think tank.

Source: Forbes.com

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Hackers on Sunday claimed to have stolen a raft of emails and credit card data from U.S.-based security think tank Stratfor, promising that it was the start of a weeklong assault on a long list of targets.

Members of the loose-knit hacking movement known as “Anonymous” posted a link on Twitter to what it said was Stratfor’s tightly-guarded, confidential client list. Among the list: the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the Miami Police Department.

The rest of the list, which Anonymous said was a small slice of its 200 gigabytes worth of plunder, included banks, law enforcement agencies, defense contractors and technology firms.

(more…)

The hacking collective known as Anonymous has allegedly targeted the Iowa caucus’s voting machines.

According to the Associated Press, there are two tools that the “hacktivists” could use to create some chaos. The first is a “denial of service” request, which sends thousands of requests to a website server and makes it useless. The second is a SQL injection, which inserts a code into a website’s software, thereby exploiting its vulnerabilities and forcing it to execute the hacker’s code.

It wouldn’t be the first time that SQL insertions were used to try to rock the vote. In Sweden’s elections in 2010 a voter tried to insert an SQL insertion in the vote by hand-writing. Presumably a hacker could try something similar at the Iowa caucus.

There are other worse examples of SQL insertions being dangerous. In 2010, Washington D.C. conducted a pilot project to allow overseas and military voters to download and return absentee ballots over the website. The city made the system open to the public for only three days, but that was just enough time for J. Alex Halderman, a professor in computer science at the Univesity of Michigan, to expose some of the systems flaws. Within 36 hours of the system going live, our team had found and exploited a vulnerability that gave us almost total control of the server software, including the ability to change votes and reveal voters’ secret ballots,” Halderman wrote.

Alas, were such an attack carried out in the Iowa caucus, it wouldn’t be the first time an SQL inserted caused great harm. The Royal Navy’s website was attacked in that manner by a Romanian hacker.

(more…)

Supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement took to Twitter to enlist the help of hacker group Anonymous in targeting New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman within minutes of his ruling that Occupy Wall Street protesters could not return to camp in Zuccotti Park.

The movants have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner’s reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park, or to the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely. Neither have the applicants shown a right to a temporary restraining order that would restrict the City’s enforcement of law so as to promote public health and safety.

This screencap was soon followed by another supporter’s Tweeting of the judge’s home phone number – see below.

The judge’s phone number has been redacted from this Tweet.

(more…)

UPDATE 2 (10:34 pm): Live streaming from the main group of activists.

Streaming video by Ustream

Police are moving to clear Occupy San Francisco. The remaining activists are organizing for resistance (below, recorded earlier). Leaders are encouraging non-violence, and asking for volunteers to be arrested.

Video streaming by Ustream

Meanwhile, Occupy activists across the country are tuning in online to a mass General Assembly in Oakland, where activists have torn down a police fence and are voting on a call for a “General Strike” on November 2. (more…)

Lisa Fithian–the radical organizer whose role in Occupy was first exposed at Big Government–has apparently confirmed that ACORN-linked organizations are leading the Occupy movement’s next major protest action against banks nationwide.

Fox News reported earlier today that remnants of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the radical community organizing group that collapsed after its corruption was exposed by Big Government, are playing a “behind the scenes” role in organizing the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

The Fox News investigation followed Matthew Vadum’s report two weeks ago at Big Government that ACORN was paying people to attend the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York through the Working Families Party, an ACORN front group.

Now, Big Government has learned that in an email (below) sent by Fithian to Occupy organizers and supporters on October 22, 2011, she reported that the “New Bottom Line”–an effort to move as much money out of major banks as possible on November 5th–is being led by several ACORN-linked organizations: “National People’s Action, National Pico Network, and Alliance for Just and Sustainable Economy and other key state groups like ACCE in CA, NYCC in NY, or MORE in St. Louis.”

Fithian New Bottom Line

ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), NYCC (New York Communities for Change), and MORE (Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment), are apparently nothing more than reconstituted ACORN branches.

National People’s Action, PICO National Network, and Alliance for a Just Society are all closely linked to ACORN. At the time of ACORN’s collapse, National People’s Action in particular vowed publicly to pick up where ACORN left off: “Organizations can come and go, but what’s important is that people who want to come together should have the opportunity to…identify their interests and work on them together.” These groups have also collaborated on similar ACORN-style campaigns against banks in the recent past.

(more…)

It’s relatively common knowledge at this point that AdBusters issued the first call for an American Tahrir Square-style protest; this has become #OccupyWallStreet and the Occupation movement.  But little has been said of October2011, an aligning organization that issued the same call shortly before AdBusters.  Most may think the Occupation gimmick is a new thing, but some of these organizers have been “Occupying” since at least 2007.  It’s a history rooted in the anti-war and anti-imperialist factions of the left, which today often brings together the anti-consumerist Green Party and some of the anarchist elements into the same circles of activism.

It’s an interesting alliance, to say the least, but with the recent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, the anti-capitalism momentum here in the U.S. appears to be building and bringing more of these factions into the mainstream left.  As Democrats fear more discontent in the next election, one can’t help but ask:  is the Democratic party more involved in the movement than the protesters are willing to admit?

It starts with October2011.org, a movement that aims to “Stop the Machine” and “Create a New World.”  Organizers talk of ending the wars in the Middle East, creating a single-payer health system, and tearing down the current capitalist order of society to institute a new economic system.  From October2011’s statement:

We call on people of conscience and courage—all who seek peace, economic justice, human rights and a healthy environment—to join together in Washington, D.C., beginning on Oct. 6, 2011, in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and the Midwest awakening.

A concert, rally and protest will kick off a powerful and sustained nonviolent resistance to the corporate criminals that dominate our government.

(more…)

[Editors' Note - Crowdsourcing: At the end of this post, you will find links to download the #OccupyWallStreet email archive described earlier today by Andrew Breitbart. Send your thoughts, observations, and findings to feedback@breitbart.com, or post them in the comment section.]

On August 10, 2011, the hacker group “Anonymous” announced that it would join the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. That’s what sparked my interest in monitoring #OccupyWallStreet.

I reached out to a colleague and asked if he would be interested in studying the protest with me. At first, it seemed disorganized, and we believed it would only be a few hundred protestors.

As we engaged in monitoring its growth, we recruited other people to help us begin the collection of data available via social media. We began mapping out key players, and monitored Anonymous’s efforts to organize protests in the San Francisco Bay area public transportation system (#opBART) in order to detect patterns and key influencers.

Then, at the end of August, we were alerted by a fellow researcher that information about USDoR (U.S. Day of Rage, to which Occupy Wall Street is connected) had been posted on Shamuk and Al-Jahad, two Al-Qaeda recruitment sites. We began to take the “Occupy” protest more seriously, and dedicated more time to research and monitoring.

Days later, Anonymous announced that it would be releasing its new DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) tool. Because of the Al-Qaeda posting, we contacted the New York Field Office of the FBI so they could investigate the potential threat. From that point on, we decided we needed to include the Human Element of Intelligence (HUMINT), and to infiltrate the protestors to map their ties to Anonymous, and to the postings on Shamuk and Al-Jahad.

A few of us had attended several of the pre-protest meet-ups and training classes. The Civil Disobedience training was taught by Elliot “Smokey” Madison, a New York-based anarchist who is a member of the People’s Law Collective, a voluntary group that advises protesters on legal issues arising from their actions. The Media training was taught by Vlad Teichberg, a New York based anarchist who is a member of the Glass Bead Collective, an artistic activist group.

After attending these meetings and socializing with those present, several of our team members were added to all the mailing lists of the “Occupy” group. That is how we created the email archive that we are sharing with you (see below). In addition to the involvement of socialists, anarchists, and other radicals, the emails also reveal heavy union involvement from the beginning of the “Occupy” movement, as well as discussion about the role of the Democratic Party, and how the movement should respond to President Barack Obama.

The emails also reveal that the Occupation attempted to provoke the New York Police Department prior to some of the clashes that occurred with activists.

Additionally, the emails reveal the many failed efforts of the hacker collective Anonymous. If those efforts had succeeded, they may have damaged the global economy.

Some examples are:

• #opLightHouse (FAILED) using NYC Subways to create FlashMobs and havoc through the city on Sept 17, 2011: see http://privatepaste.com/download/267076bdbc/operationLH-updateUno
• #RefRef Denial of Service tool release (FAILED) was designed to crash banks and NYSE, but the tool was never released: see http://www.geekosystem.com/anon-to-launch-new-weapon/; http://www.iss.net/threats/434.html
• September 20^th FAILED attacks against NYSE, NYPD, NYC.GOV, NYPD Retirees, Federal Reserve: see http://www.slideshare.net/robinsage/anonymous-occupy-wall-street-attacks
• #DayOfVengence (Sept 27^th) (FAILED) because FBI arrested the operation leader CommanderX prior to the attack: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20110912-10391695.html

We are sharing the email archive because we believe the public needs to know the hidden agendas behind the Occupation–the socialist, anarchist, and other agendas that have not been reported in the mainstream media.

Email archive:

.pst format: primary and alternate

.csv format: primary and alternate

The Internet hacker collective known as Anonymous may be on a political collision course with the #Occupy movement that it helped launch.

The anarchist, anti-authoritarian nature of Anonymous could soon place it at odds with the #OccupyWallStreet protestors, many of whom pine for a “pure” democracy in which a consensus (not a majority) defines the rules.

That clash becomes more likely as #OccupyWallStreet begins taking marching orders (literally) from Big Labor, the Democratic Party, and the institutional left.

Recently, for example, a faction of Anonymous recently told MoveOn.org to “f#@ off” (language warning):

To understand the dynamic between Anonymous and #Occupy, it is necessary to examine the history of both. (more…)

It was supposed to be this:

On the 17th of September, we want to see 20,000 people to flood into lower Manhattan, set up beds, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.

Instead, as they say about the best laid plans, it was something entirely different. It was, frankly, a stroll through a park—Zuccotti Park, in lower Manhattan, to be exact.

A Non-Union Non-Event

Over the summer, on the heels of Arab Spring, an anti-capitalist group called adbusters established a campaign to occupy Wall Street, beginning on September 17th. Whether coincidental or not, September 17th also happened to be Constitution Day. While there had been some unfounded unfounded speculation a few weeks ago that the SEIU’s Stephen Lerner and ACORN founder Wade Rathke were behind the OccupyWallSt movement, there were never any signs that the Marxist-Anarchist protesters had any formal union backing—nor has there been anything posted on union websites about the occupation of Wall St.

This morning, protestors did, however, call for “revolution”
(more…)

After years of being harassed by the purple people beaters, one company has finally said ENOUGH.

In a press release issued Thursday, Sodexo USA announced that the company has filed a civil lawsuit against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act., accusing the union of engaging in an “illegal campaign of extortion.”  The lawsuit representing Sodexo is Hunton & Williams – the same firm SEIU and its allies have accused of launching a “dirty tricks” campaign against them in retaliation for their anti-Chamber of Commerce campaigns. (more on that after the jump)

One of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world, Sodexo is the provider of choice for most schools, universities, companies, hotels, prisons and other facilities that outsource their cafeteria and food catering operations, and for those that outsource industrial cleaning services.  SEIU has been incessantly battering Sodexo since 2007, in its desire to unionize some of its nearly 400,000 employees, many of them hotel and food service workers.  Exacerbating the tensions was a longstanding turf war between SEIU and UNITE HERE over hotel and casino workers, which often spilled over into SEIU’s antics prior to the settlement the warring unions reached this past summer.

Sodexo USA has filed the lawsuit in an attempt to halt the over-the-top harassment from SEIU, alleging that many of the acts are very serious and outside of the normal realm of union tactics, including acts of ” SEIU blackmail, vandalism, trespass, harassment, and lobbying law violations designed to steer business away from Sodexo USA and harm the company.” [emphasis added]

Aside from some of its usual corporate smear campaign tactics, certain organizers in the SEIU subscribed to some especially nasty, and frankly repulsive, tactics:

(more…)