Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Bryan See on November 30, 2015, 10:30:45 pm
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From the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/28/how-will-anonymous-wage-war-on-the-islamic-state-one-of-its-own-tells-us/):
Anonymous, the hacker collective known for Guy Fawkes masks and controversial activism, declared war on Isis, following the attacks on Paris on 13 November.
But what does that even mean? How can a bunch of computer nerds fight an international terrorist group?
What you need to know about Anonymous’s ‘war’ on the Islamic State (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11/17/what-you-need-to-know-about-anonymouss-war-on-the-islamic-state/)
The Fix put those questions and more to Gregg Housh, one of the most prominent — and one of the only publicly identified — members of Anonymous. Housh is semi-retired from hacking these days. In August, he launched Rebel News, a Massachusetts-based Web site that covers the intersection of hacking and activism (a.k.a. hacktivism). He hangs out in the same corners of the Internet where he helped hatch hacking campaigns like Project Chanology, which targeted the Church of Scientology, but says he is now an observer and not a participant.
Housh has already been to prison, after all, and he doesn’t want to go back.
The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
THE FIX: How is Anonymous waging a war against the Islamic State and how effective can it be? We know they rely heavily on social media.
HOUSH: Everyone loves to say “hacking,” but what Anonymous is doing is just tons of research, identifying and monitoring everything out there that ISIS might use to communicate and recruit, and trying to get those channels shut down, be it Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, telegram channels. They’re just trying to shut down their ability to talk to the public. I think it’s had a decent effect.
One of the things I like about this is anyone can take part. You don’t really have to have any hacking skills, and you don’t have to break the law to do something here. Just find ISIS talking online and then tell someone about it. And the best part about it is ISIS is trying to have a good social presence and trying to recruit, so it’s not like they’re hiding.
But one of the problems is someone closely affiliated with what Anonymous used to do, Junaid [Hussain], kind of taught ISIS everything they know. So both sides have the same toolbox.
THE FIX: Hussain was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Syria in August. Can you mourn the friend you once had while also being happy that the guy he became is dead?
HOUSH: Yeah, that’s pretty much it, exactly. It’s a guy you know, you’ve hung out with. But at the same time, he turned pure evil. Finding out that Junaid went down that path really hit me hard. I just couldn’t believe one of our own was doing that.
THE FIX: Is the involvement of a former Anonymous hacker indicative of how sophisticated the Islamic State operation is?
HOUSH: They definitely got a lot of their skill set brought to them by someone who knew what he was doing.
THE FIX: If you report ISIS accounts, and social media companies shut them down, won’t they just open others?
HOUSH: Do you know how hard it is to get followers on Twitter? They keep having to reintroduce new accounts. I think shutting down their channels to talk to impressionable youth around the world is a smart move. It definitely creates more work for them. If just a few kids don’t get caught up, I’d be happy.
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There's actually a simpler answer to the question asked in the thread title. That answer is "badly". So far, this operation has yielded far more false reports than anything else, to the point where people are reported simply for using Arabic on Twitter.
Back during the Boston Marathon bombings, the reddit community decided to help. Turns out, random Internet people are really bad at policework, and this is no different.
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I just have one very specific question. How is this going to turn out any different than #OpCartel?
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Or any other 'activism' these twits have undertaken, ever?
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They did decent against Scientology, but going up against a group that lops heads off...
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They are not strong enough to make a dent. They'll be a pest, but ISIS is too big and sprawling for them to cut them off. Besides, even a professional virus attack wouldn't do all that much. A social media campaign aimed towards spreading news about their crimes and dismissing ISIS themselves as "losers" (so that they stop being taken seriously by potential recruits) could have more success, but that wouldn't change the fact they already have plenty of manpower. This isn't a war that can be won on the internet.
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considering ISIS spreads it's news about it's crimes and boasts about it I don't think that would do much.
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#KONY2012
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Jackin it for the LOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDD!
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Did Anonymous turned good? I saw them taking on pedophiles, exposing them from 2011 onwards when Lolita City was taken down along with Freedom Hosting on the darknet.
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Anonymous is chaotic neutral. It consists of equal(ish) parts good and evil for most definitions of those two concepts. Most of the time it spends it's efforts attacking it's self. Ops like this are when some particular subset wants to do something and for some reason wants attention, usually to recruit participants.
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Anonymous wants attention and to feel self-righteous. On a few occasions this aligns with what most people consider 'good'. I'd personally say it more frequently falls under the umbrella of mob/internet 'justice'. In my personal opinion, their existence is a net negative.
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I just have one very specific question. How is this going to turn out any different than #OpCartel?
Good question. I remember reading about one of the other "only members of Anonymous" to come forward. He had to flee to the East Coast because the Cartel was gunning for him down in Texas. What was his name again?
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Anonymous does seem to have a goal: to fight corruption. This is evidenced by: "The Corrupt Fear Us, The Honest Supports Us, The Heroic Joins Us". It is interesting to note that the corrupt should always refer to what Russia is right now, not just the government, but also civil society organizations, defense, law enforcement, health care, housing, and industries, the Russian Academy of Sciences included.
It is also interesting to note that Vera Mysina and her For An Honest Country (http://chestnaya.ru/) movement shares a more common goal with Anonymous, although their structures are radically different, in a manner of speaking.
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Anonymous does seem to have a goal: to fight corruption.
No, wrong. Anonymous doesn't have goals. It's not an organization, it's a label people use when they think it would be cool to do so.
This is evidenced by: "The Corrupt Fear Us, The Honest Supports Us, The Heroic Joins Us".
You've fallen for the PR. Anonymous' only motto is "We're anonymous!". Again, it's a label, not an organization.
It is interesting to note that the corrupt should always refer to what Russia is right now, not just the government, but also civil society organizations, defense, law enforcement, health care, housing, and industries, the Russian Academy of Sciences included.
No, corruption is everywhere, not just in Russia. Even Russia isn't a particularly egregious example of it.
It is also interesting to note that Vera Mysina and her For An Honest Country (http://chestnaya.ru/) movement shares a more common goal with Anonymous, although their structures are radically different, in a manner of speaking.
Speak with me: Anonymous does not have goals. It does not have motivations. People using the Anonymous persona/label do. If a particular group uses the branding to do something "good", it does not make Anonymous a force for good. If other people use it to do something stupid, again, it doesn't make Anonymous a force for stupidity.
Do not worship Anonymous. Do not fall for the hype. For the most part, they're couch activists who rarely do more than a bit of online vandalism, and they're mostly ineffective at what they try to do.
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Hey now E, Anonymous maybe 99% chaff, but that 99% chaff exists to hide the 1% of them that actually have skill.
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Hey now E, Anonymous maybe 99% chaff, but that 99% chaff exists to hide the 1% of them that actually have skill.
The problem is that that 99% chaff has a tendency to fly into some poor innocent's face and choke them to death.
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Who is the biggest headline whore?
Anonymous or Donald Trump?
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/12/anonymous-is-now-after-donald-trump-5561307/?utm_content=buffer1a947&utm_medium=Social+-+Facebook&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=Facebook
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I chose Anonymous.
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I chose popcorn. :) That's gonna be fun to watch.