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Study: Anonymous hacktivists not very anonymous

Few have neutral views about the actions of Anonymous, the group of hacktivists that has allegedly turned the Web sites of such large brands as PayPal and MasterCard into hobbling dodderers.

Many are fascinated by the idea that a very loose grouping of random individuals across the world can, in such a sprightly manner, disrupt the working of large organizations.

And yet the question arises as to how anonymous these folks really are.

Already, one 16-year-old Dutch hacktivist has already been arrested for his alleged part in money-moving disruptions.

And, speaking of Holland, the University of Twente there has just performed a piece of research … Read more

WikiLeaks fans should think before they botnet

Do you support WikiLeaks? Are you mad at critics trying to snuff it out? Maybe you're thinking about joining the online protests aimed at shutting down the Web sites of its opponents. Don't.

A loosely organized group of vigilantes under the name Anonymous have turned the botnet guns of their Operation Payback campaign, which previously targeted antipiracy organizations, on PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Senator Joe Lieberman, Sarah Palin, and others who have criticized WikiLeaks or stopped doing business with the document-sharing project. The WikiLeaks fallout has hit a frenzy since the site began releasing diplomatic cables last month that … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1368: Iran is Stux (podcast)

The Stuxnet worm isn't going away anytime soon, Julian Assange says "No" to WikiLeaks Cyber Attacks, and Michael Bay is re-writing the space landing...with Transformers.

WikiLeaks' last stand? (week in review)

It's been a rough week for Julian Assange, simultaneously one of the most hated and revered people in the world.

Assange, leader of the WikiLeaks project that's released thousands of classified files detailing U.S. military and diplomatic activity, was arrested earlier this week in London on a Swedish accusation of sexual assault. Assange, who denies the charges, was denied bail by the local magistrate.

The U.S. government has indicated that Assange could be in legal jeopardy for disclosing classified information because he is "not a journalist." The federal government may seek his extradition to … Read more

Anonymous explains self amid WikiLeaks drama

The Anonymous group that has been attacking Web sites of organizations that it deems enemies of WikiLeaks has apparently issued a press release to explain its motivations and structure.

"Anonymous is not a group of hackers," Anonymous representatives wrote in a statement (PDF) issued today. "We are average Internet citizens ourselves and our motivation is a collective sense of being fed up with all the minor and major injustices we witness every day."

The group said it does not intend "to steal your personal information or credit card numbers" and does not plan on … Read more

Report: Ex-WikiLeakers to launch new Openleaks site

WikiLeaks will soon have some competition on the whistle-blowing front.

Several people who resigned from the WikiLeaks project amid conflicts with organizer Julian Assange are planning to launch a new site called Openleaks on Monday, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported today.

"Our long term goal is to build a strong, transparent platform to support whistle-blowers--both in terms of technology and politics--while at the same time encouraging others to start similar projects," an Openleaks organizer, who wished to remain anonymous, told the newspaper. "As a short-term goal, this is about completing the technical infrastructure and ensuring that the … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1367: Holding on by an aglet (podcast)

It's a shoestring-and-gum operation around here, and someone took our gum. But somehow, we've got another show for you today, and we're talking more Wikileaks Web warring (WWW3, perhaps?), Google activating 300,000 phones a day, and Apple's refusal to let you donate money via iPhone apps (and weirdly robotic response). --Molly

Facebook, Twitter boot WikiLeaks supporters after Visa attack

A hacker group that calls itself "Anonymous" says it took the Visa Web site down today in retaliation for the credit card company suspending payments to the WikiLeaks site.

Earlier today, the group hit the MasterCard site with a distributed denial-of-service attack for the same reason, and it took down PayPal over the weekend. The MasterCard site was back up this afternoon.

"IT'S DOWN! KEEP FIRING!!!" the group tweeted on its Operation Payback campaign page.

Visa said yesterday that it was suspending payments to the controversial whistle-blower site, joining MasterCard and PayPal.

Operation Payback also … Read more

WikiLeaks payment host threatens MasterCard, Visa

A hosting company has said it will take immediate legal action against Visa and MasterCard over the credit card companies' refusal to process donations for whistle-blower site WikiLeaks.

DataCell, based in Iceland, facilitates donations to WikiLeaks. DataCell said it had been losing revenue since Visa and MasterCard decided to stop processing WikiLeaks' donations.

"DataCell...has decided to take up immediate legal actions to make donations possible again," DataCell CEO Andreas Fink said in a statement Wednesday. Fink told ZDNet UK that DataCell would pursue legal action as soon as possible: "Not being able to receive money from … Read more

WikiLeaks supporters attack MasterCard site

Activists fighting on behalf of WikiLeaks brought down MasterCard's Web site today, according to the BBC and other sources.

The hacking group Anonymous is taking responsibility for a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the credit company's site in retaliation for MasterCard's decision on Monday to block donations and payments to WikiLeaks, which was first reported by CNET.

MasterCard's main site was at times either offline or extremely slow to load this morning. Ping requests to the site also timed out, an indication that the site was unreachable.

Early this morning, the Anonymous group, which … Read more