Anonymous: Freedom Fighters of the Digital Age?

New England Nerd discusses the recent actions of hacker group Anonymous and the real meaning behind their words of war.

[PimpHandHappy]

they will fight for freedom but it wont be with guns or words

it will be with money because lawyers cost a mint

[Warprincess116]

In late June 2008, users who identified themselves as Anonymous claimed responsibility for a series of attacks against the SOHH (Support Online Hip Hop) website.[62] The attack was reported to have begun in retaliation for insults made by members of SOHH's "Just Bugging Out" forum against ebaumsworld users. The attack against the website took place in stages, as Anonymous users flooded the SOHH forums, which were then shut down. On June 23, 2008, the group which identified themselves as Anonymous organized DDOS attacks against the website, successfully eliminating 60% of the website's service capacity. On June 27, 2008, the hackers utilized cross-site scripting to deface the website's main page with satirical images and headlines referencing numerous racial stereotypes and slurs, and also successfully stole information from SOHH employees.[63]

Following the defacement, the website was shut down by its administration. AllHipHop, an unrelated website, also had its forum raided. By the evening of June 27, 2008 AllHipHop.com was back online and released an official statement in which it referred to the perpetrators as "cyber terrorists" and announced that it would cooperate with SOHH "...to ensure the capture of these criminals and prevention of repeat offenses." On June 30, 2008 SOHH placed an official statement regarding the attack on its main page. The statement alleged that the attackers were "specifically targeting Black, Hispanic, Asian and Jewish youth who ascribe to hip-hop culture," and listed several hip hop oriented websites which it claimed were also attacked by the hackers. It concluded with a notice that it would be cooperating with the FBI.[62]

When interviewed, Felicia Palmer, co-founder of SOHH, confirmed that an FBI probe was ongoing, and that each time the website was attacked, data on the suspects was retrieved. Palmer indicated that some of the attackers were "located within the United States, between the ages of 16-21" and that a few of them were based in Waco, Texas. Initially under the impression that the hackers were pranksters, she came to believe they were "beyond pranksters" and the attack was racist in nature.[63]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

So as you can see. These guys are a bunch of racist terriost. Now i can't stand racism and i think it disgusting. So now i hate these losers even more.

[distorted_reality]

Stop spamming this dude, there's no need for it.

[Joni-Ice]

I hope Sony catch these camping bitches.

[JudgeDredd]

only sad pathetic thieves on cyber space. they care only for themselves, and no one else.

[wiggles]

yeah, I don't see how they are going to "fight for me" when they bring down PSN, and when Sony doesn't offer any good firmware updates because they have to focus on security so much.

[KingPin]

freedom fighters? please. these guys are a bunch of losers who hide behind their anonymity of the internet. true freedom fighters had a relevant cause worth fighting for. Gandhi and Mandela are freedom fighters. they fought for human rights, equality and justice. they didn't hide themselves from the law. they believed in what they were doing was correct and therefore were brave enough to face the consequences.

i dont see any remote similarities between that and what these losers are trying to do in the digital age. what "freedom" are they fighting for exactly? the freedom to steal and give out secure information of a specific company?

im sorry, but sony arent the bad guys here. they protecting themselves. look at it this way, if we are sony, and thieves are the pirates, do we not lock all doors and close all windows at night to keep these perpetrators out? i mean seriously?

[ChristianGamer]

What did they steal? Anonymous I mean. You say they are pathetic thieves.

[plb]

All they are doing is DDosing sites... pretty sure real hackers would feel insulted being lumped into that crowd of individuals.

[Silly gameAr]

my bad.

[Call_me_Ishmael]

DDos is a federal crime right?

[RememberThe357]

Indeed. The penalty is pretty high too.

[sashimi]

Who are they fighting for? cause last a checked it wasn't for the people but just for attention.

[gorebago]

They're a bunch of self serving clowns fighting a self-declared battle that the majority here don't champion.

[Shnazzyone]

Shame the Sony Fanboys on this site wont listen. They don't even seem to totally understand why what Sony is doing is bad. Take off the fanboy goggles. This is serious business here. Your freedoms as an owner of your electronics is at risk.

[GamingBuddha09]

yea having anonymous bombing the PSN while im in the middle of downloading games that i bought will teach sony a thing or two. consumers are mad alright but i dont think their mad at sony

[MrBeatdown]

The only ones who have interfered with my freedom are those that have attacked PSN therefore causing problems on my end, and those who hacked the PS3, leading to a couple of my multiplayer games becoming unplayable.

Little Georgie can run all the hacks and custom firmware he wants, but the funny thing is, all he's doing is altering software Sony created and redistributing it. Sony has every right to do what they are doing.

It's a shame some people on here would rattle on about fanboys and claim it's a matter of rights, rather than take a look at the reality and realize the necessity of what Sony is doing.

[Guitardr85]

@ Shnazzyone

No...It's a shame that these losers are getting away with this. I will laugh out loud the very moment this group gets busted. Remember the Weather Underground? Yeah, they thought they were doing the right thing too, except they were TERRORISTS! Just becuase you have an idea doesn't mean you have a right! These people in Anonymous are nothing more than immature children who think that they deserve to be heard because they are "special" and that what they consider corporate greed is taking away from the little man. I hate to break it to them, but the very principles that they are fighting against are the very same ones that have evolved over time to allow them to have the infrastructure to pull off such stupid ideas. I say let these guys rot in jail!!!

[Senden]

Lol these sony fanboys simply put, don't care. People's freedom of ownership, none of this matters to them as long as they can get on PSN.

[MrBeatdown]

The ol' fanboy line. Nice.

Everybody likes to play the ownership and freedom cards but the fact is that nobody hacking their PS3 has done so without using an altered version Sony's code. In other words, code that isn't owned by the user.

[joeorc]

"This is serious business here. Your freedoms as an owner of your electronics is at risk."

but is that the case already anyway?

I mean already is "Anonymous"

Already can do thing's to people remotely. so what kind of right's are you expecting. somehow it's ok for Anonymous to dictate to eveyone what is right an what is wrong on how information should be or what should not be shared. as long as they are the one's controlling it right?

you cannot say on one hand you support information to be free for everyone else but not your self to be under the same rules!

but it's he who can break the rules make the rules right?

they are no way in any shape any more better than the corp's they attack.

people do not have freedom with their electronics well they do as long as "Anonymous" say's they do is that about the jist of it there sparky?

[Shnazzyone]

They are just doing anything anyone could do on the internet. They have a goal, they have a purpose they have a philosophy. What they do is not always moral. However i support a group willing to put their rights on the line to make sure corporations willing to fuck over their own consumers get what they have coming.

It's more then what people here doing with blindly attacking anyone who dislikes sony even when the subject has little to do about games and more to do with consumer rights.
It's all fine and dandy to have opinions. However, You can't hate those who are willing to fight for theirs. Even behind a group mask.

Their goals of being the thorn in the sides of those who wish to diminish their rights isn't terrorism because terrorism is using violence to achieve political means. This isn't violence. This is the equivalent of being nailed by thousands of practical jokes at once.

When someone is physically harmed by anonymous and not just psychologically driven to wits end... maybe I'll feel bad for those they target. Maybe I'll even hate Anonymous. As long as they are simply using tricks of the trade and simple things any moron with a computer can use, Just doing it en mass, I'll give them the respect they deserve. Being a simple collective of lowly nerds are what Anonymous is. They fight for free information and thought as a community while others in this world do all they can to control information and thought.

Don't whine just because sony made the last good game you liked. If Sony executives were caught killing people and raping their wives while spouting nazi rhetoric, would you still defend them? Would you still say sony is justified then?

They are bullying a tiny percentage of their userbase because they wont play by the rules of their hardware. SO their getting bullied back by someone they can't push back against. Just like they did to the tech nuts who bought their ps3's to see what they could make their crazy hardware do. Again, if you are smart enough to be able to experiment with existing electronics and make it do new stuff, shouldn't you have the right to do that? Experimentation leads to innovation and innovation can make a hardware investment last longer.

I know I know, TLDR (Also known as TSDU)

[Lord_Doggington]

please shut down n4g forever

[SilverSlug]

Look, I disagree with what they are doing, but I see their point.

Basically they are taking Geohot to court for the custom firmware, we got that. What does that mean in the gran scheme of things? They are scared that companies will just sue people for rooting phones, putting after market parts in cars etc.

With this I disagree, but Gehot put out a private code from Sony. Dude, what? That would make them lose money in the long run.

Look, I'm all for Anonymous protecting our online freedoms, backing up banks and protesting Scientology.

Also they are protesting with DDOS attacks, not 'hacking or attacking'.

[Budda]

well from where i stand, so far they dont connect to the PSN network one can do whatever they want with their ps3 but if u are to using that service you have to abide to the code of conduct, with that said, sony on the other hand cant leap out of psn and start attacking people who are yet to actually go on psn and commit a crime. and thats where i would believe sony is dragging more than needed attention from the hackers or black hats are they are known.

the next few weeks should be interesting .. thou i wouldnt wish for sony not to lose their costumer protection and business they need to chill just abit, so the hackers can take a chill coz we know they hackers aint gonna be the first to stop. coz this shitstorm is getting too much.

[dinkeldinkse]

Since what they are doing is terrorism.

[Senden]

Yes because you can compare losing PSN service for a night to 100s of people being killed.

/sarcasm

[dinkeldinkse]

Just to let you know.

[Senden]

I'm well aware of this thanks but generally speaking, comparing what these guys with the likes of Bin Laden is pretty OTT.

[LastDance]

Isnt bin laden a mate of George bush?

[Shnazzyone]

Terrorism, NOUN :the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.

There is no violence here, this is clearly just the 21st century version of the protest. This is how excessive you have to be to get noticed these days... btw, (it works)

[Bimkoblerutso]

People need to realize that all these rants are falling on deaf ears. I can almost 100% guarantee that these attacks are not actually fueled by the ideology that they are helping make the world a better place. It's simply a false pretense for "anonymous" (the douchebags of the internet) to do what they do best: douchebaggery.

Spend an hour at /b/ and you'll understand. Or better yet, don't spend an hour at /b/, take my word for it and save yourself the displeasure.

[bangoskank]

Anon only come across as a bunch of spoiled little peckerheads who aren't used to not getting their way. Please quit posting articles about them. You're only giving them the attention they crave, therefore fueling their hollow ambitions.

[tudors]

I am suspicious to say the least, there is a element of 'problem cause solution' going on here in my opinion or possibly a false flag agenda, there is a big push to bring in what's been called 'internet 2', put simply this would allow the governments of the world to control the internet much in the same way that north Korea does, total control of the internet media, now you might say groups like Annonymous will stop this from happening, but if the powers that be want it to happen then what better way than to create a load of hackers taking down various sites in order that it gives them the excuse to totally regulate the internet, just like they do with the rest of the media, freedom of speech on the net is not liked by the governments because they can't control all the info, I know is seems far fetched but they do it all the time with war, WMD's being a good example, just don't be surprised if there is more to all this than meets the eye.

[koehler83]

Freedom from who?

I don't remember any guns to my head. They just seem to be interrupting my service.

They're freeing me from my terrible leisure activity! VIVA LA ANNOYANCE!