While the Left has its panties in a bunch over the News of the World hacking scandal, there’s lots of cyber crime being committed by their own comrades.
Aaron Swartz, leftwing radical HuffPo blogger and co-founder of Reddit and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, has been indicted on charges of hacking into MIT computers and illegally obtaining data.
A Cambridge man who was a fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics is now facing federal charges that he hacked into a Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer archive system to steal more than 4 million articles from scientific journals and academic work.
Aaron Swartz, 24, was charged with wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and recklessly damaging a protected computer. He faces up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
……Swartz hacked into the system to distribute JSTOR’s archives through file-sharing sites. The indictment also alleges that Swartz’s illegal downloads also impaired JSTOR’s computers and servers, depriving regular customers access to the archives.
Even after security officials blocked Swartz’s access, he hacked into the system again, according to prosecutors.
http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/07/cambridge-man-accused-hacking-mit-computers-steal-scientific-papers/6SVnqu3Yfo7OIrLQOYSz5M/index.html
Swartz is considered one of Reddit’s co-founders, joining originators Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanianin when the company acquired Infogami in 2006. However, Swartz has had a murky history with Reddit, and was eventually asked to leave in 2007 for unspecified reasons. Swartz is also the founder of activist group Demand Progress, who run online campaigns to help promote policy change.
http://techland.time.com/2011/07/19/reddit-co-founder-aaron-swartz-indicted-for-data-theft-could-face-35-years-in-prison/
These assholes just released a shitload of military email information:
The AntiSec online hacking movement said Monday it had broken into a server run by a U.S. military contractor and pilfered 90,000 military email addresses and passwords, the latest in a string of attacks on corporate and government targets.
AntiSec, which comprises elements of the Anonymous and Lulz Security collectives, said it got into a network run by Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. via an unprotected server. It then extracted information from the McLean, Va.-based contractor.
“We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security measures in place,” AntiSec said in a statement posted online. “We were able to run our own application … and began plundering some booty.”
……The attack comes amid a spree of online break-ins and defacements that have targeted governments and corporations. The hackers have hit Sony Corp., the U.S. Senate, AT&T Inc. and other government and private entities. The hackers often post information stolen in the attacks to prove they were successful.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/12/hacker-group-says-it-stole-us-military-email-addresses-passwords/
AntiSec is a group opposed to the computer security industry, their theory being that the industry “uses full-disclosure to profit and develop scare-tactics to convince people into buying their firewalls, anti-virus software and auditing services.”
Newsflash for AntiSec, viruses created by hostile punk-ass hackers are the reason why people have firewalls, anti-virus software, and auditing services. What the fuck do they think we should do, just leave our PCs unprotected and vulnerable on purpose? On top of all the other security problems faced by the military/government computer networks and private citizens, we have to contend with AntiSec, who thinks they have a right to a security-free environment so they can hack into your computer.
Authorities just cracked down on the members of the hacking group “Anonymous”.
Seems they aren’t too pleased with PayPal, which canceled its account with Wikileaks over the despicable treason committed by Julian Assange and his pal Bradley Manning.
Sixteen suspected members of “Anonymous” were arrested this morning in states across the country, from California to New York in a federal raid on the notorious hacking group.
The arrests Tuesday, first reported by FoxNews.com, are part of an ongoing investigation into Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for numerous cyberattacks against a variety of websites, including Visa and Mastercard.
The Department of Justice, in announcing the arrests and more than 35 search warrants in the case, said the case stemmed from an alleged cybertattack on the website PayPal over its action against controversial group WikiLeaks, one of the inspirations for the hacker group Anonymous.
Fourteen of the arrests were identified in the same indictment out of California, while two separate criminal complaints filed out of courts in Newark, N.J., and Tampa, Fla., name the two other alleged hackers. All are believed to have been involved in carrying out nationwide coordinated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on multiple high-profile, billion-dollar companies.
“In retribution for PayPal’s termination of WikiLeaks’ donation account, a group calling itself Anonymous coordinated and executed distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against PayPal’s computer servers using an open source computer program the group makes available for free download on the Internet,” the Justice Department said in a news release.
The now not-so-anonymous hackers:
The department identified the suspects in the California indictment as Christopher Wayne Cooper, 23, aka “Anthrophobic;” Joshua John Covelli, 26, aka “Absolem” and “Toxic;” Keith Wilson Downey, 26; Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20, aka “No” and “MMMM;” Donald Husband, 29, aka “Ananon;” Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27, aka “Trivette,” “Triv” and “Reaper;” Ethan Miles, 33; James C. Murphy, 36; Drew Alan Phillips, 26, aka “Drew010;” Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, aka “Jeffer,” “Jefferp” and “Ji;” Daniel Sullivan, 22; Tracy Ann Valenzuela, 42; and Christopher Quang Vo, 22. One individual’s name has been withheld by the court.
They are charged with various counts of conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Each count of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/19/exclusive-fbi-search-warrants-nationwide-hunt-anonymous/
UPDATE:
“Anonymous” also attacked the websites of Koch industries.
As part of its multi-front assault on “Anonymous,” the FBI has identified 12 “targets” it alleges participated in coordinated online assaults earlier this year against business web sites operated by Koch Industries, the Kansas-based conglomerate owned by billionaire brothers–and leading Republican benefactors–Charles and David Koch, The Smoking Gun has learned.
The Left is absolutely bat-shit crazy over the Koch brothers, but when it comes to George “Spooky Dude” Soros, not so much.
Details of the ongoing criminal investigation are contained in a confidential FBI affidavit obtained by TSG. That document, excerpted here, includes the names, addresses, and IP numbers of a dozen U.S. residents who are subjects of the federal probe of a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on Koch Industries web sites in February and March.
FBI agents last week raided the homes of individuals suspected of engaging in the Koch Industries DDoS campaign. The bureau’s target list appears to be a mix of actual DDoS participants as well as individuals whose names appear on the accounts from which attacks were launched.
So while the list includes the names of a college student studying computer science and a systems administrator/blogger who has written negatively about the Koch brothers’s views on global warming, other targets appear to be the parents or relatives of DDoS participants, like the Ohio university administrator with two sons or the 51-year-old Iowa woman who works as a project manager for an insurance company or the 83-year-old Florida grandmother. Perhaps some targets simply never bothered to password protect their wireless Internet router, in the process giving others free access to their IP address.
Since the FBI affidavit likely includes the names of individuals who had nothing to do with the Koch Industries blitz, TSG has obscured the 12 names. A review of federal court records indicates that none of the targets listed in the affidavit have been charged in connection with the illegal DDoS campaign.
The FBI identified the targets with the aid of “firewall logs” provided by Koch Industries. These records reportedly revealed the IP addresses from which “a large number of connections” were directed at one or more of the company’s web sites. According to the FBI affidavit, such a traffic bombardment was “consistent with a denial of service attack.”
For example, Koch Industries records showed that one blogger accessed the firm’s Angel Soft toilet paper web site nearly 16,000 times during one nine-minute period in March. The DDoS attacks, according to the affidavit, also involved the Koch Industries web site (kochind.com) and a web site for Quilted Northern, another of the firm’s toilet paper brands.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/koch-industries-ddos-attack-875410
Note to the Left: Pot, meet Kettle.
Related article:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/19/leading-member-lulzsec-hacker-squad-arrested-in-london/