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Anonymous declares 'total war' on Donald Trump
Donald Trump is in the sights of hacktivist collective Anonymous again. On March 4th the group posted a video declaring "total war" on the presidential candidate. It hopes to not only bring down many of Trump's sites, but also halt his presidential bid by uncovering and exposing embarrassing information. "We need you to shut down his campaign and sabotage his brand," said a Guy Fawkes-masked individual in the video.
Anonymous takes credit for cyberattacks crippling Turkey
Apparently, the hacktivists from Anonymous aren't just targeting ISIS directly -- they're causing chaos for indirectly responsible countries, too. The collective is taking credit for an escalating series of cyberattacks that have disrupted banks, internet backbones and government websites in Turkey. The campaign is meant to punish Turkey for allegedly turning a blind eye to activities that fund ISIS' extremism, such as oil smuggling. According to Radware, the attacks have been so fierce that they took down access to 400,000 sites and left Turkey blocking traffic in an attempt to keep sites online.
Anonymous goes to war with ISIS over Paris attacks
In the wake of ISIS' coordinated attacks on Paris Friday night that left 129 civilians dead and scores more injured, the loosely-affiliated hacker collective known as Anonymous announced Sunday the launch of a massive cyber-campaign, dubbed #OPParis, designed to scrub the terrorist organization's influence from the internet while French airstrikes wipe ISIS strongholds off the map. "We can not fight them with guns and rifles," an Anonymous spokesperson told the BBC, "stopping their propaganda is an effective way to weaken their manpower and their presence in the Internet."
Anonymous posts the names of people it believes are KKK members
Online activist group Anonymous has followed through on its promise to divulge the names of people it believes are involved in the Ku Klux Klan. On November 2nd, Anonymous outlined its plan to release about 1,000 names, with a chosen date of November 5th for the full info dump. An early leak of the list claimed to name politicians and police officers as KKK members, though many of those "outed" at the time denied their involvement. The list released today includes fewer than 1,000 names, though it claims to reveal popular online gathering spaces for KKK members and the names of regional groups. Anonymous notes that it collected the data over 11 months through interviews with experts, public documents and "digital espionage." In some cases, purported KKK affiliates spoke with Anonymous members via chat services, the group says. "You never know who you are talking to on the internet," Anonymous writes.
Journalist found guilty of assisting Anonymous hacks
Former Reuters journalist Matthew Keys was arrested back in 2013 over claims that he'd helped the activist group Anonymous compromise and deface the LA Times by handing over login information. He has denied the allegations (he was supposedly trying to get a story about Anonymous), but that didn't hold water in court: a jury has found Keys guilty of hacking-related charges. The conviction could theoretically put Keys in prison for up to 25 years when sentencing takes place in January, although officials say that they'll likely seek less than 5 years given that this wasn't the "crime of the century."
Cyberattack takes down Canadian government websites
It's not just the American government that's facing withering internet attacks in recent days. Canadian officials have confirmed that a "cyberattack," likely a denial of service campaign, has taken down government websites on the gc.ca web domain -- which, if you know the country, means that virtually every federal institution is inaccessible online. Many government email accounts are largely out of commission as well. It's not clear whether the assault has compromised any sensitive data, but traffic floods like this are typically focused more on knocking sites out of commission than swiping info.
The hacker who helped the FBI stop cyberattacks is now a free man
Lead LulzSec hacker Sabu (aka Hector Xavier Monsegur) was no doubt hoping for leniency when he turned informant, and it looks like his gamble has paid off. A federal court has sentenced him to the time he served in 2012, letting him walk away a free man. As prosecutors explain, Monsegur was a very "productive cooperator" -- he provided complete, detailed information that helped the FBI take down LulzSec and stop a string of cyberattacks against both corporate and government targets, including Sony.
Anonymous' radio-based networking keeps protesters off the grid
Despite being an internet activist group, Anonymous knows the value of avoiding traditional communication; it's sometimes the only way for dissidents to elude surveillance and service disruptions. Accordingly, the group has just unveiled AirChat, a networking system that uses any available radio connection to share data between PCs. Nearly all of its infrastructure is based on encrypted data packets -- you need encryption keys to get a spot on the network and receive any private information, making it virtually impossible to fake an address. Users can share internet access if they get it, and there's support for both proxy servers and Tor routing to anonymize any online activity.
Hacker-turned-FBI informant may have orchestrated foreign cyberattacks
The hacker subplot in House of Cards' second season might have felt out of place, but from the sounds of a recent New York Times report, Frank Underwood's methods for putting captured hackers to work might not be too far-fetched. After being busted by the FBI, top LulzSec hacker Sabu may have conscripted at least one former accomplice to carry out a string of cyber-attacks against foreign banks and government websites, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Times. Sabu's seemingly indirect involvement suggests that he may have acted as a federal informant, helping to exploit the likes of the Heartbleed security flaw for state-sponsored cyber-terrorism. For the full report, be sure to head over to the source link. [Image credit: Idhren/Flickr]
Three suspected members of Anonymous arrested in Spain
The long arm of the law may have finally caught up with some of the hackers behind the recent (and seemingly endless) PSN outage. Authorities in Spain say they have arrested three members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous and seized at least one computer used in the attacks on Sony. Those arrested are believed to have been important in coordinating the group's activities in the country and to have distributed the Loic DDoS tool to others. Now, of course, the Spanish government will have to be on high alert -- if we know one thing about Anonymous, it's that it is not trigger shy when it comes to exacting revenge.
