Anonymous Steals 10,000 Iranian Government Emails 116
Several readers have sent word that Anonymous has hacked servers belonging to Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, making off with over 10,000 emails.
"The Ministry’s website is still down as of this writing, and the servers are under Anonymous control. ... The email archive includes approvals and rejections for a variety of visas and passports, among other requests and correspondence. 'It’s near the election’s anniversary. We had to do something,' said one of the Iranian members of Anonymous from #OpIran. He said they take down Iranian government servers on a regular basis for operation days, but that obviously retrieving information required a different approach to the group’s signature DDoS attack. He also indicated an as-yet unannounced attack. 'For the election’s anniversary, we have a complete DDoS attack day' planned, he said.
A la Gibson (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm happy that Panther Modern basically exists now.
Re:So this is a horrible, evil thing, (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:So this is a horrible, evil thing, (Score:5, Insightful)
The Google hack targeted, among other things, the accounts of human rights activists which is what made it despicable.
The conversation goes something like this (Score:5, Insightful)
U.S.: Anonymous is completely rogue! They attack everyone utterly at random!
Anonymous: Not everyone, just the bad guys.
U.S.: What are you talking about? You've been attacking us, too.
Anonymous: *cocks eyebrow*
Re:So this is a horrible, evil thing, (Score:5, Insightful)
Bullshit.
Arresting people for holding opinions and saying things that the government doesn't like is despicable. Just because those with guns make it a "law" doesn't make it moral or just.
(And no, I'm not talking about yelling "fire" in a crowded theater type speech.)
Putting people in jail, without formal charges or even notifying anyone outside the jail that they are being held is despicable -- even if it is the law.
Yes, there are laws that EVERYONE should be above -- if they had a brain and a backbone.
Re:So this is a horrible, evil thing, (Score:4, Insightful)
No, what's despicable is that some individuals consider themselves to be above human rights, in the name of the law.
FTFY.
Re:So this is a horrible, evil thing, (Score:4, Insightful)
Just like the Chinese hack on Google?
Not at all. One was a government attacking a private company. The other is a group of people attacking a government.
You may argue that the Anonymous attack is wrong, but the premise that the Chinese attacking Google is equivalent is incorrect.
If you are against the Western hypocrisy it would be more correct for you to prove China's innocence than for me to prove its guilt.
Re:The conversation goes something like this (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a reason being a vigilante is often illegal. While we revere our comic book super heroes acting this way, the total lack of supervision and accountability makes even the nicest vigilante dangerous to human rights and civil liberties.
Yes, the police often ignore those too, but they actually have someone keeping records, and if they don't, those people have someone keeping records too. When you go to the polls, you don't get to vote out Anonymous. No matter how much they may attack something you actually value personally, Anonymous and other vigilante groups aren't about democracy. They're about their own form of totalitarianism.
That's right, when you decide your way is right and other should suffer for not agreeing with you, you've just become yet another totalitarian regime like Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Anonymous has no *right* to attack people, and we shouldn't celebrate them doing it outside the law even if they get the results you like. Some day it might be you they're coming after.
To rip off a famous poem: ... *muffled scream*
When they came for the corporate overlords, I didn't stand up because I wasn't one.
When they came for the foreign governments I didn't say anything either, because I wasn't one.
When they came for me
Re:And now the bad news (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not so anonymous (Score:5, Insightful)