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Security The Internet News

LulzSec Teams With Anonymous, In Operation AntiSec 419

c0lo writes "After a brief spat where the notorious Anonymous hacking collective sniped at Lulzsec, the 'upstart' hacking collective, for crowing about low-rent Denial of Service attacks on the CIA and 4chan websites, the two groups have apparently teamed up in operation Anti-Sec. The operation's 'top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments. If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood.' We can only predict that the following will be unpredictable: store canned food and flash batteries, change your eBanking password daily."
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LulzSec Teams With Anonymous, In Operation AntiSec

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  • by MetalliQaZ ( 539913 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:20AM (#36499966)

    Dear Slashdot,
    Don't feed the trolls.
    Thanks,
    Metalliqaz

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:53AM (#36500408)

      Actually, given the horribly insecure things that banks do, this might not be such a bad thing. EX: when I refinanced my mortgage last, I found it was SOP to shuffle the paperwork around via plain old ass-hanging-out-for-all-to-see email.

      And the password security questions can't be user-defined, and are things I know plenty of people can answer about me, and I could answer every option for many people I know.

      Two different banks I know have flash installed on their employees computers.

      Lulz and Anon won't have trouble hacking the banks... They'd have to put effort into not failing to hack them.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20, 2011 @10:20AM (#36500822)

        I work in a bank and I'll confirm this. There has been a big "security" push around here lately but it only consists of stupid shit like imposing the most ridiculous password policies for the 5 or so different incompatible systems in use plus a slew of sites and applications that don't use any of the centralized systems. The end result predictably being that everyone has taken to writing down their passwords. Banks are all about the semblance of security, not actual security.

        • by ackthpt ( 218170 )

          I work in a bank and I'll confirm this. There has been a big "security" push around here lately but it only consists of stupid shit like imposing the most ridiculous password policies for the 5 or so different incompatible systems in use plus a slew of sites and applications that don't use any of the centralized systems. The end result predictably being that everyone has taken to writing down their passwords. Banks are all about the semblance of security, not actual security.

          Quite surprised by this, but I suppose I shouldn't be.

          Back about 15 years ago the banks were extremely reluctant to have anything beyond modems as they needed to see that the budding internet was secure before they exposed anything to it.

          Now, consider the way businesses have been working, slashing workerbees (including those who provided auditing and safety nets) to maximize payouts a the top, plus the willingness to take on preposterous investment and lending strategies, which eventually collapsed and you

        • by Hatta ( 162192 )

          Banks are all about the semblance of security, not actual security.

          Much like government itself.

        • by fyoder ( 857358 )

          Maybe they should have a policy of easy to remember pass phrases -- lots of characters but no need to write them down. I was at a bank today where there was what appeared to be a new hire. She was having trouble with something, consulted her notes right there in front of me, points to a word and asks another worker, "is it this password?". I averted my eyes politely, but I should probably have stared pointedly at it and spoken it out loud a character at a time, just to make the point.

        • The end result predictably being that everyone has taken to writing down their passwords. Banks are all about the semblance of security, not actual security.

          Sounds like any corporation. When I worked at HP it was the same. 5ish different passwords for different systems, and every one had different requirements. And different expiry dates!

          One I only needed once a month for payroll to an outsourcing company had to change passwords once a month. Had to change password every damn time I used it.

          But my fav

      • True, true and true.

        I once had to rely on phone banking, and trying to verify my identity, my phone partner asked me for a few recent transfers to read to him so he could verify that I'm me. This is something someone could easily gather from stealing or finding my bank card and printing a statement, all actions that take no kind of additional security information. Asking him what kind of security theater this is supposed to be, I was informed that this is a standard procedure and if I'm not happy with it, I

        • Jim - call center worker
          Boss - the boss
          Irate caller - you

          Jim: "OK sir, i just need to verify your ID with some recent transactions..."

          Irate caller: "Wtf is this, security theatre?"

          Jim: "OK, sir, you have a great point. I'll be sure to take that complaint to the proper authorities!"

          Jim: "Hi boss, we got a caller... he says that our identity verification process is just security theatre!!!'

          Boss: "Wait, what the fuck is your name again?"

          Jim: "Uh... Jim.. sir... "

          Boss: "Well, Jim, Sir, get your fat ass back in

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20, 2011 @11:03AM (#36501432)

      Dear Slashdot,

      Please continue to provide updates on one of the most important events in recent technological history.

      These people are putting into motion a chain of events that will first, lead to massive draconian regulation of internet presence as well as personal internet usage and finally, start a revolution online which will create the most open and free global network the world has ever seen.

      They're also exposing the complete failure of the "whitehat" information security industry as a whole. They are a joke, they are thieves, and they deserve to be humiliated forever for the scams they perpetrate.

      We should be thanking Lulzsec and anyone else who agrees with what they do.

  • by turkeyfeathers ( 843622 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:22AM (#36499988)
    They're targeting banks and other high-ranking establishments... are my bitcoins at MtGox going to be safe?
    • Your bitcoins were never and will never be safe, because the entire system is a scam.
      • by pla ( 258480 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:48AM (#36500342) Journal
        Y'know, I consider BitCoins pretty much just a nice idea, at this point, with plenty of problems and no real value (beyond speculation).

        That said, the number of people who bother actually posting just to tell us how much they dislike them, in response to even the slightest, even humorous (in this case) mention of BTC... Just wow.

        Makes me lean toward taking them a bit more seriously - No one hates on Linden dollars or even Facebook credits.
        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I'll second that.

          I appreciate the subtlety of BitCoin's distributed implementation. I'm only curious and don't buy or trade them.

          The negative hate for them here feels more like a false flag operation than genuine posts?

          To all the haters.... how did bitcoins hurt you so much that you know hate them?

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            To all the haters.... how did bitcoins hurt you so much that you know hate them?

            By clogging up Slashdot's front page with bitcoin stories, when the space could be much better used for Packt book reviews.

            • By clogging up Slashdot's front page with bitcoin stories, when the space could be much better used for Packt book reviews.

              Enough with the Packt spam already!

              (I'm just trying to get ahead of the curve)

        • by hedwards ( 940851 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @10:04AM (#36500594)

          The problem is that as soon as people are allowed to post things which aren't true without being challenged, over time the falsehoods come to take on an aura of truth which is then difficult to deal with. Just like how now people still believe refer to healthcare reform as "obamacare" despite the conclusive evidence and references that most of the controversial stuff was lifted from conservative candidates.

        • Y'know, I consider BitCoins pretty much just a nice idea, at this point, with plenty of problems and no real value (beyond speculation).

          That said, the number of people who bother actually posting just to tell us how much they dislike them, in response to even the slightest, even humorous (in this case) mention of BTC... Just wow.

          Makes me lean toward taking them a bit more seriously - No one hates on Linden dollars or even Facebook credits.

          The haters are probably gold bugs who also like to rant about the worthlessness of fiat currency. There's a lot of that about these days.

          • No, the "haters" are people who understand that currencies which cannot be used to legally settle debts and whose design inevitably leads to a deflationary trend should be avoided. Bitcoin is not even a fiat currency, since it was not created by a government (see: definition of fiat currency).

            It's OK though, you can continue to assume that we live in a world where everyone either supports Bitcoin or thinks we should run back to the gold standard.
        • I hate on Linden dollars. They're "market" is a joke, because Linden repeatedly devastated it while running for cover to ban banks and gambling.

          As for BTC, it's a "start", but it nowhere near mature enough to be used widely. A true distributed currency must allow users to define the rules, not the other way around. Though there is no "organization", the rules are the "system", and all systems have flaws.

          Where I think BTC shines is in its proven method of transaction and triple record accounting. But the

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *
      Yes, and so is the dirt on your front lawn. The dirt is probably worth more, though.
    • by tenaciousj ( 769989 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:32AM (#36500118)

      This will in no way affect your bitcoin collection. They will still be as big of a joke in the future as they are now.

      • by durrr ( 1316311 )
        But in the future they will have the enjoyable company of United States Dollars and the Euro as company.

        Arguably they already do.
        • by artor3 ( 1344997 )

          Two of the above mentioned currencies are recognized by billions and backed by governments. The other is recognized by anarchist man-children with zero understanding of how money works. Can you tell which is which?

  • by what2123 ( 1116571 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:23AM (#36499996)
    While I am not against their intentions of trying to open up the government-corporation love affair, this will only result in the creation of stupid legislature where everyone is forced to present an ID on the internet. Of course, those that want to get around this will, the same way all ID-thieves work, steal some other persons information.
    • by halivar ( 535827 )

      It's a case of "whoever wins, we lose."

    • by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:57AM (#36500482) Homepage Journal

      It is an ego trip. Notice they are not targeting China or North Korea or even Israel. The reason is those and some other nations wouldn't think twice about a few accidents happening.
      Yes this little ego trip will end up convincing the average voter and politico that they need to have the capital punishment for possession of packet sniffers. Books on TCP/IP will become classified and computer programers will have to show that they need to know those skills before they are allowed to own documents on APIs. All software will have to be signed and all programmers will have to be registered.
      Gee thanks thanks you creeps for spoiling all the fun. Hope you like the LOLs kids.

      • In essence your opinion is that we shouldn't stand up for truth because there are worse people out there and the perfectly innocent government will beat the tar out of us. That's a wonderful reason to do nothing; I wonder why wikileaks exists. You should tell them your idea :D.

        • by _Sprocket_ ( 42527 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @10:34AM (#36501010)

          In essence your opinion is that we shouldn't stand up for truth because there are worse people out there and the perfectly innocent government will beat the tar out of us. That's a wonderful reason to do nothing; I wonder why wikileaks exists. You should tell them your idea :D.

          Which is great if what we're getting is truth. Wikileaks produces propaganda. Anonymous and lulzsec seem to produce little more than ego trips. What we have is groups thrashing around and creating really handy political targets for said "worse people" while producing very little for the effort. If anything, they are likely to be damaging the efforts of those who are or would be whistle-blowers producing evidence of real issues.

          • Which is great if what we're getting is truth. Wikileaks produces propaganda.

            Funny, I thought they just posted leaked documents. That seems fairly truthful to me. Sure, there is some grandstanding in the manner that they release them, but that doesn't make them any less truthful. Unless you are suggesting that they are just fabricating all the info that they are releasing, I'm not even sure what you are trying to say.
        • Sure, they're going after governments, but the collateral damage comes from the civilian population - who look to the governments to take some action and actually remove the problem.

          Not LulzSec - the average man on the street probably doesn't know who they are and doesn't care until their banking info is out there for the world to see, and then they're going to blame LulsSec, NOT the banks or the government.

          I really think Luls and Anon are not out to do any actual good in the world, they just want to laugh

        • by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @10:45AM (#36501136) Homepage Journal

          Funny but yea it is kind like being a hero that beats the crap out of jay walkers while the a serial killer is taking out a kindergarden. They do not pick on any really bad people just the safe ones like video game makers and front facing websites. Ewww they are soo worth looking up too. Wikileaks MODIFIED by adding emotionally manipulative video to the gunship footage to aid in fund raising. That right their makes them an outlet for propaganda. Instead of letting you decided for yourself they set you up to feel the way they wanted you too. Odds are that you will not see it or even believe it but that just shows how good of a job they did at manipulation.
          Truth? Anon picks on the disabled and children and those that they don't agree with. They do not produce the truth they produce ego trips. They harassed a kid that put a website to discourage kids from using foul language just for the LOLs. That is anti-freedom of speech folks.
          Sure stand up for the truth. Thing is no one stands up for the truth by hiding.
          You know that whole Stand up and be counted thing?

      • Why would any civilian living in what is subsumed under "the West" target either of those proposed countries? It is our own politicians who lie to us, it is our own banksters who stuff their pockets at our expense. I do not care about China, North Korea or Israel. If they want to go ballistic on us, I as an individual certainly do not have any means of significance at my disposal to do anything about it. Our politicians, on the other hand, can be made to suffer by exposing their wrongdoings, running campaig
      • by Calos ( 2281322 )

        Or maybe they don't target some of these other nations because everyone already assumes a high level of corruption, and the censorship in those countries are at a high enough level that the people that really need to be informed and can try for change - their own citizens - are never going to see the leaks anyway.

    • this will only result in the creation of stupid legislature where everyone is forced to present an ID on the internet.

      Please. We can hardly convince companies to switch to IPv6 when that will clearly benefit them, do you really think govt. will actually force everyone - including big companies - to implement such security measures? I doubt it very much.

    • No this will be used as the excuse for that kind of legislation. Big difference.

    • While it sounds good on paper, how would that ID scheme be implemented when credit card scanners aren't even available?

      That internet ID bullcrap would only empower hackers more because now they'll literally be able to SWAT you and the courts will believe you did download all that child porn and hacked all those banks because it will be connected to your ID.

      The internet ID idea is just plain stupid. A smarter idea would be to simply pay Microsoft and Apple to force them to put backdoors into their software a

    • Governments always find reasons to do censorship or to publish cooked data and if they don't some companies will do for them (or lobby for it). Groups like Lulz and Anonymous will achieve to show that our government doesn't represent, protect and serve the best interests of it citizens. They don't represent their citizens when they are influenced by lobby (the banking lobby for instance, or the closed source lobby), they don't protect us because they don't secure our id data amongst other things and they fa
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:23AM (#36500000)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:29AM (#36500086)

    http://lulzsecexposed.blogspot.com/

    • by Xest ( 935314 )

      I read it and it doesn't really make sense.

      They got exposed, so now they're going after even more high profile targets which would net them even more jail time? How does that make any sense whatsoever?

    • If you look at the site, they've had to retract some of the dox. That doesn't necessarily mean that the ones they've allegedly forwarded to the FBI aren't good, but it does make one somewhat suspicious as to whether or not they really have the goods.

  • Wait... wut? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by d3ac0n ( 715594 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:31AM (#36500106)

    Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments

    Soo... Do they think that various governments are keeping their email at the bank?? Or have they swallowed that stupid "The government is run by the banks!" argument? Are they gonna go after "Da Joooos" next?

    Meh, sounds like Lulzsec is just graduating from general annoyance to genuine criminality and using pseudo-political cover from some Anons to try and hide it.

  • by Bloodwine77 ( 913355 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:32AM (#36500130)

    I am getting tired of hearing about Anonymous and LulzSec.

    While I do want a more transparent government, I am also to the point I want these script kiddies hoisted on their own petards before they do enough damage to cause more draconian laws and measures to be enacted by a knee-jerk (or carefully scheming, depending on your tinfoil hat) government.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      Mop Up Please! The way these guys are acting it's almost as if they WANT the thunder to come down. If I was more of a conspiracy theorist I'd say the government is using these guys to get the laws passed. It seems crazy until you think about it, much like PETA being funded by meat producers.
    • That's why they team up to give you a more transparent government. It is Axis vs. Allies all over again.

    • by Hatta ( 162192 )

      Anonymous is the only group fighting back against encroaching authoritarianism. What alternatives are there? People have been working through the system for decades, and for decades the people have been losing power. Vigilantism is our only hope. I can't say I agree with all their methods, and all their targets, but on the whole they've been doing a lot more harm than good.

  • If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood.

    I guess this is the media corps opportunity to finally test out the potency of Charlie Sheen's tiger blood in retaliation.

  • ... then they are dead. Government and other types will come down on them like a ton of bricks. Recall that only a week ago they used a SWAT team on defaulted student loan - what do you think they will do with these losers if they do disrupt important government and economic activity? They will possibly be shot dead if they do this. But that's nto the worst part: they will be giving the government all the excuses they need to take tight control of the internet, destroying net anonymity and controlling a
    • SWAT was used because of a search warrant issued for a CRIMINAL investigation, not a defaulted loan.

    • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      Recall that only a week ago they used a SWAT team on defaulted student loan

      I don't know what incident you are referencing but if any part of that is true, its outrageous on many many levels.

      If anyone knows anyone that is in Anonymous or Lulzsec and who is planning to take part in activities, do us all a favor - beat them in the head with a shovel until they change their mind.
      Reply to This

      Is that doing us a favor, maybe this is the sort of thing that start a revolution. Which if SWAT teams are being used for debt collection, I might be supportive of.

    • by mlts ( 1038732 ) *

      I doubt that. If they are any good, they may not be caught. What will happen is that we will have an insane witch hunt on our hands, especially if the press starts spewing out "news shows" about how the bad, evil hackers can with a push of a button turn whole swaths of the US into grey goo, activate Skynet, or erase Joe Sixpack's pr0n collection.

      Result: Say buh-bye to any freedom of speech, anonyminity, and hello to mandatory DRM stacks, mandatory tracking, and more BS than the King Ranch uses for fertil

  • but without the cool t-shirt?

  • From TFA:

    Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation.

    I can't help but think that this is exactly what I would do if I were a once hacktivist turned undercover government agent trying to further the polictical agenda of censorship.

    Around the same time that the US declares they will create a Cyber-Security strategy, (they already have cyber-attack force NSA, and professional espionage agencies as well) LulzSec is formed from those who cracked HBGary... Soon "the lulz" dictates that the common man (young and old) become witness to the threats of hacking (via attacks against porn and game servers).

    Now, we have LulzSec requesting the assistance of everyone (including Anonymous -- though they have not confirmed their participation), to directly attack all governments while their are Internet censorship and cyber security bills afoot. It seems to me just the sort of disinformation and FUD campaign I would perform if I wanted to give all hackers an even worse name, and drag down Anonymous too.

    Funny how Anonymous used primarily an unsophisticated traffic generation tool -- the equivalent of repeatedly pressing [F5] while viewing a website (not even a reflected distributed denial of service, which would have been much harder to trace and deliver more traffic) -- to attack primarily pro censorship political targets, yet LulzSec focuses on the most buzz generating of targets with much more sophisticated attacks.

    What do you want to bet that LulzSec is taken down as soon as the powers that be wish them down, and that no real damage will come of their attacks?

    Even if they are not government agents, anyone who follows behind the LulzSec banner is playing directly into the censors hands...

  • that being said, when there is no justice, people turn to the vigilantes

    banks are open season as far as the court of public opinion is concerned, as long as us taxpayers are footing the bill for their irresponsibility

    so fire away, hooligans. you have my approval

  • by taiwanjohn ( 103839 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:40AM (#36500226)

    Since Congress seems unable or unwilling to audit the Fed, maybe these guys can handle the job. At least that would be a useful application of their "l33t skillz" for a change.

  • by Bengie ( 1121981 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @09:40AM (#36500230)

    I hope they just keep it to a wikileak+smear campaign and not actually leak info that can get people killed.

  • - We talk about the fact that the press sucks and tought lulzsec and anon were at war when they were not.
    - We laugh at Sony/Senate/Fox/Whatever 's security, and pity the fool who uses the same password everywhere.
    - We discuss the morality, utility and cleverness of an "action" made for the lulz, by people only doing random stuff because they can. And we take this all very seriously, like it's the masterplan of some very serious organization.
    - We defend banks and gov's secrets and talk about National S
  • Blank is beautiful.

    Hackers have declared war, it's time to take back our internet from the corporate fools and government cronies who have polluted it.

    Thank the deities that there's someone out there keeping the online universe interesting. Not since Operation Sundevil have I been this excited to see the outcome.

    Knight Lighting and Phiber Optik have been awaiting this day when the shackles have been thrown off and the geeks shall inherit the Earth.

    • by Lifyre ( 960576 )

      While you're vision is pretty this whole thing will have to get much bigger much more damaging if you think you can drive back corporate and government control of the networks. Especially when you consider who OWNS the wires (tubes if you will) that these networks run on. What percentage of the connections are owned by the corporations and government you're advocating against?

      The free internet we grew up with no longer exists and hasn't existed for years. You are just now beginning to see through the vei

  • What kind of news would you want if you wanted to get rid of internet anonymity?

    Probably this kind and the kind we've been reading for the last months.

    I don't see the lulz in this.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • by greymond ( 539980 ) on Monday June 20, 2011 @10:04AM (#36500588) Homepage Journal

    Groups like Anonymous and LulSec could probably do a lot more good for a lot of people if instead of pontificating about leaking government information actually did something useful like erase consumer debts instead of just posting passwords to porn sites online...

    • by Smigh ( 1634175 )
      Any vigilante could potentially do good things but would you really trust random individuals (as egotistical and immature they may be) going around making justice by their own hands?
    • by Lifyre ( 960576 )

      That would be vastly beyond their ability to accomplish. They may be able to erase a record in one place but they would have to have complete control over the entire network, including back-ups (on-line, off-line, on-site, and remote), as well as physical access to all of the paper work (which is required to exist in a hard copy or ROM state). So not only is that well beyond their capabilities but it would effectively destroy the foundations of large parts of the economy as you arbitrarily remove balance

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Governments always find reasons to do censorship or to publish cooked data and if they don't some companies will do for them (or lobby for it). Groups like Lulz and Anonymous will achieve to show that our government doesn't represent, protect and serve the best interests of it citizens. They don't represent their citizens when they are influenced by lobby (the banking lobby for instance, or the closed source lobby), they don't protect us because they don't secure our id data amongst other things and they f
  • Uh, there's been a team of hackers doing that for some time. You may have heard about them.

    Also, it takes a special person to make Wikileaks look like the adults in the room. Thanks for that.

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