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Helen Pidoulas

Anonymous and the global correction - Opinion - Al Jazeera English - 4 views

english.aljazeera.net/...201121321487750509.html

net308_OUA_2011 anonymous collaboration tools resources ouaNet308-2011

shared by Helen Pidoulas on 09 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Josh van de Scheur on 09 Apr 11
     
    The online protest group 'Anonymous' use web based networking and collaboration tools as effective ways to support and achieve their collective goals. This article follows the technological and social conditions that have shaped the groups innovative use of the internet as a tool for political protest. Like the author states, "as the social, political and technological environment has developed, some have already begun to explore new options, seizing new chances for digital activism"(Anonymous, 2011). In many ways it is hard to see how decentralized networks of like-minded protesters can achieve political change. While Anonymous are aware of how "a loose network of people with shared values and varying skill sets (providing) substantial help to a population abroad is seen as quixotic"(Anonymous, 2011), recent campaigns in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya are generally recognized as highly effective and indicative of what is achievable when collaborating on real world projects via web-based networks (see, Keane, B. 2011). Like Wikipedia and other mass-collaboration projects, it is a global network that drives Anonymous' influence. For example, anonymous use tools such as 'Low Orbit Ion Cannon'; or 'LOIC' (see, Arthur, C. 2010), allowing people from around the world to collaborate together. LOIC enables the group to carry out "distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, involving thousands of computer users who request large amounts of data from a website simultaneously, overwhelming it" (Anonymous, 2011). Online systems of mass-collaboration are proving to be productive and influential vehicles for social or political change. To understand their success we need to acknowledge how the "technological infrastructure that allows these movements has been in place for well under a decade - but phenomena such as WikiLeaks and Anonymous have already appeared, expanded, and even become players within the geopolitical environment" (Anonymous, 2011).
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  • Keith Law on 10 Apr 11
     
    How one man tracked down Anonymous-and paid a heavy price While Anonymous may have seized "new chances for digital activism" it remains subject to investigations and attacks both on the group's concepts and any individuals that can be identified. Its aim to achieve political change through civil disobedience leaves individuals open to prosecution and persecution if identified. This article looks further at attempts to infiltrate Anonymous. It becomes a contest between those seeking to expose the real identities of the Anonymous activists and the activist's responses to these attacks. This article describes one such conflict. It is not clear from the article just what the result was and it is implied that publicity was the aim for an attempt to gain Government Internet Security contracts. The interesting point is that a loose gathering of diversely motivated activists is as vulnerable to cyber attacks as the targets they attack. In a private e-mail Barr is quoted to have said :"They think I have nothing but a hierarchy based on IRC [Internet Relay Chat] aliases!" he wrote. "As 1337 as these guys are supposed to be they don't get it. I have pwned them! :)" (Andersen, 2011) The article claims that from leaked e-mails it attained the full story of how Barr infiltrated Anonymous, used social media to compile his lists, and even resorted to attacks on the codebase of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon-and how others at his own company warned him about the pitfalls of his research. What is 'pwned'? "Pwned" means "to be controlled against your will", or "to be defeated by a superior power". The noun version is pwnage. The "pwn" expression originated in the 1980's from the word "owned". It was used to describe when a hacker would take remote control of a server or another computer. The use of "p" to replace "o" was simply a misspelling at first, but the spelling stuck as a stylistic point. (Gil, 2011) What is 1337? "H
  • Keith Law on 11 Apr 11
     
    What is 1337? "Hacker "Sp33k" for leet, or elite. Originating from 31337 "eleet" the UDP port used by Dead Cow Cult, a hacker group, to access Windows 95 using Back Orifice, a notorious hacking program." (Urban Dictionary, 2011) Works Cited Andersen, N. (2011, March). How one man tracked down Anonymous-and paid a heavy price. Retrieved April 12, 2011, from ars technica: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/how-one-security-firm-tracked-anonymousand-paid-a-heavy-price.ars Gil, P. (2011). What is 'pwned'? Retrieved April 10, 2011, from About.com: http://netforbeginners.about.com/od/p/f/pwned.htm Urban Dictionary. (2011). Retrieved April 10, 2011, from Urban Dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=1337
  • Keith Law on 11 Apr 11
     
    Low Orbit ION Cannon This hacking tool can be downloaded free of charge by anyone from Source Forge. (abatishchev, 2011) This is interesting as it will probably be illegal for anyone to use the tools to "impair the operation" of a computer which includes servers. According to reports on the Source Forge you should note that the program may include Trojans. There is a clear warning: USE ON YOUR OWN RISK. WITH NO ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES. In Great Britain for example anyone who uses Low Orbit ION Cannon would be likely to have committed an offence under Computer Misuse Act 1990. Specifically: "This subsection applies if the person intends by doing the act-(a)to impair the operation of any computer;(b)to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer;(c)to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data; or(d)to enable any of the things mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (c) above to be done." "A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable-(a)on summary conviction in England and Wales, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both;(b)on summary conviction in Scotland, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both;(c)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or to a fine or to both." (Computer Misuse Act 1990, 1990) Works Cited abatishchev. (2011, January 23). Low Orbit Ion Cannon. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/loic/ Computer Misuse Act 1990. (1990). Retrieved April 11, 2011, from legislation.gov.uk: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/3
  • Amy B on 17 Apr 11
     
    A loosely organised group of hackers is targeting oppressive regimes and says this is just the beginning (Anonymous, 2011). Anonymous presents a mechanism for socio-political change, using the available technological infrastructure that also facilitates such movements as WikiLeaks. This opinion piece, hosted by Al Jazeera, describes an evangelical movement in protest against what they perceive to be oppressive establishments, as governments or institutions. They consider themselves a movement for digital activism, and in this article focus almost exclusively on the plight of the Tunisian people, with mentions of attacks on the Church of Scientology and WikiLeaks, and the Australian government following the introduction of internet censorship laws (Anonymous, 2011). The article reads like a resume of Anonymous' achievements, and the motivations behind their actions, such as the WikiLeaks release of material exposing atrocities perpetrated by the Tunisian government provoking participants in the Anonymous network to attack via distributed denial of service (DDoS) non-essential government websites and replace them with messages of support for the Tunisian people (Anonymous, 2011). Such activities require the concerted efforts of collaborating individuals across a potentially widely dispersed online network. When compared with GetUp!, a community-minded tool for promoting activism for campaigns relevant to Australians, or Avaaz, a global community-minded campaign tool, the Anonymous movement, though also created with the best intentions, still reads in this article as taking matters more directly into their own hands, with limited accountability. The article uses such language as 'information warfare', 'revolution', and 'attacking', and endorses the breaking of laws to achieve what members of the movement believe in; '[t]here is a reason, after all, that those of us who have seen the movement up close have dedicated our lives to what it stands for, and have even vio
  • Helen Pidoulas on 23 Apr 11
     
    One of the problems with digital activism is that the internet is a tool that can be accessed by many people, cross-border and across many different countries. What might be acceptable practice and perfectly legal in a country like Australia, might be liable to prosecution in countries like China where the government censors not only the internet, but people in general. Freedom in countries like Australia is taken for granted. Other countries might not enjoy this freedom, and when people try to access content that is politically sensitive or illegal in their country, questions are raised about who is providing the illegal content, and the person accessing the material can be liable to prosecution. Internet laws are also changing rapidly, and it is very difficult for people to keep up with the constantly changing landscape of laws that are evolving and reshaping. While there is a need for activism, an awareness or a better understanding of the potential for breaking the law needs to be clearly understood when posting politically or socially active sensitive material online. There is a real danger that activities that are legal for people surfing the web in Australia are not legal in other countries, and the implications this can mean for people not only posting material, but those reading and interacting content, especially if they have to by-pass traditional methods of accessing the internet to get through to what they want to read, hear or see. Louis-Jacques, L. (2003). Legal Research on International Law Issues. Retrieved from http://www2.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/forintlaw.html
  • anonymous on 02 May 11
     
    Digital or online 'Hacktivism' has a perception of existing as a natural extension of more traditional forms of protest. Being that the Internet has moved on from being a relatively static information source and into a dynamic realm where regulation and social policy is conducted by governments, protesting has struggled to find its place. An example of collaboration gone astray can be seen in the story of 22 year old Matthew George. In October 2009, in reaction to the Australian Federal Government's attempts to legislate an Internet filter Matthew volunteered to let his PC take part in a denial of service attack on government websites. In collaborating with other PC's Matthew thought "We hoped to achieve a bit of media attention to why internet censorship was wrong..." (SMH 2011) Charged and bought before court, the hacking was not seen as protest by authorities but more akin to cyber-terrorism. Whilst the 'real world' allows avenues for protest, as in registered street marches...the Internet has no such outlet, with the exception of self-publication on forums and social media. This has led to a situation where online collaborative protest seems to lead frequently to vandalism in the form of denial of service attacks. Meet the hacktivist who tried to take down the government (2011) Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/meet-the-hacktivist-who-tried-to-take-down-the-government-20110314-1btkt.html#ixzz1L9cdAeuE
Keith Law

Anonymous - 15 views

Anonymous on FOX11 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNO6G4ApJQY This is a four minute so called investigative news item. Anonymous is described as a Internet Meme originating in...

ouaNet308-2011 anonymous hacking Fox11 collaboration

started by Keith Law on 02 Apr 11 no follow-up yet
tim findlay

The faces of Egypt's 'Revolution 2.0' - 1 views

edition.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by tim findlay on 13 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • tim findlay on 14 Apr 11
     
    John Sutters article presented on CNN online is a personalised recount of the factors (technological and social) leading up to the demonstrations in Egypt. This article is interesting as it outlines the impact that the Internet has on peoples daily lives, the way the it has allowed members in society the opportunity to gather information and allow freedom of speech that would never be allowed in their own government regime. Sutters article follows a man called Saleh, (Egyptian born) and explores the impacts that living in his society has brought on his daily life. Being born into a country where rape, murder and wrongful imprisonment are just a part of daily life he soon gained the motivation to want more. The lack of information that he could obtain from Egypt's two national television stations, gave him the drive and motivation to want to learn more about the world (Sutters, 2011). When he was 16 he rejoiced in the fact that the Internet had come along, "I was waiting for the Internet to arrive in Egypt years before it arrived. Reading about it, I could see how much freedom there was (online), how much information you had" (Saleh, 2011). The Internet was a way for people to gain access to limitless amounts of information, it is not by chance that these social media tools are now being used to mobilize people in society to speak out, take action and express their thoughts and feelings to create change. After an Egyptian man was allegedly beaten to death by police outside an Internet cafe Saleh and his friends were shocked by the news of the event and decided to create a Facebook page "We Are All Khaled Said". The results were astounding, more and more people started to comment and join the group, which eventually lead to a mass protest in which protesters stood along the banks of the Nile wearing black (Sutters, 2011). Events that followed on January 27 were even more impressive. The online organizers in Egypt are quick to spread
  • tim findlay on 14 Apr 11
     
    credit. No single person, group, Facebook page or political party planned this movement. It just happened, they said. Partly in response to the events in Tunisia. Partly by years and years of lingering economic, social and human rights problems. Saleh, the young man who grew up yearning for an Internet connection, said he was amazed at the degree to which the Internet played a role in the movement. These social media platforms allowed people to mobilize more freely than in public. Decoy events could be set up and changed on a moment's notice; messages could be spread to other countries and updates could be passed through out the country and the world (Sutters, 2011). The flexibility around social media is something that can shed some insight into why these types of events have become so successful. Messages can be updated, read and sent from any portable device, Facebook and Twitter can be access anywhere at anytime, meaning that mass collaboration over these services can be organised to such a precise level. As state above, the Internet has become such an influential medium for nations under tight control to express themselves and gather outside information about what is happening in the world and also to express and broadcast injustice that is happening in their own society. References Sutters, J. (2011). The faces of Egypt's 'Revolution 2.0'. Retrieved April 13, 2011. From http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/21/egypt.internet.revolution/index.html. Saleh, O. (2011). The faces of Egypt's 'Revolution 2.0'. Retrieved April 13, 2011. From http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/02/21/egypt.internet.revolution/index.html
  • sheila mclean on 15 Apr 11
     
    I found this article interesting and thought provoking; being a personal, first-hand account of the events in Egypt it provided a different perspective to some of the articles I've read on this topic. The last paragraph summed up the power of social media well, "Facebook, Twitter and email created a 'parallel Egypt' on the Internet", a world where citizens could maintain anonymity and mobilize more freely than they could in public" (Saleh, 2011, cited by Sutter, 2011). I think that we tend to take for granted the freedom and rights we have here in Australia. I have joined a few political organisations online, and I couldn't imagine how I would have felt if shortly afterwards the Government hacked my computer to gain my Facebook password! Yet this is what happened to activists in Tunisia (Zuckerman, 2011). Your comment Tim, "the flexibility around social media is something that can shed some insight into why these types of events have become so successful. Messages can be updated, read and sent from any portable device, Facebook and Twitter can be access anywhere at anytime, meaning that mass collaboration over these services can be organised to such a precise level", (Findlay, 2011) reminded me of a comment made by a Cairo activist who said "We use Facebook to schedule the protests, Twitter to coordinate, and YouTube to tell the world," (activist cited by Howard, 2011) According to Howard (2011) "the most consistent causal features of democratization include a wired civil society that uses digital media to undermine authoritarian rule in the course of national and global public opinion." The recent events in Egypt are certainly a case in point. REFERENCES Findlay, T (April 13, 2011) The faces of Egypt's 'Revolution 2.0' Diigo OUA-Net308 group Retrieved April 14, 2011 from http://groups.diigo.com/group/oua_net308_2011 Howard, P (February 23, 2011) The Cascading Effects of the Arab Spring Miller McCune Magazine Retrieved April 13,
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