Anonymous Hacking
Anonymous Hacking
Anonymous is at it again and the latest Anonymous hacking entitled Robin Hood launched on Christmas day. Their victim was one of the largest American security firms, Stratfor, thats stationed right here in Texas. The attack not only crippled Stratfor, but also many of their major clients including the Miami Police Force, BP, HSBC, and Tesco. The Anonymous hacking gained access to credit card data from the rich clients and then donated the money to various charities, hence the name Robin Hood. Its their latest strike against the enemies of both Anonymous and the Occupy Movement: the top one percent.
Anonymous Hacking | Merry Christmas Rich Folks
So what kind of damage was actually done by the Anonymous hacking? What’s the damage? Lets take a look at Telegraph’s report of the Anonymous hacking:
As well as claiming to have donated $500,000 to charities online using the stolen data, the hackers posted parts of their haul online. The files included more than 50,000 credit card numbers of which 10,000 were not expired, 87,000 email addresses and 44,000 encrypted passwords, of which around half could be easily cracked.
Its interesting to speculate on the evolution of protest and sticking it to the system. The great protest movements and civil rights protests of the 1960’s had characters like Abbie Hoffman writing books on how to hack telephones and make home made bombs and civil disobedience meant sit-ins and marches. Flash-forward to today where protests where social media sites like YouTube help to fuel the fire by spreading it to living rooms across the world and groups like Anonymous stick it to the system through viruses and hacking. Both genius revolutionary strategies for their time. But at what cost?
Anonymous Hacking | Whose Paying the Bill?
While the latest Anonymous hacking definitely sent a message and echoed many American’s wish for a more equal distribution of wealth, who is going to pay for all of these donations at the end of the day?
“When credit card owners see unauthorized charges on their cards, they report them to their bank or credit card company. Credit card companies will do a chargeback to the charities, which will have to return the money. In some cases, charities could be hit with penalties. At the very least, they will lose time and money in handling the chargebacks.”
So while the mission was well intended, the Anonymous hacking may actually hurt those that its trying to help, we will see. This is also why many Anonymous affiliates and spokespeople don’t necessarily agree with the attack. Thats no surprise when you realize that the Anonymous group is much like Occupy, many different viewpoints under one banner.
On Tuesday, Anonymous spokesperson Barrett Brown posted a statement asserting that Stratfor was hacked in order to obtain the 2.7 million emails on its servers, rather than credit card information.
The hack was part of Anonymous’ investigation of a state-corporate alliance against the free information movement, Brown said.
No matter what the case may be, it must be recognized that Anonymous is a force to be reckoned with and until the group is happy with the private sector’s accountability, then anyone is at risk. So whats the next Anonymous hacking we can expect? Take a look at this:
We can definitely buy what Thomas says about AntiSec seeking publicity. Whether that was the primary motivation or not, the hactivists have succeeded in making what may be 2011’s last big hack another object of the media’s fascination. Journalists (like your humble Atlantic Wire Anonymous correspondent) will be digging through the details of this at least until Thursday, when we’re pretty sure AntiSec or Anonymous or both will strike again. The suspected target: Go Daddy.Duh.
Anonymous Hacking | Check Out The Video Here!
Here’s the latest Anonymous hacking threat courtesy of YouTube: