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How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

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Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#151

Post by bmelton »

_b8r0 wrote: post #101
stcredzero wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A web app was compromised through SQL injection, then lateral movement was used to get to the mailserver (which may or may not have been on the same box). If their aim was the highest level of security, then such lateral movement should not have been possible.

> If their aim was the highest level of security Which nobody has stated was there aim. There's a big misconception that somehow security firms should strive to have absolutely perfect security, which is completely wrong. Security firms should aim for the most appropriate level of security to protect their information assets based on a reasonable approach. As should everyone else. If their source code was stolen, the…

"There's a big misconception that somehow security firms should strive to have absolutely perfect security, which is completely wrong."

I wouldn't use a dentist with bad teeth. I wouldn't get my hair cut by somebody with a bad hair cut. I wouldn't let my garden be tended by someone with an ugly yard.

You're completely right, they don't have to have absolutely perfect security, but it's a business card in the same way that getting all your data hacked and posted to the Pirate Bay is an anti-business card.

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#152

Post by fleitz »

dpritchett wrote: post #102
cracki wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

obvious symmetry to the Read-Eval-Print Loop.

The unifying concept is the half-life (exponential decay) of plans and information. The older your intel, the less valuable the plans you have built off of that information. Top-down and waterfall approaches institutionalize this in order to provide an illusion of control to the executives and shareholders. Agile development and maneuver warfare each seek to tighten their feedback loops.

So you're basically saying that information follows inverse square law according to time? Very interesting idea.

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#153

Post by lwat »

shareme wrote: post #96

Anyone see the wikileaks connection? Some DOD contractors were attempting to hire them to put out miss-information to discredit wikileaks.. Which might explain the original Anonymous insvestigation

Actually it was Bank of America that hired Palantir and HBGary Federal to help them defend against the upcoming BoA Wikileaks release.

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#154

Post by Perceval »

mahmud wrote: post #128
hardik988 wrote: post #37

Wow, this was almost like a cyber crime thriller! Anyone for writing a book on Anonymous ?

Anon should write it together, using Etherpad.

That will turn out poorly: http://static.funnyjunk.com/pictures/therobot02.jpg

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#155

Post by 1337p337 »

stcredzero wrote: post #130
1337p337 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of them are. The Guy Fawkes masks are sort of a good way of describing them: a bunch of completely unrelated people assuming the same identity for a time. Likewise, the "Anonymous" you hear of is usually the "Anonymous" that pulls this sort of stunt and then publicizes it. There are a number of people hanging out on /b/ doing nothing but humorous (depending on your sense of humor) image manipulation, also callin…

They get to be anonymous by all assuming the same name, "Anonymous" People have been doing something like that for thousands of years. That's never meant that everything done under that name was wholly aimless and spontaneous.

I didn't say that; I said that it's hard to attach attributes to them since they're not a coherent organization, but a number of people claiming the same name.

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#156

Post by kdahfklaf »

SwellJoe wrote: post #13

I can't believe this guy has a job in a security company doing work for the federal government. I'm getting a strong vibe that he's schizophrenic. I've known an unmedicated schizophrenic, and this is the way they talked and acted. Self-aggrandizing, convinced they have comprehended great secrets based on little to no data (schizophrenics often believe that have "other ways of knowing" or extremely heightened intuitio…

'an hero' does not mean what you think it does.

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#157

Post by stcredzero »

sambe wrote: post #149
stcredzero wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's nothing inherently special about a security firm being compromised anymore than a plumber's getting a leak - what matters is the damage and how they fix it. A word of advice: If a plumber gets a leak, it's no big deal. If a plumber's office gets massive but avoidable water damage through their short-sighted incompetence, don't hire them.

You don't think there's any truth in "the cobbler's children have no shoes"?

"Eat your own cooking."

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#158

Post by astrange »

stcredzero wrote: post #94
GHFigs wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to be exceptionally smart, only persistent and willing to eschew the trappings of leadership in favor of playing the "Anonymous has no leaders" game. Anonymous craves leadership but resents authority, so it's crucial to appear indistinct from the super- or trans-human whole while prodding the herd in your desired direction lest you pop the illusory bubble that gives it strength. This is not unlike what…

My read: 1) Your post is pure gold . 2) You are probably such a transitory leader on /b/ or reddit. A cryptic tl;dr would be: Lots of people want to be a superhero. Given the choice, most would opt for the power of invisibility.

> You are probably such a transitory leader on /b/ or reedit.

Writing a long post is easier than getting people to do work for you.

Anyway, I don't see anything suspicious about those post times, not for 2008.

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#159

Post by sudonim »

noahc wrote: post #111
ilamont wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't communicating an "untrue statement of fact" that certain people are leaders of an allegedly law-breaking group to government officials or other people constitute defamation (assuming that their reputations were harmed as a result)?

I think there are two issues here: 1. The first is that he did not release the report publicly, which is what would cause the defamation. Anonymous did. Thus he wouldn't be responsible for the release of the data. The issue here is really the publishing of it. He did not publish it, and selling it to a private law enforcement agency, in my mind at least is not publishing it. 2. The second issue is related to false po…

2. On #2, so if you want to harass someone without putting yourself on the line, generate "evidence" about them and provide it to law enforcement, but don't file a police report. Good to know!

Re: How one man tracked down Anonymous—and paid a heavy price

#160

Post by orbenn »

fleitz wrote: post #49
Helianthus16 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, but doesn't mean there aren't coordinators, actually skilled hackers who embrace the directionlessness even as they give it direction. It isn't _just_ foot-soldiers.

Anonymous describes themselves best when they describe a hive. Yes, a hive has a queen but she lasts only as long as the workers feel she is productive. When a hive reaches a certain size it will establish a new hive, it too will have it's own queen. Members of the hive will give off pheromones to signal the other members. Not all will follow, some will, however what's important is that the more pheromones of a certa…

And from what I hear Boxxy is the queen of /b/

http://images2.memegenerator.net/ImageMacro/4642541/QUEEN-OF...

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