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Just a few weeks ago, after I had a discussion with someone that is suppose to be in charge of the IT Department, security, and so forth that his security measures for the hotel and casino is “laxed” to say the least a vivid example plays out in the national news. Network security is something that will not allow anyone to be complacent. This goes for the home user who relies on their operating system, hardware, and additional software to the mega-corporations across the globe.
So far, nothing has been done or changed. Though this small casino and hotel is ripe for an attack, nothing has been rectified. This isn’t the only casino or company here in Deadwood, South Dakota that has this mentality, this problem that plagues the most largest of companies across the world. When the news reported of Anonymous’ latest attack at what many would suspect as the impenetrable such as the United States Department of Justice, the United States White House, and several others of being sacked, well…
Well, I found it exciting in a way, I mean it goes to show you, that you can never be sleeping behind the desk in the Network Administrator’s Office. Not that anyone was actually sleeping, but they were not on their best game, were they?
A group of hackers, politically driven, and motivated hackers sacked these sites through a Denial of Service attacks.
So, what or who is this “Anonymous” group?
Consider the motto: “We are Legion.”
As CNN Reports;
In strict Merriam-Webster terms, legion means a group of fighters, a faceless army more powerful as a whole than each individual. Still maddeningly vague enough for you? That’s the point. Anonymous takes great pains to be indefinable and amorphous. Because its members are impossible to isolate as a single thing, they’ve been called pranksters and criminals. Some have dismissed them as nerds with too much free time.
There are others, though, who contend Anonymous is the future form of Internet-based social activism. They laud the “hactivists” for their actions.
Wired has called Anonymous a culture, complete with its own “aesthetics and values, art and literature, social norms and ways of production, and even its own dialectic language.”
As for the literal operation of Anonymous, becoming part of it is as simple as going onto its Internet Relay Chat forums and typing away. There are numerous Twitter accounts which claim to be affiliated with Anonymous, and more websites that post and repost (known as mirroring) Anonymous content than there is room to mention here. The real-life people involved in Anonymous could be behind their laptops anywhere, from an Internet café in Malaysia to a Michigan suburb. Anonymous appears to have no spokesperson or leader. One could participate for a minute or a day in a chat room, and then never go back again.
Courtesy of CNN News
The Douginator Online Magazine had to fix a few spelling errors in this excerpt by the way…
Anonymous has even a page on Facebook. Yeah, this must annoy the authorities here in the United States immensely to know that it could be someone, anyone, and heaven forbid, someone within their own circle of Network Administrators, colleagues, and associates.
Now, between the lines sort of speak, the CNN Report seems to be coming to draw some conclusion of their own by suggesting that Julian Assange might be of some measure, a suspect:
WikiLeaks editor and founder Julian Assange said at the time that he had no affiliation with Anonymous and nothing to do with the attacks.
Courtesy of CNN News
By CNN suggesting, they imply. Love the way Corporate News works these days. Nonetheless, there are a few comments on CNN in relation to the article. Some of these, well most in fact, isn’t worth reading in the least.
Like so many, I too have an opinion about this “political hacktivist” group. There is mention that Anonymous has wiped out over 1,000 small servers and computers that had child pornography to include under 20 known hate sites. So, are these guys, girls, this self-proclaimed legion all bad?
Anonymous; Are these the bad guys?
If they are the bad guys, in who’s eyes?
These are my questions and looking at the legion of comments, it looks like that my questions are shared with many as to the nature of Anonymous being good or evil.
However you decide to view this group, there are many who applaud their handiwork, no doubt. They have quite the following on Facebook. The one particular page, “Anonymous” on Facebook has over 7,200 Facebook members who “Like” them and right now on their page, nearly 700 people are talking about them as we speak.
I am one of them…
On their page; “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us!”
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