For a number of days the websites of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and others wre attacked by a group of WikiLeaks supporters ('hacktivists'). Although the group calls itself 'Anonymous', researchers at the DACS group of the University of Twente (UT), the Netherlands, discovered that these hacktivists are easily traceable, and therefore anything but anonymous.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-06-29
Member since:2006-07-30
Member since:2006-07-30
Isn't part of the point of protests that they are not anonymous. If thousands of people got together and broke the law and challenged the authorities to arrest them, it would have a lot more effect.
Would be a lot riskier, and actually require some bravery, but would be much much more effective.
Edited 2010-12-13 07:53 UTC
Member since:2006-07-04
Taking down sites for refusing Assange's business is well justified? How?
If I had a money-making site, I woudln't want his business either, and I shouldn't have my site taken down, thus inconveniencing me and my customers because someone thinks I should do business with Assange or anyone else.
Let's say that you banned me from this site (which is your right), and I responded with DDoS attacks on osnews.com. Would my attacks be "well justified"? Well, this is the same thing. Assange has been, in a sense, "banned" from PayPal, Amazon, VISA, Mastercard, and they shouldn't be DDoS attacked for it. They're within their rights to refuse Assange's business. (I agree that PayPal shouldn't have frozen the funds in his account, but they released those funds, and that's all the further obligation they have to Assange.)
Edited 2010-12-13 08:59 UTC
Member since:2010-08-06
Why is'nt doss attacks against Paypal et al a good idea.
Under the Patriot act and other laws the US government has wide ranging laws to shut down companies that it sees is collaborating in things its perceive as illegal. Even if we don't like it.
Under these acts. the USA can also sanction banks as well and rescind their licenses to do business in the US.
If paypal and others get's paralysed by the US government thousands of people loose their jobs. Shareholders (many of them old people through unit trust) loose their money.
These companies really are between a rock an a hard place.
Romantising this as sort of justified moral protest is really throwing fuel onto fire and helping ignorant kids get into trouble.
Member since:2007-04-06
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Member since:
2010-12-12
Captain Obvious to the rescue. If people get arrested, they deserve it. Not for taking part, but for being stupid.