internet antiheroes Anonymous go after PayPal

[brinstar]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389229,00.asp

love it. participated. hack the planet!

[Narrock]

PayPal has been a thorn in my side in the past.

[Drem]

LulzSec is involved too. i love what these guys do

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/21/anonymous-hackers-claim-to-breach-nato-security/

[Menelvir]

It's all fun and games until someone loses an identity.

[Zanchief]

Not sure I can get behind these morons just because Pay Pal are a bunch of douche bags.

Anti-establishment is fun when you’re like 15 but I think it might be time to grow up.

[Narrock]

Not sure I can get behind these morons just because Pay Pal are a bunch of douche bags.

Anti-establishment is fun when you’re like 15 but I think it might be time to grow up.

Careful Zan, you're offending Tossica.

[brinstar]

i want to see them crash wall street

[Drem]

Not sure I can get behind these morons just because Pay Pal are a bunch of douche bags.

Anti-establishment is fun when you’re like 15 but I think it might be time to grow up.

so what you're saying is everyone should just bend over and take whatever companies like Sony give you?

they're just trying to make a point. i didn't know this until i read it in my game informer and i'm not sure most people know what really happened with sony's network so here, it sheds some light on Anonymous, if you didn't already know (this is not verbatim unless it's in quotes):

originally the ps3 was supposed to have a bootable linux for hackers. they decided to close that up and george hotz opened the root key and sony sued him. they took his youtube account, his twitter account, and all of the same info for all of the friends Hotz was hacking with (fail0verflow). they also tracked everyone that visited his website. basically an "unforgivable offense against free speech and internet freedom"

Anonymous responded with "Your corrupt business practices are indicative of a corporate philosophy that would deny consumers the right to use products they have paid for, and rightfully own, in the manner of their choosing. Perhaps you should alert your customers to the fact that they are apparently only renting your products?"

four servers rebooted unexpectedly and were taken offline by Sony. the next day, six more. then Sony pulled the plug. they said credit cards were compromised but no attacks resulted. it took Sony 7 days to let the public know what happened. Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Sony of America and a lawsuit was filed in California against SoA

there had been attempted network penetration for something like 20 days until they found the weakness they were looking for. Sony never noticed these attempts. also Sony's server software wasn't up to date, and "there was a way for custom firmware to subvert PSN's security"

when Sony tried to bring it back online they were so sloppy that a third party could manipulate the URL of an account reset and block the original user from his/her account.............

anyways, this could've happened to nintendo or microsoft because they're all basically the same. it happens on the PC all the time. honestly i like seeing this happen. they make so much money off of nothing that i'm glad there's a projected $170 million loss due to this breach

[Menelvir]

Yes, fighting the good fight for the oppressed proletariat against the vagaries of big business and big brother.

And just look at how noble and impassioned (not to mention how humble!) we are.

Except that it smacks more of hijinks and antics than a deep-seated sense of altruism.

More and more lately, that's how this movement is coming across: let's be antiestablishment just for the sake of being antiestablishment. Oh, and pay attention or else!

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with resisting policies you oppose, nor in fighting for causes you feel are just, but the manner in which you wage your struggle can be telling.

Anonymous might want to read a little about Mohandas K. Gandhi.

[Zanchief]

Anonymous might want to read a little about Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Pretty much. These are the things we're outraged about? A two month stoppage in service by Sony for a service we were getting for free. Not even one case of fraud? Where does the indignation come from? Boredom and self-entitlement. This is not a cause I can get behind at all. Angry nerds with expensive computers, likely bought by their parents, raging against the inequality of a system because they never got to teabag that hot cheerleader in high school.

Wake me up when there's something to get worked up about.

[Drem]

so you guys think it's ok that sony gestapo'd and ruined george hotz's personal life because he figured out how to hack the ps3? did that happen to the people that jailbroke an iphone or hacked the old xbox ?

[Menelvir]

From brief reading, I'm not seeing how Sony's lawsuit "ruined his life" - if anything, it gave him added notoriety and I'm sure plenty of street cred in the appropriate circles. If he doesn't already have a job somewhere for a six figure salary, he likely will before long. He seems like a bright kid, so I'm guessing he'll figure out a way to deal with any issues that are inconveniencing him.

In any case, what legal recourse a company pursues to protect its intellectual property is up to that company. Sony isn't obligated to do what Apple or Microsoft would do in a similar situation.

If a third party wants to retaliate on behalf of Mr. Hotz for what they see as wrongful prosecution, it might reflect better on them if they took the moral high ground and filed a grievance, or boycotted Sony products, or blogged about it, or any number of things that would get their message across without harming or inconveniencing individuals who have nothing to do with their causes, know nothing about their issues, and might not care even if they did know.

Their recent acts strike me more like a petulant 6-yr old who wants to throw dishware onto floor so that they can watch it break. If that's how they want to be perceived, well, mission accomplished.

[Drem]

it's about free speech. you don't see chefs taking people to court when somebody steals their recipe so why Sony feels the need to seize this guy's online identity and all people associated with his hacking group is ridiculous

sony dropped the ball, and had weak security and stupid programmers and anonymous made a point (for the second time). they even settled with hotz out of court because they knew they were ridiculous

all the guy did was open it up to booting linux. something sony originally promised as a hacker-friendly feature on the ps3 way long ago

there's no way i'm going to think what these guys do is anything but awesome and long overdue in most cases. i don't have the balls to do it and never will, so i'm glad somebody does

[Tikker]

No

You are 100% wrong drem


What Geohot did was make it so you could run backup images of Sony games

Ie enable piracy on ps3

That's why they pwned him


He is now working for facebook

[Drem]

sure if that's all they're concerned with but it also opens it to homebrew, which is a good thing imo

and good, i'm glad facebook got him

didn't know it but he's actually the same kid that jailbroke the iphone hahahah

[brinstar]

Wake me up when there's something to get worked up about.

yeah actually this is kind of the point. ever heard the old phrase "if you're not outraged you're not paying attention"?

on a daily basis our govt and corporations are doing horrible things to good people in our own country, under the banner of security or capitalism or whatever, and we (americans specifically) are so doped-up on meaningless bullshit like reality TV and facebook that we just lay back and let it happen. meanwhile Anon and LulzSec and a couple other groups are actually ballsy enough to do something about it

take issue with their methods or their apparent juvenility if you want, but you're doing humanity a disservice by questioning their motives

[Zanchief]

I'm not outraged because I'm paying attention. This isn't North Korea. Things are pretty good.

[Harrison]

I can't believe I'm going to agree with Zan here.

Grow the fuck up and get mad at a real issue, and do something about THAT.

Sony? Paypal? Are you fucking kidding me?

[brinstar]

...you do know they're going after PayPal because they froze WikiLeaks donation accounts, right?

sounds like a pretty real issue to me

[Markarado]

I have mixed feelings about these guys. Shutting down Sony causing them to lose 170 mil is not a good thing dumbasses. Profit loss = job loss.

On the other hand, Malaysia blocked many of the top download sites (like thepiratebay.org). In retaliation these groups shut down many Malaysia Gov. sites. We're all running Google DNS anyways....

[Narrock]

I have mixed feelings about these guys. Shutting down Sony causing them to lose 170 mil is not a good thing dumbasses. Profit loss = job loss.

You actually think these fucktards here on the NT ever look at the big picture? lol

[Harrison]

I can't really muster a shred of sympathy for wikileaks.

[Drem]

why? because they put the truth out for everyone to see? you'd rather everything stay classified?

honestly i figured you'd be the wikileaks type

[Drem]

I have mixed feelings about these guys. Shutting down Sony causing them to lose 170 mil is not a good thing dumbasses. Profit loss = job loss.
.

how isn't it a good thing? consumers will save $170 million, and in reality a lot more if it's just $170 mil in profit loss, to spend on other things that are actually worth it instead of half-assed sony crap

why do you care so much about sony?

[brinstar]

because MALAYSIA