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First, a note : I’m no expert on either of the two countries that are a focus of this piece, nor do I intend to be comprehensive in my analysis. I know a bit more about Syria than I do about Bahrain, having studied its history closely and traveled there, but nonetheless, I intend purely to focus on why these two countries are experiencing a phenomenon online that, thus far, no other country in the Arab world has experienced. Social Media Wars I’ve spent the past few months documenting the tactics of the Syrian Electronic Army and other factions in respect to spreading propaganda to counter anti-opposition sentiment (you can find my writing on the SEA here , here , and here ; and an interview with NPR here ).
Twitter Trolling as Propaganda Tactic: Bahrain and Syria
Digital activism
Identifying the hacktivists of the emerging cyberwar
The Internet has never been a safe place, and since its inception, and introduction to consumers, privacy and security have been a major concern. Of course, now that the average person’s computer skills are many times over what they used to be, that only amplifies the problem. Couple this with the fact that millions and millions of people are uploading mass amounts of personal and sensitive data and you’ve got a recipe for some serious cyber-insecurity.
L’ Android Market devrait bientôt voir débarquer une application qui ne va pas manquer de créer la polémique. Présentée à la conférence Black Hat , elle se nomme Anti (pour Android Network Toolkit) et n’est ni plus ni moins qu’un outil de hacking adapté à un usage grand public. Une fois installée sur un smartphone Android, elle permet de scanner des réseaux WiFi ouverts, d’identifier les terminaux qui y sont connectés ainsi que les logiciels "traceroute" par lesquels on peut remonter jusqu’aux adresses IP des serveurs distants. Une fois une cible acquise, Anti propose des actions telles que l’espionnage des terminaux ou même l’attaque. Et tout cela se réalise sans manipulation compliquée en cliquant simplement sur des icônes (scan, connect, spy, attack…) qui déclenchent des actions automatiques. Une appli conçue pour mettre à jour des vulnérabilités
Anti, l'application Android qui met le hacking à la portée du grand public
They’re watching. And they can bring you down
I t took more than being arrested at his home in the Netherlands by a swarm of police officers to shake 19-year-old Martijn Gonlag’s faith in Anonymous, an amorphous cyber-collective that has terrorised law enforcement and leading companies on five continents. Gonlag, who lives in Hoogezand-Sappemeer, 100 miles north-east of Amsterdam, was interrogated for two days last year before being released pending a trial that could send him to jail for six years. But the college student stood by his decision to download attack software and participate in 2010’s electronic assaults on the websites of Visa, MasterCard and others that had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks as it published secret diplomatic cables.A Norwegian hacker collective that allegedly gained access to the email accounts of Anders Behring Breivik, the confessed perpetrator of killing spree that took the lives of seventy-seven individuals, may have connections to Anonymous, according to a local journalist who has had contact with the group. The collective, calling themselves Noria, reportedly compromised at least two email accounts belonging to Breivik. Seeking protection from law enforcement, Noria’s 17 year-old leader, operating under the pseudonym “Frederik,” turned over the stolen information to a freelance journalist by the name of Kjetil Stormark , asking him to act as an intermediary between them and the police. In an email statement, Stormark confirmed this account and told Threatpost that “Frederik” is wanted by the FBI as part of their investigation of the international hacker-collective , Anonymous .
Is Anonymous Linked to the Norway Shooter E-mail Hack?
Author's note: Throughout my life I have been a political activist, cynical of government and corporate power but ultimately believing in the system. Since the election of Barack Obama and his bowing to corporate America it has become clear that the present system is a complete failure unless you are a corporate mogul or a government official on their payroll. That "hope for change" cannot come from within the actions of the system; it is incapable at this point of ensuring anything except fueling the destruction of the planet, the enslavement of workers and the promotion of a growing war and police state. IWW image of Capitalism by IWW
Anonymous Anarchism: The Yang of Globalization
Training oneself to become a hacker and then working for the NSA is like graduating law school with an emphasis in environmental law and then working for BP. Dear Hackers, Word on the internet is that the National Security Agency (NSA)—of which I’m sure you’re well aware—has very publicly stated it’s setting up shop at Defcon alongside corporations to recruit hackers to the dark side. As reported by Reuters , Richard “Dickie” George, technical director of the NSA’s Information Assurance Directorate (cyber defense wing)–we’ll henceforth call him Simply Dick—is looking to recruit you to work on the “hardest problems on Earth.”
An Open Letter to Defcon Hackers: Don't Sell Out to the NSA
She’s the first ship in our fleet designed and built specifically for Greenpeace. That means the Rainbow Warrior is not just one of the most environmentally-friendly ships ever made; she’s also a campaigner’s dream. We are thrilled she’s now fighting with us for a green and peaceful future. The new Rainbow Warrior during sea trials. Check out the live webcam images
A New Warrior | Greenpeace
Whenever I'm out late at night with my bottle of black spray paint while climbing onto the highway overpass, I'm always like, "I wish there was an easier way to make pie charts on this street sign. There has to be a better way!" I am sure you can identify. Well fret no more. Golan Levin, an artist and educator, provides you with the open-source pie chart stencil .
Takin’ data to the streets. Word.
Hacktivists Force Pause in Australian Net Censorship
At least one Australian ISP is wavering on plans to begin blocking illegal websites next month because of fear of reprisals from “internet vigilantes .” It came to light yesterday that despite a climbdown by the Australian government, four of the country’s internet providers, including the two largest, were planning to launch a voluntary “internet filtering” scheme in July. The plan has been criticized as lacking transparency, accountability and any sort of visible appeals process, but never mind all that, it’s full steam ahead! Or not. Telstra , one of the two big players involved, is apparently having second thoughts about the whole thing.Des hackers interviennent en Syrie
Un collectif de hackers, Telecomix, a prêté main forte aux Syriens en lutte contre le pouvoir de Damas. Une nouvelle opération après les succès égyptien et tunisien. Dans la nuit du 4 au 5 septembre, à 2h53, KheOps (le pseudonyme d’un hacker familier des actions politiques) a “appuyé sur le bouton” , comme il le dit modestement, et détourné l’Internet en Syrie. Dès lors, les internautes syriens étaient automatiquement redirigés vers un site web expliquant pourquoi, et comment, contourner la censure et protéger leurs communications sur le Net :Will Governments Pursue Hackers The Jester, AnonymousDown and Backtrace Security?
The US and UK governments have moved with unprecedented speed in raiding homes and arresting alleged Anonymous and LulzSec members. What about “hacker for good” the Jester, or Backtrace and AnonymousDown? All three have admitted to hacking—should they not be brought to justice? There is no talk in the US or UK about the nature of the hacking being done by the Jester, AnonymousDown and Backtrace, not to mention Web Ninjas. Has anyone been wondering why the US government hasn’t been openly investigating these individuals?« l’ éthique hacker », l’utopie cyberpunk et les expérimentations cyberculturelles, les trouvailles de l’ « hacktivisme » électronique et de l’ « Internet militant », du mouvement des logiciels libres, l’Open Source, l’Open Publishing, le P2P, le Wi-Fi, les média-tactiques alternatives, collaboratives et communautaires elles-mêmes, c’est-à-dire en somme toutes ces « pratiques moléculaires alternatives » que Félix Guattari appelaient de ses vœux pour renverser le pouvoir grandissant de l’ingénierie logicielle et les nouvelles modalités de la « société de contrôle » ont pour la plupart, dans ce qu’elles avaient d’original et novateur, été absorbées et recyclées par celle-ci et les industriels pour donner naissance à ce que l’on peut appeler les nouveaux « agencements post-médiatiques » du web 2.0.
“Become the media !” : de l’hacktivisme au web 2.0
Alex Türk, président de la Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) vient de déclarer devant la Commission des affaires économiques de l’Assemblée nationale: « Nous sommes absolument dépassés par les applications technologiques, tous les jours il en arrive de nouvelles sur notre bureau (…), dans moins de dix ans, des systèmes verront, entendront, communiqueront à distance et on ne les verra même pas ! ». La traçabilité ubiquitaire de tout un chacun va désormais s’accélérer. Les puissances publiques, nationales, sont de plus en plus incapables de réguler un flot d’innovations et de pratiques intrusives, portées par les réseaux mondiaux. Seule une action commune des États, au travers par exemple d’une convention internationale, pourrait poser de façon crédible de grands principes de protection des libertés et de la vie privée. Mais même si l’on s’y mettait maintenant, cette convention pourrait prendre entre 15 et 20 ans avant de voir le jour.
Dépassement
Dominique Cardon, Maxime Crepel, Bertil Hatt, Nicolas Pissard, Christophe Prieur du laboratoire Sense d’Orange Labs ont synthétisé les 10 principes de fonctionnement des plateformes relationnelles. Ces caractéristiques génériques, que l’on retrouve dans la plupart des plateformes à succès du web 2.0, ne mettent pas en valeur un esprit communautaire, comme on le croit souvent, mais exploitent “la force des coopérations faibles” , c’est-à-dire favorisent une dynamique de bien commun à partir de logiques d’intérêt personnel. Un schéma pour comprendre les modes de coopérations et le web d’aujourd’hui.