Hacktivist Group Anonymous Attacks USSC Website

[Neteyes]

I think Anonymous is stupid. Just some kids wanting attention. No information they have released have been anything else than user/password databases or pointless information. They hacked the website of a government department, so what? The website is highly unlikely to have any "secret" information on it. They can't get to the real stuff because they surely don't have access to their network.

There's been real hacks to big deal companies and departments and stuff, but Anonymous has not showed the capability, they're basically just using security holes to get to the website databases.

[Roose]

They usually end up doing both. It's far easier to harm innocent people than it is to get at people in power though, and you won't hear about some random person who suffers because of it because it isn't newsworthy. Has anything good and noteworthy resulted from their actions to this day?

I am not an Anonymous fan boy or anything. I have no idea of anybody that they have hurt besides the Westboro Baptist Church and anybody that goes after them I support. Like they said, there will be collateral damage if powerful people get taken down. That is an unfortunate consequence. We can't strive for good and ignore the evil that hides behind the innocent.

Like the war on drugs. I do not hate the cops that may lose their job when we end it, but I will not shed a tear for someone that helps ruins lives for a living.

[GreatOak]

lol, a group that "claims" to have 2000 people in it? Dude, my neighbor alone would kills those traitors. Fact is we have real opposition to the government cause there is no reason to be opposed. Only people that think their life is somehow negatively affected and very few actually think that (outside of kiddie forums like this one). You know why? Cause they are at work making the world go around.

---------- Post added 2013-01-26 at 01:07 PM ----------



How is it abuse of power to run a country. These children have no clue what they are talking about. They think their way is the correct way but they have little to no understanding of the real world. How is that not obvious to you?

Funny you consider people who strongly support the constitution to be terrorists and traitors while the vampiric elites that harvest the country through banks, aggressive foreign policy, disarmament, and cronyism are helping "make the world go round"

[Theodon]

I am not an Anonymous fan boy or anything. I have no idea of anybody that they have hurt besides the Westboro Baptist Church and anybody that goes after them I support. Like they said, there will be collateral damage if powerful people get taken down. That is an unfortunate consequence. We can't strive for good and ignore the evil that hides behind the innocent.

Like the war on drugs. I do not hate the cops that may lose their job when we end it, but I will not shed a tear for someone that helps ruins lives for a living.

I agree with that. If a person in power is to be taken down then people around them will end up suffering too. Those people are often the actual power they wield, or they are the ones who do what they are told because they don't really have much of a choice in the matter, or because they need the money from their job, etc, etc.

I'm just troubled by the support Anonymous gets despite not actually achieving any good change at all. It makes the innocent victims that suffer due to their actions the only result of said actions. If those they are attacking are indeed corrupt, they won't care if everyone else suffers and they wrangle their way out of a nasty situation. So far I haven't seen any instances of a person in power being exposed and vilified, but I've seen the potential for many others to suffer.

[Kaleredar]

Funny you consider people who strongly support the constitution to be terrorists and traitors while the vampiric elites that harvest the country through banks, aggressive foreign policy, disarmament, and cronyism are helping "make the world go round"

If they support the constitution so vehemently, perhaps they should reconsider being such cowards in their actions. Big talk requires big action.

I posted a similar sentiment on page four, which, of course, just gets passed over as the thread goes on, but in short, if you want to enact change, you DO something about it. You march and protest and see it through to the end in person. No one ever impacted social change by sitting back and taking pot shots at "the man" in the dark. Saying "We are legion" does not make you "legion."

[Roose]

I'm just troubled by the support Anonymous gets despite not actually achieving any good change at all. It makes the innocent victims that suffer due to their actions the only result of said actions.

Who are their innocent victims of the past? Right now people are grasping for anything that may promote change. Look at Obama. People put him in hoping for change and it turns out that he is not much different than Bush.

The amount of people that want to maintain status quo are dwindling fast. There are some that always will follow blindly, but I think more and more types of people are looking for positive change and not more of the same.

[oxymoronic]

Like the war on drugs. I do not hate the cops that may lose their job when we end it, but I will not shed a tear for someone that helps ruins lives for a living.

uhh yeah its the cops that are ruining their life, not the criminal. only thing i can agree here is marijuana needs to be taken off that drug list or penalties for it severely reduced. as for the other drugs if you ever used them you would know how badly they affect the community and not just the abuser.

[Theodon]

Who are their innocent victims of the past? Right now people are grasping for anything that may promote change. Look at Obama. People put him in hoping for change and it turns out that he is not much different than Bush.

The amount of people that want to maintain status quo are dwindling fast. There are some that always will follow blindly, but I think more and more types of people are looking for positive change and not more of the same.

Those people who had their names and contact details leaked because they had an abortion are a group of such people. Even the threat of it demands action from those people, and it won't be something they want to do.

uhh yeah its the cops that are ruining their life, not the criminal. only thing i can agree here is marijuana needs to be taken off that drug list or penalties for it severely reduced. as for the other drugs if you ever used them you would know how badly they affect the community and not just the abuser.

That is a very shallow and simplistic way to look at the war on drugs. I seriously doubt Roose is speaking in such basic terms when he mentions it.

[Roose]

If they support the constitution so vehemently, perhaps they should reconsider being such cowards in their actions. Big talk requires big action.

I posted a similar sentiment on page four, which, of course, just gets passed over as the thread goes on, but in short, if you want to enact change, you DO something about it. You march and protest and see it through to the end in person. No one ever impacted social change by sitting back and taking pot shots at "the man" in the dark. Saying "We are legion" does not make you "legion."

They never used these tactics in the past because they did not exist.

People try to protest but that accomplishes nothing now, and the places where it is even allowed are shrinking fast. That was how you got things done in the past. If you want to impact as many people as possible you must go viral.

uhh yeah its the cops that are ruining their life, not the criminal. only thing i can agree here is marijuana needs to be taken off that drug list or penalties for it severely reduced. as for the other drugs if you ever used them you would know how badly they affect the community and not just the abuser.

Cops following terrible laws. I have in fact used just about every drug and that is why I know that the government is full of shit. Have you?

[Deleted]

They never used these tactics in the past because they did not exist.

People try to protest but that accomplishes nothing now, and the places where it is even allowed are shrinking fast. That was how you got things done in the past. If you want to impact as many people as possible you must go viral.

Mass protests have lead to major changes in middle eastern countries recently.

But sure, it doesn't work.

[Roose]

Mass protests have lead to major changes in middle eastern countries recently.

But sure, it doesn't work.

And those mass protects materialized out of thin air??????? Thanks for proving my point for me.

[Deleted]

And those mass protects materialized out of thin air??????? Thanks for proving my point for me.

You said they don't work.

[GreatOak]

There are a lot of people who believe the collapse is coming

Here is one of them

Its long but insightful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zotYU21qcU

[Kaleredar]

They never used these tactics in the past because they did not exist.

People try to protest but that accomplishes nothing now, and the places where it is even allowed are shrinking fast. That was how you got things done in the past. If you want to impact as many people as possible you must go viral.

Protesting doesn't seem to work anymore because it takes a LONG. DAMN. TIME. As I noted earlier, civil rights movements marched by the thousands, and suffered by the thousands in the face of injustice MUCH more glaringly obvious than something in an old government document. It took these people DECADES to get what they wanted, and even now some groups still don't have it. It takes time, effort, and dedication, not trying something once and then getting discouraged.

As for the whole "viral" thing, what are those people that are "impacted" going to do? Sit around and think "gee, that's so unfair?" Know what that accomplishes? Helluva nothing. Unless you actually DO something about it in physical form, don't expect anything to happen. You can rally people by spreading a message online as surely as you could rally people via word of mouth or by television back in the day, but that doesn't make either of those things "the end all" of what needs to be done.

There are a lot of people who believe the collapse is coming

There have been people believing "the collapse is eminent" since collapsible things have existed.

[RadasNoir]

People try to protest but that accomplishes nothing now, and the places where it is even allowed are shrinking fast. That was how you got things done in the past. If you want to impact as many people as possible you must go viral.

"Going viral" is actually what is killing traditional protests. This whole incident is a good example. Anonymous might actually be doing something (even if it will turn out to be an anemic and inevitably pointless "something") but rather than sparking any sort of physical reaction that might help further their message, instead, those that support them sit along the sidelines, cheering them on...and that's it.

It used be there was a time when, if something truly upset you and your sense of justice, people would actually get up and physically do something about it. In some places in the world- again, the Middle East is a good example -that does still happen. But more often than not, in America and other Western countries, the Internet makes it very easy to blow off one's steam regarding certain issues, and not act upon them in a potentially constructive manner.

Beyond the current incident, other examples of "viral" protests that never seemed to materialize anything of value were the whole Kony 2012 thing and the Occupy Wallstreet movement. To be fair, the Occup Wallstreet movement at least had people physically doing something, but even then, when the fad faded and the people who participating in it realized that things weren't happening fast enough, it too dissolved.

Again, if you want real change, cheering on the hacking of a government website that no one goes to, or sitting and hoping the "damaging" information they have will actually shame certain politicians into action (which, again, it won't), isn't the way to go about it.

[Jaxi]

lol they take down harmless Government websites with the message of "stop stepping on people's rights" and your response is that they're terrorists and they need to go to jail? I'm not saying this is true, but if someone is fighting for my freedoms and promoting my general well being, I have a hard time taxing them on it. I can understand why people are skeptical, but hating them is just outright foolish.

I never said I hate them, I said I'd like to see them go to jail. Your idea of fighting for freedoms is far different from mine, and I do not believe a little bit of internet cowardice is anything of the such. Anonymous and the people that download whatever they want for free off the internet are the ones that have pushed governments and companies to try to control the internet. They're ruining it for the rest of us by being selfish bastards.

So yes, I want to see some arrests.

[Raiju]

While you can argue all you like about whether this is right or wrong, just do some research first. Regardless of what you believe no sane person is going to support someone having a maximum of 50 years and 4 years sentencing (I believe the term is shoot high aim low?) to practically force him to go to prison. MIT said they weren't even happy with the 6 months +fine offer.

We are talking about a man, who along with building a lot of great things online - was sharing public information. Read that to yourself, sharing. public. information. You should not be prosecuted for that. I don't necessarily agree with the complete abolishment of breaking ToU = a felony, but I certainly believe some changes in severity and defining of boundaries would be useful.

[Kaleredar]

While you can argue all you like about whether this is right or wrong, just do some research first. Regardless of what you believe no sane person is going to support someone having a maximum of 50 years and 4 years sentencing (I believe the term is shoot high aim low?) to practically force him to go to prison. MIT said they weren't even happy with the 6 months +fine offer.

We are talking about a man, who along with building a lot of great things online - was sharing public information. Read that to yourself, sharing. public. information. You should not be prosecuted for that. I don't necessarily agree with the complete abolishment of breaking ToU = a felony, but I certainly believe some changes in severity and defining of boundaries would be useful.

You know what wasn't going to get him out of jail? People whining about it online.

You have a few thousand people sitting outside a courthouse? That can makes things happen.

[MisterMxyzptlk]

well well it seems the beast has stirred, also long as they stay non-violent.... we may see change... the current laws are despicable and need to change, it's a shame it has come to this.

[hawtlol]

So they hacked a website. Congrats. And no useful information was given that day