Friday, March 28, 2014

We Are Anonymous Chapter 7

Hey guys, and welcome back to more We Are Anonymous. Today we are going to learn about a war Anonymous waged with multiple government websites that have bullied other helpless websites. With more weapons and murderous hacking techniques, they will... Hey, you know what? I'll just stop talking and get on with the summary, shall we?

The chapter opens with the unbeknownst attack on one of the web's most popular torrent websites, The Pirate Bay. This website was home to millions of illegal files on the internet you originally would have to pay for in real life. However, in The Pirate Bay, these paid files were pirated and posted on the site and people could buy these files for free. Obviously, with so much fame on the web for providing free files to web users, it eventually became a target for a few "police websites" (basically websites that hunt down and shut down illegal websites) and got shut down by a website.

This website's name is Aiplex, and their alibi was being a website that sold software related to movie business.They were secretly behind the shutdown of The Pirate Bay. When the media eventually found out and asked them about how they pulled it off (the crime, that is), they replied by saying that they DDoS'd the website (basically they enter the target website en masse, causing denial of service and temporary shutdown of the website.

As the Anons were vigilantes, they knew that The Pirate Bay was a website worth fighting for. They (Anonymous, that is) may be hackers, but they fight for the people. A good cause. Following Aiplex's assault on one of the Web's most popular torrent websites, they decided that the most effective and ironic way to dispatch of Aiplex was by giving it a taste of its own medicine.

However, they didn't attack Aiplex YET, they just waited for the right moment to strike. In the meantime, they listed down several other potential government websites that could pose a threat to other torrent websites. After listing the suspects, the Anons called up more than 150 volunteers who were grateful to join the battle against the authorities. They then named the attack Operation "Payback Is A &!+(#", DDoS'ing Aiplex and every other threats on the hit list.

The story then shifts to Topiary's (Jake Davis, remember?) point of view. His family managed to move from that cramped island in Scotland to a less cramped (but still quite uncomfortable) island called Lerwick. Jake didn't find life very different there, since he spent the majority of his time on his computer screen. However, following the news of his father's death, he was somehow encouraged to join Anonymous as "Topiary". After his involvement with the Anons, they (Anonymous, that is) were now ready to move on to a new project.

Due to an accidental leak of crucial information from the USA authorities, WikiLeaks is now classified as "criminal" by American leaders. WikiLeaks was threatened to be removed from the web. Desperately trying to stay online, WikiLeaks attempted (albeit unsuccesfully) to move its site to the servers of Amazon (if you didn't know, Amazon is one of the most well-known websites for online purchases, but I think most people know that already). However, PayPal (one giant in the world of online payment) detected this attempt and cut funding to Amazon servers to stop WikiLeaks from staying on. Soon Visa and MasterCard (also giants in online payment) were encouraged to do the same.

Discovering this act of injustice, Anonymous decided to liberate WikiLeaks by promising to teach all websites that could pose as a potential threat to the (almost) doomed website a lesson. They then started listing down the evildoers, starting from the online payment organizations who cut funding to WikiLeaks until the websites that compromised WikiLeaks refuge in Amazon. After tracking down all the loose ends, it was time for the Anons to tighten them up for good. They used a new hacking technique called a "botnet", which involved sending "bots" that worked almost like DDoS, but was capable of downing multiple websites at a time. However, it required a large amount of operators (which wasn't really a problem for Anonymous) to control every bot.

Despite the number of websites that needed downing, the Anons and their supporters managed to dispatch each and every website that compromised and bullied WikiLeaks. Once again, the vigilantes win over the law enforcers.

Will they score another point for their team the next time they attack other unjust organizations? Or will the law prevail above all else? Well, the odds are certainly not in the Anons' favor in the next chapter. Next time, I will be telling you stories of weapons that backfired on their own users. But that's another chapter for another day. For now, peace out dudes!

1 comment:

  1. Jason,
    I think you made a mistake. WikiLeaks removed from Amazon because Amazon told them to leave caused by government pressure and not by funding cut from Paypal. Paypal is banning WikiLeaks funding, but it hasn ot related to Amazon hosting CMIIW.

    ReplyDelete