Hey guys, and welcome back to more We Are Anonymous summaries. Today, we are going to find out what happened to lulzSec after the unfortunate capture of Sabu. Maybe they went paranoid and decided to lay low? I don't know. So don't let me hold you back, let's just get straight into it, shall we?
After Sabu's arrest, the team decided to take extra safety precautions. They didn't know that Sabu was actually arrested, news about that hadn't reached them yet. So they decided to kill off his IRC account after an unusually long period of time being idle (just in case the cops were watching) and took a few other precaution. Finally, Topiary received a call from the long-gone hacker. Topiary was so relieved to hear Sabu's voice again, he didn't even care to check if the call was being logged by the authorities (which, by the way, they were doing).
After the call with Sabu, Topiary decided to take a few more precautions by re-encrypting and typing new passwords for his various Web accounts. Meanwhile, Sabu was revealed to be made into a FBI agent after his short period in prison. He tried to spend as short time as possible online as to not compromise the identity of his fellow hackers. Topiary was also experiencing some trouble in his real life. For instance, a druggie told him that the cops were looking for him at his house. All this made Topiary more cautious and arrange his house to be as normal as possible.
Meanwhile in LulzSec, a new member joined the hackers; a hacker named Ryan. He was quite a skilled hacker, assisting in the hosting of Encyclopedia Dramatica and made his online life look like that of a millionaire (in real life, he wasn't really rich). Despite a few mischievous deeds he did in the past (and believe me, there were a few that involved Anonymous), Topiary became quickly interested in Ryan, and welcomed him to the team. While doing so, he also managed to do something that he wanted the Anons to do from a long time ago; make their hacking raids more interesting (making prank calls, intercating with the public, etc). This idea made LulzSec more interesting to the public, and also resulted in more followers (LulzSec, of course, stayed incognito).
Ryan also played a part in the hacks; he possessed an extremely powerful botnet that was capable of hacking a ton of different websites, such as the gaming company Bethesda. The team also used the botnet to help Julian Assange (if you remember, he was a founding member of WikiLeaks) and give him a bit of relief. How? They attacked the CIA, who, by some weird coincidence, was one of WikiLeaks' hunters at the time. In response to this selfless act, Assange and his "assistant" decided to meet with Sabu (I don't know if at this time, he was still under the command of the FBI or not) and Topiary about further operations.
Finally, LulzSec settled upon joining forces with WikiLeaks, searching through encrypted files for any sign of government corruption for Assange and the WikiLeaks team. And with that the chapter ends. What do you think will happen next? Will the alliance carry on any further? Or will LulzSec eventually go back to their normal business? Find out in the next summary, OK? Hope you guys aren't too mad! Goodbye!
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 21
Hey people, and welcome back to more summaries of We Are Anonymous. In this chapter, LulzSec will proceed with their mischievous antics with more websites in the public. So many websites have been attacked by the hackers, what other website can be targeted? Well, we're about to find out! Here's what happened after the dust cleared from the recent Anon attack...
Kayla apparently had some trouble adjusting to the more "important" attacks for her team. She was more interested in assaulting LulzSec's nemesises such as the Jester and other rival hacker teams. What's new with the team? Well, LulzSec had just been placed on the NATO's and FBI's hit list, who are now officially hunting them down. The Pentagon had also issued an order (apparently because of the recent cyber-attacks) that any cyber-attack from other countries will be considered as an act of war and can be retaliated with traditional military forces.
Of course, the Anons were too used to this, they even made fun of their hunters. In fact, they replaced one of the FBI's websites with a video of a drunk man in a disco. They also did a few more hilarious changes to the authorities' websites, such as calling NATO's initials "National Agency of Tiny Origamis". Yep, that's just how mad the Anons were about the American authorities treating hacking as an act of war. They even hacked an FBI website, leaked its user base and defaced it (the website, that is). This wasn't actually an act of vengeance toward America's "act of war" law about hacking, although because of correct timing of the attack the media said it was.
Meanwhile, Hijazi (remember that white hat hacker company from the last chapter?) was at the breaking point. LulzSec had information about Hijazi about some cruel act that Hijazi was involved in. At first, the white hat refused to pay the Anons to keep silent, but eventually he gave in. Also, LulzSec had declared war on the United States (or at least part of it). To do this, they utilized a virtual private network to communicate undercover. However, there were some leaks in LulzSec's operation. For example, there were a few security leaks that proved that LulzSec wasn't exactly the skilled hacking team, but fortunately the flaws weren't big enough to stain LulzSec's reputation as a legendary hacking team.
There were also other hackers in the military who showed that they meant business; thye were often close to compromising some of LulzSec's members (fortunately for them, the identities weren't confirmed). Meanwhile around America, there were rumors about LulzSec's origins. Some people said that LulzSec hailed from China as agents for a cyber-war against the States. And then for some reason, the LulzSec members received Bitcoin donations. The donations were $7800 in total, which caused some commotion in the group. Nevertheless, the hackers decided to split up the money and also used it to invest for their new servers.
However, some bad news followed the attacks; some cops approached Sabu's house and arrested the hacker, causing a big loss to LulzSec. The media was also catching up to what was happening in LulzSec, such as the Fox assault and a few other impressive raids. Meanwhile, the Anons were noticing something fishy about what was happening. They thought that all these activities in the public was the beginning of something bad and was about to get worse. For a start, Sabu was arrested (fortunately, he was arrested for other crimes than hacking, so at least his real profession wasn't compromised yet), and LulzSec had been a whole lot less confident in hacking without him.
Sabu arrested, and LulzSec hunted down by the authorities. And not just by old-timey policemen; we're talking FBI agents and the army. Sooner or later, the team's got to cave in, mainly in light of the things that have happened lately. Or will they rise and dodge the cops? Will they live to hack another day? Or will they finally be caught and sent to jail, just like Sabu? Find out in the next chapter. For now, GOODBYE!
Kayla apparently had some trouble adjusting to the more "important" attacks for her team. She was more interested in assaulting LulzSec's nemesises such as the Jester and other rival hacker teams. What's new with the team? Well, LulzSec had just been placed on the NATO's and FBI's hit list, who are now officially hunting them down. The Pentagon had also issued an order (apparently because of the recent cyber-attacks) that any cyber-attack from other countries will be considered as an act of war and can be retaliated with traditional military forces.
Of course, the Anons were too used to this, they even made fun of their hunters. In fact, they replaced one of the FBI's websites with a video of a drunk man in a disco. They also did a few more hilarious changes to the authorities' websites, such as calling NATO's initials "National Agency of Tiny Origamis". Yep, that's just how mad the Anons were about the American authorities treating hacking as an act of war. They even hacked an FBI website, leaked its user base and defaced it (the website, that is). This wasn't actually an act of vengeance toward America's "act of war" law about hacking, although because of correct timing of the attack the media said it was.
Meanwhile, Hijazi (remember that white hat hacker company from the last chapter?) was at the breaking point. LulzSec had information about Hijazi about some cruel act that Hijazi was involved in. At first, the white hat refused to pay the Anons to keep silent, but eventually he gave in. Also, LulzSec had declared war on the United States (or at least part of it). To do this, they utilized a virtual private network to communicate undercover. However, there were some leaks in LulzSec's operation. For example, there were a few security leaks that proved that LulzSec wasn't exactly the skilled hacking team, but fortunately the flaws weren't big enough to stain LulzSec's reputation as a legendary hacking team.
There were also other hackers in the military who showed that they meant business; thye were often close to compromising some of LulzSec's members (fortunately for them, the identities weren't confirmed). Meanwhile around America, there were rumors about LulzSec's origins. Some people said that LulzSec hailed from China as agents for a cyber-war against the States. And then for some reason, the LulzSec members received Bitcoin donations. The donations were $7800 in total, which caused some commotion in the group. Nevertheless, the hackers decided to split up the money and also used it to invest for their new servers.
However, some bad news followed the attacks; some cops approached Sabu's house and arrested the hacker, causing a big loss to LulzSec. The media was also catching up to what was happening in LulzSec, such as the Fox assault and a few other impressive raids. Meanwhile, the Anons were noticing something fishy about what was happening. They thought that all these activities in the public was the beginning of something bad and was about to get worse. For a start, Sabu was arrested (fortunately, he was arrested for other crimes than hacking, so at least his real profession wasn't compromised yet), and LulzSec had been a whole lot less confident in hacking without him.
Sabu arrested, and LulzSec hunted down by the authorities. And not just by old-timey policemen; we're talking FBI agents and the army. Sooner or later, the team's got to cave in, mainly in light of the things that have happened lately. Or will they rise and dodge the cops? Will they live to hack another day? Or will they finally be caught and sent to jail, just like Sabu? Find out in the next chapter. For now, GOODBYE!
Sunday, April 27, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 20
Hey people, and welcome back to more summaries of We Are Anonymous. Where we left off, LulzSec just pulled off an impressive assault on LulzSec's enemies. We were left at a cliffhanging conclusion; what will the Anons do next? Well, here it is; the moment we've all been waiting for. Today we're going to find out what happens in chapter 20, so without further ado, let's get straight to it!
The chapter starts off with LulzSec's list of targets getting larger and larger. More vulnerabilities on the Internet were getting revealed. The Anons were looking for a BIG vulnerability that would lead to a BIG company being harrassed, and they found a great potential target; Sony. Sony, as you know, was a big company excelling in selling various home electronics such as TVs and the like. LulzSec decided to play around with it a bit by stealing a ton of data from Sony's servers: 3.5 million music coupons, user details of hundreds of thousands of Sony user accounts, there was a trove of treasure hidden under that website (underneath security that LulzSec was intelligent enough to crack).
For the hackers, Sony had a fatal weakness: First of all, all the passwords, usernames and classified user details were typed in PLAINTEXT. The only people who had encrypted user details were the admins, and this wasn't such a problem for LulzSec because they managed to decrypt it anyway. After robbing another batch of 3.5 million music coupons, taking care of the music codes and the admin tables, the hackers spent THREE WEEKS compiling their stolen databases and downloading them. After doing all these, they decided to get all this loot online, causing mass ruckus within the public.
The hackers have been working day and night on this massive project. No matter what time zone a hacker was in, he stayed up with other hackers' time zones to complete the job together. With the combined help of the hackers, they made a Sony database full of Sony products that weren't supposed to be released yet (you could imagine Sony's outrage). However, the hackers also had to protect their precious database from potential DDoS attacks from enemy hackers, which could prove fatal. Needless to say, they succeeded in doing this and received tons of other followers in their Twitter account.
After the Sony assault, LulzSec proceeded with stealing e-mails from other databases. Meanwhile, Emick reveals that another reason Sabu was resentful was because of a job he didn't succeed in qualifying. Sabu was also revealed to despise "white hat" hackers (hackers that did hacking for non-malicious reasons), apparently after a bad experience with them. This was the reason Sabu really wanted to qualify in a new assault on the Internet; Hijazi. Hijazi was known for hunting down malicious botnets, making a good sum of money doing so.
To do this, they decided to try a different technique: Misdirection. They posed as innocent people who gave tips to Hijazi. Sabu and Topiary played a big role in this. With the assistance of a new hacker named Fox, they managed to extort some data from Hijazi. The rest of the chapter was about LulzSec's discussion about how things were going on in the Web. Apparently they were discussing about any vulnerabilities on the Web and how they could exploit them.
Well, that concludes another day in the life of a typical LulzSec hacker. I wonder what other website they'll hack next? What new enemy will be lurking in the shadows for them? Well, we'll just have to find out in the next chapter. Goodbye for now!
Saturday, April 26, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 19
Hey guys, and today we are back with more We Are Anonymous summaries. Now at that last summary, I was leaving you at a cliffhanging point of the book; after their masive assault on the PBS network, the hackers' fate was unknown. At least until today. Today we are going to discover the fate of these legendary hackers and what happened to them next. So without further ado, why not we find out what DID happen to the Anons?
As you may have guessed, at the beginning of the chapter the Anons have received some newfound fame. With this newfound fame came a new and pretty powerful enemy; an ex-military hacker dubbed "The Jester". This hacker was known for his notoriety with Anonymous, mainly because of his participation in a recent DDoS attack on WikiLeaks. Shortly afterwards (for some unknown reason), he helped take down the Westboro Baptist Church's websites (remember that Church that patrolled around cities with signs saying "God Hates Fags" everywhere? Yep, that was them).
After the assault on PBS, the Anons decided they needed to "upgrade" their little hacking group. Firstly, they needed to add an IRC channel. This would act as their "mission control". They also needed to get EVEN MORE crew for their hacking antics, which were also getting bigger and better. And while they were at it, they decided to research a bit more about vulnerabilities on the web that they could attack and narrowed down the potential hackers that could join LulzSec (by the way, if you were wondering, the hackers refused to allow their friends to join LulzSec, mainly because they would want to leak the classified information all over the place).
After getting some veteran hackers to join their team, there was an attack on LulzSec; a Twitter account named FailSec had nested a few hundred followers, supposedly for any LulzSec haters. It turns out that the account was also used to give away hints leading to the team's whereabouts, eventually (if not stopped) leading to arrest. They discovered the perpetrator; Private Bradley Manning, who also attempted to stop the Anons from using LulzSec.com as an HQ.
The Anons then decided to go after the Jester, who has been an increasingly annoying pain in the butt over the last few days. He constantly attempted to compromise the Anons' identities, making him a priority target. For this, the Anons decided to launch a DoS attack on the pest and his minions. A DoS attack was basically a DDoS attack, only with the front "D" removed ("D" for "distributed"), so this meant that the DoS attack was piloted by A SINGLE computer instead of multiple ones, unlike a typical DDoS attack.
However, the hacker piloting the DoS attack (just an FYI, his online name's Storm) was also assisted by a few other elite hackers such as Topiary and Kayla. These hackers were responsible for checking out the status of the downed websites every now and then. To make a long hacking operation short, the hackers managed to take down the Jester's (and his followers') websites and leak it on the Internet (before they leaked the website, they put the website back on. Yes, you can actually do this).
With that, another annoying website on the Internet has been downed by the skilled hackers. They then issued to LulzSec to keep their team as tight-knit as possible. However, popularity was rising, and you know the rule; more popularity, more criticism. But as we have seen with all the previous stunts the Anons have pulled, we're pretty sure they'll make it out of this one all alive and well. Or will they? Well, the only way to find out is... (drumroll) FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! But for now, goodbye!
As you may have guessed, at the beginning of the chapter the Anons have received some newfound fame. With this newfound fame came a new and pretty powerful enemy; an ex-military hacker dubbed "The Jester". This hacker was known for his notoriety with Anonymous, mainly because of his participation in a recent DDoS attack on WikiLeaks. Shortly afterwards (for some unknown reason), he helped take down the Westboro Baptist Church's websites (remember that Church that patrolled around cities with signs saying "God Hates Fags" everywhere? Yep, that was them).
After the assault on PBS, the Anons decided they needed to "upgrade" their little hacking group. Firstly, they needed to add an IRC channel. This would act as their "mission control". They also needed to get EVEN MORE crew for their hacking antics, which were also getting bigger and better. And while they were at it, they decided to research a bit more about vulnerabilities on the web that they could attack and narrowed down the potential hackers that could join LulzSec (by the way, if you were wondering, the hackers refused to allow their friends to join LulzSec, mainly because they would want to leak the classified information all over the place).
After getting some veteran hackers to join their team, there was an attack on LulzSec; a Twitter account named FailSec had nested a few hundred followers, supposedly for any LulzSec haters. It turns out that the account was also used to give away hints leading to the team's whereabouts, eventually (if not stopped) leading to arrest. They discovered the perpetrator; Private Bradley Manning, who also attempted to stop the Anons from using LulzSec.com as an HQ.
The Anons then decided to go after the Jester, who has been an increasingly annoying pain in the butt over the last few days. He constantly attempted to compromise the Anons' identities, making him a priority target. For this, the Anons decided to launch a DoS attack on the pest and his minions. A DoS attack was basically a DDoS attack, only with the front "D" removed ("D" for "distributed"), so this meant that the DoS attack was piloted by A SINGLE computer instead of multiple ones, unlike a typical DDoS attack.
However, the hacker piloting the DoS attack (just an FYI, his online name's Storm) was also assisted by a few other elite hackers such as Topiary and Kayla. These hackers were responsible for checking out the status of the downed websites every now and then. To make a long hacking operation short, the hackers managed to take down the Jester's (and his followers') websites and leak it on the Internet (before they leaked the website, they put the website back on. Yes, you can actually do this).
With that, another annoying website on the Internet has been downed by the skilled hackers. They then issued to LulzSec to keep their team as tight-knit as possible. However, popularity was rising, and you know the rule; more popularity, more criticism. But as we have seen with all the previous stunts the Anons have pulled, we're pretty sure they'll make it out of this one all alive and well. Or will they? Well, the only way to find out is... (drumroll) FIND OUT IN THE NEXT CHAPTER! But for now, goodbye!
Thursday, April 24, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 18
Hey guys and girls, and welcome back to more We Are Anonymous summaries. After the rise of a tiny hacking group, what will they do next? Will they prove their immense power online or wait for the right time to strike? Well, I'm not going to leave you guys in suspense now that we're going to find out anyway, so this is what happened:
The chapter opens with the Anons planning to use Twitter as a weapon to promote their popularity in the online world. (in case you forgot, this new hacking group was named "LulzSec") "How?" you may ask. Well, that's simple. Remember that small attack on Fox that Anonymous conducted a chapter ago? That's how. LulzSec started to offend Fox publicly, calling the online world and Anonymous to join in on insulting Fox. This way, they could attract a ton of attention from many people around the Internet, and in no time LulzSec received tons of followers.
LulzSec was getting so popular, even ex-Anonymous haters joined their Twitter. One of these amazing examples were Aaron Barr (yes, you heard that right. The exact same dude who was the victim of the first Anonymous attack in history), who had quit his job as a security executive and turned into a LulzSec supporter. In fact, as a supporter of Anonymous, he helped the Anons compromise three thousand ATM machines, stole Fox databases, and many other things that proved invaluable for the Anons. Quite amazing for a guy who used to work in an Internet security company.
Meanwhile, Topiary was maintaining a tighter relationship with Kayla. Kayla was teaching Topiary new tips and tricks on how to cheat the Internet. In no time, Topiary has stocked his operating systems with a ridiculously huge amount of MP3 files (he filled the disks with up to 40 gigabytes worth of MP3 files), and had thousands of songs on his MP3 player. And this was all thanks to Kayla. Despite his relationship with Kayla, though, Topiary was still mystified with Kayla's methods of avoiding detection on the Internet (for instance, she would fool people into mistaking her current time zone by saying at 2:00 p.m.; "Just woke up, early morning XD).
While all this stuff was happening in the world of LulzSec, The Anons discovered a PBS news program named "Frontline" showed a documentary about a topic the Anons really detested: The "crimes" of Julian Assange (who, by the way, is the creator of WikiLeaks). For this, the hackers launched an assault on Frontline's PBS network and wreaked havoc; They added irrelevant memes on the website, went prank-calling the PBS networks and other mischievous acts. Sure enough, this was sufficient to convince the online world that Frontline had been dealt with.
To end the chapter, the Anons decided to make sure that Frontline had been dealt with once and for all. For this, they prepared for the grand finale, which was to make a final web page insulting Frontline. They timed this attack perfectly, for it was Labor Day, the day where hardly any exciting events happened. This was a slow day for the newspapers, so at the mention of Frontline's current condition, the news were eager to (possibly) exaggerate it and show this news to the world, which also meant the people who didn't really use the Internet.
Another day, another successful attack. At this rate, LulzSec would attract the attention of the world in a matter of DAYS. I wonder what'll happen next? Another attack? Or will they lay low to evade the authorities and keep them off their trail? Well, we'll find out later. Goodbye for now!
The chapter opens with the Anons planning to use Twitter as a weapon to promote their popularity in the online world. (in case you forgot, this new hacking group was named "LulzSec") "How?" you may ask. Well, that's simple. Remember that small attack on Fox that Anonymous conducted a chapter ago? That's how. LulzSec started to offend Fox publicly, calling the online world and Anonymous to join in on insulting Fox. This way, they could attract a ton of attention from many people around the Internet, and in no time LulzSec received tons of followers.
LulzSec was getting so popular, even ex-Anonymous haters joined their Twitter. One of these amazing examples were Aaron Barr (yes, you heard that right. The exact same dude who was the victim of the first Anonymous attack in history), who had quit his job as a security executive and turned into a LulzSec supporter. In fact, as a supporter of Anonymous, he helped the Anons compromise three thousand ATM machines, stole Fox databases, and many other things that proved invaluable for the Anons. Quite amazing for a guy who used to work in an Internet security company.
Meanwhile, Topiary was maintaining a tighter relationship with Kayla. Kayla was teaching Topiary new tips and tricks on how to cheat the Internet. In no time, Topiary has stocked his operating systems with a ridiculously huge amount of MP3 files (he filled the disks with up to 40 gigabytes worth of MP3 files), and had thousands of songs on his MP3 player. And this was all thanks to Kayla. Despite his relationship with Kayla, though, Topiary was still mystified with Kayla's methods of avoiding detection on the Internet (for instance, she would fool people into mistaking her current time zone by saying at 2:00 p.m.; "Just woke up, early morning XD).
While all this stuff was happening in the world of LulzSec, The Anons discovered a PBS news program named "Frontline" showed a documentary about a topic the Anons really detested: The "crimes" of Julian Assange (who, by the way, is the creator of WikiLeaks). For this, the hackers launched an assault on Frontline's PBS network and wreaked havoc; They added irrelevant memes on the website, went prank-calling the PBS networks and other mischievous acts. Sure enough, this was sufficient to convince the online world that Frontline had been dealt with.
To end the chapter, the Anons decided to make sure that Frontline had been dealt with once and for all. For this, they prepared for the grand finale, which was to make a final web page insulting Frontline. They timed this attack perfectly, for it was Labor Day, the day where hardly any exciting events happened. This was a slow day for the newspapers, so at the mention of Frontline's current condition, the news were eager to (possibly) exaggerate it and show this news to the world, which also meant the people who didn't really use the Internet.
Another day, another successful attack. At this rate, LulzSec would attract the attention of the world in a matter of DAYS. I wonder what'll happen next? Another attack? Or will they lay low to evade the authorities and keep them off their trail? Well, we'll find out later. Goodbye for now!
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 17
Hey everybody, and welcome back to more We Are Anonymous summaries. Today we are going to discover what happened to that tight-knit, isolated Anonymous team that had no choice but to quit their group. Are they going to get pay those people who ratted their beloved hacker organization back, or are they going to lay low until they think the time is right? Well, don't let me stop you, let's find out!
The chapter starts off with our fellow hackers Topiary, Sabu and Kayla realizing that with all the chaos going on in their once controlled group Anonymous, it was time to turn their tiny group of hackers into a massive hacking organization, much like Anonymous used to be. To start, they decided to represent Anonymous by attacking the oppressors of free expression in order to start bringing order to the online world.
Kayla was a vital part of the group, being the one controlling a powerful web script (for those of you who don't know, a web script is a program that automatically scans websites on the Internet for ANY sign of vulnerability, any sign at all. The results were great. For instance, in the course of two days the script had already managed to come up with hundreds of thousands of user details on the Internet, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The next step was to recruit more hackers to join their cause in order to turn their tiny group of hackers into a populated community of hackers. For starters, they recruited people who "either didn't know what they were doing or solely wanted to steal from people". They also called in people who were having "family issues", any hacker that might fit in a description of a hacker. As a result, Anonymous finally had a good team of skilled up and ready to go against the world.
Then the hackers attacked the TV channel Fox, and discovered that the channel contained 73 thousand e-mail addresses and passwords for the employees and journalists in Fox who wanted to receive updates from the famous talent show The X Factor. The Anons decided to nest in there for a while, leeching tons of data from Fox while they were at it. "Why were the Anons attacking Fox?" you may ask. Well, the answer is that this channel was responsible for being a "right-wing media force" in the online world, and this was one thing that the online world really despised.
It took a week for Fox's IT team to notice the breach in the system, and by then the website was already heavily leaked. Topiary then quoted that the new hacking group was "more hardworking and respectful". Soon the hacking group was getting famous, attracting all kinds of attention from the public. It wasn't all day that the online world saw a small group of hackers capable of hacking famed websites and hacking for the people. They knew that this group was Anonymous material.
After all the dust cleared with Fox, it was the moment that the hackers were waiting for; time to reveal themselves to the world. They revealed themselves to the public as Lulzec, a "community of hackers who hated the drabness of the cyber-community". The online world now obviously knew that these new hackers were to change the world.
So what will happen next? Will the hackers continue their route or dump it in the sake of keeping their notoriety low? Well, whatever happens next, we'll find out later in the next chapter summary of We Are Anonymous. But for now, it's time to close this post. Goodbye!
The chapter starts off with our fellow hackers Topiary, Sabu and Kayla realizing that with all the chaos going on in their once controlled group Anonymous, it was time to turn their tiny group of hackers into a massive hacking organization, much like Anonymous used to be. To start, they decided to represent Anonymous by attacking the oppressors of free expression in order to start bringing order to the online world.
Kayla was a vital part of the group, being the one controlling a powerful web script (for those of you who don't know, a web script is a program that automatically scans websites on the Internet for ANY sign of vulnerability, any sign at all. The results were great. For instance, in the course of two days the script had already managed to come up with hundreds of thousands of user details on the Internet, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
The next step was to recruit more hackers to join their cause in order to turn their tiny group of hackers into a populated community of hackers. For starters, they recruited people who "either didn't know what they were doing or solely wanted to steal from people". They also called in people who were having "family issues", any hacker that might fit in a description of a hacker. As a result, Anonymous finally had a good team of skilled up and ready to go against the world.
Then the hackers attacked the TV channel Fox, and discovered that the channel contained 73 thousand e-mail addresses and passwords for the employees and journalists in Fox who wanted to receive updates from the famous talent show The X Factor. The Anons decided to nest in there for a while, leeching tons of data from Fox while they were at it. "Why were the Anons attacking Fox?" you may ask. Well, the answer is that this channel was responsible for being a "right-wing media force" in the online world, and this was one thing that the online world really despised.
It took a week for Fox's IT team to notice the breach in the system, and by then the website was already heavily leaked. Topiary then quoted that the new hacking group was "more hardworking and respectful". Soon the hacking group was getting famous, attracting all kinds of attention from the public. It wasn't all day that the online world saw a small group of hackers capable of hacking famed websites and hacking for the people. They knew that this group was Anonymous material.
After all the dust cleared with Fox, it was the moment that the hackers were waiting for; time to reveal themselves to the world. They revealed themselves to the public as Lulzec, a "community of hackers who hated the drabness of the cyber-community". The online world now obviously knew that these new hackers were to change the world.
So what will happen next? Will the hackers continue their route or dump it in the sake of keeping their notoriety low? Well, whatever happens next, we'll find out later in the next chapter summary of We Are Anonymous. But for now, it's time to close this post. Goodbye!
Thursday, April 17, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 16
Hey people, and welcome back to more We Are Anonymous summaries. In this chapter, The ex-Anonymous members in the previous chapter have started to think of starting a revolution against those who have leaked their identities, insulted them, or did anything that was considered treacherous by the hackers. Topiary, Sabu and a few other hackers have decided to take revenge on those who have done bad to them. This is their story...
The story starts from Topiary's point of view. He is currently living the life of an Internet-less person, which meant he had more things to be done at home now that not much can be done online. He had time to iron his clothes, read long books, and most importantly, study at a local college. Some days he'd just sit in an Indian restaurant and treat himself with some curry and fries, bread and beer. He was now more active than he usually was now that he was away from the computer screen more often (although sometimes he DID spend some time at the computer, it wasn't much, just a few stuff related to social media and text messages), going out more and getting more activities done.
Meanwhile, Sabu got into a bit of a jam in his life. The feds almost busted him for looking extremely similar to "someone they were looking for", who was right there in front of their faces. The cops examined him and said that he looked extremely alike to the suspect (in the photo, Monsegur DID look like the guy in the photo, with the same tattoos and a few other similar characteristics). Sabu, who looked almost exactly alike to the suspect, was about to be brought in to the police station. Fortunately for the hacker, right when the cops were about to get him in the car, their radio said that they found ANOTHER "boy" who matched the suspect's picture. With that, Sabu was off the hook.
After that close call, Sabu decided to take a look at the facts about Anonymous. In his investigation, he realized that most people thought of the Anons as criminals, heroes, or just hackers looking for thrills. Sabu wanted to help the Anons make a project so big, it would change the way the skeptic people think about them. For this assignment, he would need a team of elite hackers capable of taking the heat of the giant project, and he knew just where to find these.
He invited Topiary and Kayla into the field, telling them that their assignment was to hack the FBI. Both hackers were excited with the idea of the project, and jumped right in. Together the three elite hackers mucked up the passwords of the FBI's important members' passwords. They would hack into their accounts and start making up new passwords (which, thanks to some hacking securities, would take up quite some time to fix up) while leeching e-mails (tens of thousands of them) that would give them access to PayPal accounts of FBI users. This was the perfect crime, and soon they were about to go public.
So that's the end of chapter 16. What will happen next, I wonder? Will the Anons succeed in showing off their great crime? Or will they (almost) get busted... AGAIN? Well, that'll come in the next summary. Goodbye for now!
The story starts from Topiary's point of view. He is currently living the life of an Internet-less person, which meant he had more things to be done at home now that not much can be done online. He had time to iron his clothes, read long books, and most importantly, study at a local college. Some days he'd just sit in an Indian restaurant and treat himself with some curry and fries, bread and beer. He was now more active than he usually was now that he was away from the computer screen more often (although sometimes he DID spend some time at the computer, it wasn't much, just a few stuff related to social media and text messages), going out more and getting more activities done.
Meanwhile, Sabu got into a bit of a jam in his life. The feds almost busted him for looking extremely similar to "someone they were looking for", who was right there in front of their faces. The cops examined him and said that he looked extremely alike to the suspect (in the photo, Monsegur DID look like the guy in the photo, with the same tattoos and a few other similar characteristics). Sabu, who looked almost exactly alike to the suspect, was about to be brought in to the police station. Fortunately for the hacker, right when the cops were about to get him in the car, their radio said that they found ANOTHER "boy" who matched the suspect's picture. With that, Sabu was off the hook.
After that close call, Sabu decided to take a look at the facts about Anonymous. In his investigation, he realized that most people thought of the Anons as criminals, heroes, or just hackers looking for thrills. Sabu wanted to help the Anons make a project so big, it would change the way the skeptic people think about them. For this assignment, he would need a team of elite hackers capable of taking the heat of the giant project, and he knew just where to find these.
He invited Topiary and Kayla into the field, telling them that their assignment was to hack the FBI. Both hackers were excited with the idea of the project, and jumped right in. Together the three elite hackers mucked up the passwords of the FBI's important members' passwords. They would hack into their accounts and start making up new passwords (which, thanks to some hacking securities, would take up quite some time to fix up) while leeching e-mails (tens of thousands of them) that would give them access to PayPal accounts of FBI users. This was the perfect crime, and soon they were about to go public.
So that's the end of chapter 16. What will happen next, I wonder? Will the Anons succeed in showing off their great crime? Or will they (almost) get busted... AGAIN? Well, that'll come in the next summary. Goodbye for now!
Sunday, April 13, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 15
Hello and welcome back everyone! Today I am going to continue the We Are Anonymous summaries. This time, some of our heroes (if that's the right word) have either been exposed by Jennifer Emick's anti-hacker group or bored of Anonymous's typical activities around the Internet. They have now formed their own tight-knit group of hackers who are "even more secret" than Anonymous. You know what? I should stop rambling on and just tell you the story. Here it is...
The story opens with Topiary being bored of the everyday activities in his hacking group, and decided tthat he wanted to move on to something more entertaining, something he REALLY lend a hand. Because of these reasons, he decided to take a small break from all the hacking activities in Anonymous and also from his computer, and decided to move house from his small home in a remote island and go to a place where hee could study at college and get a job.
However, Topiary wasn't the only one who planned to break away from Anonymous. He was accompanied by his close hacker friends (Sabu, Kayla and a few other hackers were also either bored/at risk of being discovered/already discovered/all of the above, causing them to break away from the Anons and join Topiary undercover) and together, they took refuge in Sabu's own server. It was one of the only safe places for such a tight group of hackers to operate, after all.
The server was as properly equipped for hacking as Batman is properly equipped for fighting crime. The server had its own IRC channel (to communicate with each other), acted as the hackers' own HQ, it had everything a lone group of hackers would require for their deeds of "justice". Heck, it even had their own place to post hacking operations (although not as refined as the Anons' "mission control", it still does the job for a group of isolated hackers). It was like Anonymous, only with less members.
Turns out being away from such a well-known group of hackers like Anonymous had its advantages. For one, The IRC operators couldn't turn you in to the feds. As a matter of fact, the Anons started to mistrust IRC operators for ratting out a few Anonymous members. All around the world, Anonymous was losing people. By June of 2011, at least 79 Anons from 8 countries were arrested under accusation of being connected with Anonymous.
Meanwhile, the small ex-Anonymous group was left untouched by the authorities. And to cover up his notoriety online, Topiary made up an "accidentally leaked" Internet log which discussed about his "recent arrest" in his house. This way, on the Web there'd be a big rumor that'd probably keep people off his track (at least for now) and he could continue his hacking activities. He plotted this with some fellow hackers who agreed to assist their troubled brother.
It seemed that Topiary and his friends made the right decision to stay in their small group. They heard that Anonymous hackers are no longer brave enough to sign into their IRC channels. An IRC operator ratted out the names of 653 nicknames that belonged to Anonymous, and you could already guess the mayhem this has caused. Ever since then, nobody was brave enough to operate IRC in Anonymous again.
So how long will Topiary & friends hold out? How long will it take for them to decide whether it's safe to return to their original home? Find out at the next chapter, some other day. Goodbye for now!
The story opens with Topiary being bored of the everyday activities in his hacking group, and decided tthat he wanted to move on to something more entertaining, something he REALLY lend a hand. Because of these reasons, he decided to take a small break from all the hacking activities in Anonymous and also from his computer, and decided to move house from his small home in a remote island and go to a place where hee could study at college and get a job.
However, Topiary wasn't the only one who planned to break away from Anonymous. He was accompanied by his close hacker friends (Sabu, Kayla and a few other hackers were also either bored/at risk of being discovered/already discovered/all of the above, causing them to break away from the Anons and join Topiary undercover) and together, they took refuge in Sabu's own server. It was one of the only safe places for such a tight group of hackers to operate, after all.
The server was as properly equipped for hacking as Batman is properly equipped for fighting crime. The server had its own IRC channel (to communicate with each other), acted as the hackers' own HQ, it had everything a lone group of hackers would require for their deeds of "justice". Heck, it even had their own place to post hacking operations (although not as refined as the Anons' "mission control", it still does the job for a group of isolated hackers). It was like Anonymous, only with less members.
Turns out being away from such a well-known group of hackers like Anonymous had its advantages. For one, The IRC operators couldn't turn you in to the feds. As a matter of fact, the Anons started to mistrust IRC operators for ratting out a few Anonymous members. All around the world, Anonymous was losing people. By June of 2011, at least 79 Anons from 8 countries were arrested under accusation of being connected with Anonymous.
Meanwhile, the small ex-Anonymous group was left untouched by the authorities. And to cover up his notoriety online, Topiary made up an "accidentally leaked" Internet log which discussed about his "recent arrest" in his house. This way, on the Web there'd be a big rumor that'd probably keep people off his track (at least for now) and he could continue his hacking activities. He plotted this with some fellow hackers who agreed to assist their troubled brother.
It seemed that Topiary and his friends made the right decision to stay in their small group. They heard that Anonymous hackers are no longer brave enough to sign into their IRC channels. An IRC operator ratted out the names of 653 nicknames that belonged to Anonymous, and you could already guess the mayhem this has caused. Ever since then, nobody was brave enough to operate IRC in Anonymous again.
So how long will Topiary & friends hold out? How long will it take for them to decide whether it's safe to return to their original home? Find out at the next chapter, some other day. Goodbye for now!
Thursday, April 10, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 14
Hey people, today I'm going to present to you another We Are Anonymous, and this time we're looking at a different point of view; this time we're peering from the eyes of Jennifer Emick, the Anon hater who has sworn to reveal their true identities and intentions. Without further ado, let's get this summary started already!
Emick first started her time online as a cyber-cop by arresting the users of LOIC (most people didn't really care about the fact that using LOIC could land them in the big house) and other illegal softwares related to hacking. With Emick's assistance, the government would later issue 40 search warrants in the United States, which was followed by the arrest of 16 suspects (yes, I realize that; so early in the chapter and Emick had already accomplished so much).
Then came the discovery of another hacker organization; a group named DigitalGangsters. They had hacked into the personal accounts of several famous celebrities and high-ranking officials of America (among those were Obama's official Twittter account). There was also another important event that happened as well; a hacker named YTCracker has decided to join forces with Emick to take down Anonymous, who, like Emick, also thought that the Anons were a despicable organization who were misunderstood as "heroes" by the public and were actually wolves in sheepskin.
However, the Anons were also aware about YTCracker's rivalry with them. Kayla, for instance, was determined to knock this opponent out of the competition by sending YTCracker insults about being hacked by a 16-year old girl (this actually happened back when Kayla was 16, but let's not get to that). However, this was not enough for the hacker to relent. While all the quarreling happened, Emick was still busy doing what she'd usually do on her computer, making more progress.
Emick was so absorbed in turning in the Anons that she hardly spent time outside her computer. She'd usually get her kids to make dinner for her while she gets more leads on the Anons. Everyone else was busy mingling around the house while she was in her office along with her files, notebooks, desk lamps, all the bells and whistles. She'd usually be seen tracking down IP addresses in hopes of locating an Anonymous member lurking in there.
Emick was close to tracking down Sabu, who was overconfident about his secrecy online. Without much trouble, she tracked down "Hector Xavier Monsegur" (which, if you remember, is Sabu's real name), as Sabu didn't take much effort into covering this name up, thinking that there were so many people with the name "Hector Monsegur" on the Internet. Needless to say, this was how Emick managed to leak Sabu's true identity to the public.
However, the Anons heard about Emick's treasure trove of info about the Anons' personal information that could destroy their online lives. They had to stop Emick from unleashing all this info to the public so they could stay incognito. But will the hackers succeed in doing so? And if so, how were they going to keep the cat in the bag? Anonymous was trying as hard as they could to cover up their identities. But will they live to hack another day? We'll find out later in the next chapter of We Are Anonymous, shall we?
Emick first started her time online as a cyber-cop by arresting the users of LOIC (most people didn't really care about the fact that using LOIC could land them in the big house) and other illegal softwares related to hacking. With Emick's assistance, the government would later issue 40 search warrants in the United States, which was followed by the arrest of 16 suspects (yes, I realize that; so early in the chapter and Emick had already accomplished so much).
Then came the discovery of another hacker organization; a group named DigitalGangsters. They had hacked into the personal accounts of several famous celebrities and high-ranking officials of America (among those were Obama's official Twittter account). There was also another important event that happened as well; a hacker named YTCracker has decided to join forces with Emick to take down Anonymous, who, like Emick, also thought that the Anons were a despicable organization who were misunderstood as "heroes" by the public and were actually wolves in sheepskin.
However, the Anons were also aware about YTCracker's rivalry with them. Kayla, for instance, was determined to knock this opponent out of the competition by sending YTCracker insults about being hacked by a 16-year old girl (this actually happened back when Kayla was 16, but let's not get to that). However, this was not enough for the hacker to relent. While all the quarreling happened, Emick was still busy doing what she'd usually do on her computer, making more progress.
Emick was so absorbed in turning in the Anons that she hardly spent time outside her computer. She'd usually get her kids to make dinner for her while she gets more leads on the Anons. Everyone else was busy mingling around the house while she was in her office along with her files, notebooks, desk lamps, all the bells and whistles. She'd usually be seen tracking down IP addresses in hopes of locating an Anonymous member lurking in there.
Emick was close to tracking down Sabu, who was overconfident about his secrecy online. Without much trouble, she tracked down "Hector Xavier Monsegur" (which, if you remember, is Sabu's real name), as Sabu didn't take much effort into covering this name up, thinking that there were so many people with the name "Hector Monsegur" on the Internet. Needless to say, this was how Emick managed to leak Sabu's true identity to the public.
However, the Anons heard about Emick's treasure trove of info about the Anons' personal information that could destroy their online lives. They had to stop Emick from unleashing all this info to the public so they could stay incognito. But will the hackers succeed in doing so? And if so, how were they going to keep the cat in the bag? Anonymous was trying as hard as they could to cover up their identities. But will they live to hack another day? We'll find out later in the next chapter of We Are Anonymous, shall we?
Monday, April 7, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 13
Hey guys, and we're back with more We Are Anonymous. This time, we're going to look more into the world of the almost-uncovered identity of Topiary. In this chapter, Topiary will try his best to cover his identity from the public, in fear of having his identity compromised and his hacking organization leaked. It won't be easy, though; He will be hounded by media moguls and eager reporters, but will he manage to send off these people in the other direction? Or will they instead manage to leak his identity to the world? Let's find out, shall we?
The chapter starts off with Topiary not exactly being in top condition after what happened to him earlier in the previous chapter (for those of you who didn't read chapter 12, Topiary went to an interview where he spoke to the interviewers via a kind of "speaker" that was used so the interviewers wouldn't see his face. However, he didn't alter his voice or change it in any way, which has been haunting him lately because of the fact that his voice may be discerned as Jake Davis, his alter ego), and the only way he could distract himself from the discomforting thoughts was by looking at Aaron Barr's e-mails although the other Anonymous members had moved onto something else.
It turned out that Topiary's sudden interest in Barr's e-mails was caused by a 29-year old freelance writer named Barrett Brown, who was interested in the business of exposing government corruption. As a matter of fact, Brown was also interested in Barr's corrupted e-mails, downloading a batch (23,000 e-mails) of the infected files from the Internet, eager to investigate a wider case of corruption, if any. Topiary was also interested in the infected e-mails as well, causing him to form quite a close relationship to Brown, joining the reporter on Skype chats about how the investigation on the e-mails were going so far. Topiary was so obsessed in the chats that he'd keep it on for a few days straight.
Brown was also interested in the Anons' new method in hacking (encouraged by Topiary's own hacking techniques that had made him so popular in the last few chapters); Anonymous didn't want hacking to just be a typical raid any longer; they also want the assault on the website to be fun and exciting, which was what caught Brown's attention in the hacking group. The reporter wanted to get Anonymous involved in the long-term research of the organization. Even worse, Brown even tried to get the members of Anonymous ON THE EVENING NEWS, which made things a lot harder.
In no time, the name "Barrett Brown" was passed around the journalists who covered Anonymous as their research subjects (or maybe, being the reporters they are, article subjects) for his daring feats on the organization. And about Brown's request for the Anons to appear on the evening news? Amazingly, the Anons approved of their appearances on the news (although they didn't appear IN PERSON and not EVERY member of the Anons joined, at least they appeared on camera (no faces shown, of course) with a few representatives speaking for their bigger group).
You may be wondering what was the reason for Anonymous's relent to the media. According to Topiary, Brown "deserved a chance" and "isn't so bad and might be worth it in the end". Although not much is told about Anonymous's appearance on the evening news, we DO know that afterwards, Topiary and his Anon friends were given acces to more of Brown's (and HIS friends') leads on Barr's corrupted e-mails. With these e-mails, Anonymous just joined the many sides that were investigating on Aaron Barr's corrupted mail. Little did Anonymous know, the authorities just used the interview with Anonymous on the evening news to get more leads on the hackers.
As of late, Topiary has been in conflict with both sides of the law. On one hand, he was eager to divulge his inner feelings about his hacking life to the media. On the other hand, he also has a sense of secrecy for the organization he hacked for. At this time, he wasn't really sure which side to choose. What will happen in the next chapter, I wonder?
The chapter starts off with Topiary not exactly being in top condition after what happened to him earlier in the previous chapter (for those of you who didn't read chapter 12, Topiary went to an interview where he spoke to the interviewers via a kind of "speaker" that was used so the interviewers wouldn't see his face. However, he didn't alter his voice or change it in any way, which has been haunting him lately because of the fact that his voice may be discerned as Jake Davis, his alter ego), and the only way he could distract himself from the discomforting thoughts was by looking at Aaron Barr's e-mails although the other Anonymous members had moved onto something else.
It turned out that Topiary's sudden interest in Barr's e-mails was caused by a 29-year old freelance writer named Barrett Brown, who was interested in the business of exposing government corruption. As a matter of fact, Brown was also interested in Barr's corrupted e-mails, downloading a batch (23,000 e-mails) of the infected files from the Internet, eager to investigate a wider case of corruption, if any. Topiary was also interested in the infected e-mails as well, causing him to form quite a close relationship to Brown, joining the reporter on Skype chats about how the investigation on the e-mails were going so far. Topiary was so obsessed in the chats that he'd keep it on for a few days straight.
Brown was also interested in the Anons' new method in hacking (encouraged by Topiary's own hacking techniques that had made him so popular in the last few chapters); Anonymous didn't want hacking to just be a typical raid any longer; they also want the assault on the website to be fun and exciting, which was what caught Brown's attention in the hacking group. The reporter wanted to get Anonymous involved in the long-term research of the organization. Even worse, Brown even tried to get the members of Anonymous ON THE EVENING NEWS, which made things a lot harder.
In no time, the name "Barrett Brown" was passed around the journalists who covered Anonymous as their research subjects (or maybe, being the reporters they are, article subjects) for his daring feats on the organization. And about Brown's request for the Anons to appear on the evening news? Amazingly, the Anons approved of their appearances on the news (although they didn't appear IN PERSON and not EVERY member of the Anons joined, at least they appeared on camera (no faces shown, of course) with a few representatives speaking for their bigger group).
You may be wondering what was the reason for Anonymous's relent to the media. According to Topiary, Brown "deserved a chance" and "isn't so bad and might be worth it in the end". Although not much is told about Anonymous's appearance on the evening news, we DO know that afterwards, Topiary and his Anon friends were given acces to more of Brown's (and HIS friends') leads on Barr's corrupted e-mails. With these e-mails, Anonymous just joined the many sides that were investigating on Aaron Barr's corrupted mail. Little did Anonymous know, the authorities just used the interview with Anonymous on the evening news to get more leads on the hackers.
As of late, Topiary has been in conflict with both sides of the law. On one hand, he was eager to divulge his inner feelings about his hacking life to the media. On the other hand, he also has a sense of secrecy for the organization he hacked for. At this time, he wasn't really sure which side to choose. What will happen in the next chapter, I wonder?
Saturday, April 5, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 12
Heelo and welcome back guys! If you saw my last post, we are done with the first part of We Are Anonymous and are moving on to part two (and therefore, chapter 12) of the book. In this chapter, The Anons will encounter have a bit of a rough conversation with the media about their well-known deeds on the internet and basically, try to keep the fire under control. This is a rough summary of what happened during the media's attack on the hackers...
The story opens with Topiary's newly found fame on the Internet (actually, he was already originally famous, but he became EVEN MORE famous. Can you imagine that?). His reason for fame was because of his hacking technique; due to his cheerful and mischievous nature, he was loved by many Anonymous fans, who loved of his hacking (accompanied by his fun way of doing the hacking) ways. Every time Jake Davis logged on to Anonymous as "Topiary", he would get at least half a dozen e-mails by Topiary lovers filled with requests of the target Topiary should strike next.
Other than Topiary's newly found fame, the Anon fans also requested Anonymous to strike at Westboro Baptist Church (that's the second church already. What's wrong with some people?), which was known for flooding soldiers' funerals with giant signs saying "GOD HATES FAGS" (literally written in Caps Lock on the signs). Apparently this made the people mad, requesting Anonymous to dispatch of this "religious" church. Anonymous agreed to assault Westboro.
Soon the bell was rang. Some random guy posted a public e-mail on Anonymous's website. The e-mail said that Westboro will pay for being "graceless sociopaths" and "maniacal chauvinists". Soon Westboro sent back an e-mail to Anonymous saying "Bring it on!" and that Anonymous was a team of "pimple-faced nerds". Before long, the "assault" was turning into more of a cyberbully attack than an assault. Regardless of the never-ending insults, Anonymous managed to take down Westboro's key website, GodHatesFags.com, as well as other websites related to Westboro.
The David Pakman Show was a current affairs show that discussed mostly about what was going on in Westboro lately. Seeing Anonymous as an opportunity to discuss about Westboro's affairs with the hackers, Pakman (the owner of the show) decided to make an interview with the Anons' business with Westboro. Pakman interviewed Topiary (who they used as a representative for Anonymous) about Anonymous's business with Westboro. Topiary said to Pakman that they just took down two websites by Westboro so far; "YourPastorIsAWhore.com" and "GodHatesFags.com".
As for Topiary's response to the "crybaby hackers" letters from Westboro, Topiary said that Anonymous's response to the letter was mature (which Pakman's assistant responded to sarcastically for quite a along time) and that they only wanted to speak for the people and try their best not to go to war with Westboro. However, Pakman's assistant kept on insulting Anonymous throughout the interview with sarcastic comments and remarks that Anonymous will still stay a band of criminals no matter what deeds they did to the people. The assistant said that as long as the Anons griefed online websites, they would stay be online criminals and not forces of good.
The interview of Anonymous and Pakman (and his assistant) was posted on YouTube, with millions of views. Topiary's greatest fear was that his identity would be compromised during the interview. Since it was such a big event, he didn't use any voice-altering device for the interview or anything that would make his voice different or anything. Topiary made a mental note that Pakman's assistant should be targeted for griefing. It was time for Anonymous to shine.
Next time on We Are Anonymous, Topiary will be going through some coflicts witth his identity. The authorities, the cops, everyone would be chasing after him now. Will he live to hack another day or will this be the end of Jake Davis? We'll find out later in chapter 13 of We Are Anonymous. Until then, I'll be seeing you by (at least) tomorrow. Peace out!
The story opens with Topiary's newly found fame on the Internet (actually, he was already originally famous, but he became EVEN MORE famous. Can you imagine that?). His reason for fame was because of his hacking technique; due to his cheerful and mischievous nature, he was loved by many Anonymous fans, who loved of his hacking (accompanied by his fun way of doing the hacking) ways. Every time Jake Davis logged on to Anonymous as "Topiary", he would get at least half a dozen e-mails by Topiary lovers filled with requests of the target Topiary should strike next.
Other than Topiary's newly found fame, the Anon fans also requested Anonymous to strike at Westboro Baptist Church (that's the second church already. What's wrong with some people?), which was known for flooding soldiers' funerals with giant signs saying "GOD HATES FAGS" (literally written in Caps Lock on the signs). Apparently this made the people mad, requesting Anonymous to dispatch of this "religious" church. Anonymous agreed to assault Westboro.
Soon the bell was rang. Some random guy posted a public e-mail on Anonymous's website. The e-mail said that Westboro will pay for being "graceless sociopaths" and "maniacal chauvinists". Soon Westboro sent back an e-mail to Anonymous saying "Bring it on!" and that Anonymous was a team of "pimple-faced nerds". Before long, the "assault" was turning into more of a cyberbully attack than an assault. Regardless of the never-ending insults, Anonymous managed to take down Westboro's key website, GodHatesFags.com, as well as other websites related to Westboro.
The David Pakman Show was a current affairs show that discussed mostly about what was going on in Westboro lately. Seeing Anonymous as an opportunity to discuss about Westboro's affairs with the hackers, Pakman (the owner of the show) decided to make an interview with the Anons' business with Westboro. Pakman interviewed Topiary (who they used as a representative for Anonymous) about Anonymous's business with Westboro. Topiary said to Pakman that they just took down two websites by Westboro so far; "YourPastorIsAWhore.com" and "GodHatesFags.com".
As for Topiary's response to the "crybaby hackers" letters from Westboro, Topiary said that Anonymous's response to the letter was mature (which Pakman's assistant responded to sarcastically for quite a along time) and that they only wanted to speak for the people and try their best not to go to war with Westboro. However, Pakman's assistant kept on insulting Anonymous throughout the interview with sarcastic comments and remarks that Anonymous will still stay a band of criminals no matter what deeds they did to the people. The assistant said that as long as the Anons griefed online websites, they would stay be online criminals and not forces of good.
The interview of Anonymous and Pakman (and his assistant) was posted on YouTube, with millions of views. Topiary's greatest fear was that his identity would be compromised during the interview. Since it was such a big event, he didn't use any voice-altering device for the interview or anything that would make his voice different or anything. Topiary made a mental note that Pakman's assistant should be targeted for griefing. It was time for Anonymous to shine.
Next time on We Are Anonymous, Topiary will be going through some coflicts witth his identity. The authorities, the cops, everyone would be chasing after him now. Will he live to hack another day or will this be the end of Jake Davis? We'll find out later in chapter 13 of We Are Anonymous. Until then, I'll be seeing you by (at least) tomorrow. Peace out!
Thursday, April 3, 2014
We Are Anonymous Overall Summary Part 1
Dear readers, it brings me sorrow (just a bit, to be honest) to tell you that chapters 1-11 in We Are Anonymous has come to an end, and with it, part 1 out of 3 of the book. In times like this, the time isn't really right to instantly skip to the next part of the book without realizing what Anonymous has done over the past 11 chapters. So before we move on to the next part of the book, let's take a bit of time to reflect on what the Anons have done in the recent years.
First, we learnt about the first known Anonymous attack in history; the assault on Aaron Barr's Web account and the humiliation he got from other people on the Net afterwards. His private e-mails appearing on the Web as torrents, his poor mug being used in various "memes" and comics on the Internet (I don't know if you remember, but his face did appear on a James Bond movie poster to insult his "security skills" and on a popular comic on the Internet called "Forever Alone").
Then we also learned about 4chan, the popular Anonymous hangout site on the Net, and how 4chan came to be the life essence of William (remember him?), a young Anon who was immune to the adult world at such a young age and was the start of many advancements in the world of Anonymous. This guy was a very important member of the Anons, founding so many different things for the Anons to make their life in hacking a lot easier. We also learned about William's acts of vigilantism, which he lashed out on pedophiles, other hackers and other online criminals.
Then we learned about Topiary's (Jake Davis) mischievous personality and his significant sense of humor over the other Anons, prank calling restaurants and hacking into an online game named Habbo (come to think of it, hacking into an online game wasn't really related to Topiary's sense of humor, but it WAS still mischievous, so I guess that's still worth a mention). He also helped Anonymous a bit by improving their comms system like William did, only just a bit less.
Afterwards we learned about the underdog girl hacker, Kayla and her life as an underestimated girl who was harassed on the Web for her gender. We also learn about Wesley Bailey, the ex-man (now woman due to some gender-changing pills) who was interested in the Anonymous business and became a member of the organization. He was also known for being a turncoat in the sake for her Anonymous "hater" friend, Jennifer Emick (I'll explain more about her later).
Then we discovered (actually, the Anons discovered it) about WikiLeaks' accidental leak of EXTREMELY RESTRICTED information from the American authorities (and by EXTREMELY RESTRICTED I mean the kind of info that could get you in jail for life or something like that), which led to a chain reaction of events that ended up in Anonymous saving WikiLeaks' butt from extermination from the Web by eliminating any WikiLeaks-opposing website that poses (or at least, will potentially pose) as a threat to WikiLeaks grave condition.
Soon afterwards we found out about Sabu (Hector Monsegur), the poor kid whose family was in a critical condition. We saw his struggle to help his family, his lust to seek justice, and the awesome stunt he pulled off against the Tunisian government. We then learned about the Anonymous to-be member turned hater, Jennifer Emick and her rebellion against the hackers and her heinous (if "heinous" is the right word for a person dedicated to compromise the identity of the leaders of a hacker organization) plot to uncover the alter egos of the Anonymous leaders. Little did they know, she was working with the now female Wesley Bailey (named "Laurelai") who leaked the identities of the Anons because of Laurelai's sympathy for Emick.
That's what happened during Part One of the book (at least everything important). Tomorrow we shall proceed with We Are Anonymous. I wonder, what shall happen next? Will there be other websites that need saving? Will there be another threat to the Anons that will leak their identities? Well, we'll find out next time. As for now, it's time to say farewell to part 1. See you next time!
First, we learnt about the first known Anonymous attack in history; the assault on Aaron Barr's Web account and the humiliation he got from other people on the Net afterwards. His private e-mails appearing on the Web as torrents, his poor mug being used in various "memes" and comics on the Internet (I don't know if you remember, but his face did appear on a James Bond movie poster to insult his "security skills" and on a popular comic on the Internet called "Forever Alone").
Then we also learned about 4chan, the popular Anonymous hangout site on the Net, and how 4chan came to be the life essence of William (remember him?), a young Anon who was immune to the adult world at such a young age and was the start of many advancements in the world of Anonymous. This guy was a very important member of the Anons, founding so many different things for the Anons to make their life in hacking a lot easier. We also learned about William's acts of vigilantism, which he lashed out on pedophiles, other hackers and other online criminals.
Then we learned about Topiary's (Jake Davis) mischievous personality and his significant sense of humor over the other Anons, prank calling restaurants and hacking into an online game named Habbo (come to think of it, hacking into an online game wasn't really related to Topiary's sense of humor, but it WAS still mischievous, so I guess that's still worth a mention). He also helped Anonymous a bit by improving their comms system like William did, only just a bit less.
Afterwards we learned about the underdog girl hacker, Kayla and her life as an underestimated girl who was harassed on the Web for her gender. We also learn about Wesley Bailey, the ex-man (now woman due to some gender-changing pills) who was interested in the Anonymous business and became a member of the organization. He was also known for being a turncoat in the sake for her Anonymous "hater" friend, Jennifer Emick (I'll explain more about her later).
Then we discovered (actually, the Anons discovered it) about WikiLeaks' accidental leak of EXTREMELY RESTRICTED information from the American authorities (and by EXTREMELY RESTRICTED I mean the kind of info that could get you in jail for life or something like that), which led to a chain reaction of events that ended up in Anonymous saving WikiLeaks' butt from extermination from the Web by eliminating any WikiLeaks-opposing website that poses (or at least, will potentially pose) as a threat to WikiLeaks grave condition.
Soon afterwards we found out about Sabu (Hector Monsegur), the poor kid whose family was in a critical condition. We saw his struggle to help his family, his lust to seek justice, and the awesome stunt he pulled off against the Tunisian government. We then learned about the Anonymous to-be member turned hater, Jennifer Emick and her rebellion against the hackers and her heinous (if "heinous" is the right word for a person dedicated to compromise the identity of the leaders of a hacker organization) plot to uncover the alter egos of the Anonymous leaders. Little did they know, she was working with the now female Wesley Bailey (named "Laurelai") who leaked the identities of the Anons because of Laurelai's sympathy for Emick.
That's what happened during Part One of the book (at least everything important). Tomorrow we shall proceed with We Are Anonymous. I wonder, what shall happen next? Will there be other websites that need saving? Will there be another threat to the Anons that will leak their identities? Well, we'll find out next time. As for now, it's time to say farewell to part 1. See you next time!
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
We Are Anonymous Chapter 11
Hey people, we have returned with more We Are Anonymous summaries. In this chapter, we are going to investigate about what happened after all the things that happened; all the hacks, all the offenses to the authorities, everything Anonymous had done ends with this chapter. So, what will happen next? Well, don't let me stop you; This is what happened...
Still remember that guy Aaron Barr from chapter 1? (if you read my summary about it) You, know, the guy who became the first Anonymous victim? (supposedly) Anyway, in this chapter, he decided to pack up, move house (and probably move country, after all he's been through), away from all the offenses from the people around him. So with his family, the Barrs boarded a plane to Sacramento. The media, the Web, almost everyone seemed to want to get a chance to insult Barr. Apparently it was all just too much for the poor guy.
Back to Anonymous. Laurelai (that's the present name for the now female "Bailey" transgender dude a few chapters ago, if you remember Bailey) was seeing what was going on in the Anon world. She found out about Operation Payback. However, she was uninterested with the operation, because Laurelai wasn't really interested in the DDoS business. But what she WAS interested in was a confidential file by the government, which contained information about the authorities' intention to destroy WikiLeaks.
The planned destruction of WikiLeaks wasn't just because of their recent antics about leaking the American leaders' intentions to the world; (before the "attack" on the Bank, the authorities weren't THAT close yet to swearing to annihilate WikiLeaks, they just needed a bit of motivation) it seems like WikiLeaks just spilled the beans about a whole trove of confidential info about the Bank of America's dirty secrets (it was just a rumor, but WikiLeaks' tendency to blab about secret important stuff might have made America assume that it was going to be a real deed). This just got the Bank on their trail, along with a lot of other outraged authorities that WikiLeaks just ticked off.
Something else that Anonymous came to realize was about one suspicious Anonymous "hater", who was constantly (endlessly, more like) bombarding the Anons with criticism. This hater's username was #FakeGreggHoush. As it turned out, this person was Jennifer Emick (remember that woman that thought Anonymous was a pack of no-good bullies that liked to pick on people on the Internet), apparently back for revenge on the Anons. Emick's strategy to eradicate Anonymous was by showing the world that Anonymous wasn't really anonymous by leaking their leaders' identities. And by some freaky coincidence, these people were Sabu, Kayla and Topiary.
The Anons' security was now in the threat of being exposed by Emick, starting with Topiary (who Emick and a few other "Anon haters" threatened to take pictures of outside Topiary's flat). The Anon, unshaken (and probably unconvinced) of the threats, mocked the offendors instead of being afraid of them. However, Sabu was worried about HIS notoriety on thee Web; at the time, if you searched "Hector Monsegur" on the Net, there'd actually be HIS identity, HIS person on the Web.
As it turns out, Laurelai was the person partly responsible for the identity leaks of the Anons. When the two parted ways, they still kept in touch, one person as an Anon and one as a hater. Laurelai, out of empathy for Emick, decided to go "friend over organization" and leaked a massive log of a chatting to Emick, allowing Laurelai to leak quite a lot of identities over to the haters, giving them an advantage.
After all the haters have been doing to the Anons, this will net the haters a few points over the hackers. What will happen next, I wonder? Will the vigilantes somehow find a way to eradicate the information about them and triumph over the public once again? Or will they finally get cornered and break up? Let's find out at the next chapter...
Still remember that guy Aaron Barr from chapter 1? (if you read my summary about it) You, know, the guy who became the first Anonymous victim? (supposedly) Anyway, in this chapter, he decided to pack up, move house (and probably move country, after all he's been through), away from all the offenses from the people around him. So with his family, the Barrs boarded a plane to Sacramento. The media, the Web, almost everyone seemed to want to get a chance to insult Barr. Apparently it was all just too much for the poor guy.
Back to Anonymous. Laurelai (that's the present name for the now female "Bailey" transgender dude a few chapters ago, if you remember Bailey) was seeing what was going on in the Anon world. She found out about Operation Payback. However, she was uninterested with the operation, because Laurelai wasn't really interested in the DDoS business. But what she WAS interested in was a confidential file by the government, which contained information about the authorities' intention to destroy WikiLeaks.
The planned destruction of WikiLeaks wasn't just because of their recent antics about leaking the American leaders' intentions to the world; (before the "attack" on the Bank, the authorities weren't THAT close yet to swearing to annihilate WikiLeaks, they just needed a bit of motivation) it seems like WikiLeaks just spilled the beans about a whole trove of confidential info about the Bank of America's dirty secrets (it was just a rumor, but WikiLeaks' tendency to blab about secret important stuff might have made America assume that it was going to be a real deed). This just got the Bank on their trail, along with a lot of other outraged authorities that WikiLeaks just ticked off.
Something else that Anonymous came to realize was about one suspicious Anonymous "hater", who was constantly (endlessly, more like) bombarding the Anons with criticism. This hater's username was #FakeGreggHoush. As it turned out, this person was Jennifer Emick (remember that woman that thought Anonymous was a pack of no-good bullies that liked to pick on people on the Internet), apparently back for revenge on the Anons. Emick's strategy to eradicate Anonymous was by showing the world that Anonymous wasn't really anonymous by leaking their leaders' identities. And by some freaky coincidence, these people were Sabu, Kayla and Topiary.
The Anons' security was now in the threat of being exposed by Emick, starting with Topiary (who Emick and a few other "Anon haters" threatened to take pictures of outside Topiary's flat). The Anon, unshaken (and probably unconvinced) of the threats, mocked the offendors instead of being afraid of them. However, Sabu was worried about HIS notoriety on thee Web; at the time, if you searched "Hector Monsegur" on the Net, there'd actually be HIS identity, HIS person on the Web.
As it turns out, Laurelai was the person partly responsible for the identity leaks of the Anons. When the two parted ways, they still kept in touch, one person as an Anon and one as a hater. Laurelai, out of empathy for Emick, decided to go "friend over organization" and leaked a massive log of a chatting to Emick, allowing Laurelai to leak quite a lot of identities over to the haters, giving them an advantage.
After all the haters have been doing to the Anons, this will net the haters a few points over the hackers. What will happen next, I wonder? Will the vigilantes somehow find a way to eradicate the information about them and triumph over the public once again? Or will they finally get cornered and break up? Let's find out at the next chapter...
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