Anonymous: the new face of cyber-war
“I can tell you that there are guerrilla “tech commandos” already in place to launch ad-hoc replicating “subnets “when the Feds crack down…These “cyber-kids” hold no allegiance to any government, any currency, or laws—national or international. They use the system’s assets to their own advantage and are often scouted for their prowess with network security holes. An entire generation of young people—raised on technology in the volatile political climate of Eastern Europe—are the recruiting grounds for the REAL “Info Wars”—wars where the ability to game sophisticated networks, hack complex software, and manipulate encryption will be key to “liberating” hard assets like money, food, munitions, electrical power, and battle-winning data.” -Prediction October 23, 2009-
Anonymous, or Anon, is a movement made up of a number of nameless internet activists from around the world. For many, the ‘hacktivist’ group has become the face of the new cyber-war against oppressive governments and all-powerful corporates. Others say the group’s actions are reckless.
Describing itself as “the freedom of speech, the freedom of information and the freedom of expression taken to a logical extreme,” Anon says it breaks laws, but only for the greater good.
Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler reports.
Related:
Tech Wars: The near-future battle For the internets – 2009-10-23
Tech Wars I-”Enviro-Fraud” Exposed - 2009-11-25
“Perplexity” The Threshing Floor Radio Show-November 12, 2009
Possible Futures News Capsule – 2011-03-09
Possible Futures News Capsule #2 – 2011-03-18
Interesting isn’t it? On the one hand you have a supposedly rogue internet group who’s “leader” has a past that involves weird cults and possible NSA involvement, who’s info dumps have been credited with taking down entire governments and locking up young Army Specialists for months with no cloths or water.
On the other hand you have his followers who seem to be genuine and like to target corporate arenas and banking icons. They truly seem like a rebel group of anti establishment hackers where, in my opinion, their progenitor, Asange and his Wikileaks seems more like an OP.
Part of the problem with this in my mind is what makes it so effective. It’s chaotic. The release of information, especially that which pertains to long seated political power can have incendiary results, which is good for change but it’s unpredictable consequences can also hurt the ordinary citizen.
The genesis of popular uprising is hard to track down to it’s origin. Who are these masked men calling for freedom and democracy? Like a man yelling fire in a movie theater, the reaction these days seems immediate and frenzied.
It seems the opinions are split on Assange…my take remains that he may be either an unwitting dupe by the Euro-fascists/anarchists (read: The Pirate Bay) or a mind control op. Some one is paying for all this, no? So who? And to what purpose? I do not think the current waves of uprisings are popular, or populist, but well seeded to take down the current puppets who have been in power long enough to think they “rule.” This was the strategy with Iran in the 70s when the US/Euro axis seeded the Ayatollah Khomeni into power from his “exile” in France. Mubarak was scheduled to go, as was other puppet leaders of the past like Noriega and, of course, Sadam Hussein.
The hackers are very skilled technologically, but ideologically they are being exploited, as well, by the seeming hero status of Assange. The cyber wars are engineered from the inside of the Mili-tel complex like the Stuxx Virus which was planted into the networks in Iran to take out their nuke plants. To me it still feels like controlled opposition. I have no opinions as to good or bad…I just know that this is a key area for new forms of terrorism and warfare. Nukes become unnecessary when entire power grids can be toppled by keystrokes, and North America’s “smart grid” is a key vulnerability at the right juncture.