anonymization

Anonymous: Anti-surveillance protest tomorrow

Anonymous is planning a global protest tomorrow.

In a campaign called Operation Big Brother, the Worldwide Day Of Protest Against Surveillance appears to be plotting action from citizens in over a dozen countries in an organized effort against government use of surveillance systems such as Europe's INDECT and America's Trapwire.

Using a Google Map to pull in and track protesters by location, Operation Big Brother is supposed to visibly demonstrate what's going on during the protest. Yet little is known about how it will be implemented other than the suggestion, "IRL protest (...) unofficial information and defacing.&… Read more

Anonymous turns its back on Wikileaks after paywall dispute

And the saga continues...Anonymous and Wikileaks got into a public tit-for-tat over Twitter yesterday about a donation overlay page that Wikileaks posted on its Global Intelligence Files. Anonymous called the donation page a paywall -- since it cannot be closed unless a donation is made or the Javascript is disabled -- and demanded it be taken down.

The page was taken down for a couple of hours in the evening and it looked like Anonymous had won the battle. But then, Wikileaks put it back up. And this time it's not only on the site's Global Intelligence … Read more

Wikileaks and Anonymous go head-to-head in 'paywall' battle

Anonymous is typically a big fan of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange, but earlier today, several of its members sent out tweets calling for people to stop donating to the site until further notice.

A Twitter tit-for-tat ensued and finally ended in what looks like a success for Anonymous.

What got the online hacker group all riled up was an overlay donation page that was first seen when accessing Wikileaks' Global Intelligence Files, according to The Next Web. These files contain more than five million emails from the international intelligence company Stratfor.

Anonymous publicly labeled the donation page a &… Read more

Ten simple, common-sense security tips

A friend took me to task last week for a post I wrote back in January on preventing Google from tracking you when you search. His alternative solution: "Just use Bing."

That got me thinking about other no-brainer approaches to security that thumb their noses at the conventional (and often convoluted and time-consuming) advice of the experts.

Search without footprints via the 'other' search engines Truly anonymous Web surfing requires the use of a VPN service that blocks your IP address as well as other personal information. (For more on VPN, see the tip below.) If you simply … Read more

Browse safe and anonymously with Mask Surf Pro

Tor stands for The Onion Router. Imagine each layer of an onion is a server. That's essentially how Tor lets you surf the Web safely and anonymously, and with no creepy Web ads that have obviously been tracking you. The trouble with Tor is the trouble with onions: they can be overwhelming. ThankSoft's Mask Surf Pro makes it easy to use the Tor network yet offers advanced features like the capability to choose which host country to emulate. Developers can use it to test how their tools or Web pages perform in specific regions or under certain browser … Read more

Rumor Has It: The next next big thing is almost here?

The iPhone 5 should be arriving on millions of doorsteps any moment now (hopefully), so it's time to tally up the scorecards and see how we did. Did we vote that it'd get a bigger screen? How about NFC? Watch the video above and see how we did and how you guys did at home.

Also this week, the next big thing might already be here, but you know what might be coming really soon? The next big thing after the next big thing. What? Also, someone could have a Pandora rival up its sleeves. Bet you can'… Read more

Activist for Anonymous arrested during online chat

Barrett Brown, who has served as a spokesman for various Anonymous hacking operations, was arrested last night during a raid on his home while he was in the middle of an online chat.

He was taken into custody by the Dallas County Sheriff's Department shortly before 11 p.m. CT but was in the custody of the FBI by midday today, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's department told CNET.

She said she didn't know why he was taken into custody, saying only that no offenses were listed in the report. An FBI spokeswoman said she did not … Read more

What to expect for the iPhone 5

Tuesday's tech news roundup has a case of iPhone anticipation jitters:

Can you stand the wait? It's almost time for a new iPhone. Apple will dish all the details Wednesday, but here's what we're expecting: larger screen, smaller dock connector, and 4G LTE speeds. It's questionable if Apple will even mention the rumored 7-inch iPad Mini. That announcement may be saved for next month to give iPhone all the glory.

Live blog: CNET's live coverage of Apple's event begins Wednesday

When iOS 6 is released, Apple will not include the standard YouTube app. … Read more

Go Daddy-serviced Web sites go down; hacker takes credit

Web sites serviced by DNS and hosting provider Go Daddy were down for most of today, but were back up later this afternoon. A hacker using the "Anonymous Own3r" Twitter account claimed credit for the outage.

"Things are restored," Go Daddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll told CNET just before 5 p.m. PT today. She said she did not have many details and was hoping to be able to give an update with more information in the next 24 hours.

In an interview this afternoon, Driscoll reiterated that she could not say what the cause of the … Read more