anonymous

Hacktivists from the online group Anonymous claim to have taken down the Chicago Police Department's Web site in the wake of violent clashes between the police and protesters.

Members of AntiS3curityOPS, which claims to be affiliated with Anonymous, posted a video on YouTube taking credit for a hacking that allegedly brought down the page and accusing Chicago police of brutality during clashes Saturday night with protesters, who were demonstrating against the NATO summit discussing the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

"We are actively engaged in actions against the Chicago Police Department, and encourage anyone to take up the cause … Read more

A person who claims to be a former member of the Anonymous hacker group has claimed responsibility for knocking The Pirate Bay offline for over a day.

The claim is unconfirmed but a person calling himself "Nyre" left a message on Pastebin yesterday, saying he was the person who launched a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on The Pirate Bay, one of the world's best-known file-sharing services. The site was back up this morning.

As for the reason Nyre claims to have launched the attack: "The Pirate Bay was a press-release Website for Anonymous." … Read more

There's a good whodunit developing over at The Pirate Bay, the popular BitTorrent file-sharing service.

An unknown entity has launched a large distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) against The Pirate Bay and rendered the site largely inaccessible for more than a day. The Pirate Bay posted a note to its Facebook page confirming the attack. Site operators wrote: "We don't know who's behind it but we have our suspicions."

Suspicions are all anybody seems to have at this point. Here's a list of the top suspects and where they stand on the issue.

The British military's head of cybersecurity, Jonathan Shaw, admitted that there have been a number of successful attacks into the Ministry of Defense's computer systems, according to the Guardian.

"The number of serious incidents is quite small, but it is there," Shaw told the Guardian in a final interview before he retires. "And those are the ones we know about. The likelihood is there are problems in there we don't know about."

He wouldn't say how many attacks there have been, but he did emphasize that it was serious enough to make … Read more

The Anonymous defendants arrested last month for allegedly breaking into corporate networks, stealing data, and defacing Web sites as part of LulzSec are likely to have an extended vacation at Club Fed, experts say.

With well-known victims like Sony, Fox Broadcasting, and the FBI, prosecutors will want to make examples of those arrested in the Anonymous-related hacking cases in the hopes that it will send a message to others.

"I believe they will (get harsh treatment)," Michael Bachmann, assistant professor of criminal justice at Texas Christian University, told CNET in a recent interview.

Like Kevin Mitnick, who was … Read more

Eight men have been arrested and charged with distributing more $1 million in LSD, ecstasy, and other narcotics through an online storefront that hid the identities of the service's users.

The online drug market -- known as "The Farmers Market" -- used the Tor Project to allow suppliers to anonymously sell their wares online to buyers in 35 countries, including the United States, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed today in Los Angeles. The store provided buyers with order forms, forums, and customer service, and accepted various forms of payment, including PayPal and Western Union, … Read more

An Ohio man has been indicted in connection with attacks that brought down the Web sites of police agencies in Utah.

John Anthony Borell III, of Toledo, Ohio, has been charged with two counts of felony computer intrusion and is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court today.

He is accused of bringing down two police Web sites in late January, causing thousands of dollars in damage, according to court documents.

Borell is apparently a member of the hacker activist group Anonymous, which has taken credit for numerous online attacks. Law enforcement officials were aided in their investigation by … Read more

Pride in one's lover's bodily parts can lead to a fall in one's own bodily security.

That seems to be the lesson from the tale of an alleged hacker, Higinio O.Ochoa, a 30-year-old Linux administrator from Galveston, Texas, who was arrested by the FBI and charged with unauthorized access to a protected computer.

The accusation, as described by the Sydney Morning Herald, is that Ochoa hacked into several Web sites belonging to law enforcement.

Sometimes, though, the temptation to leave a calling card can be too great. So Ochoa allegedly used a Twitter account to direct … Read more

Anonymous is certainly making the rounds this week. First China, now the telecom and tech industry.

The hacker group has claimed responsibility for leading denial-of-service attacks on two technology trade association Web sites, USTelecom and TechAmerica, according to Bloomberg. Anonymous is reportedly lashing out because these organizations support a cybersecurity bill that some members of congress are working to pass.

The attacks began yesterday when users were unable to log onto the sites, reports Bloomberg. USTelecom represents telecom companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink; and TechAmerica's members include tech companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Apple.

Both … Read more