Hacker group vows 'cyberwar' on US government, business [ The result will be Internet Regulations]

MSNBC ^ | March 8 2011 | Michael Isikoff

[NoLibZone]

Actions to retaliate for treatment of WikiLeaks, Manning, spokesman for Anonymous says.

DALLAS — A leader of the computer hackers group known as Anonymous is threatening new attacks on major U.S. corporations and government officials as part of at an escalating “cyberwar” against the citadels of American power.

“It’s a guerilla cyberwar — that’s what I call it,” said Barrett Brown, 29, who calls himself a senior strategist and “propagandist” for Anonymous. He added: “It’s sort of an unconventional, asymmetrical act of warfare that we’ve involved in. And we didn’t necessarily start it. I mean, this fire has been burning.”

A defiant and cocky 29-year-old college dropout, Brown was cavalier about accusations that the group is violating federal laws. He insisted that Anonymous members are only policing corporate and governmental wrongdoing — as its members define it.

Breaking laws, but 'ethically' “Our people break laws, just like all people break laws,” he added. “When we break laws, we do it in the service of civil disobedience. We do so ethically. We do it against targets that have asked for it.”

And those targets are apparently only growing in number. Angered over the treatment of Bradley Manning, the Army private who is accused of leaking classified U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks and who is currently being held in solitary confinement at a military brig in Quantico, Va., Brown says the group is planning new computer attacks targeting government officials involved in his case.

[UCANSEE2]

You’re right, this stinks like an op.

“It’s a guerilla cyberwar — that’s what I call it,” said Barrett Brown, 29, who calls himself a senior strategist and “propagandist” for Anonymous.

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How smart is it to give out your NAME and AGE, if you claim to be a leader of a group preparing to commit a crime? Something stinks .

[UCANSEE2]

“Our people break laws, just like all people break laws”

FIRST, did he borrow that phrase from Eric Holder?

SECOND, doesn’t that phrase sound very similar to this?

“Johnnie’s parents let him do it”

[IYAS9YAS]

Iv’e always wondered if these hackers could insert themselves into a companies payroll and have their “paycheck” direct deposited into an account somewhere.

Not if the payroll system has even a decent set of internal controls. For example, just putting your name on a list of folks to get paid shouldn't work, as any decent payroll system will require supervisory input (checking off on the submitted timecard, verifying employees in the section, etc...) for payroll to process. There would have to be collusion between the hacker and someone on the inside.

With collusion, there is higher risk, as now two or more have to keep a secret, but also with collusion, fraud is that much harder to prevent and detect.

That's why companies should also adopt some way of the payroll department to physically verify employee presence on the job.

[TexasRepublic]

SSS