Anonymous wages war on the Australian Government

[Franco Cozzo]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/tech...0210-nqku.html

Hackers connected with the anti-Scientology group Anonymous this morning launched a broad attack on government websites.

They are protesting against forthcoming internet filtering legislation and the perceived censorship in pornography of small-breasted women (who are thought to be under age) and female ejaculation.

Several government sites were down this morning and the hackers have promised to follow up by spamming government offices with pornographic emails, faxes and prank phone calls.

The Attorney-General's department this morning confirmed the attacks and said the Department of Defence Cyber Security Operations Centre was monitoring the situation.

The attacks, organised under the banner "Operation: Titstorm", come five months after hackers connected with the same group briefly brought down the Prime Minister's website. At the time the hackers said they would regroup and launch new attacks.

Flyers distributed to recruit participants for the operation said the denial of service attacks on government servers would begin at 8am today.

The Parliament of Australia website, aph.gov.au, was down for a period this morning, while kevinrudd.com.au was also inaccessible at the time of writing. Access to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy's website was patchy.

It is not clear how many other sites were targeted but it appears a wide range of government servers were flooded with traffic.

The attacks come as the government prepares to introduce its controversial mandatory internet filtering legislation and just after the Australian sex industry claimed porn films were being banned from sale in Australia because they featured small-breasted women and female ejaculation.

The Classification Board confirmed that pornography could be banned if participants simply "appeared" to be under age, while female ejaculation was considered a form of urination, which is banned under content classification guidelines.

In an email sent to media yesterday afternoon foreshadowing the attacks, Anonymous referred to the internet filtering legislation and the perceived pornography censorship.

"No government should have the right to refuse its citizens access to information solely because they perceive it to be 'unwanted'," the email read.

"The Australian government will learn that one does not mess with our porn. No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason."

In the flyer recruiting people for the attacks, Anonymous said the attacks on the websites would be followed by "a shitstorm of porn email, fax spam, black faxes and prank phone calls to government offices (emails/faxes should focus on small-breasted porn, cartoon porn and female ejaculation, the 3 types banned so far)".

A spokesman for the Attorney-General's Department said government agencies identified as potential targets by Anonymous were briefed in advance and provided with suggested "mitigation strategies".

"Australian Parliament House website (www.aph.gov.au) was unavailable this morning for approximately 50 minutes due to a distributed denial of service attack by individuals belonging to the “Anonymous” group. It is now back on line," the spokesman said.

"The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy’s website has also been experiencing a degraded service.

"The Department of Defence Cyber Security Operations Centre continues to monitor the situation."


Comment is being sought from the offices of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Anti-censorship groups in Australia, including stopinternetcensorship.org and the System Administrators Guild of Australia, have condemned attacks on government websites, saying it hurts their cause.

"It would be much more helpful for these people to put their efforts behind legitimate action to stop this ineffective and inefficient attempt at censorship by the Australian government," said Stop Internet Censorship co-founder Nicholas Perkins.

Source: smh.com.au

These guys harassed scientology a little while ago, by showing up in front of churches wearing those masks from "V for Vendetta" with heaps of people and someone covered in vaseline and pubic hair ran into the church and rubbed themselves over everything.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

covered in vaseline and pubic hair ran into the church and rubbed themselves over everything.

hahaha....

[Fev]

Man that's the funniest serious news report i've read in a long time. "God-speed" Anonymous!

[irlewy86]

Operation Titstorm (I have found a new name for Friday night Drinks)

[Kryton]

"The Australian government will learn that one does not mess with our porn."

Priceless!

[XR6_661]

Hahahaha, oh that made my day!

I have a new signature now!

"The Australian government will learn that one does not mess with our porn."

[Serial_Fool]

AFF, is this good?

[Riksta]

This time, I don't think they're just "doing it for teh lulz".

[UNR8D]

bwhahha brilliant. V for Vendetta is awesome, remember remember the 5th of November... we need the same for blight up here? anyone keen :P

[Franco Cozzo]

It'll be interesting to see what the government does once they get all the emails and black faxes. I asked Dad why Centrelink still uses Fax instead of Email and he said its more secure and reliable...

Wikipedia and Anonymous seems to disagree:

The term black fax refers to a prank fax transmission, consisting of one or more pages entirely filled with a uniform black tone and often made into a loop the sending machine will transmit endlessly. The sender's intention is typically to consume as much of the recipient's fax ink, toner or thermal paper as possible, thus denying its owner its use (this is similar to computer-based denial of service attacks). Black faxes can be particularly effective as the CCITT fax algorithm compresses the solid black image very well, so a very short fax call can produce many pages.

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

It'll be interesting to see what the government does once they get all the emails and black faxes. I asked Dad why Centrelink still uses Fax instead of Email and he said its more secure and reliable...

Wikipedia and Anonymous seems to disagree:

The phone lines a fax uses are typically unclassified, so it is actually insecure. Emails have security classifications.

[SSD-85]

This is, erm, interesting. I have no problem with anti-censorship movements to this extent. I am tired of Kim Jong Rudd forcing us to live our lives in how his government sees fit.

[MITCHAY]

Yeah but launching DoS attacks won't change a thing

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by MITCHAY

Yeah but launching DoS attacks won't change a thing

I think that was just stage one:

Hello, Kevin Rudd. We are Anonymous. We have been watching you.

It wasn't very long ago since you were elected, was it? The media hype surrounding your future government back in 2007 was incredible. Many of us Australians saw both you and Barack as beacons of potential to bring end to the conservative culture that currently swamps the USA and Australia. Many of us thought otherwise, and it turns out they were right.

You, as a leader, have failed us. You are bringing an end to what is the greatest link between all people; the one thing that can cross all cultural boundaries, that can bring people together despite ethnicity, political or religious standings, class or nationality; the largest information transfer ever created. You, a democratically elected leader, have decided to do what only the most power-hungry of all tyrants dare:

You have opted to censor the internet.

This is why we, Anonymous, have decided that this censorship plan should be among our primary targets for elimination. We have two demands that we consider central to our ideals:

Firstly: We demand the abolition of the censorship plan proposed by the current government. This includes the removal of all targets on the blacklist, and complete abandonment of any further plans and endeavors by the Australian Government to censor the internet.

Secondly: We demand the resignation of the Australian Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy. This is a man who has no level of understanding of the topic he is dealing with. This is a man who readily supports the abolition of free speech in exchange for social security. This man and his policies go against everything Australia and the western world stand for. As we see it, Stephen Conroy is completely unsuitable of being a minister of Australia, and as such, we demand his dismissal.

Failure to meet these demands will result in our full-fledged wrath. This is not something you want to happen.

Anonymous is your final obstacle in this battle. We fight where no one else dares to fight. We ruin the lives of animal abusers and bring pedophiles to justice. We destroy the reputation of political and religious leaders alike. Our soldiers currently fight the cult of Scientology and the Iranian government. To us, you are just a step higher. We will create and make freely available methods to render your censorship plan useless, and let these methods be known to the entire Australian public by ways we will not reveal in this message. We will also leak updated versions of the blacklist as often as we can, ensuring that the people who voted you in know what is being withheld from them.

And as your people slowly begin to realize the veil that their own government is draping around them, they will realize that they voted a tyrant into power.

This is when we will have succeeded in all our goals.

Information is free, Kevin. We, Anonymous, are not your friends. We are your doctors, your lawyers, your taxpayers, your brothers and sisters. We are everywhere. We may not be the best of people, but the one thing we will unceasingly fight for is the assertion that Information is Free.

Heed our demands, Kevin. This is our nation which you encroach upon. These are uncharted waters for you and your colleagues.

Farewell.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive. We do not forget.

We are not your friends.

Expect us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEe7qhlFNs4

I wonder if they'll do protests similar to the Scientology ones.

As they said with the animal abuser part, someone posted a video on youtube of them throwing a dog off a bridge and they found out exactly what country he was from and all his personal details and wouldn't let up on harassing the guy by phone etc.

I reckon they're really good at coming up with speeches too.

[Bobman]

Everyone should get behind this.

Oh, and I recommend people watch a documentary called "Zeitgeist". Certainly gets you thinking.

[atec77]

Originally Posted by davway

"The Australian government will learn that one does not mess with our porn."

Priceless!

You might be addressing the wrong loser
the head loser and government looks well set to change in the bear fututre
great bif tax on everything anyone ?

[Mr Hardware]

Anonymous = the Union of the 21st Century

[My32Doors]

Check out The Obama Deception and infowars.com

[rodderz]

Originally Posted by davway

"The Australian government will learn that one does not mess with our porn."

Priceless!

Sounds like a Seth Rogan line!

[BHDOGS]

The censorship is pointless you use a proxy sever and your porn is back anyway

[04redxr8]

What does our Dictatorship got against small breasted woman having orgasms???

On a serious note, the potential for that filter to include sites like this one is also there. Just one too many posts against the dictatorship and it may be possibly be pulled. Scary part is that by doing that we would all be weaker. With forums we can get together. Without them we are powerless.

[Serial_Fool]

I don't doubt the Federal Governments ablitiy to shut down a thread like this as they see fit once the filter is in place. Internet post 2011 will be a very different place if Chairman Rudd gets his way.

If only the farmers and the libs were deadset against it.....

[Serial_Fool]

Do not be confused about the intentions behind our attacks on various Australian government websites. Various media have falsely reported that our efforts are in defence of pornography. This is not about pornography. This is about freedom. The fact remains that under this proposed Internet censorship scheme over time the freedoms of Australians will continue to be eroded, all in the name of saving us from a threat that exists only in the minds of a vocal and very uninformed minority who wish to impose their morals and values on the public at large. We are in no way encouraging child pornography; however other courses of action should be encouraged, for Australia's "Cyber Safety Plan" creates problems in itself.

** **The fact is that "banned" content can be posted on ANY website, at any time; introducing these tools is only a way to silence the selected few. Once the tools are put into place, they can and will be abused, as it has happened throughout history. Costs to taxpayers are estimated to be $44.2 million. This money could be put to far better use. Furthermore, the creation of such an announced filter is in direct violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Charter of 1948, Article 19; which states: "Everyone has the right of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

** ** No democratic government should ever favour one community's views over others, be it religious, political or otherwise; it is discriminatory toward minority groups. This censorship has been nothing more than a modern day prohibition and attack against freedoms that the Australian populace previously enjoyed.

** **We will not back down until this illicit censorship has been removed; the freedoms and rights of the Australian public must be restored. Further attacks will continue on a much larger scale in a wide variety of forms. Attempts to stop us will only bring more negative publicity to this internet censorship campaign and make the Australian government look disgraceful in the eyes of the international public.

We are Anonymous.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
We are Legion.
Expect us.

[04redxr8]

Originally Posted by Serial_Fool

I don't doubt the Federal Governments ablitiy to shut down a thread like this as they see fit once the filter is in place. Internet post 2011 will be a very different place if Chairman Rudd gets his way.

If only the farmers and the libs were deadset against it.....

My thoughts are that they will start with porn that they find offensive. Then move on to more mainstream porn, until it all blocked. The next step would include blocking sites like this one, that does have political based threads.

By giving these idiots the power to censor certain aspects of the internet, we unfortunately open the doors for them to abuse these privelidges.

The other stories behind global warming and the One Government plan was discussed in great detail here. They could eventually decide that we are a threat to them particuarly if we show unity in disagreeing with the dictatorship.

Once they get their way on the porn issue, they will abuse that new found power to silence those that speak against them.

It might not happen tomorrow, but it may happen. When has a politicion ever done the right thing by us?

[Bobman]

Just look at what happens in China and censorship there.

It's fine to use proxies, but try finding a proxy that gives you the same speed and doesn't have to be changed all the time as surfing websites without one.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by Bobman

Just look at what happens in China and censorship there.

It's fine to use proxies, but try finding a proxy that gives you the same speed and doesn't have to be changed all the time as surfing websites without one.

Factor in a server in the USA to your yearly internet bill and get it to pass through traffic from the server, it'll look like to the filter that you are just connecting to a server in the USA.

[MustangNicko]

facepalm @ this thread

[Kamshaaft]

A lot of them are script kiddy channers, but it all counts. Credit where credit's due, sheer numbers has created a force that is far more powerful than the likes of skilled hacker groups the like of the now defunct order of the screaming electron.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

As much as I'd like to dismiss them all as script kiddies Kamshaaft, at least they are trying to get some sort of message across, even if it isn't in the most conventional way