Forsaking the usual route of intrusion and crippling of high profile targets it seems the mischief making hacktivist pair Anonymous and LulzSec – together forming AntiSec – are taking a backwards step in latest operation against the online payment transaction site PayPal. They posted an appeal on a hacker-safe forum asking us to close our accounts and post the evidence online.
“Join us in our latest operation against PayPal – tweet pictures of your account closure, tell us on IRC, spread the word.” they plea on the PasteBin website.
Instead of intruding and causing absolute havoc on the payment site, this time they’re actually asking us to do the damage. Attempting to justify its actions AntiSec extend the plea to US lawbringers – “Law enforcement continues to push its ridiculous rules upon us – Anonymous “suspects” may face a fine of up to 500,000 USD with the addition of 15 years’ jailtime, all for taking part in a historical activist movement.”
“What the FBI needs to learn is that there is a vast difference between adding one’s voice to a chorus and digital sit-in with Low Orbit Ion Cannon, and controlling a large botnet of infected computers. And yet both of these are punishable with exactly the same fine and sentence.”
The hacker groups have gained themselves a lot of attention in recent months and have come under fire from FBI with a number of arrests made. Anonymous has recently set up its own social network safe-haven for hackers, after having a public profile removed from Google+. The social site known mocklingly as AnonPlus was hacked last week by another group calling itself AKINCILAR.
What happened to the care-free shenanigans we’ve come to know of the digital–domain troublemakers who have downed sites from entertainment companies to world governments? Has Anonymous become too public? Has the LulzBoat anchored up for good?
PayPal’s Twitter account was recently hacked, raising alarm that the site accounts may also be stolen, but no payment details or credit card information was affected as was feared. This attack was suggested to be the work of PayPalSucks.com and unrelated to AntiSec’s campaign against the payment website.
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