White House begins officially demonizing Anonymous

[Fire Walk With Me]

Anonymous ‏@Occupythemob

"Hacktivist" groups are "steadily increasing threat to US economy & national security"
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57570384-38/white-house-warns-of-dangers-posed-by-wikileaks-lulzsec-other-hacktivists/
… #Anonymous #WikiLeaks #LulzSec
Retweeted by John C.onner


White House warns of dangers posed by WikiLeaks, LulzSec, other 'hacktivists'

The White House warned today of the threat posed by WikiLeaks, LulzSec, and other "hacktivist" groups that have the ability to target U.S. companies and expropriate confidential data.

A new administration-wide strategy (PDF) disclosed at a high-profile event in Washington that included Attorney General Eric Holder says the theft of trade secrets is on the rise and predicts such theft will undermine U.S. national security unless halted.

It's a "steadily increasing threat to America's economy and national security interests," Holder said at the event, which also featured officials from the State Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

"Disgruntled insiders [may leak] information about corporate trade secrets or critical U.S. technology to 'hacktivist' groups like WikiLeaks," the White House warns. Such groups could "develop customized malware or remote-access exploits to steal sensitive U.S. economic or technology information."

(They're afraid. Good. Frightened people do stupid things, and will turn more of the people of this country against them. The government, that is. More at the link.)

[Drale]

1. All Anonymous ever does

is hack twitter, crash web pages and complain about stuff without any constructive ideas about how to fix them. I've given up on them, they are a lost cause and have become what people claimed they were in the beginning, a bunch of kids in their parents basements acting stupid.

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Tell that to Stratfor ;)

[AnotherMcIntosh]

4. Right. Exposing crimes without constructive ideas should not be allowed. How about this for a

constructive idea? Prosecute all the criminals exposed by Anonymous.

Want an example of some exposed criminals not being prosecuted?

How about this one?
http://www.alternet.org/how-anonymous-hacking-exposed-steubenville-high-school-rape-case

[snot]

3. Wikileaks has nothing to do with stealing corporate secrets,

unless you count outing corporate crimes.

E.g., that Pfizer paid investigators to unearth corruption links to Nigeria's attorney general so as to pressure him to drop legal action for harm to children from a drug trial; or that BP covered up a giant gas leak in Azerbaijan eighteen months before the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

[DeSwiss]

5. K&R

- FUCK the White House. There, I said it.

Anonymous Helps Researchers Link Hackers To Chinese Army

[Unknown Beatle]

6. And

Fuck Eric Holder! Useless piece of shit!

[SamKnause]

9. Holder

I will second that.

[SamKnause]

7. White House accuses

I am in 100% agreement with you.

[FuzzyRabbit]

8. 1995 Movie "Hackers" vs White House 2013

The movie "Hackers" 1995:
Agent Richard Gill of the Secret Service: "Hackers penetrate and ravage delicate public and privately owned computer systems, infecting them with viruses, and stealing materials for their own ends. These people, they are terrorists."


The White House in 2013:
Attorney General Eric Holder: "Disgruntled insiders information about corporate trade secrets or critical U.S. technology to 'hacktivist' groups like WikiLeaks," the White House warns. Such groups could "develop customized malware or remote-access exploits to steal sensitive U.S. economic or technology information."

[SamKnause]

10. White House

FREE Bradley Manning

FREE Leonard Peltier

STOP the witch hunt against Julian Assange and Wikileaks

The billions of slaves on this planet deserve to know the truth about the elite puppet masters.

[dtom67]

11. ah, here comes the pretext....

Of course, the answer to this "threat" will be the stripping of American Rights and freedoms.

Bye bye, beloved Internet....

[Demo_Chris]

12. The internet is the last and only hope.

[Fire Walk With Me]

15. Yep. The internet allowed Occupy to flourish and for mainstream media to be fact-checked

and bypassed. They can shut down dissent and force upon us their narrative through their media channels if they control the internet. Which is about as sinister and unConstitutional and unAmerican as it gets. An extremely dark day.

[Demo_Chris]

16. Without the internet the only source for info

Is newspapers and magazines and church leaders.

[jtuck004]

13. Uh...

>"They're afraid. Good. Frightened people do stupid things, and will turn more of the people of this country against them. The government, that is." <

Don't bet your life on it. Stupid angry people murdered and imprisoned a lot of labor organizers, workers, their children and families who mostly just wanted an end to child labor, unemployment, and an eight-hour work day. Government and the media, with the encouragement and money of business pushed that killing by associating them with the bumble-footed "communists" early in the last century by playing on their fears. And we are STILL dealing with the aftermath of that.

Wanted to ad a joke from back then...
________________________________

The police often attacked peaceful demonstrations. A postman delivering mail found himself caught up in one of these, and when a policeman turned his horse toward him he said "Wait, I'm not part of this. I'm an anti-communist".

"I don't care what kind of communist you are", said the policeman as he knocked him to the ground.
_________________

This little campaign is very likely the result of the same kind of prodding and cash by business. And it might just as easily wind up with people being murdered and jailed for nothing more than being computer literate.

So-called "hackers" are not much different than kids altering cars to see what they will do, but they are already being called "terrorists". That is eerily similar to "communist", which has been a license to act against someone, often violently, by any good patriot for at least the past 100 or so years. And now we have much of the population that has been "schooled" to believe that someone else must always approve of what they do, who seem almost helpless with little to no appreciation of the need for critical thinking about what they are being told. That doesn't bode well.

But I hope you're right.

[hootinholler]

14. The last paragraph is telling...

The Army wants, Assange said from his embassy room where he has sought refuge to avoid an extradition attempt, "to break him, to force him to testify against WikiLeaks and me" -- an apparent reference to the Justice Department's grand jury probe. If prosecutors allege conspiracy to commit computer crimes, they could avoid some of the free speech problems they'd face in an Espionage Act prosecution.

Links at article.