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March 19, 2011 · 15:45

Hackers Target The New York Stock Exchange

The group of hacktivists calling themselves “Anonymous” is said to be preparing for a massive cyber attack on New York Stock Exchange – the heart of the global financial markets. According to a press release, the hacktivists have launched “Operation Icarus” with the goal to create financial chaos and public unrest.

“It is time to show the world the true power and the true face of the faceless, the nameless and the ghosts of society.”

Anonymous

It’s only six weeks since the management at Nasdaq OMX were so kind to inform their clients and other market participants that hackers had broken into their trading systems – a year earlier. Those guys didn’t leave much of a trace and it’s still unclear what they’ve actually have been doing to the Nasdaq systems. At least the Anonymous has the decency to give investors a warning in advance.

To me it seems like the Anonymous have been struggling a bit lately to get the attention they want.

Last Monday the hacktivists launched another operation – “Operation Leaks”.

In a series of messages on Twitter last Sunday evening they promised to release emails that supposedly should document “fraud and corruption” at Bank of America (BAC).

The release comes three and a half months after Wikileaks founder Julian Assange scared the financial industry by promising to “take down a bank or two” by releasing “either tens or hundreds of thousands of documents.”

Assange likened the documents to the ones that prosecutors used in bringing top executives of failed energy trader Enron to justice.

However, the released emails do not live up to the high expectations, set by Mr. Assange and the Anonymous hackers, and have not got much attention in any media so far.

The emails released on Monday doesn’t really prove anything, eighter, just that someone at BoA tried to alter some numbers in a document so it didn’t match a certain series of loans.

(Download one archive here: http://uiu.me/U.zip)

So, to compete with Moammar Gaddafi and the Japanese nuclear reactors, the Anonymous have now issued another statement in where they inform of the launching of “Operation Icarus,” aimed at the New York Stock Exchange.

“This is the operation to end all others,” the hacktivists writes.

Here’s the full press release:

Operation Icarus

Attention Brothers: The opportunity to create financial chaos and public unrest and from that, there will be a previously unachieved amount of lulz to be had. Charge your lasers and aim them at the New York Stock Exchange. (NYSE.com)

It has been said that humanity is not an end in itself but rather a means to an end. We have shown the world our strength to deny ignorance, overcome adversity, fight oppression and even the power to throw a wrench in the system that perpetuates it.

We are enslaved within a matrix of institutions with the illusion that each stands alone, each fighting for power, for profits, for the scraps on the table that represent humanities dwindling resources.

In reality however, these institutions; the arms industries, banking and other financial institutions, government intelligence agencies and countless others have formed what was once a clandestine coalition whose corruption and avarice have become increasingly transparent due to wikileaks and the efforts of anonymous.

This coalition seeks the preservation and the perpetuation of the powers that be and this octopus operates through the tentacles of the IMF, the Federal Reserve and the World Bank, masterminded by think tanks such as the Bilderberg group and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The puppets of the powers that be include the president of the united states and his cabinet, and through them they are able to repress the freedom of information and with it the free and open exchange of ideas which are fundamental to the existence and operations of anonymous and the ability to see beyond the veil of secrecy from which the powers that be stand behind.

But where does the power behind the throne lie? Within the global financial system, centered within the New York stock exchange.

They feel secure in their ivory tower built on the broken backs of the laborers of the world for what are their subjects but human…all too human.

In humanity lies the restraints of pity and mercy, driven by fear. But We are not merely human. Anonymous is something much more for we possess neither fear nor mercy.

It is time to show the world the true power and the true face of the faceless, the nameless and the ghosts of society.

Like Icarus, the powers that be have flown too close to the sun and the time has come to set the wings of their empire ablaze and watch the system their power relies on come to a grinding halt and come crashing down around them. We must strike at the heart of their empire by once again throw a wrench into the machine, but this time we face a much bigger target; the global financial system.

This time our target is the New York Stock Exchange. (NYSE.com)

This is a call to arms my brothers who for too long have stood for nothing but have criticized everything. Stand now, behind the banner of free men against the tyrannical matrix of institutions that oppose us. Ready your weapons and aim them at the New York Stock Exchange.

This is the operation to end all others. Innocent people may stand to lose something from this but the powers that be stand to lose much more. Bring the rain brothers.

We are Anonymous

We are Legion

We do not forgive

We do not forget

Expect Us.

Yeah..Well, I’m not really sure what to expect…

What Does New York Stock Exchange – NYSE Mean?… New York Stock Exchange – (thehiphopdiaries.com)
THANK YOU ANONYMOUS! One down and many to go. (iflizwerequeen.com)
Bradley Cooper Visits New York Stock Exchange (justjared.buzznet.com)
Nasdaq Readies Bid For New York Stock Exchange (huffingtonpost.com)
German company to buy New York Stock Exchange (kansas.com)

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Filed under International Econnomic Politics, Laws and Regulations, Philosophy, Technology

Tagged as anonymous, Bank of America, Business, Council on Foreign Relations, Exchanges, Financial Markets, Health and Environment, High Frequency Trading, International Econnomic Politics, Investing, Julian Assange, NASDAQ OMX Group, New York City, New York Stock Exchange, Philosophy, Technology, Views, commentaries and opinions, World Bank

February 4, 2011 · 02:20

Anonymous Amateurs & Script Kiddies

The underground cyber movement has drawn a lot of attention to themselves in the aftermath of WikiLeaks’ disclosure of the secret US embassy cables. In their vendetta against financial institutions who has suspended the accounts of WikiLeaks associates, they’ve managed to take down the websites of major companies like Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. Not bad for a bunch of uneducated teenager! But really; how dangerous are these people?

“A lot of these kids probably are getting into the thrill of it without having the expertise and knowledge that they’re actually committing a crime.”

Paul Sop

A cyber war? Online vandalism? A virtual sit-in? A Computerized protest? It’s not easy to find a category for the many distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks carried out by the group Anonymous recently. But after hearing and reading what the IT experts have to say about it, I think the term vandalism is the most accurate.

That said; I also believe that parts of the group have the potential to become very real – and very dangerous – cyber soldiers at some point in time.

But right now is a loosely organized group of protesters, just as the hippies in the 60’s, or the punk rockers of the 80’s.

Little Impact

According to Panda Security, Anonymous managed to hold down PayPal’s blog and MasterCard’s main site for more than one day.

Visa and a Swiss bank had theirs sites down for several hours, but others were out for just a few minutes.

Paul Sop, CIO at the cyber security company, Protexic, says that taking down a “brochure site” has little impact on a company’s bottom line, but adds that it could have collateral damage by affecting another system.

That’s what many assumes happened to MasterCard, as their SecureCode authentication also got hit the day of the attack, according to the magazine PC Pro.

PayPal’s transaction system also went down at the same time the company’s blog was being attacked.

This damage can amount to millions of pounds, according to Paul Sop.

Not At All Sophisticated

Despite the “successful” attracts, are the methods used pretty simple, and not at all sophisticated. It is traditional bot-net command and architecture.

They are carried out by using a widespread- and very available – software called Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC).

The LOIC software has been around for quite some time. But it’s has developed to become a very user-friendly piece of software that can be run from any computer.

One version even has a JavaScript based interface, equipped with drop-down menus from which you can choose a target, easier to navigate than a Windows Home Basic application.

Of course, if 10.00 people run it at the same time it can cause trouble, but hardly any severe damage.

And – of course – the security firms have this kind of activity mostly under control.

“You can actually watch when it’s used by others, giving a puppet master kind of control,” Paul Sop tells PC Pro .

This may suggest that the attackers don’t have any special hacking skills,. However, on the other hand, the LOIC programs are still evolving and the latest versions has encryption features that makes the whole thing easier to hide.

Craig Labowitz, chief scientist at Arbor Networks points out that the recent attacks, assumed to be launched by members of Anonymous, is not only DDoS attacks.

There’s a wide range of methods, and the level of complexity might vary for one to another.

A Crowd-Sourced Phenomena

This also reflects the diversity of the cyber protesters. “It’s a crowd-sourced phenomena,” Sop calls it.

“With Anonymous you have thousands of people, anyone can change the attack, the rate of the attack or the protocols they’re using,” he explains.

And this is what keeps the security experts on their toes.

Paul Sop compares it to a game of chess: When the attackers discover that a countermeasure is being launched, they change the attack.

Communication and information are shared in chat rooms.

The chat rooms are also the Anonymous weakest link because the security people easily can log into them and figure out what’s cooking.

And this seems to be a pretty effective method of prevention.

“As we were blocking their attacks, they get discouraged because a lot of these users are very young and they want that endorphin rush,” Sop says. “Annoy them enough, and eventually they lose interest and go on to something else,” he concludes.

This attack and counterattack activity has elevated the worries about a co-called cyber war.

Vandalism

Craig Labowitz characterize the Anonymous attacks as “vandalism”.

But adds: “That isn’t to say that this doesn’t pose a threat, as writers of these tools evolve, as more machines become involved.”

According to the security industry, hackers control between 40 and 60 million computers worldwide.

Several hundred thousand people have downloaded the LOIC software.

The PC Pro Magazine has also spoken with a couple of Anonymous representatives, who emphasize that they don’t speak for the whole group.

They do, however, claim that there is between 500 and 1000 member who are “highly skilled” and who have “very large bot-nets” and “a lot of experience.”

The rest are just protesters, they say.

“They are just people who stand up for what they believe in, and shouldn’t be referred to as hackers,” say one.

And the Anonymous dismiss the speculations about them trying to spark a cyber-war.

“The DDoS attacks were neither an act of so-called cyber war, or sit-in, they were more of a wake-up call to the world about the suppression off the freedom of the press,” says another Anonymous.

The Amateurs

Regardless of motivation, DDoS is illegal in most countries. So far has 3 people been arrested in the Netherlands and in Greece.

And there will likely be more arrests. Just downloading a LOIC program can give up to two years in prison. Only since the WikiLeaks turbulence started, the software has been downloaded more than 100.000 times from the sites of SurgeForce.net.

The ting is: this software do not hide IP addresses. So, it’s an easy task for Sop, Labowitz and other security people to find out who use it.

And you can be sure they’re handing the information over to the authorities.

The Script Kiddies

Anyway – there is one thing the security experts won’t mention:

Have you ever heard about “script kiddies”?

Well, it’s a slang in hacker communities for young aspiring hackers who writes basic scripts for the real ones (the criminals), who then put it together in increasingly sophisticated ways to create more and more dangerous malware.

According to my own sources in the hacker environment, there are many script kiddies amongst the Anonymous.

Mr. Sop says in the interview that the Anonymous kids probably are getting into the thrill without having the expertise and the knowledge that they’re actually committing a crime.

In other words: it seems like organized cyber criminals have started to use children to do their dirty work and carry out the testing of new components, as they at the same time are hiding their own asses.

Now, there’s the really ugly side of the story.