Anonymous members have been busy little cyber bees this month - stinging several targets. The hacker collective stepped up its ongoing attack on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) this week with a single controversial photo. However, not everything is turning up roses for the group. Across the pond, a suspected member was charged with launching DDoS attacks.
Indecent Exposure
In an odd, if unsurprising move, Anonymous released a photo of a man who is supposedly Linton Johnson, the chief BART spokesperson, exposing himself in public with an arm around another shirtless man. It's likely the group hacked into a social networking profile belonging to Johnson, though it's unclear exactly where the photo was found.
Johnson has yet to make a public statement about the leaked photos.
Anonymous has called for the resignation of both Johnson and Kenton Rainey, the BART chief responsible for an unprecedented cell phone service shutdown that targeted protesters at a rally earlier this month, as part of OpBART. Additional requests include: "Mandate new training for all BART officers; publicly apologize to the people for shutting down cell service; take the guns away from the BART police; and reopen the investigation to the killing of Charles Hill." Hill was shot and killed by a BART officer in July.
Speaking to CNN, Johnson defended BART's actions and railed against the protesters.
"They were going to take the very tools that we put in place - the mobile phone service - and they were going to turn it around and use it against our customers," said Johnson. "So they took this mobile phone service, a tool for safety, and used it against our customers to try to violate their constitutional rights to safety."
Anonymous has previously made it crystal clear that it has no qualms dragging real-life into its online operations.
During a spat of in-fighting this summer, key members of the group released personal information - including the home address - of member Ryan Cleary. The 16-year-old upstart hacker started a cyber mutiny, wresting control of Anonymous' official sites and criticizing the perceived leadership structure. The group also leaked personal information of BART customers in retaliation for the cellphone service shutdown, as well as details on over 100 police officers and employees culled during a hack attack.
Anonymous says it will continue its crusade against BART. The next protest is scheduled for August 29th at BART's Civic Center station during rush hour.
Charges Filed
Sophos' Naked Security blog reported that Peter David Gibson, a 22-year-old student from Hartlepool, England who was apprehended in April by the country's computer crime unit, has been officially charged with conspiracy to impair the operation of a computer. The site added that the maximum penalty for such a crime in the UK is 10 years in prison.
April was indeed a busy month for Anonymous. The group picked a fight with Sony over its prosecution of George "GeoHot" Hotz, the NJ hacker who famously jailbroke the PlayStation 3 gaming console. Hotz was sued by Sony in January. The two sides eventually reached an out-of-court settlement, but Anonymous wasn't ready to yield.
Anonymous shut down two PlayStation-related sites with distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) and attempted to fuel a boycott of all Sony products. Following a much bigger attack on the PlayStation Network which compromised millions of members' personal information, Anonymous maintained its innocence, saying "for once we didn't do it." Files containing a telltale Anonymous calling card ("We are legion") were located inside PSN servers by Sony engineers, shedding some doubt on the proclamation.
Anonymous has been a constant target for global law enforcement this year. Turkish police arrested 32 suspected members in June. Last month, 10 adults and 5 minors were picked up in Italy under suspicion of being involved with the group. Not to be undone, the FBI apprehended 14 suspects across the U.S. for aiding in myriad hacking attacks.
One reason for the rash of arrests according to Anonymous is the very Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) which powers its cyber shenanigans. The group admitted LOIC may not be the best tool for the job anymore, and could actually be doing more harm than good.
"LOIC was the go-to weapon for Anonymous supporters during protests against dictators in North Africa and Operation: Payback," said the group. "However, LOIC is also the reason scores of people have been arrested in the last year."
Anonymous confirmed it's developing a new hacking tool called "RefRef" - a JavaScript-powered program that "uses the target site's own processing power against itself." The collective believes it will be ready by September.
