FBI working from list of top 1,000 protestors in Anonymous raids

[DainBramaged]

It turns out there’s a method behind the FBI’s raids of suspected Anonymous members around the country. The bureau is working from a list, provided by PayPal, of the 1,000 internet IP addresses responsible for the most protest traffic during Anonymous’ DDoS attacks against PayPal last December.

FBI agents served 40 search warrants in January on people suspected of hosing down PayPal during ”Operation Payback”—Anonymous’ retaliatory attack against companies who blacklisted WikiLeaks. On July 19, the feds charged the first 14 defendants under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and raided an additional 35 suspects for evidence.

An FBI affidavit first published Tuesday by an NBC affiliate in Dallas lays out how the FBI decided on its targets, and suggests the bureau may have plenty more.

According to the affidavit by FBI agent Chris Thompson, PayPal security officials were in close contact with the bureau beginning on December 6, two days after PayPal froze WikiLeaks’ donation account and the first day it began receiving serious denial-of-service traffic. FBI agents began monitoring Anonymous press releases and Twitter postings about Operation Payback, while PayPal collected traffic logs on a Radware intrusion prevention system installed on its network.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/07/fbi-working-from-list-of-top-1000-protestors-in-anonymous-raids.ars

[krispos42]

1. k&r mn/t

[KansDem]

2. Too bad the FBI wasn't this quick and zealous prior to 9/11

But we had to get into Iraq some how...

[EFerrari]

11. Shouldn't FBI be looking for the Amerithrax perp

instead of stalking protesters?

[KansDem]

13. One would think!

Several anthrax letters mailed, some deaths as a result.

But the FBI was able to nail only one inmate who sent a letter from prison containing a non-toxic powder:
The Connecticut State Attorney’s Office receives a threatening letter containing a white powdery substance. The letter, addressed to US Attorney John A. Danaher, mentions anthrax, and references Osama bin Laden. Laboratory analysis will confirm that the white powder does not contain anthrax or any other toxins. The office will be closed for two days. The letter is later found to have been mailed from a prison in Cheshire, Connecticut, and the mailer is soon identified as inmate Noel Davila. Davila will confess to preparing and mailing the letter. He will be convicted of threatening to use weapons of mass destruction, and will be sentenced to 35 years in prison.

--more--
History Commons

But that seems to be the extent of it...

[gateley]

3. I'm not savvy enough to get this -- can they actually find proof

this way?

This particular action by Anon didn't hurt anyone, IMO, so I'd hate to see people actually prosecuted for this.

[iwishiwas]

5. I have a question also-what does 'hosing down paypal' mean?

[DainBramaged]

6. Distributed Denial of service attack (DDOS)

is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of person or persons to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways, and even root nameservers. The term is generally used with regards to computer networks, but is not limited to this field; for example, it is also used in reference to CPU resource management.<1>

One common method of attack involves saturating the target machine with external communications requests, such that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic, or responds so slowly as to be rendered effectively unavailable. In general terms, DoS attacks are implemented by either forcing the targeted computer(s) to reset, or consuming its resources so that it can no longer provide its intended service or obstructing the communication media between the intended users and the victim so that they can no longer communicate adequately.

Denial-of-service attacks are considered violations of the IAB's Internet proper use policy, and also violate the acceptable use policies of virtually all Internet service providers. They also commonly constitute violations of the laws of individual nations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack


These folks hijack (unknowingly by the owners) thousands of computers and use those computer in those attacks. Most of these folks are people who never updte he protection on the computer, or use it for playing Farmland on facebook and can't be bothered with security.

[iwishiwas]

8. thanks so much. I suspose I could

have looked up the phase but it did not appear technical --just jargon.
thanks again.

[TalkingDog]

9. Ohhh.... it hurt the most important "people" in this country: Corporations

They are more important than you. Or didn't you realize?

[MineralMan]

4. Good. They're finally doing something about this.

It's all OK with some people, until their favorite site gets DDOSed. It's either right or wrong. The nature of the attacks isn't the issue, as far as I'm concerned.

[uncle ray]

7. everybody loves them some Paypal too.

until Paypal refuses to process payments to their favorite site, cause or person. my transactions are my business, right or wrong Paypal should process them and STFU. the nature of who i give money to isn't the issue as far as i'm concerned.

[frylock]

10. word up

[MineralMan]

14. A DDOS attack against Paypal

hurts individuals and small businesses, too. That includes many DUers, who use Paypal as their system to accept payments from customers and clients. It all cuts both ways, you know.

[defendandprotect]

15. +1 -- It's a political attack on Wiki --

what I don't understand though is how they could expect to remain

"anonymous" when their IP is evidently picked up immediately --

aren't there ways to block that?

[Modern_Matthew]

12. What a waste of tax dollars. Gotta protect the capitalist class at all costs, eh? nt