Dutch police arrest 16-year-old WikiLeaks avenger
The first, but probably not the last
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Dutch police said they have arrested a 16-year-old boy for participating in web attacks against MasterCard and Visa as part of a grassroots push to support WikiLeaks.
A press release issued on Thursday (Google translation here) said the unnamed boy confessed to the distributed denial-of-service attacks after his computer gear was seized.
He was arrested in The Hague, and is scheduled to be arraigned before a judge in Rotterdam on Friday. It is the first known report of an arrest in the ongoing attacks, which started earlier this week.
The arrest came shortly after anonops.net, a Netherlands-hosted website used to coordinate attacks against companies perceived as harming WikiLeaks, was taken offline. A Panda Security researcher said the website was itself the victim of DDoS attacks, but the investigation by the Dutch High Tech Crime Team has also involved “digital data carriers,” according to the release.
It didn't specify the crimes the boy was charged with or say exactly what his involvement in the attacks was.
According to researchers, the Low Orbit Ion Cannon tool, which thousands of WikiLeaks sympathizers are using to unleash the DDoS attacks, takes no steps to conceal their IP addresses. It wouldn't be surprising if attackers who used the application from internet connections at their home or work also receive a call from local law enforcement agencies. ®
COMMENTS
Anonymous... Kinda...
Here's where we see how serious Anonymous etc are now that arrests are being made. Going up against Scientology or (other) stupid people on the internet is one thing - DDOSing 2 of the biggest financial institutes in the world is another.
Personally, I agree with their sentiment. Until Mastercard/PayPal/Visa pulled the plug I wasn't going to make a donation to Wikileaks, now I want to know if there's any way I still can.
But I don't think that launching a pointless script kiddie attack against massive corps. and getting yourself nicked is going to change anything either. So I won't be doing all that.
Unfortunately with our reliance on our credit/debit cards and buying tat on eBay through Paypal or getting most of our Xmas shopping through Amazon, boycotting these companies is futile. I hope the leaks keep coming, I hope people keep talking about it, I hope it all turns out like The Pentagon Papers did. If need be - let's get a protest going... It seems to be all the rage, even though it didn't help the students... Bugger.
This WikiLeaks stuff is important. Whichever camp you fall into, there's an important argument going on and it deserves attention.
Thanks for the heads up!
"did you know gullable was just removed from the New English Dictionary"
No, I didn't! Gee, you are right, I couldn't find gullable in any dictionary I have access to... But I did find gullible though, would that do?
The DDOS attack is WRONG!!!
To show your support to the companies unjustly attacked by those damn anarchists at Anonymous, you could make a call to their emergency hotlines and let them know you are with them in these difficult times. These numbers are usually toll free, so the call won't cost you a dime, and will let the people at said companies know of your support and love for them.
While you are at it you could check -out of pure curiosity- whether the plate number of your car or the serial # of your computer is a valid credit card number, or inform them of the theft of your garden dwarves last summer, to see if they can help, given their experience in solving various thefts, scams and DDOS attacks. Oh, and remember to be polite.
Oh, and for those of you afraid of 'the consequences', calling these numbers is as legal as calling your grandma, as long as you don't make threats or insult the pple at the other end of the line. You wouldn't do that to your grandma, would you?
THIS WILL SHOW THOSE DAMN HACKERS!!!!
You're welcome. ;-)
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