BlackBerry blog hacked with riot-related threats RIM's corporate blog has been defaced with threats as part of a protest against the BlackBerry maker's plans to hand over information on London rioters to the police. The blog section of the BlackBerry website was defaced by hacking crew TeaMp0isoN, which proceeded to boast about the attack on Twitter. "No Blackberry you will …
I do so enjoy the threats made by "hackers". These are fundamentally weak people hiding behind the perceived safety and security of their anonymity on the internet. It is no shock to find out just how big and tough they are when they are caught and subsequently roll over for a tummy tickle by the authorities rather than face the prospect of serving time in an institution full of lifetime professional criminals. My image of these people is that of the bullied, geeky dweeb in your high school class who has seen the internet as their way of getting even with the world - fundamentally in human form they are still a geeky dweeb.
You just have to look at last week's pics of Jake Davis, the supposed non-leadership spokesperson for the Anonyputzs, to see proof of that. Pencil-necked and short? Check! Pimples? Check! Looking smug at his five minutes of infamy? Check! I'm betting TeamPointless are just another bunch of attention-seeking skiddies cut from the same poor bolt of cloth.
"if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all"
So they retaliate by threatening the safety of all the innocent employees of a large corporation, none of which have any say in what the company decides to do. Yet another group of script kiddies who think they have the right to dictate how everyone behaves. "Do what we say or we'll fuck your shit up innit!"
And the best part is that the police, especially at this moment, has nothing better to do than go sifting through a couple of million of texts, so they can arrest those _really_ innocent members.
Well at least learns me a lesson, even if some group does something "Good" (defacing a scary nationalistic website) they still can be thick and stupid as hell!
*If* they have the files as stated then they'll probably release them sooner or later anyway - it's the classic blackmail position.
Best bet for RIM is to persuade the police to look into the website defacement and see if they can bag the culprits - must be able to swing it into terrorism somehow now, at the very least conspiracy charges are easy.
Impeding the Police in the course of their investigations is indeed an offence IIRC.
This looks like it might well qualify as a deliberate attempt to pervert the course of justice though and I also reckon that conspiring to commit blackmail is a slam-dunk. If so, I'd love to see the faces of the TeaMp0isoN members when they realise they're not looking at some cheesy computer misuse prosection but have crossed the line into the sort of offences normally associated with the really nasty side of Organised Crime, with suitable penalties associated....
These guys just keep making themselves look more stupid and criminal. If I understand UK law, they (RIM) will not have a choice in assisting the officers, they will be compelled by law. Also if teampoision were as elite as they wish they were, they would be able to just "remove" said evidence. Their inability to, combined with a very spurious threat that innocent people will be prosecuted makes it seem like they are deeply involved with or even behind inciting these riots.
I've heard enough complaints about crooked police, but really, will the Met will just start arresting people in mass based on their proximity to a crime? I don't think the UK system of law is that weak. It appears from the multiple news stories that there are specific and direct intentions conveyed to commit crimes as a group...this would not only be criminal, but orchestrating and inciting it is likely a serious crime as well. It also sounds like very solid evidence that again that in their ignorance they somehow thought the messages would be kept private and not released.
Rebellion is one thing and has its place, but rioting by itself has never brought down a power structure very effectively. There is only a change in power when you are effective in removing the those in power. Even shaming, or forcing out of office the current group of jackals would just make room for the next group waiting in the wings. You have to first remove their sources of income, their support base etc. What where the inciters of these riots really hoping to accomplish here other than a distraction for greater crimes or just simple greed? Its not like Conservative rich elites will just stop and say oh these people are upset, lets just reform the system for them now....duh what ignorance... these children don't seem to understand the deeply ingrained personal benefits that the elite have carved out for themselves in the current power structure and why this will only make them tighten the fist.
You have to have the people behind you, if your enemy is that corrupt and evil it should be all the easier to let the truth and facts fight for you, inform the masses and turn EVERYONE against the criminal behavior of the system. If you can't explain it well enough to convince people to see it your way, maybe your not as right as you thought you were.
This also seems to highlight again the problem with anonymous political agendas: you can put out a voice, or a thought anonymously and it can't be contained, this is a good thing. Be it religious, philosophical or just a protest against actions. ("no I don't support the Nazi movement" etc). But when you want to take action, and start movements you really need to have a voice or something that you represent, and if your voice is anonymous moniker, then anyone can speak through that same megaphone simply by slapping your tag on it.
(Which by the way is why I hate the TeaParty - against waste and taxes but stand for NOTHING....yet. when they win more seats you will find they are for something you don't really like maybe Mormonism, Catholicism, anti-abortion, or just killing all the sorcerers and gays as the bible commands (look it up). Problem is when someone runs just being solely against something, who don't know what they are FOR until they are in power
Anon will rue this year. Their attacks on Scientology and on those trying to supress wiki leaks and even some of the lulzsec activities won them a lot of positive press and even grudging respect.
Now they are flushing it down the toilet with crap like this.
Whilst the more informed of us know anon is just a label covering a whole host of activities and people, the general public and the media don't get that. The more shitty behaviour by the likes of teampoison and others the more Anon becomes a target.
When they come for Anon (and they will and are already) - will I speak up? On this evidence - NO let them all burn.
Even if RIM would have no choice if authorities demand their logs, my understanding is that they volunteered publicly in a rather holier-than-the-pope way to cooperate with police to catch the culprits. I suspect this 'helpfulnes' has more to do with impending big contract decisiions by the UK government than anything else.
Even though the looting itself can't be approved of, it gives me food for thought to see a commercial company that fulfills a public utility function handing over civilian sensitive data voluntarily just for their commercial interest.
As a potential customer I would think twice before joining their network in the future. Also, if RIM did any survey recently they would notice that their blackberry has lost most of its business target-group marketshare and, instead is now mostly bought by youths between 12 and 17. That latter target-share will not be amused by this act of helpfullnes and soon see them as an enemy. So fail for RIM imo.
RIM "volunteered" to give this evidence because they knew damned well they were going to have to provide it anyway. "Freedom of speech" doesn't apply to corporations. The police routinely request call traces and histories, so why would BBM logs be exempt?
By making a public declaration that they would "assist the police with their enquiries", they're merely stating the bleedin' obvious. With the Terrorism Act and other powers vested in the Metropolitan (and other) police force over the past decade or so, RIM never had the choice not to.
That is true and in the end it is democracy that has decided thus. Still I see no reason for them to come forward in this way. Thinking of the possible purposes served only business reasons come to mind. That is unfitting for a 'trusted' intermediary like they are.
Compare this to how Twitter fought several courts to prevent being forced to deliver login-profiles of Wikileakers to the authorities.
Just playing devils advocate here...
If they really are chomping at the bit to turn this over it raises more privacy concerns, though I can t blame them, but they will certainly loose some of their target business (youths in UK)
However how did this exchange really go down. My guess is like this:
Reporter:
"Hello RIM, this is the Daily Telegraph, and reports we have lead us to believe that your BBM network was the central tool used to commit these Heinous crimes in London. Can the general public count on Blackberry to cooperate under the law as required and provide the police with the information they need?"
BlackBerry Rep:
"Yes we will cooperate as required under the law"
Newheadline:
"Blackberry volunteers that it will provide data on messages to police..."
You get the idea - only a recording of the actual conversation would make us all smarter, otherwise its speculation.
RIM should of not made this into a PR stunt, nobody needed to know they were assisting police and they had to go and make it public knowledge. I honestly hope they look after there staff after this whole PR SNAFU as if you hadn't seen the news there be crazy people out there.
That all said the name "TeaMp0isoN" is somewhat curious as FYI TeamON systems was a Seattle based company that RIM borged many years back ammicably. Probably nothing but I'm sure they will find out who it was, even if it was a inside job from a discrunteled employee; And let's face it, they have had some in the past months and many more lined up for the chop and I doubt those that should go are the ones going. This needs to be dealt with. Firstly whoever does your PR, make them one of the 2000 to go as they clearly have problems for basicly putting the wellbeing and lifes of not only the staff, but also there families - in a situation that nobody should be in. The blame on that is not for helping the police but trying to use it as PR and making it public as that was clearly wrong and ownership of that needs to happen and frankly the police have enough on there plate without RIM's disgusting PR making it worse. by all means assit the police, but don't make things worse by announcing it as even the stupid will only move to other means of communication and I still can't believe somebody would think that should of been made public, especialy right away.
You know if they had only said we will do a vote on bringing back hanging and none of this might not of happened.
Its simple, the law is if the police ask for this type of data then you must give it to them. Otherwise your with holding data and you can be arrested. + I have no worries about this TempPoison of what ever they are called. Their statement shows their immaturity and probably lack of ability. They are nothing compared to real Anon who have done some impressive hacks and understand what they have done. Temppoison have ran in eyes closed and probably left a trail of bread crumbs. What a joke.
"we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters"
Oh, you're threatening to pass the information to yourselves?
"do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps"
Oh wait, you just said they were innocent bystanders!
"the police can’t protect themselves let alone protect others"
So what do you fear then?
"don’t be a puppet.."
... to the rioters, release the information.
"we do not condone in innocent people being attacked in these riots nor do we condone in small businesses being looted, but we are all for the rioters that are engaging in attacks on the police and government"
Translation: we do not condone riots, but we do.
"before anyone says the blackberry employees are innocent no they are not! They are the ones that would be assisting the police"
So people working at Boeing are responsible for 9/11: they built the planes.
My God, rarely will you be offered the opportunity to read so much stupidity in so little space, I'm going to use this as evidence in a paper debulking Darwin's evolution theory: clearly humans didn't evolve from monkeys, monkeys evolve from humans.
This is the second Reg article I've seen which states that RIM "plans to hand over information on London rioters to the police" in either the headline or lead in.
As far as I can see, nothing in the rest of the article(s) supports this assertion beyond a basic PR statement from the company's twitter saying "We have engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can." El Reg either needs to back up the assertion there is a planned handover of information or dial back the allegations.
Of course RIM were going go public with the fact they are going to help the police. Being transparent about it was the only option they had.
When you’ve got hundreds on news reports all pointing the finger at blackberry BBM, there is no way RIM could stay silent as it would be far too damaging to it’s brand. They also can’t avoid direct questions about if they are going to help the police so by acting early they lessen the amount of negative coverage towards them.
They are morally and legally obliged to help the police and by making the announcement early all they are doing is heading off the questions before they start and attempting to protect their brand. Far from it being a bad PR decision it was the only sensible course of action.
The latter.
If this was all about a legitimate protest then I would be with them on the sentimate, but not the action.
But don't delude yourself into thinking that burning a buisness a bus or nicking some sweeties or a tele is anyway connected to a legitimate form of protest.
Teampoison = teamprick!
I have a feeling teampoison are mistaking the intentions and inclinations of the nightly moron parade; even if they were furnished with the names and addresses of RIM employees, I doubt they've been paying sufficient attention to understand what teampoison hopes they'll do. And even if they do try and make for a RIM employee's home, they'll get distracted by a Currys or a Carpetright on the way.
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