Anonymous turns its fire on China Hacktivist group Anonymous has finally turned its attention to the People’s Republic of China, claiming to have defaced more than 480 web sites over the past few days including government sites, whilst urging Chinese hackers to join its cause. The group apparently began its campaign in the region with the launch of its …
I am not convinced that "fucking over" the Chinese government is such a great idea. The Chinese don't play by the same rules and if push comes to shove, the results could be dire.
In the west some of what Anonymous does can be considered "fun" although not all of it. I don't think the Chinese government will see it quite that way.
As I am led to believe, the Chinese are quite already very strong in hacking and Anonymous might just be treading on the wrong turf........
I agree with some of the principals behind what Anonymous are "hacking/fighting" for but if they are gonna get a little too big headed then I feel that they need to sit down and really reconsider their purpose.
They are more likely to do harm to the Chinese people than the Chinese government. Retribution is a word that Anonymous have to keep in mind.
How is this different from the proposed Anonymous hack of Los Zetas and other Mexican drugs cartels. They backed out of that one but now walk into this one and expect not to be found and taken to task?
And who in their right mind in China would help them and not have problems with the authorities. They need to pick battles where the fallout only impacts the intended target, this does not look like one of those battles, there is way too much scope for collateral damage.
Indeed - I've also notice that the 'sense of mischief' seems to have vanished from their rhetoric, replaced with something more sinister and threatening.
This could have been a good prank - playing the chinese at their "supposed" own hacking game. No compromising data has been lifted either, going by the article, so will this encourage *any* change for the better?
Both the anons and some of the commentards here seem to have a very naive view of Chinese society based on the one dimensional picture painted by western governments and media.
Whilst there is exploitation, repression and social unrest in China (ummm..and that's so different from the USA et al how??) there is also a lot of popular patriotic support for the country and the national government as well - largely based on the huge economic advances China has made over the past three decades.
That popular support is unsurprisingly reflected in the hacker culture within China e.g. the Honker Union. If I were one of the anons that participated in this rather futile defacement spree I'd be more worried about having my life pWn3d by patriotic Chinese hacktivists than some kind of reprisal from the Chinese authorities.
Agreed - If I was one of the 400 million people lifted out of poverty in the last decade, I'd probably be quite patriotic and willing to overlook the failings of the state.
Speaking of which, watching that Nial Fergusson program on China, and the reasons why they are so wary of dissent (16M / 20M dead in Lotus and that other -religious- rebellion) made me a little curious as to why they crush both new religious threats (Falun Gong), but also that artist guy who could serve as a useful channel to diffuse frustrations by working with him to modernise China's political processes and address faults, without risking a collaboration of legitimate dissent with the religious nutcases and a greater chance of explosive rebellion.
Oh well. It'll be interesting to see if the presidents hint at new reforms carries through to anything. Hopefully they'll design a system of overseeing/counterbalancing/opposing functionaries to erode corruption at lower levels of the state machine.
"Agreed - If I was one of the 400 million people lifted out of poverty in the last decade, I'd probably be quite patriotic and willing to overlook the failings of the state."
Indeed. It's always been a bit of an awkward historical fact that the Nazis were actively supported by the people of Germany because they gave them jobs. Post-war this had to be ignored and everyone more or less agreed that the people simply didn't know that Hitler and co were monsters. But, really, they knew fine well. They just didn't care because they were being monsters to *other people* while throwing the bread and circuses to the majority of Germans.
As is generally the case, modern Fascist China is no different from 1930's Fascist Germany.
@kirovs: read the article...
"...the group’s messages on Pastebin and posted on the defaced sites will largely have failed to reach their audience given that they were written in English.
Anonymous seems to be working on the latter issue, however, having sent a tweet out calling for help from would-be translators."
Chinese hackers? Perhaps not after all.
This could rapidly backfire on them big time.
China do play by different rules and has teams of state sponsored hackers at their disposal. (just ask Google and the others about their past hacks)
So the script kiddies vs the state sponsored hackers backed by a regime notorious for its human rights abuses? Who would you bet on winning?
You think telling a generation of hackers how to hack will protect a country from hackers?
How did you work that out?
If you train people how to hack, they will teach others how to hack. Soon everyone who want to know will know how to hack and thus ....
Well, think about it.
It is the plague of Thebes Oppenheimer was talking about when he learned of the Hydrogen bomb.
>>whilst urging Chinese hackers to join its cause
Yeah good idea. You guys sit on another continent playing your games, and encourage the locals to be the ones who will get the rap when they follow your lead.
Still, if the Chinese government acts about hackers, it'll give anon something else to retaliate too which is ultimately more important to them than any ethical cause.
tbh it is this kind of US meddling in everyone else's business without thinking first that has encouraged a lot of the trouble and terrorism that they now face.
a) they should get their own house in order before they start preaching to others
b) stop buying cheap ipods/trainers, etc that are made in sweatshops if they are that worried
c) don't take on the world's biggest superpower
d) there are far worse things going on to deal with if you take a step back from the anti-communist propaganda for just one moment
Ever tried contacting a Chinese network about them hosting criminals? The APNIC records have been fake or obsolete for at least a decade. Go upstream and those records are fake too. It's quite clear that the government is not running the show. Anon probably targeted crime gangs, whether that was the intention or not. I congratulate them but I wouldn't want to be them. I'm afraid that my participation is not possible due my firewall configuration.
Anyone with ties to China PLEASE use the utmost care before you act. China also has far better "crowd control" than Libya or Egypt had. One mistake may cost you your life or years of hard labor. Especially if you have future "potential", don't blow it now making novice mistakes.
How I wish they had been successful in 1989:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLKu2lmx6ME
Have any of these commentors ever been to China? It is simply not this sinister oppresive regime that people are making it out to be. Yes, there are examples of injustice but not any more so than you can find in the US. There arn't death squads roaming the country hunting down people who look the wrong way!
You need to broaden your horizons and try learning a little bit about a situation before you stick your oar in.
so long as these sites happen to originate in the People's Republic ? Or do you support Anonymous attacks on *all* government sites, even those of so-called «democratic» countries, which spend their time bringing their version of «democracy» - Aristoteles would rather have called it «plutocracy» - to other countries by means of interminable wars of aggression made palatable for domestic consumption by calling them «humanitarian intervention» or «R2P» ? For some odd reason, you're being less than forthright here....
Henri
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