back to article Aussie anti-censor attacks strafe gov websites

The Anonymous denial of service campaign against Australian government websites on Wednesday in protest against mandatory net filtering plans was a relatively modest affair, but still managed to disrupt the access to targeted websites. Arbor Networks, which markets security technology that helps service providers to mitigate …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Anon

    It's unfortunate that Anon isn't what it used to be. Long gone are the glory days of bashing Tom Cruise and his Space Cadets.

    My guess is that, as the censorship continues, other hactivism groups will get involved, Anon's numbers will increase by a small amount, and Operation Titstorm II will come about.

    Although, Anon did an okay job with those morons who beheaded that dog.

  2. rob miller

    but who's doing it?

    "a relatively low 16.84 Mbps. By comparison, one in five service providers reported botnet-fueled attacks that in the 1-4 Gps range last year, with the worst attack hitting 49 Gbps"

    The notable point being that this particular one was presumably done by lots of pissed off individual amateur (D)DOS'ers, not the experts herding botnets. Democracy in action?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    OMG

    other types of content including small-breasted women......... are also due to be censored.

    Well thats a large chunk of the women's competitions at the 2012 Olympics that the Aussies wont be watching on the net on account of the running and jumping events tending to be contested by lean slim types built for speed.

    And no Skippy, dont even think of downloading the womens gymnastic events.

  4. Christoph
    Grenade

    Making small-breasted women illegal

    When the Australian government increases the scope of this law (as governments always do) to make sex with small-breasted women the equivalent of child rape, will there be a grace period for such women to get a boob job before their husbands are dragged off to jail?

    Will the government pay for these boob jobs? If not, what if a woman can't afford it?

    What happens if a woman refuses to comply so as to get her husband jailed?

    How is the minimum legally permissible breast size defined? When the average breast size goes up due to all those compulsory boob jobs, will the legal minimum also increase, resulting not in an arms race but a breasts race until Australian women are physically unable to stand up?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Kylie

      Kylie's breast size used to be 32A.

      So would that mean that re-runs of Neighbours would be banned under the new laws?

  5. The Original Ash
    Joke

    I propose a name change

    Anonymous shall henceforth be known as Impotence.

  6. Lee T
    FAIL

    not just small breasted women...

    also "detailed instruction in crime" which can mean graffiti video's, drug use etc. Also discussion of euthanasia. suicide. Fetish material (yes, anything, including spanking or bondage or "golden showers") RC is such a ridiculously broad category it isn't even remotely appropriate to block it.

    <- Oz .gov FAIL

  7. Bumpy Cat
    Flame

    Conroy actually wants it

    By it, I mean censorship on the scale of China. He's actually asking for that.

    At this point I wish I could say to him "Well, if you like living in a police state why don't you fuck off to one, instead of trying to ruin this country?"

  8. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Scary

    "Conroy's pitch that Google censors search results in China so why not in Australia was rejected by Google's local reps"

    Is that really true? Did someone in the Australian Government really suggest that.

    That is effing scary... how the hell did Australia vote in a bunch of censorship crazed lunatics?

    1. James 63

      Re: Scary

      "That is effing scary... how the hell did Australia vote in a bunch of censorship crazed lunatics?"

      You should have seen what the other lot were offering. At the time they were the pick of the bunch. Not so sure I'd say that now. Pirate Party or Sex Party might be getting my vote next time around (the nice thing about the overly complicated voting system here means it sends a message to the big parties, but your vote doesn't get wasted).

  9. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    Conroy's pitch that Google censors search results in China so why not in Australia

    If it's ok for the Chinese, it's ok for Australia...???

    Strewth!

  10. John Tserkezis
    Big Brother

    Conroy is convincing no-one.

    See <http://hungrybeast.abc.net.au/stories/stephen-conroy-extended-interview> for an ABC interview with Stephen Conroy about this matter. His primary interest is to remove all "Refused Classification (RC)" material from the web. His stance being that since you can't actually buy it legally in Australia, neither should you able to download it from the 'net. Even if you are legally allowed to watch it in the privacy of your own home.

    He goes to great pains to explain that the RC rating is NOT applied by the government, but an entirely separate entity (in other words - don't blame us).

    This is the same entity that refused a (C) Children's classification for two episodes of "Skippy the bush kangaroo", and while in discussion of "Fat Cat and Friends" over their continued (C) classification, the producers decided to can the show rather than deal with these idiots.

    On the matter of "The Blacklist", he casually states it has been around for nine years, so it's no secret (yet they forgot to actually tell anyone about it), and the leaked blacklist that contained innocent entries such as the dentist in Queensland was similar to, but not the same as the offically used blacklist. In other words, it's the fault of those who leaked it, not us.

    He (or his cronies) were in talks with google to block RC content from YouTube, (which Google refused to do), and attempts to justify it, stating that it's already done with China and Thailand, so why can't it be done with Australia?

    So there you have it. "Australia" is now pronounced "China" and Tianamen Square is a lovely tourist destination, containing a plaque saying "Nothing happened here in 1989".

    1. Christoph
      Paris Hilton

      Primary interest

      His primary interest is big tits. He has made it publicly and officially clear that he is obsessed with big tits to the point of trying to ban small ones on the grounds that such women are not real women. He is unashamedly telling the whole world about this overwhelming obsession.

  11. A B 3
    Welcome

    What happen to democracy?

    Time for a lynching... or the modern electronic equivalent. Next time put the legislation to a @$%! election, ya anti-democrats.

    1. Goat Jam
      Big Brother

      Sn election is not the answer

      Now that the Libs are headed by another right wing religious nutter in the form of Tony Abbot, I sincerely doubt that any of this will even be whispered about during any forthcoming election.

  12. Florence

    How about the boys?

    While I can only applaud the Aussie govt for trying to protect girls from being exploited by the porn industry, how about boys? How can I know that a male porn actor is over 18? Surely they now have to come up with criteria so that this law does not discriminate against men. How about body hair, or man boobs (although this isn't so clear cut these days with the rise of obesity amongst kids), or facial hair? Maybe they could insist on all male porn actors having to sport a thick moustache?

    Also, if boob size now becomes synonymous with age, surely retailers should be banned from selling padded bras to under-18s?

    I'm all for fighting absurdity with more absurdity :)

  13. Pablo
    Thumb Up

    It's a good question actually

    Why IS Google willing to censor the internet in China but not Australia exactly? Surely all the usual excuses still apply in Oz. (e.g. "It's the LAW", "It's the price of doing business in a foreign country", etc.)

    1. Big-nosed Pengie

      because

      China's big and losing that market would mean losing Big Bucks.

      Australia's tiny and it Minister for Idiocy Conroy censored Google their accountants woudn't even notice.

    2. Mark 65

      Simple

      It's easier to tell the Aussies to go get f*cked. With only 21m people it's no great loss if they chuck their toys. Couple of billion Chinese is a different matter even if only a small percentage can access the internet.

    3. Long Fei
      Go

      Because

      Because China is a potentially massive market, and Australia mostly isn't.

  14. ceebee

    just a thought....

    Conroy keeps saying this is all about pornography and RC material ..but it is about any "illegal" material.... it takes no stretch of the imagination to extend this to include "copyright" material accessible on the web but which the content owners want stopped in Australia.

    Conroy's comments about China are disgusting but the irony is he fails to see any irony in it!

    The whole issue is obscene .. and Conroy's obsession grows the more he is attacked over it.

    Beware any politician who wants to "protect the children" always the sign of a small minded populist and dictatorial government.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    ****ing scriptards

    At a time when genuine anti-censorship campaigners are trying to make submissions to the government or undertake further research these 14yr old idiots are only denying service to people that can make a difference. Serious fail, kiddies.

  16. JassMan

    Pron is just the beginning

    Conroy's comments about Google doing the same filtering as in China show that the censorship of pron is just the start. Next month it will be censorship of political discussion, and the following month will ensure that no one can trace or in anyway discuss those citizens who have been disappeared for their "criminal" views.

    Thankfully, the UK gov couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery if IT is involved so it will be years before they get internet filtering working here. Instead you get arrested for taking photos of buildings, and cars with "POLICE" written down the side. I can't be the only person who doesn't understand why a terrorist can only recognise a police car if someone has taken a picture of it first.

  17. wv9e

    Hmmm

    I guess some of the Nazis escaped down under.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    They sent me this...

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Greetings Australian Government Officials, Members of Local and International Press, and the General Public. We are Anonymous. Austrailia - 2/8/2010 - Over the past several years, we have maintained a close watch on the actions of the Australian Government with particular focus on its stance towards internet censorship. Australia's laws on internet censorship are already among the most restrictive in the western world. Their government filters more internet content than any other Parliamentary Democracy. For some elements within the Government, including Telecommunications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy, this still is not enough. Late in January of 2009 he proposed legislature that would lead to mandatory ISP filtering for all of Australia. The stated goal is to prevent Australia from viewing "illegal and unwanted content" on the internet. Anonymous' concern with this legislature is twofold. First, the ambiguity of the term "unwanted content" is completely unacceptable. No government should have the right to refuse its citizens access to information solely because they perceive it to be "unwanted." Indeed, the only possible interpretation of "unwanted content" is content that the government itself does not want to be seen. More importantly, Anonymous does not approve of the steps already undertaken by the Australian Government to control what their populous sees. Claiming to be cracking down on "simulated child pornography," many depictions of women with small breasts in pornography have been banned. Officials cannot claim that they believe the models in these movies are in fact underage, as the production the titles that have been affected are heavily regulated to ensure the age of the models. Instead they are relying on earlier ambiguous wording that allows pornography featuring models that "appear to be" under 18 years of age to be treated in the same manner as actual child pornography. The repercussions of this censorship of a natural body type on the psyche of Australian women cannot be understated, but this is not Anonymous' concern. The Australian Government will learn that one does not mess with our porn. No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason. We are Legion. We do not Forgive. We do not Forget Expect us. Contact: operation.titstorm@gmail.com ### <IMG>http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6682/autitstorm.jpg</IMG> IRC link: irc.anonnet.org #titstorm YOUTUBE VIDEO:(swarm it!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZiSnqRUR9s News: http://www.theage.com.au/national/indian-journal-focuses-on-hate-20100131-n6ju.html http://australianetworknews.com/ Government officials: (Specifics Later) http://www.aph.gov.au/DPS/Administration.htm Fax Information(black Faxing): http://partyvan.info/wiki/Operation_Baylout#Black_Faxes Initial Plan: Black Faxes--->SKype calles---->Porn to officials-->DDoS--->Bombs LOIC: http://www.mediafire.com/?kwzmzw00hnj http://sourceforge.net/projects/loic/files/loic/loic-1.0.2/ LOIC Tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OLzvjDqrOo links to find DDOS Targets: http://www.iptools.com/dnstools.php?tool=ipwhois&user_data=202.14.81.230&submit=Go http://www.robtex.com/dns/search.aph.gov.au.html DDOS Targets: aph.gov.au has address 202.14.81.230 aph.gov.au mail is handled by 100 smtp2.aph.gov.au. aph.gov.au mail is handled by 100 smtp1.aph.gov.au. smtp2.aph.gov.au has address 202.14.81.7 smtp1.aph.gov.au has address 202.14.81.8 CAPTCHA solution: (used for automated blackfax, already working) (disregard this) http://www.newocr.com/ Automated Blackfaxing

    [Goes on to list loads of name/phone number pairs]

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Idiots

      "We are Legion. We do not Forgive. We do not Forget Expect us. Contact: operation.titstorm@gmail.com"

      Gmail? What self respecting activist is going to contact via a service that is matey with the NSA?

  19. Winkypop Silver badge
    FAIL

    Conroy

    Is a sock-puppet of the far-right, god-fearing, crazy xtian lobby.

    They are worried someone might say Jehovah.

    Damn...

  20. Dr Christian
    Stop

    Low or not ...

    "a relatively low 16.84 Mbps. By comparison, one in five service providers reported botnet-fueled attacks that in the 1-4 Gps range last year, with the worst attack hitting 49 Gbps"

    When using techniques and tools like slowooris a great deal of bandwidth is not required for a DOS. If a webserver can be brought down with ~20 Mbps, taking one down with 50 Gbps is just masturbation.

  21. AnonymousNow

    The censorship will get only worse, it goes one way

    "Cartoon porn and small breasted women?"

    Assuming the bureaucrats get away with this sort of heavy handed and bizarre censorship at the outset, what is next? Logic dictates it will go only one way now, with ever tightening restrictions, and little hope for a pull back. It will be a race for the bottom as one politician attempts to outdo the other with respect to strigency in censorship.

    Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This will not turn out well for the people of Australia. My sympathies are with them, as well as my sword.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    ulterior motive

    Conroy may have an ulterior motive in censoring pictures of small breasted women.

    Perhaps his real goal is to halt distribution of his own image on the internet.

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