Crime Anonymous’ Operation Payback IRC Operator Arrested

[The Helper]

A teenager was arrested yesterday on suspicion of being involved with the Anonymous’ Operation Payback. The operation orchestrated DDoS attacks on anti-piracy targets in the last months, and more recently against those who obstructed Wikileaks’ work. Sources have informed TorrentFreak that the arrestee is one of the IRC-operators of Anonymous, known under the nickname Jeroenz0r.

Starting mid-September, dozens of anti-piracy groups, copyright lawyers and pro-copyright outfits have been targeted by a group of Anonymous Internet ‘vigilantes’ under the flag of Operation Payback.

The operation started initially as ‘payback’ against outfits that tried to stop the BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay, and DDoS attacks were organized to strike back. A few days ago, the operation changed course and instead began to go after organizations that displayed opposition towards Wikileaks.

Over the last days several high profile companies and institutions were taken offline temporarily by DDoS attacks including Mastercard, Visa and Paypal. Conversely, Operation Payback’s operation was also obstructed with the deletion of their Twitter and Facebook accounts after the news hit the mainstream media.

Anonymous' Operation Payback IRC Operator Arrested * TorrentFreak

A teenager was arrested yesterday on suspicion of being involved with the Anonymous' Operation Payback. The operation orchestrated DDoS attacks on anti-piracy targets in the last months, and more recently against those who obstructed Wikileaks' work. Sources have informed TorrentFreak that the...

torrentfreak.com

 

[Bronxernijn]

Yup, they got the kid. He is said to be 16 years old, after his arrest the websites of police and the Attorney general were effectively attacked.

 

[Vestras]

Another arrest that has no base. As far as I am concerned, this kid has done nothing wrong. That's the beauty of a Distributed Denial of Service attack - it's not one person that does it.

In fact, he merely set a few values in a program, in fact not even in a program, in an IRC, and those commands happened to set the fields on the LOIC (the program the Anonymous group uses to attack sites with).

Each of the participants in the IRC's copy of the LOIC program was then pointed to the same server, and launched. This could just have been a result of a virus if anything. I don't see what this guy has done wrong, atleast according to the law AFAIK.

Oh, and as the Anonymous group likes to say: "When one of us falls, 10 more will join the fight."

 

[Bronxernijn]

He caused damage on purpose, that is illegal.

I don't see what this guy has done wrong, atleast according to the law AFAIK.

You know something about Dutch law?

 

[Slapshot136]

He caused damage on purpose, that is illegal.

way to gloss over it - what exactly did he do that caused damage, and what was that damage? what he did was at most tell (but not force) others to join him in something similar to a cyber sit-in type protest where clients couldn't do business because the protesters were sitting/blocking the way

 

[JerseyFoo]

Are they intentionally going after kids or are they just that useless?

It's not impossible to identify the age of people by just observing, and should be a requirement for 'cyber warfare'. Perhaps they're trying to make Anonymous look like a joke.

 

[Hatebreeder]

I think this is ridiculous.

Just how much Power do the big companies have to turn a right into a wrong? Apperently they are even able to negate their own code of conduct. And besides, these DDoS "attacks" are really nothing. What if Viral attacks were to be launched?

There is NO way this will have a happy ending.

And I think power should be restricted and, by chance, distributed, so that one doesn't monopolize.

*pissed at big companies doing what they want*

 

[Lyerae]

Oh, and as the Anonymous group likes to say: "When one of us falls, 10 more will join the fight."

Unfortunately, that's true. The more people that get arrested in this, the more Anon will get motivated.

 

[ReVolver]

Unfortunately, that's true. The more people that get arrested in this, the more Anon will get motivated.

Two words...


Rosa Parks

 

[Andyoyo]

haha I was trying to log in to Paypal but the site was offline, was this from them?

 

[Ninja_sheep]

Well, now that was totally his fault.

Not going anonymous on the web when you're hacking is just too stupid.

And anybody that thinks DDoS attacking servers isn't a crime... well... learn about law and stuff.


Please don't let this be one of those retarded threads where everybody is raging about mean companies and how evil everything is and how piracy doesn't cause any damage, etc etc.
I'm sure you know the drill.

 

[seph ir oth]

Two words...


Rosa Parks

You compare this to Rosa Parks? >.>

This is just like telling someone to commit suicide, and then they do it. You perhaps led them to their death, and thus is partly responsible for the death. Conversely, if he told people to commit DDos attacks he would be partly responsible for them as he gave out orders. Can you not blame Hitler for the millions of deaths of Jews?

 

[Darthfett]

You compare this to Rosa Parks? >.>

This is just like telling someone to commit suicide, and then they do it. You perhaps led them to their death, and thus is partly responsible for the death. Conversely, if he told people to commit DDos attacks he would be partly responsible for them as he gave out orders. Can you not blame Hitler for the millions of deaths of Jews?

Committing suicide is something that is dangerous to your health, regardless of your society or beliefs. Rosa Parks stood up for what she believed in, despite it being against the law. While there is a lot of collateral damage in a DDOS attack, the comparison to Rosa Parks is MUCH closer than the comparison to suicide.

I'm not saying that I agree with the guy, conversely, I think it was out of line to take down many of the sites they did. However, when the companies aid authorities in this, there isn't much the masses CAN do about what they believe in. It's not like anyone can just start their own WikiLeaks.

 

[JerseyFoo]

It's closer to people protesting outside a bank. Causes the same collateral, except that the bank can much more easily lie about it... phantom protestors?

There is never a good side. The companies are guilty, the government is guilty, the 'vigilantes'/'hacktivists'/'terrorists' are also guilty. With copyrights, with policy, with any conflict.

However the vigilantes are the only ones being punished for their crimes so I will side with them. The world truly needs a technocracy, we're far beyond the point where bureaucrats can have control over something they know nothing about, and all this BS is a result of that.

After-all, is the world ever right when the chief of security can go on television and tell the world anonymous operates like a mafia, and that one of them will 'talk'.

 

[Vestras]

Well, now that was totally his fault.

Not going anonymous on the web when you're hacking is just too stupid.

And anybody that thinks DDoS attacking servers isn't a crime... well... learn about law and stuff.


Please don't let this be one of those retarded threads where everybody is raging about mean companies and how evil everything is and how piracy doesn't cause any damage, etc etc.
I'm sure you know the drill.

I realize that DDoS attacks are against the law, however the idea behind a DDoS attack is that it cannot be traced back, and therefore, conceptually, this guy is "innocent".

 

[Ninja_sheep]

Well, sort of.
Usually they can't be traced, but this guy just screwed up and left traces.

Just because usually the police can't prosecute a certain crime doesn't mean they shouldn't prosecute it if they can.

 

[seph ir oth]

Well, sort of.
Usually they can't be traced, but this guy just screwed up and left traces.

Just because usually the police can't prosecute a certain crime doesn't mean they shouldn't prosecute it if they can.

On top of him leaving traces, I believe the article said that he admitted to committing DDoS attacks, which means he's screwed.

 

[Lyerae]

Yeah, pretty much.
If he had denied it, he might have gotten away with it (might).