Websites run by the Tunisian government have been successfully targeted by Operation: Tunisia, a cell within Anonymous’ Operation Payback, in a distributed denial of service  action, which dropped this image and message on several government sites before the Anon-fueled DDoS knocked them offline. (Reminder: DDoS is illegal, and people have been arrested for it).

The message from Anonymous is to the point:

The Tunisian government wants to control the present with falsehoods and misinformation in order to impose the future by keeping the truth hidden from its citizens. We will not remain silent while this happens. Anonymous has heard the claim for freedom of the Tunisian people. Anonymous is willing to help the Tunisian people in this fight against oppression. It will be done.

This is a warning to the Tunisian government… It’s on the hands of the Tunisian government to stop this situation. Free the net, and attacks will cease, keep on that attitude and this will just be the beginning.

The sites affected include: pm.gov.tn, rcd.tn, benali.tn, carthage.tn, bvmt.com.tn, sicad.gov.tn, indrustrie.gov.tn, commerce.gov.tn,  douane.gov.tn and ministeres.tn. You can see screen shots of  some  pages here and here and here.

Anonymous has been assisting Tunisia dissidents with a strong efforts and dedicated actions, much as they did–and continue to do–in Iran responding to that country’s post-2009 election revolts, with codes, the manual mean of DDoS, and with spreading the word about what is happening in the country.

It is reported that many of the Tunisian DDoS-ers are based in that African nation, but with Anon being an Erisian global disorganization, there is help from around world with a bunch of people supplying code that helps Tunisians move past Internet filters and surf anonymously.

The country’s already tense situation escalated on after New Year’s Day when Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s  government blocked WikiLeaks, a Tunisian WikiLeaks mirror and media sites reporting on Wikileaks; several cables from Embassy Tunis released by Wikileaks going as far back as 2008 were highly critical of the Tunisian government.

Within nine hours of the government shutting down access to Wikileaks, numerous sites linked to the government were decorated with Anonymous/Operation: Tunisia’s message, then knocked offline.

As of this writing many government sites still remain offline. Tunisian pro-government hackers have returned the favor according to more than one report; Tunisian blogger Lina Ben Mhenni, a university assistant, told Al Jazeera:

The government has cracked down on activists by hacking our emails, facebook and blogs. They have deleted a few pages in which I was writing about the public protests.

According to reports on Facebook, there have been dozens of injuries and at least four deaths in the recent spate of protests, though this is difficult to confirm.  Al Jazeera is covering the protests–which include police surrounding high schools and colleges to prevent demonstrations after

[A]bout 250 demonstrators, mostly students, attended a peaceful march on Monday afternoon to express their support for the protests in the region of Sidi Bouzid, a union source told AFP.

The march then turned violent when police tried to contain the protesters by firing tear gas canisters, one of which fell into a mosque.

Enraged, the protesters then reportedly set fire to tyres and attacked the local offices of the ruling party, the source said.

Because of tech issues centering around  DNS servers hosting governmental as well as business and media sites (DNS=domain name service, a hierarchical naming system built on a distributed database for computers, services, or any resource connected to the internet), some non-governmental sites have been unavoidably affected.

As pointed out in the Wikileaks cables, corruption in Tunisia is rampant, so Operation: Tunisia has also targeted Tunisian President Ben Ali’s wife, Leila Ben Ali and her extended family the Trabels are knocking off websites linked to the  family’s businesses.

In an egregious and morally reprehensible move, the government has cracked down on access to religious leaders and local police and officials are harassing Muslim men with beards. According to the Tech Herald which has done excellent reporting on the Tunisian situation:

One [internet relay chat/IRC] user explained how local mosques are only available during certain times of the day now.

“In the mosques we have not the right to learn our religion, we do the prayer, and they close the mosques,” a Tunisian explained to us on IRC.

“We have five prayer sessions a day. We go to the mosque, do it, and then they close the mosque until the next prayer. In the past there is Imam (religion man) who [teaches] people the Quran, now we have nothing.”

This is the second African nation which has been the focus of an Anonymous DDoS action; in late December Anon instigated a DDoS-ing of  a complete takedown of the ZANU-PF website, the Zimbabwean government portal, and the Zimbabwean Finance Ministry website, as well as posting their message on Finance Ministry website, stripping all other news content and offering a message that said simply:

We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.

UPDATE

WHACKAMOLE!

TWITTER SITE  http://twitter.com/#!/anonops

ANONOPS.NET however is having some issues at this writing. Like a huge Ooops!

***

They’re baaaaaack! Jest spelled diffurntly

Anon Operation

@Anon_Operationn The Internet

Operation:Payback is an ongoing campaign by Anonymous against major anti-piracy & anti-freedom entities. Join our IRC: irc://irc.anonops.net/operationpayback

http://www.anonops.net/

http://twitter.com/#!/Anon_Operationn

Twitter and Anonymous butthurt is more about not getting props on the trending list. The original Anon_Operation’s page got yanked cuz someone posted link to a Bad Thing. Here’s Twitter’s statement from NYTimes:

Twitter is not censoring #wikileaks, #cablegate or other related terms from the Trends list of trending topicsOur Trends list is designed to help people discover the ’most breaking’ breaking news from across the world, in real-time. The list is generated by an algorithm that identifies topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously.

Twitter yanked Anon-Operations page. And Facebook just took down Operation Payback’s FB page. Ooops.

And now Sarah Palin who was really like mean and stuff about Julian Assange is claiming to have gotten a nice hard and fast DDoS on her PAC’s page. Oh and the Bad Peepul accessed her personal credit card info (though how that could have happened via SarahPAC is mystery…). The attention whore‘s email is kinda desperate and I suspect she was  third-partied.  No one at Wikileaks is stoopid enough to use “wikileaks.org” server for a DDoS like she claimed an email. Uh NO.

You maroons. Wikileaks.org has been offline for days now. It can’t be accessed. It is in a coma. (Like a few major sites soon). Nothing can be sent from or to it. It’s possible that “wikileaks.org” was in the reference headers, so the “tech aides” at SarahPac would catch a half-clue. Or maybe there is some sorta of Supah Spai spoofing technology. Not.

And now there’s Operation Bank Troll. Just shop with cash. Verified.Visa.com is down.

[ht: zerohedge.com]

VISA Europe stopped processing payments to Wikileaks. So, um guess what happened. Visa is down. Payback. Protest. Rinse. Repeat.

Attention, talking head morons: This is NOT Wikileaks’ doing. This is a bunch of anonymous people acting on their own volition, i.e. Free Will. Protesting peacefully from their own couches. Because they can. Because they think credit card companies suck. Cuz they are annoyed with how Assange is being treated. Or because like whatever. For teh lulz.  But to think “Wikileaks” is behind this is absolutely so effing boneheaded. And so is thinking that Anonymous is organized/has a Final Boss, etc.

And let’s not forget that all of Assange’s contacts cannot be accessed cuz he got v&ed

But liek shop with cash, kthnxbai!

Detail: Pelligrini, Venus and Cupid

PayPal copped to US State Department pressure:

The site’s vice-president of platform, Osama Bedier, told an internet conference the site had decided to freeze WikiLeaks’s account on 4 December after government representatives said it was engaged in illegal activity.

“State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward,” he told the LeWeb conference in Paris, adding: “We … comply with regulations around the world, making sure that we protect our brand.”

Actually Bedier was being a bit of a drama-llama. Backstage he explained that the  State Department did not directly talk to PayPal, and their decision to stop flowing $ to WIkileaks was based a nastygram from the State Department to Wikileaks.

MasterCard’s excuse per Guardian UK:

MasterCard rules prohibit customers from directly or indirectly engaging in or facilitating any action that is illegal.

I am at a loss as to how supporting a defense fund is illegal.

And if you want to give to Wikileaks, PhoenixWoman has some links

Duh. Not to be all Cassandra on the gates of Troy, but MasterCard srsly, whut were you thinking?  The internets are srs bsns.

I just tested mastercard.com and got the dreaded spinning ball. Yesterday  Business Week reported:

MasterCard didn’t receive a request from the U.S. government or any third party before acting, according to spokesman Chris Monteiro. “This decision was MasterCard’s alone,” he said.

VISAEurope the largest credit card company in the EU also blocked payments to Wikileaks (which can still accept wire transfers and money orders).

MarsterCard announced via CNBC tweets on Breaking News that

Apparent hack of MasterCard site has ‘no impact on cardholder’s ability to use their card’ for secure transactions, company says

Meanwhile the office of Joe Lieberman has also been a focus of DDoS; his site was down for about twelve minutes. Palin, who said Assange should be hunted like a terrorist, got some frottage on her Sarahpac.

Turncoat Senator Lieberman, chairman of the US Senate’s committee on homeland security, announced last week that he had contacted Amazon about its hosting of the WikiLeaks website, which was halted 24 hours later. Leiberman is also upset at the New York Times.

How soon  before Joe L starts demanding the internet gets shut down?

Detail: Bronzino, Allegory of the Triumph of Venus

And then there’s this from Guardian UK

Detail: Boucher, Toilet of Venus

I’m currently mulling intellectual property law, the importance of copyright, and Anonymous, all whom I respect.

Prosecuting a granny for downloading songs: You’re doing it wrong. One Huge Industry Giant wrote:

Headlines about a grandmother being fined hundreds of thousands of dollars did not properly present the big picture, and they were terrible PR for the industry.

He’s right.  (America and businesses based here being huge bullies over Wikileaks is another post for another time).

Some Anonymous are getting very DdoSy via Operation Payback which to me seems a bit misplaced and possibly short-sighted. And there is no way Assange is gonna distract from OpPayback, so give up that concept! There are reasons copyrights exist, these reasons are tl/dr, but copying without permission or pay is an uneven social exchange:

I’ll give you my Space Food Stick if I can crib off your math test

is making a deal; lifting off someone’s page without permission (or attribution, or a processed food snack) is cheating. Residuals and royalties from legal sales and downloads create income streams which allow for a vital economy through employment, purchases, use of services and other businesses, trickle down. As the writers’ strikes proved in Los Angeles, when creative income stops, the economy suffers. Badly.

The studios, at least in Bollywood who admits to it, hired their own private DDoS service, which went and boasted on their gig, hoisting themselves on their own petard, only to fall like a T. rex toe-walking Chihuahua. The RIAA, BPI, MPAA and US Copyright Office have all been recent targets. OMG, WTF!? Somebody crashed the Copyright Office.

First off:  Media interpretation of “Anonymous” needs to be flexible; heck Anonymous is flexible, fluid. Anyone can be “anonymous” online in certain areas of the web, when writing old fashioned letters, or checking on Prince Albert in a can. Princess Di made anonymous calls to a lover. Imagine if she’d been able to organize HRHOPA* on 4Chan…

There may be some Venn diagram spillover of unnamed Anon sets opposed to breast censorship in Australia and sets who think cULtz R cR33PY but never leave the house; sets who raid Second Life; and sets who show up IRL EGF (oh hai!). They may not all interact on 4Chan, either; it’s not like that is the only sandbox. (Trying to shut down IRCs was pretty bush league.)

Sonny Bono is an interesting case. While a Congressperson, he extended creative copyright, benefitting him as a songwriter and his heirs–and members of his faith/a huge corporation by maintaining certain Top Skeret texts as copyrighted. Then he hit a  tree while skiing which was really freaky. I am wondering if it is ethical for a Congressperson to bring forth a bill that directly benefits said C’member. I wonder if Congress is allowed to set forth a law, or the IRS to proffer a deal, which benefits a specific religion over all others.

(Granted, with pressure from congressmembers with ears to the bar and restaurant industry, the Sonny Bono bill was amended to include the Fairness in Music Licensing Act, which exempted smaller establishments from needing a public performance license to play music).

I have a solution to this whole copyright Bobby i$$ue:

Make the telecom companies pay for carrying the transmissions, not unlike radio stations.

According to U2′s manager, Paul McGuinness who I quote above and below, that isn’t an option, despite free content being

part of the commercial agenda of powerful technology and telecoms industries. Look at the figures as free music helped drive an explosion of broadband revenues in the past decade. Revenues from the “internet access” (fixed line and mobile) business quadrupled from 2004 to 2009 to $226bn. Passing them on the way down, music industry revenues fell in the same time period from $25bn to $16bn. Free content has helped fuel the vast profits of the technology and telecoms industries.

Tax the means of delivery!  Like taxing the ships that carry tea, rather than tea.

Oh noes, but if the telecoms don’t liek the tax, then what? They are the t00bs, both of them. Recent activity–against Wikileaks and by security teams (click the lings, plox)– has proven that the clouds aren’t safe either, so dream on over that model.

And while we are on the subject of copyright, for it was copyright what brought forth the Freeweb Cruise, could DMCA be cited on Wikileaks? But do we as taxpayers technically hold part of that copyright? I wonder if the American govt could collect a royalty from the telecoms for each download, link, etc to Wikileaks and share the revenue with the embattled free speech fighters… ??? Profit!

Also I see a whole micro-industry springing up around searching the cables for keywords, dates, concepts.

Will keyword search for giftcards

Full disclosure: I could never figure out how to use Napster, Kazaa, or Pirate Bay and sorta thought they were scary and germy, and like, hard to figure out. I have no clue how to use a torrent, but someone gave me some music once from one of those keychain beer opener things that plugs into the side of the computer. I style several EFG masks and have seen some amazing U2 shows over the years, some for free. I also wrote an essay once about U2 and Negativland; later I got paid for its use, which was kind cool.  And I am prolly gonna annoy a bunch of people with this essay, but really if you can’t speak your mind, what is the point of existing? We are communicating creatures, it is our nature.

*Her Royal Highness’ Own Personal Army