Amid Digital Blackout, Anonymous Mass-Faxes WikiLeaks Cables to Egypt

[Hissyspit]

Source: Forbes

Amid Digital Blackout, Anonymous Mass-Faxes WikiLeaks Cables To Egypt

Washington Jan. 28 2011 - 1:46 pm

Egypt has dropped a digital iron curtain over its Internet. So WikiLeaks’ fans are using an analog tool to smuggle the secret-spilling site’s latest scandals into the country: fax machines.

On Friday afternoon, the loose hacker group Anonymous began a campaign to fax thousands of copies of WikiLeaks’ latest missives–a series of State Department cables revealing human rights abuses under Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and tacit U.S. backing for his administration–to Egyptian numbers.

Since Thursday night, Egypt has blocked its four largest Internet service providers, Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt, and Etisalat Misr. But landlines remain connected–and so, Anonymous believes, do landline-connected fax machines. “We stand up for the little guy as well as fighting the government,” one source within Anonymous writes to me. “We believe the people need to see the truth, which is why we’re faxing locations in Egypt (especially schools) with copies of a relevant WikiLeaks cable; due to the majority of Egyptian Internet being down, the public cannot access this vital information.”

On a crowdsourced document the group uses for planning, members listed fax numbers of half a dozen Egyptian schools as their first targets. “The idea is to distribute the information to students, who can then share it with others,” says another source within Anonymous. “Right now they need to know that the police cannot be trusted and the wikileaks cables are just more proof of that.”

Read more: http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/01/28/amid-digital-blackout-anonymous-mass-faxes-wikileaks-cables-to-egypt

[Forkboy]

1. Shades of Tiananmen Square

The trusty ole fax machine.

[FailureToCommunicate]

4. Like that cool scene in "Air Force One" when a fax got the message thru...

[madrchsod]

2. the feds raided a bar in my town looking for a member of anonymous

during the dos attack someone was using the bar`s wifi connection.the bar owner is a real prick republican and the feds asking him questions just warms my heart. i had no idea that someone in this hellhole of reagan worship was that subversive

[4saken]

6. Let me get this straight...

Someone came by and used some Bar's Wifi, and you're happy that the FBI came to hassled the owner?

[madrchsod]

9. yup...the guy hates gays,blacks,and he`s a thief ...

there`s more but that would be piling on

[anamandujano]

10. "there`s more but that would be piling on"

:rofl:

[formercia]

17. Perhaps you can go and show the owner some sympathy

because he won't get any here.

Tell someone who gives a shit.

[Joanne98]

14. BWHAHAHAHAHA!

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[htuttle]

5. "The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

John Gilmore was right.

[davepc]

7. Does the average Egyptian read English?

[No Elephants]

15. Many do.

[formercia]

18. A lot more than Americans who read Arabic

That's 'cause we special.

[lunatica]

21. Most students in other countries learn other languages

English being the main one since the US has been the boss for so long. They may be learning Chinese lately though...

[goforit]

8. Wow....Trust has been broken with Mubarak. Does not look good.

[snot]

11. But the phones were out too, weren't they? So how would faxes get through?

[Le Taz Hot]

12. My understanding is that

land lines were still functioning. He ordered cell phone providers to shut down.

[snot]

13. Ah, thanks.

[Uncle Joe]

16. On edit kicked, but too late to recommend.

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.

[lovuian]

19. Man is very resourceful

when it gets serious

[lunatica]

20. I'd like to see them shut down all the faxes in the country!

Hahahaha!

[mdmc]

22. ..

[mdmc]

23. ..