Good move! WikiLeaks supporters' group abandons cyber attacks

[Better Believe It]

I wouldn't be surprised if Assange and other WikiLeaks representatives told them to knock it off since the "cyber attacks" were not winning over people or helping to end repression of a free press. Their tactics just gave ammunition to governments that want to crush WikiLeaks. BBI


WikiLeaks supporters' group abandons cyber attacks
Activists had temporarily brought down MasterCard, Visa websites
By Georgina Prodhan
December 11, 2010

LONDON — A loose grouping of cyber activists supporting WikiLeaks has abandoned its strategy of online attacks on organizations seen as hostile to the site in favor of spreading the leaked documents far and wide online.

Internet activists operating under the name "Anonymous" temporarily brought down this week the websites of credit card giants MasterCard and Visa — both of which had stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks.

In an overnight blog post, Anonymous announced a change of strategy, saying it now aimed to publish parts of the confidential U.S. diplomatic cables as widely as possible and in ways that made them as hard as possible to trace.

The activists are now encouraging supporters to search through leaked cables on the WikiLeaks site and publish summaries of ones that have been least exposed, labeling them so they are hard to find by any authority seeking to quash them.

Read the full article at:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40619390/ns/technology_and_science-security

[EmilyKent]

1. They announced this last week.

First the attacks to show they can do it, and once everyone is on notice.... as wide a dissemination of the documents as possible.

[jaxx]

2. Could be arresting a couple of them had something to do with it.

:shrug:

[EmilyKent]

3. There are thousands of them.

And as you'll notice they have no concern about 'authority'.

Edited to add: Did arrests stop demonstrations in the 60's?

[jaxx]

7. Quite a bunch of law breakers out there.

But their hero is in jail, so they hack. Oh sure, that makes sense....not.

[EmilyKent]

9. Yes, there are. Same as in the 60s.

Assange being in jail has nothing to do with Wikileaks. He's just a spokesman. Wikileaks is a large organization.

Did you think it was just 'one guy with a laptop'?....not.

[jaxx]

11. He's just a spokesman.

Well that ought to piss off his nibs. I think he's just a charlatan.

[EmilyKent]

12. Then you know nothing about it.

[tavalon]

15. He yanked your chain, didn't he?

Sorry, this is what a free and open society is like, messy and a bit scary. You'll get used to it.

[jaxx]

16. Nope.

If the pied piper Assange is so transparency oriented, he's blowing his cover with his secret insurance bit. He's very transparent....it's all him. I am amazed at the cult that has grown around him, people are giving him their beliefs and then trumpeting that they are his. Sad.

[tavalon]

17. Really?

The only thing keeping him and the rest of the Wikileaks staff alive is that insurance. What would you have him do? Have them do, since it isn't just his company?

[jaxx]

18. Yes, really.

Whatever his original motives were to release the stolen documents, he has now decided to drip them out, to orchestrate the information into his preferred release. That also doesn't say transparency, but control. As for the secret insurance...again, he loses his transparency motive. It smacks of he knows he's wrong and is covering his ass.

As for it isn't just his company....isn't it?

[tavalon]

19. No, it was his brainchild but it isn't solely his company

They are continuing on without him. And will continue on and the only way they can continue on is if they mete this out slowly. Once all the cards are shown, the cardplayers will be removed and will no longer be a viable place for whistleblowers. I think it's necessary pragmatism. They knew this would enrage the beast and it has.

[jaxx]

20. Why did they dump the 400,000 Iraq documents all at once?

There is no reasoning now to orchestrate the dump now. Again, his transparency has crumbled. It was his only ace in the hole to justify outing stolen documents.

[tavalon]

21. I disagree with you

but I still don't think you're Hitler.

[jaxx]

22. We have a mutual disagreement, and Hitler never entered my mind

while discussing this with you.

Enjoy your Sunday.

[tavalon]

23. It was a feeble attempt at a joke - from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

I'm heading to bed now, having stoked enough fires for one night, er, day. We nightshifters get a bit confused.

:hi:

[jaxx]

24. I'm a nightshifter too.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[undergroundpanther]

4. Yeah but

They won't be stopped by a few arrests. Anyone putting their ass on the line like anonymous and assange has MY RESPECT.Wish more people were standing up.Look at England,France,we kreep our nose to the grindstone in fear..hoping we are not next in line to be fired or be on the street,hell this keeps up we will ALL be on the streets,something has to give,and I am thankful for anonymous and Assange and all who tell the rich to pay and who tell two faced politicians to STFU and stop the wall street military industrial money,religion takeover..long live Radicals,and may anarhy prevail,

BTW Anarchy is NOT lawlessness..
http://www.infoshop.org/page/AnarchistFAQSectionA1

[laughingliberal]

6. +1000 nt

[laughingliberal]

5. No, I saw them discuss the strategy before anyone was arrested. "A couple," is twice as many...

as have been arrested for this.

:shrug:

[NuclearDem]

8. Yeah, they announced that already

Operation Payback was the DDoSing.

Operation Leakspin is going to be spreading the stuff in the cables as far as possible. (Or, as the government prefers to say, "FOR WIDEST DISSEMINATION)

[Odin2005]

10. Cowards.

[Ozymanithrax]

13. So the first Cyberwar is over...n/t

[eilen]

14. I take this to mean that the Wikileaks

will never be taken down. The threats to them finding a server at home are now meaningless. Anon will disseminate it everywhere. The days of shutting someone out by kicking them off a server are over. Shutting out one server or browbeating one company like Amazon is easy but thousands of servers? Millions of seeded computers? We are all Wikileaks.

This is great news!