A far more appropriate commemoration of Guy Fawkes than anything we saw around this neck of the woods!
'Remember,
Remember': Anonymous marks November 5 with hacks, protests
A
worldwide day of protests and cyber attacks against governments,
banks and security firms has been launched by Hacker collective
Anonymous to mark Guy Fawkes Day.
RT,
5
November, 2012
Around
200 Anonymous supporters assembled in London’s Trafalgar Square for
OperationVendetta March to the Houses of Parliament. There, the
demonstrators, carrying banners “We
are Anonymous. We are the legion”
or “Stop
creating imaginary debt!”
were stopped by police.
Minor
scuffles broke out outside the parliament as a few protestors
attempted to push police lines back, but the bulk of OpVendetta
remained peaceful.
RT London Bureau’s photo shows police stopping OpVendetta march from entering the House of Parliament on November 5, 2012 (Image from twitter.com)
The
“march,
strike and protest” in
London, as well as a similar event planned outside of the US White
House in Washington are meant to pay homage to the 2005 film V for
Vendetta.
“On
November 5th 2012 WE THE PEOPLE will march on Washington DC
peacefully and unarmed to arrest all members of congress, the
president, and all supreme court justices where they will be held
without bond until a full independent investigation and trial have
been completed. We must re-elect our government within 90 days in
order to stave of unrest,” organizers
behind the march announced.
Image by RT’s Sara Firth OpVendetta march participants gathering at the House of Parliament in London on November 5, 2012 (Image from twitter.com)
A
rash of cyber attacks were reported on Monday in line with the the
5th of November "V For Vendetta" inspired hacking spree.
Several
Australian government sites were targeted during the global day of
protest, while Argentina’s government bank was also reportedly
hacked.
An
attack on Internet security firm Symantec was originally attributed
to the hacktivist collective, but a non-Anonymous affiliated group
called @Doxbin later claimed responsibility for taking their site
down.
Another
anonymous affiliated group claimed to have hacked the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) website to “bring
attention to election manipulation in the Ukraine.”
Trapwire –
the US-developed predictive software which can access closed-circuit
cameras around the country to monitor citizens’ movements – and
its European analogue INDECT were also the victims of cyber attacks.
Anonymous
also claims to have stolen some 28,000 passwords and other
confidential information from Paypal. Private paste documents
allegedly containing emails, names and passwords from the payment
service’s database were reportedly posted online, though the
information was quickly removed.
PayPal
has disputed the hack took place, saying there is no evidence of a
breach.
"We're
investigating this but to date we have been unable to find any
evidence that validates this claim," PayPal
president David Marcus wrote on Twitter.
.
On
Sunday several sites for the US TV network NBC were also targeted by
a person or group calling identified as “pyknic.” A text block
including “REMEMBER,
REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER” and “F**K THE FEDS, 419 IS JUST A
GAME” greeted
those attempting to access several popular TV shows. Why NBC was
targeted remains a mystery, and the sites were quickly restored.
Anonymous
tweeted they played no role in the NBC hack or defacement, and also
denied rumors they were seeking to take down Facebook.
Pyknic
also went after a Lady Gaga fan site, Gaga Daily, eliciting a
sympathetic tweet from the pop star on twitter.
Photo by Andrew Blake, RT
A
far more serious criminal conspiracy seeking to recreate the films
dramatic conclusion was also reportedly planned for Monday.
In
October, a YouTube video appeared featuring a masked individual
claiming to represent Anonymous warning a large bomb had been planted
at a US government building and would be detonated remotely.
Anonymous
responded on October 24 that the video “is
clearly an attempt to portray ‘Anonymous’ as a violent threat.”
“The
YouTube account responsible for uploading the clip was only created
six days ago and immediately began uploading other Anonymous videos
in an effort to associate itself with the hacktivist collective. You
Tube has allowed the video to remain online without taking it down
for over two days when far less obscene content is routinely censored
within hours.”
November
5 commemorates Guy Fawkes' failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot to blow up the
House of Lords in London. A mask bearing his stylized visage –
which featured prominently in V for Vendetta – has been adopted by
Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street protesters as a universal symbol
against tyranny.
The
film’s climax saw the Palace of Westminster destroyed as thousands
of Londoners wearing the Guy Fawkes mask looked on.
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