Alex Walls
AUCKLAND: Anonymous appear to have a Facebook page, a new channel for posting their videos, and a website, and Orcon chief executive Scott Bartlett is calling claims that his company is disconnecting users protesting against the Copyright (Infringing FIle Sharing) Amendment Bill "rubbish".
All three sites host a video pulled from YouTube yesterday, now available again with the title [NEW].
The new law, passed by a 111-11 margin by Parliament last week will go into effect on September 1.
Bartlett told NBR today that claims Orcon was disconnecting any users who were protesting against the new law, particularly those using the Facebook page mentioned below, were rubbish, and that Orcon had always been a strong opponent to the bill.
"Additionally I was personally involved in helping establish the original black out campaign."
He said disconnecting users for protesting was not just against the law, but against Orcon's principles.
Meanwhile, the Anonymous Facebook page, called Anonops.tk, shares various Anonymous sites, bringing the group's name slightly into question. In its 'Like' section is the Facebook page Opposing The Copyright (Infringing FIle Sharing) Amendment Bill.
Also worth a watch is the Who Is Anonymous? video on the group's home page Anonyops.com for the world's most irritating voice, where Anonymous is described as "the art of being indignant".
The video also details the hacking of security firm HBGary Federal in February. Chief executive Aaron Barr claimed to have infiltrated Anonymous earlier this year, and leaked emails revealed intentions to sell information about the identities of suspected Anonymous members to the FBI.
Barr claimed to have gathered this information via social engineering, Facebook, Twitter and IRC.
In February, Anonymous hacked HBGary, copying documents and posting tens of thousands of emails online including some which incriminated the Bank of America in a dirty tricks campaign aimed at stopping WikiLeaks release of the bank's internal documents.
The group hacked Barr's Twitter account, reportedly tweeting his social security number and home address.
Senior communications advisor for the NZ Department of Internal Affairs Tony Wallace said today that there had been no outages on March 29, the day Anonymous said it would attack the department's website.
"There may have been technical problems with the website that day but we get those from time to time anyway."
There were intermittent outages in the weeks leading up to March 29, including the intermittent unavailability of the Civil Defence website for about two hours as news reached New Zealand of the Japanese tsunami. The department said at the time that its web servers had run out of memory.
Wallace said nothing specifically had been done to the department's systems before March 29 to prepare for the Anonymous attack, but that the department was "constantly monitoring and improving our systems so we that we can be resilient to any sort of attack".
"Our systems were fine, we've got no information that indicates that we've had a denial of service attack from Anonymous or anyone else."
Another video appeared today on YouTube from Anonymous, saying it had been re-uploaded. It was removed within half an hour. The message, read by an electronic voice, said:
"This is a message to the New Zealand government. We are Anonymous. We have been watching the actions taken by you and your legislation.
"The passing of the Infringing File Sharing Bill is both a form of censorship and an invasion of privacy. Anonymous will not let this go by unnoticed. Your beliefs that one is guilty until proven innocent is an unlawful and unjust policy.
"We do not believe that one, when accused of copyright infringement should be questioned by their internet support provider and eligible to pay a $15,000 fine unless proven innocent.
"We do not believe that one, when accused of copyright infringement should be sentenced to six months suspension of internet usage unless proven innocent.
"We do not believe that one, when accused of copyright infringement shall be called a criminal in the eyes of the government for the simple act of accessing information unless proven innocent."Those opposing the copyright law via online protest - we are with you.
"New Zealand, you now have the full attention of Anonymous. We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us."
Anonymous launched a series of DDoS attacks against the MasterCard, PayPal and Visa sites earlier this year after the companies refused to process payments to WikiLeaks, after the site leaked secret US diplomatic cables. - National Business Review/Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
