Via various Anonymous related YouTube channels, the hacktivist group announced Operation Petrol this week. As the name implies, Anonymous will be targeting the oil industry. What’s interesting about this particular operation is that it’s not being contained to one country or area. Anonymous is calling on members worldwide to target local oil companies.

If you can’t watch the video, here are the relevant bits:

It has been a long time coming, operation petrol, will be engaged on the 20th June 2013.

This operation will include the U S, Canada, England, Israel, Saudi Arabia (only Government), China, Italy, France, Germany, Kuwait (only government) and Qatar (only government).

Saudi Arabia you have betrayed your fellow believers with your cooperation with these greedy foreigners causing much pressure on families from around the world, you allow this to happen.

You may not already know, but in the future, electronic transfer of money will be the governments ideal preferred way of all transactions by 2020.

What you do not know, is when this occurs, just like in Syria, your government will be able to have access to your funds and retirement money at anytime they wish to steal it.

The U S is known for creating war for the purpose of stealing Gold, stealing Oil and stealing Opium which they are doing in Afghanistan still to this day, but you are not aware of this, because your media are not allowed to tell you because of the censorship ban inplace about this.

If the Governments succeed with a NO PAPER MONEY system, they will have no need to steal gold, oil or opium, they will have no need for war because they will have, trillions of dollars at their finger tips, and there will be nothing you can do about it.

The pastebin release in the description further describes #OpPetrol as a predominantly Mulsim-run operation that will primarily target Middle Eastern countries that export oil. It lists a number of grievances, including claims of the government turning their backs on Islam in favor of money.

As it’s stated above, #OpPetrol will begin on June 20. We’ll keep an eye out to see if Anonymous actually attacks anything. Previous threats have often returned empty.

[h/t: The Hill]

Anonymous announced today that it has taken down the North American Man/Boy Love Association’s Web site in protest of Alice Day. The unofficial holiday, originally known as Pedophile Pride Day, is celebrated every April 25. To counter the group’s message and in observation of Child Abuse Awareness Month, Anonymous will be taking down numerous child pornography Web sites around the world today.

For those who can’t watch the video, here’s a transcript:

April is child abuse awareness month, and coincidentally it is also a month in which child rapists, molesters and abusers celebrate a particular holiday. On April 25th, Abusers worldwide celebrate the holiday Alice Day, named after Alice Liddell and, “Alice In Wonderland”, originally Pedophile Pride Day. On this holiday the pedophiles celebrate, rape and molestation of little girls. Many pedophiles believe it is okay for them to celebrate “loving” a female child that day.

We call upon all Anonymous Operatives to come forward and march with us as legion. To deface and cause chaos within the pedophile networks.

To the public; On April 25th we will be conducting various operations involving online methods such as Distributed Denial of Service attacks, doxing, and website defacement. We ask that you please watch your children and be extra vigilant, because April 25th is like Christmas to them.

The Daily Dot reports that Anonymous will be targeting every pedophile hub on the Net. The goal is to take them down and keep them down for as long as possible. The group obviously hopes it can also out as many pedophiles in the hope that those outed will be arrested.

[h/t: Gizmodo]

The Australian Federal Police announced yesterday evening that they arrested Matt Flannery, a 24-year-old IT professional from Point Claire. The police allege that he attacked and defaced a government Web site earlier in the month. Interestingly enough, the police also say that he’s a “self-proclaimed leader” of LulzSec.

The police say Flannery used his position within an IT company to hack a number of clients. The police also warned that he would have attacked more Web sites had he stayed employed with the company.

Flannery faces two counts of unauthorized modification of data to cause impairment and one count of unauthorized access to, or modification of, restricted data. The police note that the maximum penalty for the former is 10 years and 2 years for the latter.

What’s interesting about all of this is that the police say he’s a “self-proclaimed leader” of LulzSec. Members of Anonymous and others have come out on Twitter to dispute this claim:

This absolute bullshit great work feds u busted a ddos fag >> Self-proclaimed LulzSec hacking leader arrested in NSW abc.net.au/news/2013-04-2…

— Anonymous Australia (@AuAnon) April 23, 2013

#AFP trying to make this like they cracked the big case yet we dont even know what hack it was some big hecker #lulznot

— Anonymous Australia (@AuAnon) April 24, 2013

Self-proclaimed leader of #Lulzsec in Australia is trolling. Police are dumb.

— K for Kallisti (@Kallisti) April 24, 2013

“He is a well-respected person within the Anonymous community”, said Brad Marden, cyber-crime ops co-ordinator, AFP. Anonymous disagrees.

— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) April 24, 2013

#BREAKING!!! EXCLUSIVE:We have a picture of the leader of @lulzsec #LulzSec taken 5 minutes ago. twitter.com/AnonymousWWN/s…

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNewsKR) April 24, 2013

As an added bonus, Gizmodo AU dug up this video of the alleged LulzSec “leader” singing along to Grease:

[h/t: BBC]

The Guardian reports that North Korea’s Twitter and flickr accounts have been compromised by hackers claiming to be a part of Anonymous. The reasoning behind the attacks seems to be in retaliation to North Korea’s most recent threat to attack the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons. In fact, one of the images posted on flickr calls out North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un for “threatening world peace with ICBMs and nuclear weapons” among other things.

Other images on the flickr account include an image of the North Korean flag with a Guy Fawkes mask, and a simple “We Are Anonymous” in white text on a black background.

The Twitter hack is far less entertaining, however, as the only updates to it thus far have been multiple messages that say “hacked” while linking to North Korean Web sites that have been taken down by Anonymous.

Unlike other recent hacks, I doubt that North Korea will try to wrestle away its accounts from Anonymous. I highly doubt that Twitter and flickr are in the mood to help them get the accounts back either.

BBC News reports that the popular Anonymous Central Twitter (@Anon_Central) was hacked by a rival hacker group known as Rustle League. The Twitter feed was forced down, and now the account is starting from scratch.

Follow @Anon_CentralNF

Anonymous Central
@Anon_CentralNF

After being hacked we fought back, and we live on

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @Anon_CentralNF

Anonymous Central
@Anon_CentralNF

After being forced down, we must return to page one, thanks to everyone who has already followed

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
1 day ago via Twitter for Android · powered by @socialditto

While this was going on, most of the dramas was taking place on the fellow @Anon_Central Twitter. Some were saying that a fight between rival hacker collectives was wonderfully entertaining, but most were asking the two groups to work together instead of fighting amongst themselves.

Follow @theMost_Wanted

Lucif3r
@theMost_Wanted

Both @Anon_CentralNF and @RustleLeague says they work for saving internet. Then why not work togather instead of a fight ? #confused

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1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @4shkore

arie yuta
@4shkore

Stop this shit and fight together against the corrupt government @jmnanonymous@Anon_CentralNF@RustleLeague

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1 day ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry · powered by @socialditto

Of course, some people find the idea of Anonymous getting hacked to be scary in and of itself:

Follow @teddiwarlock

Teddi Worrock
@teddiwarlock

if @Anon_CentralNF can get hacked… that means none of us are safe!! #FML

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It should be noted that not all hackers are related to Anonymous, and some really hate Anonymous. In this case, it seems that Rustle League was in it for the “lulz.” There might be cases in the future, however, where rival hacker collectives take things to serious new levels by posting personal information on those involved in each group. For hackers veiled in anonymity, that would be the worst possible thing.

In its latest attempt to get the government’s attention, Anonymous announced that it hacked the State Department . To top if off, the hacker collective also released a database it found while going through the Web site. The database contains the personal information of State Department employees in the U.S. and overseas. The information in the dump includes names, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, etc.

According to Anonymous, this latest hack is not only a continuation of #OpLastResort, but a response to the U.S. arresting and imprisoning members of Anonymous. Here’s the full statement:

Our reasons for this attack are very simple. You’ve imprisoned or either censored our people. We will not tolerate things as such. You don’t see us going around censoring everything that is inappropriate or we do not like. Basically, you tried to put an end to us and you got owned, there’s nothing more you can say or do. You took away Topiary, Avunit, Neuron, Pwnsauce, lolspoon, Aaron Swartz shall we go on? Heck you think this makes us weak? We are only growing stronger because of the fact that you are forcing us to revolt. When the lions roar you will hear them. And when it’s feeding time you’ll be our dinner.

Aaron Swartz this is for you, this is for Operation Last Resort.

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

The State Department wasn’t the only target of this latest hack. Anonymous also targeted private investment firm George K. Baum and Company. The site was defaced with a link to a pastebin that featured private account information of all the firm’s customers. According to the OpLastResort Twitter feed, this particular hack was made because of the firm’s ties to Stratfor, the private intelligence company that Anonymous hacked into last year.

Once again, it looks like #OpLastResort won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Anonymous will continue looking for exploits in government Web sites, and publicly hack them for all to see. At this point, it’s not so much about getting any kind of information, but rather just embarrassing the government.

It will be interesting to see how Obama’s new cybersecurity executive order will affect how the government reacts to attacks from Anonymous. The new rules for information sharing between public and private institutions may just help stop some of these attacks before they happen, but it isn’t likely.

[h/t: Net-Security]

Anonymous announced this morning that it’s engaging in #opSOTU, or Battle Royale for the Internet. The operation will see Anonymous attempting to hijack and shutoff the State of the Union address live stream tonight. Here’s the full statement:

Citizens of the Internet,

Last year we faced our greatest threat from lawmakers. We faced down SOPA, PIPA, CISPA and ACTA.

And we won!

But that victory did not come easily. Nor did it come without a price.

Aaron Swartz was one of the leading voices in the fight against these idiotic and destructive efforts to control the last free space on Earth.

Aaron Swartz was persecuted. Now Aaron Swartz is dead.
Tonight, the President of the United States will appear before a joint session of Congress to deliver the State of the Union Address and tomorrow he plans to sign an executive order for cyber-security as the House Intelligence committee reintroduces the defeated CISPA act which turns private companies into government informants.

He will not be covering the NDAA, an act of outright tyrannical legislation allowing for indefinite detention of citizens completely outside due process and the rule of law. In fact, lawyers for the government have point-blank refused to state whether or not journalists who cover stories or groups the Government disfavors would be subject to this detention.

He will not be covering the extra-judicial and unregulated justifications for targeted killings of citizens by military drones within the borders of America, or the fact that Orwellian newspeak had to be used to make words like “imminent” mean their opposite.

He will not be covering Bradley Manning, 1000 days in detention with no trial for revealing military murders, told that his motive for leaking cannot be taken into consideration, that the Government does not have room for conscience.

He will not be covering the secret interpretations of law that allow for warrant-less wiretapping and surveillance of any US citizen without probably cause of criminal acts, or the use of Catch-22 logic where no-one can complain about being snooped on because the state won’t tell you who they’re snooping on, and if you don’t know you’re being snooped on, you don’t have a right to complain.

We reject the State of the Union. We reject the authority of the President to sign arbitrary orders and bring irresponsible and damaging controls to the Internet.

The President of the United States of America, and the Joint Session of Congress will face an Army tonight.

We will form a virtual blockade between Capitol Hill and the Internet. Armed with nothing more than Lulz, Nyancat and PEW-PEW-PEW! Lazers, we will face down the largest superpower on Earth.

And we will win!

There will be no State of the Union Address on the web tonight.

For freedom, for Aaron Swartz, for the Internet, and of course, for the lulz.

We Are Anonymous,
We Are Legion,
We Do Not forgive,
We Do Not forget,
Expect Us.

It’s not clear if this is an extension of #OpLastResort, the op that saw the release of banker records and attacks on government Web sites in retaliation for Aaron Swartz’ suicide. It certainly sounds like it, but Anonymous is dragging other issues it’s heavily opposed to, like NDAA, into the mix this time as well.

Will Anonymous be successful in their most daring and potentially visible operation yet? I highly doubt it, but it would certainly be something if Anonymous succeeded in hijacking the State of the Union address.

ZDNet reports that the Federal Reserve sent out notices to affected individuals earlier this week confirming an intrusion on their system. In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson said the Federal Reserve was “aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a Web site vendor product.” The vulnerability was reportedly fixed, and should cause no more problems in the future.

Of course, that doesn’t fix the fact that a list containing the personal data of over 4,000 bankers is still floating around the Internet. The Federal Reserve downplayed the hack by telling those affected that their passwords were not compromised. That’s technically true, but there’s still cause for concern.

Speaking to ZDNet, Jon Waldman, a senior information security consultant for financial institutions, said the hashed passwords included in the leak could be easily decrypted by hackers. The list which contained the information is no longer on the original hacked Alabama Web site, but it’s reportedly being hosted on a Chinese Web site for hackers to get a hold of. Waldman says the existence of this information means that banking executives “will be specific targets of Social Engineering and hacking attacks.”

It remains to be seen if any of the leaked information has led to attacks on individual banks. Waldman certainly thinks they’re at risk, but you would hope that banks would be wary of any attempts to solicit info after this latest attack.

We’ll continue to follow the exploits of Anonymous in #OpLastResort. It doesn’t appear that the hacktivist collective is done just yet, and likely has more attacks planned in the coming weeks.

Follow @Anon_Central

Anonymous Operations
@Anon_Central

#OpLastResort is preparing for epic #lulaze as we speak. | #PublicAnonNews#Anonymous

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1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto

[Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Last night during the Super Bowl, Anonymous hacked the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center’s Web site. There was no defacement this time around, but the group did use the Web site to upload a document containing the credentials of over 4,000 bank executives. The document contained login information, IP addresses, physical addresses and contact information.

Of course, Anonymous could have just posted some random numbers to scare people, right? ZDNet points to a Reddit thread where some members called the leaked numbers and confirmed that they are in fact the real deal. The thread also confirms that the document was up for at least eight hours, if not longer, before it was taken down.

According to the #OpLastResort Twitter feed, this latest info drop was made in anticipation of the February 4 deadline set by the House in its investigation into the DoJ’s handling of the Aaron Swartz case. A letter penned by Darrell Issa and Elijah Cummings demands the Justice Department set up a hearing appointment by today.

So, what’s Anonymous up to now? Those involved in #OpLastResort are now waiting on a response from the Justice Department. It’s hard to imagine that the DoJ would set up a hearing with the House in regards to the Aaron Swartz case, but I would assume that the department will be issuing a statement today in regards to the posting of personal information stolen from Federal Reserve.

We’ll continue to follow this story as Anonymous still holds its threat of unlocking that encrypted file over everybody’s heads. The #OpLastResort movement also seems to have something planned for February 6 – the day of the NDAA lawsuit hearing. We’ll keep an eye out for any further activity.

Over the weekend, Anonymous hacked and defaced ussc.gov – the U.S. Sentencing Commission Web site. ZDNet reports that the hack left the Web site unavailable for a number of hours. The Web site has been intermittently down since then. Anonymous also obtained a wealth of classified information that it’s now holding ransom.

The ransom is the central part of #OpLastResort. Nobody knows what the 900 MB encrypted file contains, but Anonymous says that it holds particularly sensitive information. In fact, the group has taken to calling it a warhead, and says it will release the decryption keys if its demands for legal reform are not met.

Here’s the statement that comes with the “Anonymous Warhead:”

Citizens of the world,

Anonymous has observed for some time now the trajectory of justice in the United States with growing concern. We have marked the departure of this system from the noble ideals in which it was born and enshrined. We have seen the erosion of due process, the dilution of constitutional rights, the usurpation of the rightful authority of courts by the “discretion” of prosecutors. We have seen how the law is wielded less and less to uphold justice, and more and more to exercise control, authority and power in the interests of oppression or personal gain.

Since the release of the encryption information, Anonymous has been attacking the Sentencing Commission Web site non-stop. ZDNet reports that Anonymous defaced the Web site a second time, but this time turned it into a game of Asteroids that visitors to the site would play to reveal a message from Anonymous. There was no new information in regards to #OpLastResort as Anonymous is still focused on spreading its “warhead” to the corners of the net.

All of this is still a little unreal. It’s hard to believe that Anonymous was able to obtain any kind of classified information since the group has threatened similar information releases in the past, but never came through in the end. That being said, Anonymous was responsible for the Stratfor dump on Wikileaks so the group has proven that it can grab sensitive information when it really wants to. It seems that Swartz’ death has proven to be quite the potent catalyst for extreme action on the part of Anonymous – extreme action that we’ve not see in quite some time.

We’ll continue to follow this story, and let you know if Anonymous does anything else. The ussc.gov Web site is still down, and it looks like Anonymous isn’t quite finished with it just yet. There’s also reports that Anonymous may be targeting other U.S. government Web sites as well. It seems that #OpLastResort is going to get far more interesting before all of this is over.

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