Anon Ups the Ante

[Elder Iptuous]

There is apparently some discord among Anon about whether OpCartel is canceled?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I would say, if anything, Anonymous are weaker now, due to arrests having thinned out their more high profile hackers.

Furthermore, Los Zetas are not going to contest this through the courts or the internet.  They're going to play to their strengths, which involves intimidation, beatdowns and ultimately murder.

We really have no way of knowing who is claiming to be part of Anonymous, and arrests of some hackers could certainly draw the participation of better hackers who are not so public or ostentatious.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

William Gibson is a prophet...

[East Coast Hustle]

Yikes.

I admire Anon for having the balls to even consider this, but they're in way over their heads.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yikes.

I admire Anon for having the balls to even consider this, but they're in way over their heads.

I don't know about that, given that we have no idea who "they" are.

I find this and other recent developments incredibly interesting.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Yikes.

I admire Anon for having the balls to even consider this, but they're in way over their heads.

I don't know about that, given that we have no idea who "they" are.

I find this and other recent developments incredibly interesting.

I agree... the Drug cartels seem savvy in using guns and physical force... but do they have kick ass hackers on their payroll that can track down Anon? If so, do they have people in place to take out hackers in *insert any number of countries here*. Finally, who will work the most quickly? If we assume that Anon actually has names of key allies, then they're potentially one Tweet away from giving Los Zetas a serious headache. If they tag the right people, they could, in theory put a hamper on the cartel's response.

Of course, the hackers could end up dead... which is pretty bad, but then that is the risk when anyone takes a stand against the more powerful. Franklin, Jefferson, Washington could all have had their heads disconnected for their action. The Lebanese that pushed against the Syrians a few years ago could have had very bad car accidents. US vets that protest the banking industry could get shot in the head...


oh....

[Triple Zero]

Yikes.

I admire Anon for having the balls to even consider this, but they're in way over their heads.

What if they actually manage to remain anonymous, for a change?

[Faust]

Yikes.

I admire Anon for having the balls to even consider this, but they're in way over their heads.

What if they actually manage to remain anonymous, for a change?

Unlikely considering their track history. One if the reasons lulzsec was set up was because of idiots in anonymous being unable to play it safe.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yikes.

I admire Anon for having the balls to even consider this, but they're in way over their heads.

What if they actually manage to remain anonymous, for a change? 

Unlikely considering their track history. One if the reasons lulzsec was set up was because of idiots in anonymous being unable to play it safe.

And lulzsec sure did a fine job of staying anonymous.

I have simply noticed that people claiming Anonymous as an identity are getting increasingly sophisticated. Anonymous is evolving in an interesting direction.

[Faust]

There were some, lots left for lulzsec and they did accomplish a lot in a short period of time. The splinter groups tend to do well and attract talent while most avoid the main body and sites because they have become so infiltrated with government spooks.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

There were some, lots left for lulzsec and they did accomplish a lot in a short period of time. The splinter groups tend to do well and attract talent while most avoid the main body and sites because they have become so infiltrated with government spooks.

And 14-year-olds. Don't forget those.

[Triple Zero]

Yikes.

I admire Anon for having the balls to even consider this, but they're in way over their heads.

What if they actually manage to remain anonymous, for a change?

Unlikely considering their track history. One if the reasons lulzsec was set up was because of idiots in anonymous being unable to play it safe.

Maybe. Though I find it hard to pin a track history on them since it's different people every time around.

If I'd had to make a guess I'd find it more likely every iteration learns from the previous mistakes (up to some point), than that the "Anonymous formula" is inherently non-anonymous, if you get my drift. If they keep getting exposed, I'd change my mind, of course, but it can go either way, IMO.

I would imagine the guys taking on the Zetas to be super duper careful, though.

[Faust]

A day later and several deaththreats on...

Anonymous Cancels Operation Cartel as Los Zetas Track Hacktivists

[East Coast Hustle]

That didn't take long.

I admire their confidence, but they're still not quite ready for prime-time.

[Triple Zero]

Another possibility, just throwing it out there, is they got a bunch of kids releasing this withdrawal statement under the Anonymous banner.


There's one additional risk (well, there's many, but one I just thought of), when battling corporations or governments, they gotta play by some sort of rules. Not as much rules as we'd like perhaps, but still.

Even their unofficial channels are somewhat official. When you're trying to stay anonymous on Facebook or somewhere else on the web, inevitably part of your reasoning will go "but they're not allowed to access this data--easily--and won't be able to trace back this connection", but these Zetas (about whom I know very little btw) supposedly got "bought" or "protected" peons just about everywhere, right?

That means all bets are off.

Also, the Zetas are not above indiscriminately killing off a few innocent people if that sends the right message or furthers their goals. Which is something that is much harder (though not impossible, as we've seen) for corporations or governments to do.

This kind of changes the whole game, even if you're really good and well-practised in the state-of-the-art anonymity measures and precautions, you need to re-think a whole bunch of assumptions, reconsider a lot of those out-there paranoid speculations you read about but dismissed because you were fairly certain they weren't part of the game. Even if you're a mythical elite oldskool hacker named Case or Hiro Protagonist.