Anonymous vs. Church of Scientology

[N. A. Corbier]

This is a technical security administrator's nightmare. Pretty soon, it will be a physical security administrator's nightmare.

A few days ago, a video that you may have seen on the Mainstream Media got out. This video was of Tom Cruise, taking to fellow Scientologists as part of an internal awards program. Tom said some very, to some, disturbing things.

As with most high-level Church of Scientology member speeches, a lot of jargon is used. SPs, Tech, KSW, etc. These words mean things to Scientologists, the way words like ROR, OUI, 10-7, and other codes mean to police officers.

This has upset the masses, it seems. From the darkest corners of the internet, a hive mind-like group that calls themselves Anonymous has turned its gaze towards the Church of Scientology.

Anonymous' too long; didn't read background: Anonymous is a pseudonym (subtle, aren't they?) of users of several image boards. They conduct raids, or psychological warfare and infrastructure disruption campaigns, against people they don't like. These people include: Furries (Go on, look that up.), Users of GaiaOnline, Second Life (If you don't understand what Second Life is, don't worry, I do and I don't at the same time...), Hal Turner (A Neo-Nazi Talk Show Host or something), some pedo in Canada I can't be arsed to look up...

So, Anonymous issued a declaration of war. This video has 605,000+ views. It has been featured on NBC 11, KNBC, Sky News (For our Brits), and several other media feeds.

Digg, a social networking site, is blowing up with stories about this. Much to the usual Digg users delight and hate. Anonymous has co-oped Digg with sheer numbers, since Digg promotes stories by "how many people click the digg this button in a short amount of time?"

Anonymous is not a "hacker group," an "internet terrorist group," or even really a group. They use the Guy Falkes mask logo, from V for Vendetta, as a symbol. Because anyone can become Anonymous (by donning the name), and anyone can stop (by simply stop donning the name.) Its actually just a bunch of people (I'd call them kids, but no one knows the age of Anonymous) from the -chan sites. 4chan, 7chan, 420chan, etc.

They are organized, anyone can read their war plans here:
http://partyvan.info/index.php/Project_Chanology

That's right, the way Anon fights is to put everything in the open, then do it.

As I said, this is a technical security administrator's nightmare.

[Curtis Baillie]

It this like what you and I talked about some time ago?

[N. A. Corbier]

It this like what you and I talked about some time ago?

Encyclopedia Dramatica is attempting, in their own way, to cover this. But they're (possibly) under attack by people who may or may not be affiliated with the Church of Scientology.

[Curtis Baillie]

Nathan, you're tempting fate - I wasn't going to mention their name.

[N. A. Corbier]

Nathan, you're tempting fate - I wasn't going to mention their name.

They're in the mainstream media now.

[SecTrainer]

They are organized, anyone can read their war plans here:
http://partyvan.info/index.php/Project_Chanology

That's right, the way Anon fights is to put everything in the open, then do it.

As I said, this is a technical security administrator's nightmare.

Hmmm - looks like The "Church" (I gag on using the word) might have won the first round. This site has been suspended for the usual vague "resource/bandwidth" reasons. DOS attacks maybe? There's probably more than one type of "zombie" in that organization - human and otherwise.

[NRM_Oz]

Whilst I guess the old "to each their own" philosophy has covered me for years, the list of these celebratories behind the COS is incredible. The `walking cheque book` the son of our Infamous Kerry Packer who is worth billons (not as much as Job and Gatesy) would be pouring out millions to appease the hiearchy. Having seen Uncle Tom's outbursts, it is time to send him to bed at 1930 so he can grow up and wear big boy's pants. Not sure how he every got involved with Nicole Kidman from day 1 but they were definitely not compatible. As for these ANON. people .................... makes you wonder if it is just a mexican standoff or they might mean business.

[EMTGuard]

Actually, I already commentedon this in a thread in the forums at Atheist Network so I'll just cut and paste my comments from there.
Source- http://www.atheistnetwork.com/viewto...r=asc&start=20

Actually, while I don't have any love for Scientology I can't condone the attacks on their website or their followers in general. Yes they are a cult and I will publicly ridicule them every chance I get but they have a right to be free to do what they want. I may not agree with what they have to say but I will defend to the death their right to say it. If the members of that cult want to give everything they have to L Ron Hubbards church, so be it. As long as they aren't forcing me to pay I'm fine with them. DOS attacks on the Scientology website are just wrong.


Steve

[N. A. Corbier]

Hmmm - looks like The "Church" (I gag on using the word) might have won the first round. This site has been suspended for the usual vague "resource/bandwidth" reasons. DOS attacks maybe? There's probably more than one type of "zombie" in that organization - human and otherwise.

Amusingly enough, Anonymous was prepared for this, and there are about 15 backups for partyvan.info. That's why this will be an interesting war, quite frankly. You can't just throw Anon in jail and knock their website out.

They don't have a website, they have dozens. Anonymous has already denounced Splongcat (The guy who probably nuked a Dutch school because he's a student there, and had a personal vendetta, which is frowned upon by Anon) as both using Anon for his personal army and the crime of "name faggotry," which is when one starts acting as an individual instead of Anon.

[SecTrainer]

Regardless of personal philosophy, we have to condemn any sort of technological attack made by either side. This should be a "battle" played out in the arena of ideas, not the network of routers. The COS can't be brought down by Web attacks anyway for the simple reason that the organization doesn't depend on the Web for its existence.

The message from Anon sounded to me more like they were going to run "black bag ops" against COS by infiltrating them and then working from the inside. I might have misinterpreted the manifesto, though.

[SecTrainer]

...and so it goes: Anonymous Launches Attack on Scientology

[N. A. Corbier]

Digg's CEO underestimates the power of Anonymous.

[Nauticus]

I like this, personally.

Scientology is nothing but a criminal cult, so even at the expensive of electronic security, they should be exposed for what they are. While I'd never bother to actually do anything about it, I support Anon in this particular "conflict". After all, every target they've ever had has, in some way or another, deserved it.

[NRM_Oz]

These people are like termites - well drilled army without the need for a leader and would happily sacrifice themselves to break down the barriers.

[ValleyOne]

This should be a "battle" played out in the arena of ideas, not the network of routers.

Yes, but, The Internet is the largest 'arena' for folks to throw their ideas down.

Personally, whatever it takes to stomp COS-this side of actually death or what not-I'm all for it.

To me their like the Ragneesh's (sp?) my state was infested with a while back...