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Hackers take down website of bank that froze WikiLeaks funds

Catz Part Deux

Catz Part Deux

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Hackers take down website of bank that froze WikiLeaks funds | Raw Story

A group of Internet activists calling themselves Operation Payback have taken credit for shutting down the website of a bank that earlier Monday froze funds belonging to WikiLeaks.

Announcing its successful hack on a Twitter account, the group declared, "We will fire at anyone that tries to censor WikiLeaks."

Earlier in the day, Swiss bank PostFinance issued a statement announcing that it had frozen 31,000 euro ($41,000 US) in an account set up as a legal defense fund for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The bank said it had frozen the account because, in opening it, Assange had claimed residency in Geneva.

"Assange cannot provide proof of residence in Switzerland and thus does not meet the criteria for a customer relationship with PostFinance," the bank said.
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haymarket said:
This whole episode has got me thinking... Assange is waging war on the governments of the world through technology. How long will it be before somebody with superior hacking skills is able to destroy accumulated wealth with the stroke of a few keys bringing the rich and corporations to their collective knees? This could be really interesting.
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The Chinese have been working on this one for years.
 
They didn't freeze his account, they closed it. Assange just has to tell them where to transfer the money. This particular bank is only open to Swiss citizens so once they were informed that Assange had an account they closed it.

It's unfortunate that the internet hate machine got sucked in by the sensationalist headilnes, such as this one, which proclaim the bank "froze WikiLeaks funds." They closed a personal account that Assange improperly set up
 
Catz Part Deux said:
Hackers take down website of bank that froze WikiLeaks funds | Raw Story
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Does anyone find it interesting that Visa/Mastercard would freeze Wikileaks accounts, but on the other hand..................................

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Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.
 
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danarhea said:
Does anyone find it interesting that Visa/Mastercard would freeze Wikileaks accounts, but on the other hand..................................

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm.
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So the guy at the center of the highest profile current event has action taken against him, and some organization I've never heard of does not? Amazing that...
 
MaggieD said:
This is really spooky. Tech/Cyber Wars here we come...

Quite frightening, actually.
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They've been ongoing for a while now. If you read up on the origins of Wikileaks, you'll learn that it was started by Chinese hackers to combat their oppressive government. The Chinese government has been engaged in cyber espionage and attacks against American companies and our government for years now.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/22/the_top_10_chinese_cyber_attacks_that_we_know_of

1) Titan Rain

In 2004, an analyst named Shawn Carpenter at Sandia National Laboratories traced the origins of a massive cyber espionage ring back to a team of government sponsored researchers in Guangdong Province in China. The hackers, code named by the FBI “Titan Rain,” stole massive amounts of information from military labs, NASA, the World Bank, and others. Rather than being rewarded, Carpenter was fired and investigated after revealing his findings to the FBI, because hacking foreign computers is illegal under U.S. law. He later sued and was awarded more than $3 million. The FBI renamed Titan Rain and classified the new name. The group is still assumed to be operating.

2) State Department’s East Asia Bureau

In July 2006, the State Department admitted it had become a victim of cyber hacking after an official in “East Asia” accidentally opened an email he shouldn’t have. The attackers worked their way around the system, breaking into computers at U.S. embassies all over the region and then eventually penetrating systems in Washington as well.
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Obama dropped the ball. He went from community organizer to most poweful person in the world overnight. He could have put a lid on this early but he just doesn't have a clue.
 
Catz that group is separate from Wikileaks. Assange acknowledged them and said that Wikileaks had a relationship with them for some time. I think it was in his interview with Forbes.

On another note, this truly is cyber warfare. The governments of the world are attempting to hide behind the pseudo-legitimacy of the legal system, but you can guarantee that these governments are willing to break their own laws to cover up the illegal acts that wikileaks is exposing.
 
Khayembii Communique said:
Catz that group is separate from Wikileaks. Assange acknowledged them and said that Wikileaks had a relationship with them for some time. I think it was in his interview with Forbes.

On another note, this truly is cyber warfare. The governments of the world are attempting to hide behind the pseudo-legitimacy of the legal system, but you can guarantee that these governments are willing to break their own laws to cover up the illegal acts that wikileaks is exposing.
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The US Congress and President committed an illegal act when they passed Obama care. If the US voters aren't going to get upset about blatent violations of the constitition right in front of thier faces, there isn't anything wikileaks can do to help.
 
Kernel Sanders said:
They didn't freeze his account, they closed it. Assange just has to tell them where to transfer the money. This particular bank is only open to Swiss citizens so once they were informed that Assange had an account they closed it.

It's unfortunate that the internet hate machine got sucked in by the sensationalist headilnes, such as this one, which proclaim the bank "froze WikiLeaks funds." They closed a personal account that Assange improperly set up
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Thanks for that. It makes me laugh the amount of wrong info circulating about this issue. PostFinance did not freeze the account, it simply closed it and will not press any sort of charges at all. This is the standard procedure whenever they find out an account was open by a non-resident. Furthermore, the website was not "taken down", but the cyber attack did significantly slow down their servers.
 
This is why I love 4chan. We nevar forget.
 
GPS_Flex said:
The US Congress and President committed an illegal act when they passed Obama care. If the US voters aren't going to get upset about blatent violations of the constitition right in front of thier faces, there isn't anything wikileaks can do to help.
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Is it impossible for you to stay on topic?

Also, blatent is not a word. Blatant is the proper spelling.
 
ReverendHellh0und said:
60% of the intrusion attempts my company deals with for our customers is from China, 30% from Russia. :prof
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It's interesting to read up on the subject, a lot of the corporate/industrial attacks are state-sponsored. I worry that China is going to kick our asses, technologically, because they've allocated the resources to that field of battle (and I don't think we have).
 
Catz Part Deux said:
It's interesting to read up on the subject, a lot of the corporate/industrial attacks are state-sponsored. I worry that China is going to kick our asses, technologically, because they've allocated the resources to that field of battle (and I don't think we have).
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I don't think so. I can tell you for a fact, they for the most part really really suck at it. :lol:
 
Catz Part Deux said:
Well, that's a relief. Do you think we can assume they will alway suck at it?
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yes. Just go to a chinese resturaunt ANYWHERE in the country, even after 20 years most of em can't speak good english. it translates to thier ability to "hack" in english..... :ssst:
 
Catz Part Deux said:
It's interesting to read up on the subject, a lot of the corporate/industrial attacks are state-sponsored. I worry that China is going to kick our asses, technologically, because they've allocated the resources to that field of battle (and I don't think we have).
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One word, Stuxnet.
 
GPS_Flex said:
Obama dropped the ball. He went from community organizer to most poweful person in the world overnight. He could have put a lid on this early but he just doesn't have a clue.
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I don't think he's natuarlly inclined to.

If he weren't President and was simply Community Organizer Obama in Chicago, he'd be the type who would be on message boards cheering it on.
 
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