It is with some trepidation reaffirmed with verification that I pass
along the following. ymmv, yhbw, ianal, wtf, etc.
Hold onto your lolcats, because the US Senate voted down the (outgoing)
Lieberman/Collins/Rockefeller CISPA cybersecurity legislation on
Wednesday...
http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/majority-media/senate-rejects-second-chance-to-safeguard-most-critical-cyber-networks-
...around the same time many found out US President (and
Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces) Obama had already
signed a classified cybersecurity (and cyberwar) Presidential Directive
- in mid-October:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-signs-secret-cybersecurity-directive-allowing-more-aggressive-military-role/2012/11/14/7bf51512-2cde-11e2-9ac2-1c61452669c3_story.html
More recently, there's a situation going on with Israel and Palestine.
I don't mean to be glib - I cannot as I have noticed the unusual volume
of information produced by the unusual organization Stratfor the last
few days:
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/considering-israeli-ground-assault-gaza
And the unusual phenomenon of a combatant live tweeting while actively
engaged in warfare:
https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson/status/269112373208551425
Allegedly, Israel has threatened an Internet and/or telecommunications
shutdown. I did not find a primary source documenting that statement,
but did notice a report of an increasing number of reports on The Voice
of Russia:
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_11_14/Israel-launches-Gaza-op/
The possibility of a (partial) telecommunications shutdown is real as
networks in the Palestinian Territories are dependent upon physical
infrastructure in Israel (at least in 2011 according to page 9 of this
Renesys presentation):
http://www.renesys.com/tech/presentations/pdf/GeopoliticsOfInternetInfrastructure.pdf
That possibility has gotten the attention of a certain portion of the
Internet---unnamely---Anonymous.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/11/15/anonymous-hackers-deface-israeli-sites-in-retaliation-for-gaza-attacks/
Tonight I received notifications of two newly uploaded videos to YouTube
on accounts that have published Anonymous media over a span of years,
though that is no guarantee of consistent pwnership.
YouTube (Nov 15 ~8:01pm) - "Anonymous: Operation Israel" by @TheAnonMessage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkC357RQt0c
http://twitter.com/TheAnonMessage
YouTube (Nov 15 ~9:32pm) - "Anonymous Operation Israel" by @anonyops_
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl7svqBVq0U
http://twitter.com/anonyops_
In the videos (whose production and messaging IMO demonstrate focus),
mention is made of a care package for download. I took the liberty of
quarantining that zip file [ MD5 1acf8950d398220c0f243b59ea9c2653 ],
running a local scan and more importantly 44 documented remote scans at
VirusTotal on the zip and the two contained PDFs. Here are those
results confirming no known malware (which should not be taken to
exclude zero days):
https://www.virustotal.com/file/2ed49cdcbe45c12d48addf1e5ab1a039884fa1cf303a0e31a00489bd0d80060e/analysis/1353047954/
https://www.virustotal.com/file/481411a0fed2b934f791a703b7e4a9661d0c3f6314e880b45260bf59a4d1fd40/analysis/
https://www.virustotal.com/file/2ed49cdcbe45c12d48addf1e5ab1a039884fa1cf303a0e31a00489bd0d80060e/analysis/1353047954/
One of the video descriptions links to this Arabic translation...
http://www.anonpaste.me/anonpaste2/index.php?89452a7861b4af1d#hFCbUSaOGM+ZBIgJPGEOBwxEjxV0lNNnbdPQnx0uQRw=
...of this blog re-posting of information resistance information
aggregated by Telecomix:
http://katatus.blogspot.com/
In closing, an observation of serendipity: earlier tonight and however
momentarily insulated though unimmune to the influence of events, I
watched Christopher Poole's 2010 TED talk on "The case for anonymity
online." He's the creator of 4chan, whence provided Anonymous (I almost
said "custodian" but can anyone have that job?). I've always noticed
Mr. Poole has interesting things to say:
http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_m00t_poole_the_case_for_anonymity_online.html
...especially about people's' right(s) to speak. Much love to all.
gf
--
Gregory Foster || [email protected]
@gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/
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