Anonymous seems to be moving up in the world. After attacking a global security research firm earlier this week, elements of Anonymous have now announced that a hack from a few months ago the compromised SpecialForces.com, a seller of equipment to the military and law enforcement. As per the usual pattern, the stolen data is now available online.

As confirmed by Special Forces Gear, the owner of SpecialForces.com, Anonymous managed to grab 14,000 usernames/passwords, and possibly 8,000 encrypted credit card numbers. The attack happened in August, but Anonymous is only drawing attention to it now. Special Forces Gear claims that the database compromised by Anon is a backup from a year-old version of the website. The new site does not store data in the same way, they say.

Following the breach, Special Forces Gear made all users change passwords, and the credit card numbers are apparently mostly expired by this point. Still, there is sure to be some useful data that the owners certainly never expected to get out. Special Forces Gear has hired third-party consultants to make sure these shenanigans don’t happen again, but there are plenty of other vulnerable sites for Anonymous to take on. 

cross posted from Maximum PC – All Articles. Click HERE to read more.

Members of the Reddit community have launched a digital grassroots campaign against pro-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) politicians.

Redditors began the campaign Wednesday with a post asking fellow Redditors for suggestions on a politician to target. The original poster, Reddit user “digitalboy,” was inspired by the social news site’s community effort to boycott GoDaddy over their support for SOPA.

The original mission statement was to find “one senator” who voted for SOPA or the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) and “destroy him.”

Digitalboy’s post left it up to responders to decide the target of Reddit’s wrath. In a few hours, the community decided on South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. A “subreddit” named “Operation Graham Cracker” was opened by Reddit user “spez.” There, participants posted material showing Graham’s support for positions unpopular in the Reddit community, which favors free speech and an open Internet.

Some Redditors expressed concern over the mission of the campaign. “Redblender” asked, “What’s the objective here? To stop SOPA/NDAA? Or to destroy someone?” The front page for the Operation Graham Cracker subreddit now states that the goal is to “show that legislation like SOPA and PIPA, as well as the indefinite detention sections of the NDAA are unacceptable, and that there is career blowback for supporting such legislation.”

According to the organizers, this will be achieved through the following methods:

• “Cause the electorate (voters of target district) to become completely disillusioned with the idea of voting for the candidate.”
• “Destabilize candidate’s office through legal, peaceful disturbance and investigation.”
• “Send a clear message to all of the body politic that the internet is a force for good that should be reckoned with.”

Even with this outline, the campaign’s target sparked fresh debates. Many Redditors, including “FM7-8,” expressed the desire for a non-partisan effort targeting pro-SOPA Democrats and Republicans alike. Soon after the “Graham Cracker” subreddit opened, the community realized that Senator Graham is not up for re-election in 2012. The Redditors decided they would change targets.

A dialogue opened to discuss and debate alternatives, and Redditors chose Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan.

A new subreddit opened named “Operation Pull Ryan.” Redditor “joshawesome” registered pullryan.com. The subreddit has become a source for data about Ryan’s legislative record and contact information for his offices and social media accounts. Facebook and Twitter pages for Operation Pull Ryan have also been established. One Redditor, “Niehaus,” reached out to an opponent of Ryan to get his stance on SOPA, and a screenshot of the response was posted in the subreddit.

Redditors are currently debating the most effective ways to have an impact on Ryan’s next election, being held Nov. 6, 2012.

Will the Reddit community’s methods be an effective way to influence next year’s elections? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sjlocke

More About: Politics, reddit, redditors, SOPA

cross posted from Mashable!. Click HERE to read more.

An in-depth Associated Press report reveals a specialized team in the CIA’s Open Source Center is following up to five million Tweets a day, as well as Facebook posts and other open internet media. The end goal is to help predict if or when a region may become destabilized and to take the pulse of citizens after a major event, like the killing of Osama Bin Laden.

This team consists of analysts located in one of Virginia’s many CIA offices, as well as in US embassies in countries around the globe. They’re referred to as the “vengeful librarians,” and it’s not just a silly nickname — the best analysts have masters’ degrees in library science. Founded following the 9/11 Commissions’ recommendation to focus on counter-terrorism, the…

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cross posted from The Verge – All Posts. Click HERE to read more.

A day after the world’s most popular desktop Linux distro turned seven, Canonical announced a new support policy for its LTS (long-term support) releases, which are released every two years. Beginning with the release of Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) in April, 2012, Canonical will support LTS releases for desktops users for five years instead of the current three years.

In a statement issued yesterday, Canonical said that the decision to extend support for LTS releases for desktop users was taken in face of Ubuntu’s growing popularity among enterprise users used to longer maintenance periods. Previously, only server LTS releases were supported for such a long duration. However, this announcement only applies to LTS releases, with standard releases continuing with the same eighteen-month support cycle that applies to them currently.

“Ubuntu has always been known for its ability to keep pace with the latest applications and hardware” said Rick Spencer, Ubuntu Engineering Director at Canonical. “But as our user-base grows and matures the ability to plan for the longer term is vital. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will give desktop users the perfect combination of keeping pace with hardware changes and extended support depending on their needs”.

 
cross posted from (title unknown). Click HERE to read more.