Tech at Night

Frogmarch watch continues. Even as Anonymous has desperately tried to enlist unions into its anti-Paypal Jihad, Paypal funnels information to law enforcement to help catch the terrorists. I don’s use that word lightly, either. But when the gang is attempting to intimidate law enforcement, possibly as an answer to another high-profile arrest, I believe Anonymous and its subsidiaries like Lulzsec and Antisec have leapt far over the line between “online terrorist” and just plan “terrorist.”

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Tech at Night

Anonymous and its associated online criminal organizations continue to face losses. A top Lulzsec leader was arrested in Scotland. Remember, this guy is no “activist.” He stole from people who happened to have Visas or MasterCards. Vigilante action against Anonymous and its online criminal wings continues, as well.

Anonymous is in such trouble, they’re now desperate for allies, begging unions to join their cause. Note that by targeting Paypal, Anonymous threatens the livelihoods of many who depend on income via Paypal simply to stay in business and pay bills.

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Tech at Night

Twitter has a credibility problem on its hands, all of a sudden. Even as I’m getting blind link spam sent to me every single day on the site, Twitter has singled out a conservative activist group to have its accounts wiped out. Not only was the Empower Texans feed shut down, but every single employee’s personal feed was targeted as well.

Twitter’s response has been non-descriptive, and lacking in any support. Conveniently for Twitter, by blocking the accounts, it’s impossible for any observer to confirm or deny their allegations of Twitter rules violations. I can only conclude, in the absence of evidence, that somebody in Twitter has decided to get political. And that is Twitter’s problem to fix.

Follow FreeMQS for further developments. Update: Actually, don’t. I was misinformed on this one as the story developed last night.

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Tech at Night

When it comes to the FTC beginning to persecute Google, I think conservatives have mixed feelings because the problem of overbearing government is one of Google’s making. So while we do need to keep government in its place here, the situation is understandable.

The FTC going after Twitter, though? That just doesn’t make sense. It’s not even the largest “social media” software around, not at all. Facebook’s the big boy, but Twitter’s the one that get investigated. Adam Thierer suggests there’s an ulterior motive involved, one of creating a “threat regime” where the government threatens and bullies as a matter of policy, a theory put out by Tim Wu.

With Google, I know to win the day we’ll have to fight understandable conservative feelings against the firm. With Twitter though that shouldn’t be a problem, so we need all hands on deck to expose the FTC’s overreach here.

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Tech at Night

Amazon’s not kidding one bit about punishing states that attempt to punish it. After Amazon sent a last ditch warning to Associates that all California Associates would be terminated in the event Governor Brown signed the budget with the Amazon Tax in it, the Governor went ahead and did it.

So, every Amazon Associate in California just got terminated, including countless small businesses scraping by in a lousy economy (11% unemployment in CA, thanks to Brown, Obama, and the ARRA). I was one of them. I got the notice at 9:45pm. For the email’s contents, see below the fold.

Democrats: Killing jobs since 1861.

Contrast with Republicans who are embracing new technologies like Skype, shunned by the Nancy Pelosi era House.

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Tech at Night

And we truly are back. Friday night was a night off thanks to some maintenance at RedState. It was nice because I could rest on a Friday night… but it’s not so nice now when I have a whopping 20 Firefox windows to sort through tonight. So here we go.

With so many big stories going on, it’s hard to pick which one to start with. So I’ll start with the one that may be under the radar more than the others. The FCC refused to declare the wireless market competitive in its annual report required by the [Correction: OMNIBUS BUDGET RECONCILIATION ACT OF 1993]. This is a ridiculous position to take. Despite obvious, quantifiable proof that prices are lower, service is better, and choices abound, the FCC has refused to admit the market is competitive for ideological reasons. After all, if the FCC finds the market competitive, it can’t give itself permission to regulate further. Just more proof we need FCC reform, joining the long list of existing reasons.

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Tech at Night

Can we just start shooting the hackers? It seems like it’s war on the Internet these days, and the more there is for me to cover, the more work it is churning out Tech at Night!

Lulzsec denies the allies are in Baghdad the leader is arrested despite an earlier claim on Twitter that it was true.

Anyway, Shame on the Daily Mail for trying to turn a Lulzsec hacker into a sob story. He’s a criminal gangster who couldn’t hold a real job. Let him rot.

How bad is Lulzsec? Even other hacker gangs hate them. I assume it’s because others realize that Lulzsec’s insane overreach is going to bring the hammer of justice down on the entire field. Especially when they’re targeting security experts, besides. It’s true, too: The FBI is on the march here, on the heels of arrests already made in Spain, Turkey, and the UK.

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Tech at Night

I’ve been treating Lulzsec, one of the online gangs attacking websites including the CIA’s, as an offshoot of 4chan and Anonymous. So I’m not surprised to find out that Lulzsec and Anonymous are joining up to attack the US Government. It’s like Hamas and Fatah merging; nobody is surprised. But attacking the government? Handcuffs hurt, boys. It’ll be fun when y’all find that out.

It’ll be interesting to see if Lulzsec Exposed has a role in making that happen, too.

Sega was hit recently, but the reason I’m linking to the story is to point out how laughably bad CBS’s photo for the story was. They show a picture of one old Sega platform (Sega CDX) with the logo of an even older Sega platform (Genesis). Ah, the big time press. Fact checked, peer reviewed, rock-solid. Not like us on the Internet in our robes and sandals.

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Tech at Night

Even as Mary Bono Mack and Republicans fiddle with the pointless SAFE Data act that won’t actually do anything to prevent or even to deter online crime, the Internet burns with a string of further attacks. The Senate was hit twice, and the CIA was hit as well.

I thought we were the party that likes to solve crime by putting the criminals in jail? Why don’t we drop this reporting theater and get back to catching criminals blackmailing the US government and private enterprise?

Seriously? We want to jail kids who upload music to YouTube, and create a Communist China-style Internet censorship blacklist, but we’re blaming the victims of online attacks?

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Tech at Night

The cyberterrorist groups Anonymous and its apparent splinter group Lulzsec are getting bold. The latter gang of criminals is attempting to blackmail the United States Government after attacking government networks, which is just insane and I hope will lead to mass arrests. While the former is attacking the Spanish government after arrests made there, and suffering further damage from mass arrests in Turkey.

I hope when the Lulzsec gang gets rolled up, just like Anonymous is getting slammed, that some of them resist. OK, that was a mean thing to say, but it’s how I feel.

Anonymous hub 4chan still refuses to take basic steps to mitigate the groups’ ability to propagandize and recruit, such as requiring account registration or closing down unmoderated sections of the site.

Oh yes, and despite all the above attacks plus one on the IMF, Mary Bono Mack’s answer is to blame the victims instead of rounding up and sending to Gitmo or Alcatraz the perpetrators.

In further news, lots going on at RedState today. Erick Erickson and Dana Rohrabacher are fighting the good fight on the America Invents Act, the Patrick Leahy giveaway that punishes inventors and favors lawyers and patent mills, in an attempt to make us more like Old Europe. I’ve been warning about this bill for a while, so I’m sure glad to see opposition growing.

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Nima Jooyandeh facts.