Spirit of the Wolf by Alice Popkorn on Flickr
Gee, all we said was “Keep us in the loop.” Great, now we can never go to Stockholm.
The evocatively-named LulzSecMafia crew have indeed been hacking quite a swathe through the Swedish internet, and even a particular Swedish thermostat, located in the police HQ, as we reported yesterday. In the 24 hours since our article went live, the TANGODOWN count has swelled. We briefly interviewed the crew spokesperson via Twitter DM, and here’s what s/he had to say.
They first got our attention by @’ing us directly. “@raincoaster Don’t recon you could add us to the article would ya?” they inquired modestly. “I think you’re already in it, aren’t you? @LulzSecMafia turning down the heat was a lovely touch,” we replied.
They told us the crew is not Swedish, and they got involved in this issue because doing so was a moral imperative. “We fight for what’s right. And a massive wolf slaughter is far from it. We’re around because its about time someone came back to provide support for not only human rights but animals’ too.”
The list of hacks they claimed includes Swedish Visa (credit card), VF.se (NOT actually Swedish Vanity Fair), the Swedish Secret Police, The Swedish Ministry of Employment, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Defence, Polisen.se (Swedish non-secret Police), the UN Report on Human Rights in Sweden, Ministry of Forests, and the Swedish Armed Forces. And, yes, the Royal Family’s website. They also released the administrator username and password for e-horizon.se, a Swedish mobile service provider.
Most, but not all, of the sites are back up at press time, and in between taking shots at Japan and other targets in support of OpKillingBay and OpSeaWorld, they’ve been firing at some more Swedish targets, like http://www.arbetslivsinstitutet.se/, a national research institute specializing in occupational issues.
Oh, and the government of Utah.
Supporters tweeted links not simply to the downed targets, but also to web analysis site Check Host, to prove that they were the authentic sites, and the targets were indeed down; some tricksy “hackers” will simply tweet an artificial link they know does not work and claim a “tangodown” but it’s clear these were the real thing. “We always try to prove our work. Specially DDoS,” they told us. They call their DDoS botnet “The Jaberwocky.”
LulzSecMafia confirmed to us that the majority of attacks were simple DDoS attacks, more or less like having a mob come to the front door and block the way so other visitors can’t get in. Anonymous and other hacktivist groups have always asserted this is a legitimate exercise of free speech, most notably in the Paypal 14 case.
Governments and website owners tend to disagree.
It wasn’t all botnets and tangodowns, though. To immense applause (retweets, favorites, and the like serving in lieu of actual physicality) there were some straight-up hacks and even a prank.
At first glance, leaking credit card numbers, card security numbers, and expiry date is a rather sweepingly abusive action; why victimize all those innocent Swedbank customers? But wait, can the card numbers be used without the actual names, which were deliberately and conspicuously omitted?
“Not really,” LulzSecMafia told us. “Which is why we only showed the card numbers. Even as black hats we still have some morals, lol.”
As for pranks, how’s this?
Gaming the printer to only print out dead Swedish wolves is psyops of the most elegant kind.
Looks like LulzSecMafia had some help, though.
GatorLeague is, like LulzSecMafia an Anonymous-allied (but not OF Anonymous) crew who have in the past claimed a particularly high-profile kill: the GCHQ website. In other words, the British Secret Police. So when they went after Swedish target in support of the Op, they weren’t going to go for the low-hanging fruit.
At least they’re admirably social and interactive. Now that’s a 21st Century hacker crew!
Categories: Activism, Anonymous, Attack, Botnet, Breaking, Credit Cards, Cyber, Cyberwar, DDoS, Gator League, GatorSquad, Hackers, Hacktivism, LulzSecMafia, News, Ops, SaveSweWolves, Sweden
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