FBI Steps Up WikiLeaks-Linked Probe With Texas, Germany Raids

[gateley]

The U.S. is stepping up a search for participants in WikiLeaks-related cyber attacks on PayPal Inc. and other payment processors, raiding a Dallas company last month and coordinating a seizure of evidence with police in Germany, according to a request for a federal search warrant.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation raid of the Dallas computer server company Tailor Made Servers, which a person familiar with the case said occurred on Dec. 16, could provide investigators with information about the creators of chat rooms used by a group of WikiLeaks supporters that calls itself Anonymous. The group said it was behind more than two weeks of cyber attacks in December. /snip

The targets included EBay Inc.’s PayPal unit, MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc. and Moneybookers.com.

“We are looking into them,” Holder said on Dec. 9.

The attacks could be prosecuted as a conspiracy to cause damage to computer networks, a federal crime. /snip

Seven days after Holder spoke, FBI agents raided the server company in a Dallas industrial park, which uses one of eight Internet Protocol addresses globally that hosted the chat rooms, according to the affidavit in support of the search warrant.

Jose Quinones, a Tailor Made Servers employee, said by e- mail that the authorities asked him not to speak to the press about the raid. Special Agent Mark White, a spokesman for the FBI field office in Dallas, confirmed the raid but said he couldn’t provide details other than those in the affidavit.

Cyber security experts said the servers may contain detailed log information, including data that could lead investigators back to individual computers and their users.

“Those servers are likely to have logs showing certain events -- people setting up the server,” said Jose Nazario, a cyber security expert with Arbor Networks, based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. “It gives you an indication of who the ring- leaders were.” /snip

More >>>>> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-04/fbi-steps-up-probe-of-wikileaks-linked-attacks-with-texas-germany-raids.html


This, and other actions by The Man, make me feel suffocated. I hope we (and by we I mean those with the know-how to do it) stay ahead of these fucks. I know this sounds "tinfoilhat" but they are truly Oppressors.

[Canuckistanian]

1. "ring- leaders"

I don't think Anonymous has "ring- leaders".

They're like the Borg. Take one out, another takes it's place.

[gateley]

5. I never thought I'd find a Borg analogy comforting, but you're right. Good.

I also kind of am reminded of Tribbles -- remember those? :7

[EFerrari]

2. Where's bin Laden?

:shrug:

[AlabamaLibrul]

3. "We're looking into them to avoid looking into the BFEE" got it, Holder

[gateley]

4. Copy that. nt

[sabrina 1]

6. So, since they are so on top of things, they will be looking into

the hacking of Wikileaks' site also? And the war crimes revealed by the leaks? Censoring the site looks like someone's trying to hide those crimes.

Maybe the DOJ would find the connection between the Siegelman case and Karl Rove worthy if looking into, and Karl Rove hiding in Sweden to avoid answering subpoenas from Congress? What happened to those subpoenas? Has Congress lost interest in finding what role he played in the firing of U.S. Attorneys?

[gateley]

7. It makes me so angry - and frustrated. Like I said, I feel like we're being suffocated. nt

[sabrina 1]

8. I know what you mean. A few people retaliating against a clearly

unjust attack on a news organization is more important than going after war criminals. I wonder when the American people will have had enough?

[gateley]

9. I don't have much faith in the American People - not that they wouldn't care,

but that they're not AWARE and don't care enough to become aware. I use my brother and sister-in-law as a barometer. I think they're pretty average, just blithely go carry on and when I rail about politics (which I don't do that often) the nod and go yeah, that's politics, or something like that. I fear that the American People won't do anything until it gets so bad we're almost living in a Mad Max world. And then, knowing me, I'll expend all my energy screaming "I TOLD you so!!!". Sigh.

[sabrina 1]

12. Yes, a lot of the people I know are like that also. So long as they

don't feel any negative impact personally, they're okay with things as they are. Still, it probably always was that way. It was always only a few who actually organized and brought about the big changes in the world.

Otoh, if the media was covering the war in a humane way, showing what it is doing to ordinary people's lives, seeing the devastation, the dead children etc. things would be different. People have to be shocked into acting sometimes. And looking at those wars would be pretty traumatizing. But as we know, that is exactly why they do not report on the wars.

[glinda]

10. We are being prevented from "reacting to having enough". This is what is happening right now.

[sabrina 1]

11. You may be right. I do know that there is always so much push

back when people speak out, even on boards like this. It does prevent people from uniting and organizing, and that is probably the reason for it.