IT - Hacktivists and reality
Protest Warrior has detailed how a group of hackers has illegally accessed their server and downloaded thousands of people's credit card details. Protest Warrior noticed the intrusion and gathered lots of useful info for the FBI who have now charged the offending hacker. Of course, now the offending hacker has a web-site soliciting funds for his defense and proclaiming he is innocent because

Jeremy has done no damage to any system and has not charged anything to any credit card numbers.

Unless I miss my guess, stealing credit card numbers is considered a crime, as is illegally accessing a computer network. I have a hard time agreeing with the FAQ on the Free Jeremy site which says

While his activities have been ethical and non-destructive, he has found himself a target of law enforcement because he has been brave enough to stand up to the injustices of the political system.

The FAQ has even more misleading tripe on it, talking about what Jeremy has been accused of doing

What is Jeremy being accused of doing?
The FBI alleges that he is involved with an underground hacking group that has hacked and gained acess to the right-wing website ProtestWarrior and took credit card numbers belonging to people who ordered products off of their online store. The FBI says that he was involved in a plot to make donations from these credit card numbers to various humanitarian charities, civil rights activists, and leftist protest groups.

These charges are outrageous and reactionary because none of this has actually happened. The website has not been defaced and no credit card numbers has been billed.

Notice how the FAQ does not address the actual charges of hacking and accessing a website and taking credit card details. His honesty is overwhelming.

Poor Jeremy...I hope he gets justice for his actions.
- posted by Alan Grey @ Thursday, July 07, 2005