FBI Knocks Down 40 Doors in Probe of Pro-WikiLeaks Attackers
January 28th, 2011Via: Wired:
The FBI has joined in the hunt for those who participated in the retaliation attacks against companies that cut off services to Wikileaks, executing more than 40 search warrants across the United States on Thursday, the bureau announced.
In what seem to be timed raids, British police arrested five men Thursday morning who allegedly participated in the Anonymous group’s denial of service attacks on Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and Amazon in mid-December. Anonymous was seeking to bring attention to — and punish — the financial-service companies’ decisions to prohibit donations to Wikileaks. Amazon was targeted after it kicked Wikileaks off its web-hosting service.
The attacks caused no permanent damage, as they simply temporarily overloaded a website with more traffic than the server could handle. They were, for the most part, really nothing more than the cyber equivalent of a campus sit-in.
But the FBI warned it did not see it that way.
“The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating or conducting a DDoS attack is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as well as exposing participants to significant civil liability,” the FBI said in a press release. The FBI did not announce any arrests in conjunction with the searches.
Related: Anonymous Running Attacks on Anti-Wikileaks Sites with Low Orbit Ion Cannon
Internet Remains Down in Egypt
January 28th, 2011In other news, Obama’s Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Bill Will Return Later This Year.
Via: Telegraph:
The Egyptian government’s action is unprecedented in the history of the internet. Countries such as China, Iran, Thailand and Tunisia have cut off access to news websites and social networking services during periods of unrest, as Egypt did when it cut off Facebook and Twitter earlier this week.
The ongoing attempt by the Egyptian government to shut down all online communication is, however, a new phenomenon. It not only prevents ordinary Egyptian internet users from accessing any websites, it cripples Tor, an anti-censorship tool that technical experts and activists were using to circumvent the Facebook and Twitter blocks.
The action puts Egypt, temporarily at least, in the company of North Korea, which has never allowed its citizens access to the internet.
Related: Egypt’s Internet Shutdown Can’t Stop Mass Protests
OpenLeaks Site Goes Live
January 28th, 2011…after someone leaked the material to Cryptome. *chortle*
Via: OpenLeaks:
OpenLeaks is a project that aims at making whistleblowing safer and more widespread. This will be done by providing dedicated and generally free services to whistleblowers and organizations interested in transparency. We will also create a Knowledge Base aiming to provide a comprehensive reference to all areas surrounding whistleblowing.
Spain’s Unemployment Rate Over 20%
January 28th, 2011Via: AFP:
Spain announced Friday its jobless rate surged to a 13-year record above 20 percent at the end of 2010, the highest level in the industrialized world, as the economy struggled for air.
It was more bad news for an economy fighting to regain the trust of financial markets and avoid being trapped in a debt quagmire that has engulfed Greece and Ireland and now menaces Portugal.
Another 121,900 people joined Spain’s unemployment queues in the final quarter of the year, pushing the total to 4.697 million people, said the national statistics institute INE.
The resulting unemployment rate was 20.33 percent for the end of the year — easily exceeding Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s target of 19.4 percent.
U.S. Official Kills Two Pakistanis in Lahore
January 28th, 2011???
Via: BBC:
An American official in the Pakistani city of Lahore has shot and killed a Pakistani motorcycle rider and his pillion passenger, police say.
They say that the consular employee fired his pistol in self-defence. US embassy officials confirmed that an American was involved.
The men were pursuing the American in his car when the incident happened.
A pedestrian was also killed by a speeding car from the US consulate which came to help, police say.
More: U.S. Official Charged with Pakistan Double Murder
I’ll Probably Have to Take the Night Off Due to Storm
January 28th, 2011The leading edge of a cyclone is passing over us now. If there aren’t any further updates for a while, blame Wilma. I’m going to take my broadband antenna down now so that it’s not ripped off the roof.
Cella Energy Developing Nanomaterial Capable of Storing Hydrogen; Doesn’t Need to Be Pressurized or Cooled; ‘Micro-Beads’ Could Be Pumped Like Liquid
January 28th, 2011This sounds like a somewhat interesting process; not anything to get excited about, yet, of course, but interesting to watch nonetheless.
Just to state what should be obvious to many commentators, but isn’t: In the context of vehicle fuels, hydrogen isn’t an energy source. It’s a battery. You need energy to get the hydrogen. Perhaps this could be teamed with the Nocera process. Still, just to be clear, it’s a battery.
According to Stephen Voller, CEO at Cella Energy, in the GizMag piece below:
“We have developed new micro-beads that can be used in an existing gasoline or petrol vehicle to replace oil-based fuels,” said Voller. “Early indications are that the micro-beads can be used in existing vehicles without engine modification.”
Unless the company has come up with something that’s not described on their website, the statement above may be a product of a CEO reality distortion field of some type. Go to the company’s site to see the concept diagram for using this as a vehicle fuel. Does your car have a set up like that? No? Neither does mine.
I have absolutely no idea where GizMag got the $1.50 per gallon number, or how much energy a gallon of these hydrogen ‘micro-beads’ contains, compared to a gallon of conventional gasoline, buy anyway…
Via: GizMag:
UK-based Cella Energy has developed a synthetic fuel that could lead to US$1.50 per gallon gasoline. Apart from promising a future transportation fuel with a stable price regardless of oil prices, the fuel is hydrogen based and produces no carbon emissions when burned. The technology is based on complex hydrides, and has been developed over a four year top secret program at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford. Early indications are that the fuel can be used in existing internal combustion engined vehicles without engine modification.
According to Stephen Voller CEO at Cella Energy, the technology was developed using advanced materials science, taking high energy materials and encapsulating them using a nanostructuring technique called coaxial electrospraying.
“We have developed new micro-beads that can be used in an existing gasoline or petrol vehicle to replace oil-based fuels,” said Voller. “Early indications are that the micro-beads can be used in existing vehicles without engine modification.”
“The materials are hydrogen-based, and so when used produce no carbon emissions at the point of use, in a similar way to electric vehicles”, said Voller.
Egypt: Internet Down, Police Counterterror Unit Deployed; In Suez, Weapons Looted and Turned on Police
January 28th, 2011Via: AP:
Internet service in Egypt was disrupted and the government deployed an elite special operations force in Cairo on Friday, hours before an anticipated new wave of anti-government protests.
The developments were a sign that President Hosni Mubarak’s regime was toughening its crackdown following the biggest protests in years against his nearly 30-year rule.
The counter-terror force, rarely seen on the streets, took up positions in strategic locations, including central Tahrir Square, site of the biggest demonstrations this week.
Facebook and Twitter have helped drive this week’s protests. But by Thursday evening, those sites were disrupted, along with cell phone text messaging and BlackBerry Messenger services. Then the Internet went down.
…
Violence escalated on Thursday at protests outside the capital. In the flashpoint city of Suez, along the strategic Suez Canal, protesters torched a fire station and looted weapons that they then turned on police. The Interior Ministry said in a statement that more than 90 police officers were injured in those clashes. There were no immediate figures on the number of injured protesters.
In the northern Sinai area of Sheik Zuweid, several hundred Bedouins and police exchanged gunfire, killing a 17-year-old. About 300 protesters surrounded a police station from rooftops of nearby buildings and fired two rocket-propelled grenades at it, damaging the walls.
Cryptogon Reader Signs Up for Hosting with BlueHost
January 27th, 2011Thanks to the owner of whowouldbenefit.com for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $90.
And Now… Yemen
January 27th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of Sanaa Thursday to demand a change of government, inspired by the unrest that has ousted Tunisia’s leader and spread to Egypt this week.
Reuters witnesses estimated that around 16,000 Yemenis demonstrated in four parts of Sanaa in the largest rally since a wave of protests rocked Yemen last week, and protesters vowed to escalate the unrest unless their demands were met.
