Hacker Phineas Fisher is Trying To Start a 'Hack Back' Political Movement (vice.com) 123
An anonymous reader writes: The hacker who breached Hacking Team and FinFisher is trying to get more people to "hack back" and fight "the system." For some, thanks to his targeted attacks and sophisticated political views, Phineas Fisher is quickly becoming the most influential hacktivist of the last few years. In response to his most recent hack where he released a 39-minute how-to video showing how to strip data from targeted websites, specifically a website of the Catalan police union, Phineas Fisher told Motherboard, "Everything doesn't have to be big. I wanted to strike a small blow at the system, teach a bit of hacking with the video, and inspire people to take action." Biella Coleman, professor at McGill University in Montreal, believes Phineas Fisher has a good chance of inspiring a new generation of hacktivists and "setting the stage for other hackers to follow in his footsteps." She says he has been better at choosing targets and justifying his actions with more rounded and sophisticated political and ethical views than Anonymous and LulzSec-inspired hackers. Phineas Fisher told Motherboard, "I don't want to be the lone hacker fighting the system. I want to inspire others to take similar action, and try to provide the information so they can learn how."
example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:5, Insightful)
how about an example of his "sophisticated political views"?
or is that an euphemism for whatever views writer of this puff piece holds?
any real "sophisticated political view" would be nuanced and will not have a binary view of society and groups in it.
but without binary views and resulting simplistic us versus them mentality, there wont be any "targets" to "attack" using illegal methods.
Re:example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:5, Interesting)
how about an example of his "sophisticated political views"?
His views are so sophisticated that if you have to ask about them, you'll never understand them. Because, sophistication.
Re:example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:5, Funny)
You are an old-timer and would never understand the fine subtle mind of a modern-day Millennial Hipster
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Don't come with your old-timer attitude and try to tell the youngsters who have experienced a suffering you can never begin to understand. These are people who have never experience the eruite brilliance of the original Slashdot in which every comment was a mind expanding work of brilliant literature. Check your privilege and never comment again, you oppressor of the younger classes.
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"Oppressor of the younger classes"
My children call me that every day :)
Re:example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pretty much. Because such "minds" are nearly as sharp as a rubberized butter spreader (so dull you can't even call it a knife).
Basically all these modern script kiddie hacker activist-wannabes understand is "us and them".
So long as they perceive themselves as "the underclass", they're "morally" justified in doing pretty much ANYTHING. And, in their own mind, it's "okay", because they're on the side of "Right".
And if they hurt innocent bystanders? Oh well, to make a omelette... Just so long as THEY are the chef and not the eggs.
In reality, they're primarily power-tripping pseudofascist assholes who would fail a basic ethics course, because they have none.
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Pretty much. Because such "minds" are nearly as sharp as a rubberized butter spreader (so dull you can't even call it a knife).
Basically all these modern script kiddie hacker activist-wannabes understand is "us and them".
So long as they perceive themselves as "the underclass", they're "morally" justified in doing pretty much ANYTHING. And, in their own mind, it's "okay", because they're on the side of "Right".
And if they hurt innocent bystanders? Oh well, to make a omelette... Just so long as THEY are the chef and not the eggs.
In reality, they're primarily power-tripping pseudofascist assholes who would fail a basic ethics course, because they have none.
Not going to argue with you on the script kiddies. However you really need to look at Phineas Fisher and how freaking good he is. This guy is far far different than a script kiddie.
You can debate his politics all you like but his skill set is second to none.
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My problem is with his politics.
I never have a problem with anyone's skills.
Just how they choose to employ them.
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Yep. Because it takes real balls for some AC to label someone a "trump troll".
Simply because I have ethics that aren't founded in envy of those with more money than myself.
Simply because I have ethics that prevent me from performing criminal acts on people I disagree with personally or politically.
Again, I have no problem with this person's skills.
I have a problem with how they choose to employ them.
And I have a history of dealing with so-called "hacktivists" before. Some of them are even still in jail to
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"Basically all these modern script kiddie hacker activist-wannabes understand is "us and them"."
Let me correct that for you:
'Basically all frustrated youths who want to take a shortcut to what they perceive as an unfair world understand is "us and them"'
Anarchists in the late 19th century? Same story
French Revolutionaries? Same story
Bolsheviks? Same story
Maoists in the 60s (both in China and Europe)? Same story
Hippies in the 60s? Same story
French Students going bonkers in 68? Same story (but at least The Se
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Really?
Do you even know who their targets are?
Hell, do you think THEY know?
In most cases, the answer is "no".
They see that they're attacking some huge, faceless organization. What they don't always see is the aftermath and the personal costs.
Take one of these doofuses I helped put away. He was stealing credit card info and making donations to "worthwhile" causes as far as he was concerned.
Never mind that, when the card companies retracted said donations later on, said charities also got hit by chargeback
Re: example of his "sophisticated political views" (Score:3, Funny)
"Stripping data" from a website is not a power to be taken lightly.
Re:example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:5, Insightful)
He's an anarchist. Which these days means an emo kid with internet access.
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When we were anarchists, we were breaking windows at the Nike store. Kids these days are lazy.
Re: example of his "sophisticated political views" (Score:1)
My grandad used to tell me how the anarchists in his day blew things up to try start European wars, if say everyone since then has gotten exponentially lazier.
Re: example of his "sophisticated political views (Score:1)
You haven't heard of the Taliban/ISIS? Get off Slashdot every once in a while.
Re: example of his "sophisticated political view (Score:3, Insightful)
Anarchists reject authority. Talibans and Daesh operate under authority. They ain't no anarchists. Black block may qualify although they're mostly left wing useful idiots whose actions are used to justify even more brutal crackdowns on legitimate protests.
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90% of blackbloc you see are cops
Re: example of his "sophisticated political views" (Score:4, Insightful)
Gravillo Princip, who started the First, and indirectly the Second World War was an Anarchist. 100 Million dead people later, Europe is still ruled by a government
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He doesn't get all the credit for starting the First World War. The Great Powers had maneuvered themselves into a situation where almost anything could touch off a war, and some of them were in political situations where backing down in a confrontation seemed more politically dangerous than starting a war.
Essentially:
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What if in your view the status quot is sacrificing the lives of the innocent? Don't you at some point have to stand up and fight injustice. If violence and risk to the innocent can't any vicious dictator presently in power simple say "Well I am going to have start executing radomly selected school children if you don't stop protesting" and end your fight right there?
I disagree I think there are levels of injustice that can in turn justify actions that are likely to result in the killing and maiming of th
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It may also be counterproductive.
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It is easier and more "direct" to effect change by throwing a bomb at someone. That's why there was an attraction to the "propaganda of the deed" at the turn of the 20th Century. Even though they're going to get themselves killed, they think they are going to start momentous things.
The thing is... they're right. The problem is that if they don't take the considered and deliberate path towards those goals, they will tip off momentous occurrences that they have no control over. And that means there could
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I wonder how many internet SJW's would fight for their brand of "social justice" if they had to lay it on the line and do it in person.
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Actually, several of those are indeed lamers/ex-lamers that used to do those sort of lulzsec like attacks..
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When Anonymous decided to seriously target ISIS was the first time the Jihadis were going to be f*cked over by a bunch of virgins. Their dreams did not come true though.
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He's an anarchist. Which these days means an emo kid with internet access.
I would say that was more true in the 90's than now. Just look at how hackers were depicted back then.
Anarchist these days is really more libertarian. They want little to no government intervention because they see the police state we're in and the globalization that is ruining western society and do not trust it.
Frankly I don't blame them.
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I agree with how out of control the centralization is getting, but I'd ask them just what they think they are going to achieve by these actions? What is their plan? Is it a real plan or just some bullshit manifesto where a certain result is semi-religiously assumed to magically happen if they generate enough chaos?
There's a reason these governments have this power now, and unless there is something better that they can propose *and follow through on*, all they're doing is rolling the dice. It's one thing
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> but without binary views [...]
Like "there are those with binary views, and then there are... uh..."
Pfeh.
Re:example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:4, Informative)
How about you read the guys writing. He is very clear about his reasoning and it really is not hard to follow. I'm proud of this guy regardless of what americans think, americans are afraid of their own shadow. I'm european and I hope more europeans (assuming he's spanish, could be wrong) follow in what he does. I would if I wasn't lazy and a bit shit. My shame is being too much like americans and becoming completely fucking useless, like all americans.
He is against the overreach of our governments and intelligence services. He is against violent squashing of genuine civil/civic problems within his own society. He is against the balance of power shifting too far away from the peoples of the world and giving more [centralized] power to corrupt governments. He is against fascism in general.
He targeted HackingTeam because
1) Some of the founders are italian fascists (ie. believe in fascist ideology and work in that interest)
2) They sold technology to severely dangerous governments and groups that use that technology to keep their boot on peoples faces.
He gives reasons for his more recent stuff (copy & paste):
More about the Mossos: A brief description in english of the events of 4F, when mossos badly beat and tortured several people and sent a couple people to prison for years on false charges: https://theanarchistlibrary.or... [theanarchistlibrary.org]
A documentary on 4F (catalan and spanish with english subtitles), and Patricia Heras, who spent years in prison on false charges and committed suicide. She was on the other side of the city at the time of the events of 4F, but got in a bike accident and went to the hospital. The mossos took the people they tortured on 4F to the same hospital, saw her there, decided she also looked like a squatter, and made up some stuff to charge her with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
An interview (in english, with spanish and catalan subtitles) with a guy who was badly tortured and jailed on false charges after defending a friend from mossos (who weren't in uniform and didn't identify themselves as police) who were harassing her at a nightclub. In a rare victory (he was the son of a diplomat, so had the resources to fight back) the false charges against him were overturned and the police who lied and tortured him were sentenced (well, the 2 of them he was able to identify. The rest got away with it because police don't snitch on each other). https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] A documentary (catalan with spanish and english subtitles) on a woman who had her eye shot out by mossos attacking a peaceful demonstration. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
A long analysis of the political situation in Barcelona and the direction the elites are trying to develop the city. The mossos do the dirty work, harassing and driving out "undesirables" to reshape the city. https://roarmag.org/essays/pre... [roarmag.org] Mossos beating Juan Andrés BenÃtez to death. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
In Spain, freedom of speech doesn't exist, at least when it comes to criticizing the police. The rappers at 9:50 are facing fines and jailtime over their anti-police lyrics: https://www.diagonalperiodico.... [diagonalperiodico.net] (you can't make this shit up) Puppeteers are facing terrorism charges over a play depicting police planting fake evidence to set someone up on terrorism charges: https://roarmag.org/essays/tit... [roarmag.org]
You g
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I'm inclined to doubt this, mainly because this doesn't look like the Spain (Or at leas the Madrid area where I spent 5 years) where they tolerated regular protests to the point where they got annoying. During the Occupy movement, the squatters stayed for months with a mini tent city where people were even managing to run businesses/recruit for religious movements from the tents and the police did nothing until the pope was about to arrive and they wanted to clear space in the main square, and the unions s
Re:example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Vandalism only discredits his cause. A sophisticated political actor should have the sense to avoid such blunders; these are the acts of an immature fool. Gandhi was no vandal. Martin Luther King Jr. was no vandal. They were brave, sophisticated and wise enough to use the system to correct its injustices. They persuaded others to join them instead of attacking those who disagreed.
Re:example of his "sophisticated political views"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Okay, that's lousy behavior on the part of apparently corrupt officials. How exactly is anonymous vandalism any better? If his political views are so sophisticated, why isn't he engaging the political process and using valid means to promote said views? Like organizing nonviolent protests, engaging with the electorate, using the democratic process to bring about systemic change?
Hmm... let me see now... because none of those methods work, perhaps?
Vandalism only discredits his cause.
Only if you think that way. If you're expecting a nice non-violent protest where everyone picks up their own litter and goes home at the time the police say they should, then of course you're going to think anything other than that is 'discrediting'.
I'm not going to say 'hactivism' is the Right Thing, but as we saw with the recent Panama leaks, it sure can make changes in the world. In that sense, I'd place it above non-violent protest, which recent history shows does pretty much nothing.
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Second, the Panama papers were released by an inside whistle blower.
Re: example of his "sophisticated political views" (Score:2)
In the UK, around a million people marched through London in opposition of the (then proposed) UK involvement in the Iraq war (part 2). It was probably the biggest single peaceful march in the UK in decades, and was accompanied by thorough analysis and critique by various media outlets. Indeed, many millions more marched in other countries as well. I think we can say that 'the people' were pretty well convinced.
We still ended up in a war, which to this day many (qualified) people consider to gave been illeg
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Mandela? He was certainly the head of a terrorist organization.
Another fine example of someone who thinks vandalism is a way to solve his problems is Osama bin Laden.
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Based on his description of the situation, why would you think any of those things would work?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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But, in a democratic society, it can work. Moreover, violent protests tend not to go over very well (I'm only counting planned events, riots are spontaneous and have mixed results), they turn people off instead of provok
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My shame is being too much like americans and becoming completely fucking useless, like all americans.
So useless that our economy divided up by population is higher than half of Europe? The Per capita GDP of the US is double Spain's, we are so lazy we do double the work output that your country does! Lazy indeed...
http://data.worldbank.org/indi... [worldbank.org]
Perhaps you should rethink your bigotry about lazy Americans, as it doesn't fit the actual truth of the matter.
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"sophisticated political views" = "views I agree with and I think I am sophisticated".
Is it just me or has the amount of propaganda-language like this recently increased a lot in /. stories?
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When did Buckley deny a holocaust? Chomsky is not in the same league as Buckley. Chomsky is a propagandist who uses his credibility as a linguist to speak of things he knows nothing about. More like Shockley.
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Likewise, I don't usually agree with Chomsky. I do however respect the man, even though I tend more towards Buckley. I refer to them together as they were both linguists who turned to political philosophy and came to occupy very similar positions on op
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Noam Chomsky has the brain capacity of a tadpole as far as politics is concerned
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So, I can forgive some silly political notions.
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"how about an example of his "sophisticated political views"?"
It's easy to whomp up a political justification for one's actions. Now all the black hat hackers will reclassify themselves as red hats and blue hats.
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His views basically come down to limited the free speech of people he disagrees with.
We as a culture will need to adapt to the mass messages spewed all around us. Much of it we will not like or agree with. However censoring opposing ideas even ones you think are just evil will only move the speech into a black market of ideas. Where people with such opposing ideas will discuss amongst themselves, becoming more radicalized due to their inability to discuss it with the rest of the world. As well it mak
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Re: We need to start with tRump's... (Score:1)
And Nazi links. Several German newspapers have published stories on them, but the media in the US supports him so they refuse to cover them.
Re: We need to start with tRump's... (Score:1)
There was no evidence Hitler hated women so he is literally worse than Hitler.
Re: We need to start with tRump's... (Score:4, Funny)
There was no evidence Hitler hated women so he is literally worse than Hitler.
Also, Hitler liked dogs, and was a vegetarian. Trump does not own a dog, and eats animal flesh. He is worse in every way.
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Yeah, Hitler's attitude to women was great, apart from keeping his niece prisoner and driving her to suicide, that is. Oh and nearly driving Eva Braun to suicide... before her actual suicide.
And yes, he killed that dog too.
Re: We need to start with tRump's... (Score:4, Funny)
Match the following two lists:
a) Lazy, bigoted, racist, got up at 10 or later, drank heavily and smoked cigars like the end of the world was about to come
b) Ascetic vegetarian, no women, did not drink, did not smoke, lived pretty much like a saint
c) Womanizer, had several charges of sexual harassment, got government troopers to get him blowjobs, screwed his aides in the office
a) Adolf Hitler*
b) Winston Churchill
c) Bill Clinton**
See the connection?
*Ok, admittedly, in the 2000s it became clear that Hitler was bit addicted to painkillers...
** To his defense, Monica Lewinsky saw an ad that said "Come to the White House, get a taste of the presidency". She came in the White House and tasted the President. So she needed reading glasses, not her fault!
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Aren't you forgetting Eva Braun? The celibacy thing was more of a political strategy than reality. It seems to me the claims of his sex life go from one extreme to the other, more a consequence in how one desires to see him and what form of sexuality one is most repulsed by.
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He was addicted to something, that I know. If it was painkillers I don't
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A lot of his "increasingly unwise decisions" later in the war were due to his conflicts with top Army officers. They kept acting like it would be possible to negotiate a peace, and were doing their best to lose the war slowly to make Germany's diplomatic position better. Hitler realized that, given what Germany had done under him, an honorable negotiated peace was not going to happen, and that losing slowly was just losing. Therefore, Hitler and his generals were distrustful and didn't understand each o
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There was also an inherent distrust of experts and expertise, along with the belief that ideological purity was more valuable than experien
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In general, you're right, but there are other factors. Paranoid dictators are more likely to go along with the experts to achieve their goals, and late in the war this wasn't going to happen with Germany without extreme risks.
Hitler knew there wasn't going to be a negotiated peace, unlike his subordinates, and he was correct in that. Therefore, there was no real difference between losing in 1943 and losing in 1946, and he consistently went for the big risks because they were the only ones that could pa
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Apart from engineering.
I would say
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web site and expose his KKK links.
He has links to Hillary?!?!?
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Hillary has DD's I would suspect, certainly not KK's
Great, digital grafitti. (Score:1)
The "piss in peoples mailboxes" political movement (Score:1)
"sophisticated political views" seems to be synonymous with being a vandal.
Yeah it's bad (Score:1)
Is it bad that I want to see the police beat this guys ass?
Good job, asshole (Score:2)
How nice (Score:2)
More inmates for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I hope they like fried Spam sandwiches and Kool-Aid. And did I mention sex? Yeah! Lots of sex.
Vandalism is not political activism. (Score:2)
It is no more valid an approach to the democratic process than is terrorism.
It's not hard to be more sophisticated than Anon (Score:2)
Anon was a bunch of hardened 4chan trolls herding an army of impressionable kids into their own living botnet. At least this guy doesn't make others do the hard work and bear the risk of prison instead of him. That being said, his "sophisticated" political ideas, such as:
aren't exactly new. Just like the punks of old, "hacktivists" use the same ill defined phrases to try and create an ideology around vanda
Yeah, man! (Score:4, Insightful)
The 60s called. It wants its pot smoking hippies back.
Sorry, Phineas, but someone with "sophisticated" political views doesn't talk about "The System." They talk about specific policies, they talk about history, they talk about context and cause and effect. I respect your abilities to compromise computer systems, but if all you have is "fight the system" then you are not ready, at all, to talk about politics.
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well.... if you actually click the link......under to the video, you would see that there is a ghostbin link with a text file full of links to articles and documentary siting specific things he sees as injustices, like a bibliography.
He sees bibliography as injustice? Yeah - I've been saying that for years! Fight the bibliographs! Down with Chicago style! End MLA's repressive regime! The Aims of Argument will be targeted, themselves! Freedom for Footnotes!
Instead of political damage provide an alternative (Score:2)
more Panama papers (Score:2)