-----Original Message-----
From: Ricardo Dominguez [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06 September 2004 21:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Hacktivism: A Week of Electronic Disruption

-------------- Original Message ----------------------------

 Subject: Hacktivism: A Week of Electronic Disruption during the Republican

   National Convention From:    "Aaa Sadff" <[log in to unmask]>

 Date:    Sun, September 5, 2004 2:52 am

 To:      [log in to unmask]

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------




 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:


 Hacktivism: A Week of Electronic Disruption during the Republican National

 Convention


 Hacktivists have launched a campaign of electronic civil disobedience to

 coincide with the demonstrations against the  Republican National

 Convention. Joining millions of protesters who took to the streets of New

 York to say no to the Bush  agenda, hacktivists have taken to the net to

 explore a new medium of protest: the internet. Various tactics include

 staging  financial disruption against major credit card corporations,

 disrupting various right-wing fascist groups, and an electronic sit- in

 against Republican websites.


 Credit card numbers stolen from major news corporations have been used by

 anti-RNC hacktivists to make $2600 in  donations to various humantarian

 and civil rights organizations. In a statement posted to the NYC

 Independent Media Center,  the hacktivists declared "either the credit

 card corporations are going to have to spend tens of thousands of dollars

 in lawyer  and investigation fees to track down and retrieve a mere few

 hundred dollars per account, or these humanitarian  organizations are

 going to get their donations. We'll have to see whether Corporate America

 is heartless enough to take  money away from hungry children, AIDS victims

 and the homeless and give it straight to law enforcement, attorneys and

 the  banks". The hacktivists have claimed that they have hundreds of

 additional credit card numbers spread out over an  underground network of

 hackers and will continue to make $2600 in donations a month until all

 military troops are pulled out  of Iraq.


 A right-wing fascist organization known as ProtestWarrior was also hacked

 and defaced a week before the convention began.  In a statement condemning

 the group's defense of the occupation of Iraq and support for the Bush

 agenda, the hacktivists  spoke, "by infiltrating and crashing legal,

 peaceful assemblies, the ProtestWarriors are fighting against the

 democratic process  while claiming to uphold the 'core values of this

 country'". The cell/home phone numbers, names, addresses, and passwords

 of the site's lead organizers along with the email addresses of all

 ProtestWarrior members were posted to the site and emailed  out to every

 member. Major components of their website remained down for the remainder

 of the day.


 The hacktivists have also staged a mainstream electronic sit-in on various

 Republican websites during the convention. In a  document sent to

 thousands of hackers, activists, press people and email lists, the group

 provided the means to disrupt  Republican webservers, email accounts,

 phone and fax systems. These actions were joined by the Electronic

 Disturbance  Theatre, who have launched similar successful actions against

 the World Economic Forum, the Mexican Surpeme Court, and  more. The flood

 scripts allowed users to combine their bandwidth to overload RNC servers

 with so much traffic that it would  be unable to serve any more requests.

 Although the RNC websites remained online for the majority of the

 convention, many  users along with web monitoring company AlertSite have

 reported periods of slowdown and complete disruption on  September 2nd as

 George W. Bush was nominated as the presidential candidate for the

 Republican Party.


 Hacktivists are defending the attacks on right-wing and corporate systems

 as a legitimate protest tactic. "When the machinery  of law is working

 towards acts of injustice, then the people have not only the right but the

 duty to break the law to combat  tyranny and oppression". Following in the

 footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Jefferson and other famous

 revolutionaries, these hacktivists are exploring the internet as a new

 medium of civil disobedience. "Electronic civil  disobedience does not

 cause any physical damage to people or property: it is merely the shifting

 of data around in such a  manner as to mock or disrupt the injustices of

 the corporate machine".


 Through the redistribution of wealth to charities, disruption of

 right-wing fascist groups, and flooding Republican websites  and

 communication systems, this sort of non-violent electronic civil

 disobedience is setting new standards for online  protests.


 ** distribute widely **




 The campaign website and all email addresses have been knocked offline,

 but it will not erase the memories of what has  happened.


 For press inquiries, email all of the following addresses(:

 [log in to unmask]

 [log in to unmask]

 [log in to unmask]

 [log in to unmask]

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