Moving on from mindless DDoS attacks and random hacks that benefited no one, Anonymous is finally getting Syrias. Earlier today, the chaotic neutral hacking collective defaced the Syrian Ministry of Defense website and posted this message on its front page.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with current events in Syria, the Syrian government is trying to stay in power despite the fact that its citizens are demanding democratic change. This has resulted in deadly clashes between demonstrators and government military forces.

To the Syrian people: The world stands with you against the brutal regime of Bashar Al-Assad. Know that time and history are on your side – tyrants use violence because they have nothing else, and the more violent they are, the more fragile they become. We salute your determination to be non-violent in the face of the regime’s brutality, and admire your willingness to pursue justice, not mere revenge. All tyrants will fall, and thanks to your bravery Bashar Al-Assad is next.

 

To the Syrian military: You are responsible for protecting the Syrian people, and anyone who orders you to kill women, children, and the elderly deserves to be tried for treason. No outside enemy could do as much damage to Syria as Bashar Al-Assad has done. Defend your country – rise up against the regime! – Anonymous

This has to be the most useful thing Anonymous has done in a long time. Here’s to hoping they keep it up.

This will probably end up being the same glorious nothing as most Anonymous operations, but I’ll mention it anyway.

Apparently the group wants to “kill” Facebook in order protect everyone’s privacy and freedom of information. How noble of them! How do they intend to do that, though? Probably using a DDoS attack, because that’s how original and non-juvenile they are.

PayPal is evil? DDoS! Mastercard is evil? DDoS! Visa is evil? DDoS! Things achieved: 0.

Anyway, the real reason I’m mentioning this operation is out of consideration to all the people playing Farmville. Make sure to plan accordingly and water all your crops on the night of November 4th, because Facebook might be down on the 5th.

Attention citizens of the world,

 

We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows:
Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.

 

Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria. 

Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “privacy” settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you “delete” your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more “private” is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family.

 

You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.

 

The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being raped, tickled (WTF?), molested, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.

 

Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.

Because she’s “not a geek like her brother,” Randi Zuckerberg has quit her position as Facebook’s marketing director and started her own social networking firm. And she’s already made her first mistake, because in a burst of uncreative creativity she named the new firm RtoZ Media. Randi to Zuckerberg Media, seriously? At least wait until you’re successful if you want to be this self-important.

I have spent my years at Facebook pouring my heart and soul into innovating and pushing the media industry forward by introducing new concepts around live, social, participatory viewing that the media industry has since adopted. We have made incredible progress, but there is still much to be done and other ways I can affect change. Now is the perfect time for me to move outside of Facebook to build a company focused on the exciting trends underway in the media industry. …

 

As I end this chapter of my career, know that I leave with a deep love for Facebook and I value the experiences I have had here immensely. Be assured I will continue to be a strong, vocal evangelist for the most incredible social platform ever created. I am thankful for the strong mentorship, guidance, and support, which is empowering me to follow my dreams and show that you don’t have to be an engineer  to be a hacker.

It’s not clear what her newly founded firm will be doing, but if you’re thinking about joining the service once it’s up and running, remember that she hates privacy/anonymity and wants it to go away. So be careful what you share on there.

via theatlanticwire

British people: “Wait, that was illegal?”

guardian

Robots don’t ask for raises, don’t mind hellish working conditions and never commit suicide. Which is why Foxconn, the world’s largest maker of computer components, is aiming to equip its Chinese factories with one million of them over the next three years – up from their current 10,000.

The robots will replace assembly line workers in doing tasks like soldering, spraying, assembling and packaging, and even though they will spare workers from doing repetitive menial tasks, they’ll also spare them from earning a living.

The good news about that is prices for certain electronics might drop a little, thanks to lower production costs. The bad news is that a lot of people could lose their jobs for it.

via xinhuanet

Deep inside, we’ve all known this for the longest time – but now it’s official. That friend of yours who still uses Microsoft’s Internet Explorer really is kind of stupid.

AptiQuant, a Canadian company which provides hiring exams for businesses, ran an IQ test on more than 100,000 participants while monitoring which browser they used to take it. People who used Internet Explorer scored lower than average, Chrome/Firefox/Safari users were above average while those using Camino and Opera scored the highest.

Of course, the survey isn’t exactly scientific and the results could be interpreted in at least a million ways, but who can resist a free chance to make fun of Microsoft?

update/ apparently it was a hoax