Anonymous to protest global surveillance systems Oct 30

Hacktivist collective Anonymous is gearing up for a "protest" on October 20 against global surveillance systems worldwide, security vendor Bitdefender disclosed Tuesday.

 

Bitdefender cited an "annonews" post saying such systems were made before a real terrorist threat was acknowledged, and that their purpose was to infringe on freedom.

 

“We call you to act now against overall Surveillance-Systems. Worldwide governments are about to demolish Privacy with Systems like TrapWire and Indect. Those network surveillance technologies sniff the CCTV cameras, government databases and the Internet to identify people and make a profile of citizens, their families and their socializing,” it quoted the call to protest as saying.

 

It added such systems "pretend to design those systems to secure us against Terrorism but the truth is they have been working on Surveillance-Systems way before the first Terrorists attacks happened.”

 

Bitdefender said it was not immediately clear what the hacktivists are planning.

 

However, it cited a news release issued by Anon on the TrapWire affair on August 20, where one of the planned actions was the so-called “Smash a Cam Saturday.”

 

That activity would involve have “target any camera with IP/internet connectivity.”

 

Anon provided then an extensive “knowledge base” indicating the location of the main CCTVs to be sought, as well as an “excellent manual of different tactics and strategies for disabling or destroying these «eyes of the beast,” Bitdefender said.

 

Also, Bitdefender cited three video messages posted on we-are-legion.com on Sept. 9, which carry the Op Big Brother message in English, French and German.

 

“We call all Activists  over the world, from south and north America, from Asia, from Africa,  from Australia and Oceania, from the Arab spring and from the European Union, to be a part of the Protest, against Surveillance Systems,” it quoted a Pastebin transcript of the video message as saying.

 

But Bitdefender also said Anon supporters were also prompted to offer some form of identification.

 

“Act now and spread the word in your mother tongue, enter your Countries and Cities, in the pad linked on the description of this video,” read the Pastebin message.

 

“It’s time to act, it’s time to show the governments of the World, who we are, it’s time to show humanity stands as united, it is time to show what freedom means to us,” it added. — TJD, GMA News