Aardvark Daily

Please visit the sponsor!

Ohhh.. scary!

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if all the evil little sods in the world actually applied their time to doing something worthwhile and positive -- instead of just being a right royal PITA.

Now the guys who call themselves AnonOps might have the best of intentions but their tactics are far from sensible.

In this video, AnonOps issued a warning that they would launch a distributed denial of service attack on The Department of Internal Affairs website -- timed for 5pm EST on March 28th.

As I write this, that's just a couple of hours away.

Ooohhh... scary eh?

But come on Anonymous, is this DDOS attack (if/when it is launched) really going to change the government's mind about internet filtering?

I think the naivety of those who comprise "Anonymous" is showing.

I can't help but get the impression that those behind Anonymous are a bunch of kids who really have no idea about the "realities" of life -- including how politicians think, how to successfully lobby for change, or what happens when testosterone kicks in and your voice drops an octave or so.

The very fact that the video contains a heavily manipulated voice which has been clearly frequency-shifted from their natural pre-pubescent range to something more Darth Vader-like would support my assumptions.

What will a DDOS attack on the DIA website prove?

Well nothing really.

In fact, all it'll do is get people's backs up and create resistance to the very agenda you support.

If you're all about "freedom" and the "rights" of Net-users then what about the freedoms and rights of those who might need to access the DIA's website?

Or is this only about the freedoms of *some* Net users?

Does Anonymous not get the utter hypocrisy of its proposed DDOS attack?

You can't advocate freedom if, in doing so, you act like a fascist.

In fact, by doing this, Anonymous is just as bad as the politicians they rally against.

Instead of things being "do as the politicians say" -- it will be "do as Anonymous says".

Aside from the people doing the dictating, the situation is identical.

And, just in case any new reader gets the impression that I'm in favour of internet filtering, I advise you to read through the Aardvark archives. You'll see that I'm one of the strongest critics of censorship and filtering on the internet.

However, I *am* old and sensible enough to know that two wrongs don't make a right and breaking the law wins you no friends on either side of the argument.

As I said at the start of this column -- imagine if these miscreants actually decided to use their energies in a positive way, rather than just imitating the idiocy of those against who they rally.

Will the DIA's website crumble at 5pm EST?

Is it time that Anonymous woke up to the fact that they're every bit as bad as those against who they are protesting?

Please visit the sponsor!

Have your say on this...

PERMALINK to this column

Oh, and don't forget today's sci/tech news headlines

Rank This Aardvark Page

Change Font