Hack Blogspot

Image via Wikipedia Apparently deciding this whole WikiLeaks hubbub will blow over, by declining to pick readers’ choice Julian Assange, Time Magazine picked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as its Person of the Year . (Zuckerberg and his team also helpfully gave Time tons of access, resulting in photos and videos and sidebars galore.) Assange placed No. 3, after the Tea Party. Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel writes : In a sense, Zuckerberg and Assange are two sides of the same coin. Both express a desire for openness and transparency. While Assange attacks big institutions and governments through involuntary transparency with the goal of disempowering them, Zuckerberg enables individuals to voluntarily share information with the idea of empowering them. Assange sees the world as filled with real and imagined enemies; Zuckerberg sees the world as filled with potential friends. Both have a certain disdain for privacy: in Assange’s case because he feels it allows malevolence to flo...

hack verb \ˈhak\ a : to write computer programs for enjoyment b : to gain access to a computer illegally   ac·tiv·ism noun \ˈak-ti-ˌvi-zəm\ a : a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue

Image by Wesley Fryer via Flickr Menurut TIME, pendiri Facebook ini dinilai sebagai sosok paling menonjol di tahun 2010. Pendiri jejaring sosial Facebook baru saja dipredikatkan sebagai Person of the Year versi majalah TIME tahun ini. Ketika pertama kali mendengar kabar ini, rasanya sulit untuk menemukan sosok lain yang benar-benar layak menerima predikat yang didamba-dambakan banyak orang itu. Hanya satu, Mark Zuckerberg . Sebagai miliarder termuda yang besar karena sebuah produk buatannya sendiri, Zuckerberg seakan menjadi contoh mimpi Amerika dan menjadi contoh nyata ungkapan "datang di tempat yang tepat pada waktu yang tepat." Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, yang lahir sekitar 26 tahun yang lalu pada 14 Mei 1984, kini masuk ke dalam daftar 35 besar orang terkaya Amerika. Memang, peringkat ke-35 bukan termasuk peringkat bagus. Tapi sekadar diketahui, orang-orang yang bertengger di 34 peringkat di atas Mark berusia dua hingga tiga kali lipat usianya. Untuk mengetahui se...

Image via Wikipedia Teknik meretas yang dilakukan Wikileaks   dan terutama pendirinya Julian Assange, bukan sesuatu yang sulit. Julian bukan sosok cerdas yang mampu membobol dokumen-dokumen rahasia milik Amerika Serikat. Semua peretas dan mereka yang paham akan teknologi informasi, bisa melakukannya!   “Dokumen-dokumen rahasia itu, terutama milik Amerika Serikat, diletakkan pada sistem yang terbuka yakni format CSV. Format CSV inilah biang keladinya sehingga orang-orang seperti Julian Assange, bisa memanfaatkannya,” demikian dipaparkan analis angkatan bersenjata Amerika Serikat, Bradley Manning, seperti dikutip dari   International Business Times , Kamis (9/12).   Apa itu format CSV?  CSV kepanjangan dari Comma Separated Values.Ini adalah sistem penyimpanan sederhana pada pusat data kabel komputer yang menyimpan semua karakter (yang ada pada   keyboard) .      Karena kemampuan menyimpan karakter tersebut, maka, semua teks yang ada, bisa diret...

Image via Wikipedia Christine Assange, who lives in Queensland, dismissed the rape charges against her 39-year-old son, for which he remains remanded in custody in Britain and facing extradition to Sweden, saying: "Julian would not rape". But she told Australia's Seven Network that she was concerned about what will happen to her son, founder of the WikiLeaks website which has begun releasing more than 250, 000 sensitive US diplomatic cables. Julian Assange denies the sexual assault charges. "Julian, rape, straight out of my guts -- no way. Julian would not rape," Christine Assange said. She added: "It's a worry, of course. I am no different from any other mother. Every time the news goes on I am glued to it... "These massive forces have decided they are going to stop him and they are not going to play by the rules."

Image via Wikipedia Ambassador Kishan S. Rana writes: The release of 250,000 diplomatic 'cables' (a lovely, quaint term) by the US diplomatic system has produced some shock-waves and a vast outpouring of comment. Of course, some faces, belonging to those that acted with indiscretion are red; some political figures are hurt that behind their backs, they are seen in unflattering terms - but is that really so unusual; a few that indiscreetly shared with US diplomats information they should not have given out are truly embarrassed - and one senior official heading the German Foreign Minister's office has reportedly resigned; and the media have had a field day with lots of  schadenfreude . US officials have spoken of grave danger to the system of inter-state exchanges; one reads that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has telephoned a dozen or more high foreign personalities to apologise for the disclosures. But is diplomacy, as a process of confidential communication between a...

Image via Wikipedia Payback, the hacker operation that shut down Mastercard’s website for cutting off Wikileaks has its own Facebook and Twitter accounts shut down. Payback used Twitter and Facebook to claim responsibility for the shut down. The group said on both Facebook and Twitter that it was using a distributed denial of service attack, also known as a DDOS attack, to bring down Mastercard’s website. DDOS attacks overload a website’s servers by sending an inordinate amount of requests for information that results in a site being unable to operate. Twitter officials could not be reached for comment, but Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes e-mailed this statement: “We take our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities seriously and react quickly to reports of inappropriate or illegal content and behavior. In this case, we removed a page because it was promoting a DDOS attack.

Image via Wikipedia There’s a lot of thoughtful discussion going on about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in light of the publication of the 250,000 cables between the US and other foreign governments .  Some of the best I’ve read comes from Clay Shirky ( “WikiLeaks and the Long Haul” ), Jeff Jarvis ( “WikiLeaks: Power Shifts From Secrecy to Transparency” ) Evan Hansen ( “Why WikiLeaks is Good for America” ) and Ethan Zuckerman ( “Why Amazon Caved, and What it Means for the Rest of us” ) If you’re interested in reading more commentary, Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic is doing a great job cataloging essays and editorials here . As with so many things, the moral question of whether or not WikiLeaks should exist or should publish this sort of information is nearly irrelevant.  The REALITY is that it DOES exist and CAN publish these documents and videos. Every communication sent by anyone, be it a lowly government official or a head of state, carries with it the inherent ri...

Image via Wikipedia The already curious case of Julian Assange took another bizarre twist yesterday when the court learned that a raggle-taggle of "household names" were prepared to stake their reputation in his case, offering sureties to the court with a total value of £180,000. Despite claiming not to know Assange, the film-maker Ken Loach and the socialite and charity fundraiser Jemima Khan stood before Westminster magistrates and offered big sums towards Assange's bail, though bail was later refused. Offering £20,000, Loach said he did not know Assange other than by reputation, but added: "I think the work he has done has been a public service. I think we are entitled to know the dealings of those that govern us."

Image by New Media Days via Flickr For Julian Assange , the WikiLeaks founder and guiding spirit, it must have been sweet. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was trying to smooth over the embarrassment, while the White House huffed that a criminal investigation was underway. The French government was decrying "the height of irresponsibility," and Pakistan was reckoning with a rebuke from its traditional patron, Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the pasty-faced Assange, a self-appointed knight-errant who has been doing battle with official secrecy since 2006, was in the shadows somewhere - few knew where - undoubtedly savoring the ruckus caused by WikiLeaks' exposure of confidential State Department cables. In an uncomfortable irony, however, he had to do the savoring in a secret location, because Interpol, the international anti-crime organization, has issued a high-priority "red notice" asking member countries to arrest him. President Obama's spok...

Image via Wikipedia Can WikiLeaks be gagged? A massive DDoS attack crashed the controversial site and its "cablegate" archive, forcing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to find new hosting. He did, thanks to Amazon. Now, after an intervention from an unlikely source--Joe Lieberman--Amazon has turned Assange away again. For a brief period, WikiLeaks was back up and running on through the Seattle-based company's servers. Amazon's A3 service offers self-serve cloud hosting, an ideal though temporary solution for the site's trove of confidential diplomatic documents. But Assange and Co. were kicked off Amazon's servers Wednesday, and again forced to find different hosting. Senator Joe Lieberman told AP that Amazon took down the site after inquiries from congressional staffers Tuesday. The company has stopped responding to requests for WikiLeaks, which reportedly has returned to a Swedish provider. According to reps for Sen. Lieberman, the issue is being handl...