Operation Payback was
an attack by Anonymous which covered a wide range of different industries.
Attacks on the film/music industries to credit card and banking companies to
even foreign governments. Operation Avenge Assange was one of the numerous
operations within Operation Payback. The attacks were carried out in support of
WikiLeaks when major financial corporations (PayPal, Amazon, MasterCard, Visa,
etc.) cut their services to the site. Donations to the site were either stopped
or frozen. As WikiLeaks was a site which leaked classified information to the
public, it was long a target of the government. Under political pressure, the
financial corporations removed their services, cutting off a source of income
for the site. Anonymous, which believes in a more transparent government, went
into action. Operation Avenge Assange was carried out in retaliation against
those financial corporations. The targeted sites were hit by sustained DDoS
(Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, either taking them down completely or
slowing their services.
[Problem]
Anonymous launch DDoS attacks against government and
financial sector targets in retaliation to the decision to cut financial
services to WikiLeaks.
[Claim]
I will not judge the actions of Anonymous as right or
wrong.
[Reason]
It is understandable why Anonymous did what they did.
The government isn’t very transparent with its citizens. WikiLeaks gives us a
glimpse of government activities by stealing and publishing classified
information for the public. I respect people’s beliefs for a more transparent
government and would like that to become a reality myself, but I don’t think
WikiLeaks is the way to do it. The documents exposed by WikiLeaks can
potentially have information on government/military personal, making them
potential targets of our enemies. Yes, they try their best to censor personal
information, but that isn’t all these documents contain. These documents can
also give potential enemy states or terrorist organizations a glimpse into our
government, military, infrastructure, economy, etc. Information in these
various sectors of our country can potentially undermine our nation’s security.
[Principle]
Instead of spending so much time and resources on
WikiLeaks, why not promote/encourage the government to be more open with us.
Instead of relying on people stealing classified documents and revealing them,
wouldn’t it be better if the government came clean with us themselves. The
government isn’t perfect and they will make mistakes. They know how we view
them is important and wouldn’t be hiding all their activities otherwise. If the
government can openly acknowledge their mistakes and take responsibility
(probably nvr gonna happen lolz), we wouldn’t need WikiLeaks snooping around
releasing potentially harmful information along with the story they seek to
publicize. This applies to us citizens as well. We need to acknowledge the fact
that not all classified information are shady things the government has done.
The government classifies a lot of information that directly affects our
national security. If the government starts being more transparent with us
about their misdoings, we should in turn trust them more with what they want to
share and what needs to be classified (probably nvr gonna happen either : P).
Trust between the government and its people.
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