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General Discussion => The Speakeasy: OOG/Off-topic Discussion => Topic started by: Julianus Soter on 28 Oct 2011, 21:45
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Mexico's Cartels Draw Online Activists' Ire
October 28, 2011 | 1911 GMT
Mexico's Cartels Draw Online Activists' Ire
Summary
The online activist collective Anonymous released a video Oct. 6 in which a masked spokesman denounces Mexico’s criminal cartels, demands that a member of Anonymous kidnapped by Los Zetas be released, and threatens to release information about individuals cooperating with Mexico’s cartels. If Anonymous carries out its threat, it will almost certainly lead to the deaths of individuals named as cartel associates, whether or not the information released is accurate. Furthermore, as Mexican cartels have targeted online journalists and bloggers in the past, hackers could well be targeted for reprisal attacks.
Analysis
Anonymous, an online collective of activists including hackers, lashed out at Mexican cartels in a video released online Oct. 6. In the video, a masked individual claiming to speak on behalf of Anonymous denounces Mexico’s cartels and demands that Los Zetas release a member of Anonymous kidnapped during a street-level protest named Operation Paperstorm in Veracruz state. The spokesman also threatens to release revealing information about journalists, police, politicians and taxi drivers colluding with the cartels.
Simply disseminating information on cartel members will not significantly impede overall cartel operations, but if Anonymous carries out its threat, it will affect cartel associates and others the cartels could target for retaliatory attacks.
Anonymous is not an organized, monolithic group; rather, it is a collection of activists whose organizers work under the name Anonymous. Hackers have conducted several online activities using the name Anonymous, as they have had to develop code for conducting cyberattacks. The collective of hackers takes on several different causes and carries out attacks involving participation by experienced hackers and unskilled members alike. Not everyone involved in Anonymous participates in every action, and some actions are more popular than others.
The Anonymous spokesman in the video does not specify how many individuals support the threat against the cartels or how the group acquired the information it threatens to release. It would not take a group of hackers to obtain the kind of information the spokesman claims Anonymous could release; much of this kind of information could be acquired via rumors circulating through Mexico. In fact, the Anonymous spokesman does not mention anything about using hacking activities to acquire confidential information about the cartels.
However, there are many examples of hackers acting under the name Anonymous acquiring personal and sensitive information about their targets. Recently, hackers shut down child pornography website Lolita City and reportedly posted more than 1,500 usernames and activities of the website’s users. On Oct. 21, Anonymous hackers stole sensitive information — including Social Security numbers — from a series of police-affiliated targets including the International Association of Chiefs of Police website and the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association email portal and revealed more than 1,000 usernames and passwords of Boston police officers. Although cartels’ activities are focused on the streets of the cities they control, even cartels use the Internet for communication and some business transactions. Any cartel activities occurring online could be potential vulnerabilities if individuals involved in the new Anonymous threat can identify them; though the threat from Anonymous does not necessarily mean that hackers are now targeting cartels, given the history of activities carried out in Anonymous’ name, it is certainly possible.
If Anonymous carries out its threat, members would use online media outlets to publish revealing information about the cartels and their associates. Anonymous members frequently focus on these media, which allow them to post revealing information while concealing their own identities. Any information released to the public would not pose a direct threat in itself; it would be up to others to determine the information’s validity and whether to take action. For example, if Anonymous claims that a politician is colluding with criminal cartels, the politician could be threatened by whatever actions the Mexican government decides to take or by members of rival cartels.
Loss of life will be a certain consequence if Anonymous releases the identities of individuals cooperating with cartels. Whether voluntarily or not, cooperating with criminal cartels in Mexico comes with the danger of retribution from rival cartels. Taxi drivers — typically victims of extortion or otherwise forced to act as lookouts or scouts — are particularly vulnerable. In areas such as Acapulco, in Guerrero state, reports of murdered taxi drivers occur weekly. The validity of the information Anonymous has threatened to reveal is uncertain, as it might not have been vetted. This could pose an indiscriminate danger to individuals mentioned in whatever Anonymous decides to release.
The online media frequently used to organize Anonymous-labeled activities are far removed from the violent world of Mexican criminal cartels. This distance — along with the likely physical distance of many Anonymous members from Mexico — could limit the activists’ understanding of cartel activities. Anonymous activists may act with confidence stemming from perceived anonymity when sitting in front of a computer, but this could blind them to any possible retribution. Cartels have targeted bloggers and online journalists in previous attacks, and even hackers in Mexico are not beyond the cartels’ reach. Cartels reportedly have turned to the information technology community in the past, coercing computer science majors in Mexico into working for them. Any Anonymous activists inside Mexico who are targeting or perceived as targeting the Mexican cartels will be just as vulnerable as online journalists and bloggers as the cartels seek to make them examples of what happens when someone exposes or publicizes damaging information about cartel activity.
Anonymous activists can threaten to reveal information about cartels or launch cyberattacks. But even if the cartels cannot track down the individuals directing cyberattacks or releasing information, the cartels will continue to commit acts of violence meant to warn the online community about such activities.
Read more: Mexico's Cartels Draw Online Activists' Ire | STRATFOR
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Anything involving groups like the cartels is a very dangerous game and going toe to toe with them, anonymously or not, means you need to make sure you are capable of going a few steps further than them. Legally, you'll never be able to do that, which means you will lose. That's why any direct hits on the cartels, while slowing things down, are ultimately fruitless.
Want to kill the Cartels? Kill their support structures. Rehabilitate crack addicts across the world. Offer the poor farmers of south america more money for farming crops of (insert whatever is the latest green craze) instead of coca. It's not even all that expensive. A poor farmer who provides the cartels with cokepaste might earn less than 50 USD per delivery. Offer a hundred bucks per delivery of whatever and you're golden.
It's the profit to risk ratio that needs to be adjusted. Direct attacks on the Cartels are a stopgap measure at best when the insane profits are there to make horrific amounts of violence and terror tactics more than acceptable from their point of view.
Oh, and stop criminalizing cocaine addicts while you're at it. Research clearly shows that just throwing them in jail does nothing as huge numbers of them are back on the pipe or rolled up bill within weeks of release, while treatment which costs society less money than jailtime shows far greater numbers of successful weaning of that particular tit.
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Can't wait to see Anonymous go too far with this one.
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Oh, hubris...
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I don't like these morons either, but damn it I'd not want death by drug cartel operatives on anyone.
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the cartels recently eviscerated then beheaded a woman they suspected of being someone that posted negative comments about them online.
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Drug Cartels have a PR unit now? :eek:
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There is some good things and also some bad things in the Anonymous movement. It find it pretty unfair to say that they are all morons, considering the decentralized/shattered structure of such an entity.
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its all fun and games until cartel hitmen come through the door...
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There is some good things and also some bad things in the Anonymous movement. It find it pretty unfair to say that they are all morons, considering the decentralized/shattered structure of such an entity.
They are. There is no control over who joins/leaves, who does what, who fucks with whom. When the cartels send someone to butcher you and your family because your a member of Anonymous and 2 other guys who were/claimed to be members fucked with their mafioso boss and he ordered anon members dead, you will come to realise how utterly moronic and fucking stupid you were. Much like Gotti said, it's all fun and games... until shit hits the fan as a consequence of what your doing.
These are not some random abides-by-the-law organization they don't like that they are pissing off here, these are animals who will fuck over anyone and ruin anything to ensure their poison-peddling goes on and gets them more money. If anon messes with that, anon suffers. Humans can be very ingenious when it comes to finding ways to make others accountable, even the seemingly inn-accountable people behind anon.
This is likely to go very badly for someone, soon. If they had any interest in helping out they had snuck that list to the cartel's enemies in the authorities, silently and with no fuss, anything, other than openly challenging them.
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Suddenly, this article becomes a lot more relevant. : http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/08/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20111009
Now, multiply by a few thousand.
How many guns do the anonymous people have, again?
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And here we enter the exciting game of escalation.
So let's say one of these cartels takes their horrible bloody revenge against an Anon member. Beheading, Colombian necktie, w/e.
What will the result be? How will Anon react? What will happen to Anon?
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1. Anonymous hijacks Predator drone fleet to fight cartels.
2. Cartels breed coca-ents to fight Predator drones.
3. ???
4. Zombie apocalypse.
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1. Anonymous hijacks Predator drone fleet to fight cartels.
2. Cartels breed coca-ents to fight Predator drones.
3. ???
4. Zombie apocalypse.
I bet James Cameron would direct that.
Or maybe M. Knight Shamamanamala.
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The question next becomes how distant any identifyable Anon members are. Even cross-border into the US would be tricky, although other latin-American countries could be easier. Europe, farther north into the US, Aisa? Unlikely.
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I don't think the point of the StratFor analysis was that the Cartels would strike at the source of the information leaks.
They'd just butcher whoever they could get their hands on to make their point.
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The cartels are sitting on a fairly thin line right now. US politicians are already hinting at sending in US troops as the violence rages on the US border and in many cases is spilling over. Mexicans are hinting that they think US troops would be a good thing as the Mexican troops are bought and as corrupt as the police and politicians. Maybe nothing comes of it. But a few wrong moves and the whisperings of Rick Perry could be come the campaign platform of Mitt Romney.
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I don't think the point of the StratFor analysis was that the Cartels would strike at the source of the information leaks.
They'd just butcher whoever they could get their hands on to make their point.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1785413/narcogangs-social-media-and-21st-century-crime
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/blogger-decapitated-as-mexican-cartels-turn-on-social-networks-20110926-1ksam.html
"Earlier this month, a man and a woman were found hanging dead from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo with a similar message threatening "this is what will happen" to internet users. However, it has not been clearly established whether the two had in fact ever posted any messages, or on what sites."
relevant to this sort of thing.
everyone with a computer becomes a bigger target for the cartels.
Responses of "u mad bro?" and other derpery about "not getting the right person" to cartels hanging people from lampposts aren't "lulz".
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It's only a matter of time before they hear of Anonymous' origins with 4chan, and its founder (and their personality cult around) 'moot'.
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You mean this moot? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Poole)
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Yup.
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There is some good things and also some bad things in the Anonymous movement. It find it pretty unfair to say that they are all morons, considering the decentralized/shattered structure of such an entity.
They are.
Okay, if you say so... I stopped reading after this.
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There is some good things and also some bad things in the Anonymous movement. It find it pretty unfair to say that they are all morons, considering the decentralized/shattered structure of such an entity.
They are.
Okay, if you say so... I stopped reading after this.
Elaborate. I've told you the specifics of my viewpoint - even if it was crude due to total lack of respect - and would like to know the specifics of yours.
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Why hasnt the US invaded Mexico yet? whats honestly keeping them from just rolling in? They could secure that entire country in less then 48 hours and end 95% of the corruption pouring from mexico into the states. The cost of the invasion would prolly be less then what they spend each year trying to combat the cartels drug/weapon smuggling and illegal aliens coming into the country.
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April 1 is on the other side of the year, Invelious.
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I expect this will be almost as successful as Anon's war on scientology. :roll:
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There is some good things and also some bad things in the Anonymous movement. It find it pretty unfair to say that they are all morons, considering the decentralized/shattered structure of such an entity.
They are.
Okay, if you say so... I stopped reading after this.
Elaborate. I've told you the specifics of my viewpoint - even if it was crude due to total lack of respect - and would like to know the specifics of yours.
You should have thought about it before "forgetting" to put a little "I think" before your statement.
And yes, as explained countless times in the charter of this forum, it matters a lot and it is very telling.
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I expect this will be almost as successful as Anon's war on scientology. :roll:
Before Anon, Scientology was known as a harmless pastime for bored upper middle class people and celebrities. After Anon, it was known as a creepy death cult with a seaborne slave organization and inhuman practices.
I'd say Anon won that war.
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Why hasnt the US invaded Mexico yet? whats honestly keeping them from just rolling in? They could secure that entire country in less then 48 hours and end 95% of the corruption pouring from mexico into the states. The cost of the invasion would prolly be less then what they spend each year trying to combat the cartels drug/weapon smuggling and illegal aliens coming into the country.
I think you're heavily overestimating how much my nation can do. I'll be glad when the day comes that we stop trying to help other nations entirely.
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Zetas Cartel frees kidnap victim following the threats from Anon. (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114092-Zetas-Cartel-Frees-Kidnap-Victim-Following-Anonymous-Threats)
As the article points out, chances are that the Anon threats may very well have had almost nothing to do with said release, but the dangerous game is actually heating up rather than cooling down. The cartel in question warned that for every name released among the cartel, ten people would die.
Personally... hit it. The Cartels aren't going to just cease to exist at some arbitrary point in the future. They'll go on until someone stops them. The exact means to do this is of course up in the air, but it's apparently not happening at this point. If Anon provokes them into severe enough violence in the US and Europe, the major players in the world will soon have no other choice than to allocate serious resources into taking the cartels down.
The violence and deaths will still be there. This way, though, it might just be a short-term amount of violence followed by significant enough response from the rest of us instead of a prolonged and unending parade of violence and death stemming from the cartels.
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Looks like it's a matter of time before someone down south dies because someone up north couldn't stay in their own yard.
Pretty sad, really.
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Both Anon and the cartels being highly varying organizations, and this it being impossible to speak for the entirety of either group...
I think the general feeling seems to be that neither side lost, but neither side is going to push it either.
Anon apparently got their member back, but a great deal of those involved (identifiers like "most", "the majority of", etc. being difficult to apply to Anon) also seem to realise that they couldn't have opened this up into an actual "war" without significant bloodshed.
At the same time, the Cartels didn't get any contacts blown and made vulnerable, but they also acted in such away that suggests they at least recognize Anon's potential for troublemaking, even if they don't think of Anon as a threat on the same level as rival cartels or the Mexican government.
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Looks like it's a matter of time before someone down south who would have died anyway dies because someone up north couldn't stay in their own yard.
Pretty sad, really.
Fixed your post.
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Looks like it's a matter of time before someone down south who would have died anyway dies because someone up north couldn't stay in their own yard.
Pretty sad, really.
Needlessly altered your post.
There we go.
Anon is just making a bad situation worse, people live bad enough lives under Los Zetas.
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True enough, better to leave them alone and let them have free reign.
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The only time a Cartel was taken down successfully was the Medellin cartel in the early 1990's.
Also, except for Cancun and Los Cabos, just nuke Mexico from orbit.
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America will require a new war in a few years.
Mexico is shaping up to be a real looker.
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America will require a new war in a few years.
Mexico is shaping up to be a real looker.
Venezuela coming right behind, or perhaps first, since it has oil.
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Mexico has oil too.
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Pfff, right. Iran's next, all the chatter points to it.
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Nonsense. Clearly the moon rabbits will be the next to fall before America's military might.
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America will require a new war in a few years.
Mexico is shaping up to be a real looker.
Negative, a new one is already lined up and already in the cooker. Based on US foreign policy, Iran is next to die in the US campaign in the middle east.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/11/08/iran-nuclear-report.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/11/09/iran-ahmadinejad-nuclear.html
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Nonsense. Clearly the moon rabbits will be the next to fall before America's military might.
Not happening. Carpet-bombing the moon for months before sending in any troops is bound to be way to expensive, and the moon rabbits are likely to offer some nice, lethal resistance to that plan, too.
Just ask this one;
[spoiler](http://i883.photobucket.com/albums/ac34/Terenin_Amatiril/NxA%20Avatar%20Album/Random%20stuff/Moon-rabbitmilitary.jpg)[/spoiler]
Couldn't help myself, though I've helped de-rail the tread quite badly, heh.
America will require a new war in a few years.
Mexico is shaping up to be a real looker.
And why not? Just have the occupational forces in Irak stroll over the border and voila, your in Iran. Easy.
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Moon rabbits are weak.
Also, there won't be any occupation forces in Iraq past the end of the year.
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America will require a new war in a few years.
Mexico is shaping up to be a real looker.
Be nice to America, or they'll bring democracy to your country.
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True enough, better to leave them alone and let them have free reign.
Am I right to assume that by "them" you mean the Zetas, or have I read that wrong?