Australian Government Prosecuting Anonymous Member Who Allegedly Exposed The Major Flaw In Its Data Retention Demands
from the prison-is-for-useful-people dept
Find a security flaw, go to jail. That's the general attitude of government entities around the world. Over in Australia, an Anonymous member and fundraising manager for a cancer support group is facing an ever-shifting number of charges for finding and testing security holes.Adam John Bennett is a rather un-anonymous member of Anonymous. He also acts as an unofficial mouthpiece for Anonymous via his LoraxLive online radio show. His supposed participation in a large-scale hack saw him raided by Australian Federal Police in May of 2014. Since then, he's been awaiting prosecution for a variety of charges -- charges government prosecutors seem unable to pin down.
The data breach leading to Bennett's arrest involved a target of Australia's controversial data retention law, which requires ISPs to hold onto subscribers' internet activity (including social network use and emails) for two years and grant extensive access to a variety of government agencies.
AAPT confirmed it was breached in July 2012, following claims by an Australian sect of Anonymous that it snatched 40GB of data from the major Australian internet service provider (ISP).Rather than consider this a point well taken, the government went after Bennett. As for the prosecution itself, it's been a complete shambles.
After stripping out personally identifiable information from the data (which included members of the Australian government), Anonymous released the data to raise awareness around expectations of data security: To demonstrate that if an ISP as large and trusted as AAPT can't keep its own data secure, it will be unable to keep Australians' data safe under the proposed laws.
On March 11, Adam Bennett -- known by most as the radio voice of Anonymous, LoraxLive, who was arrested last year for alleged computer crimes -- will finally learn what he's being charged with.Not only can't the government decide what to charge Bennett with, but it's also been instrumental in hamstringing his defense counsel. It's hard enough to structure a defense when charges remain largely unknown. It's even harder when the prosecution shows up late on the Friday before the next court date and dumps 20 GB of "evidence" into the defense's lap.
This had been expected to happen this week. Instead, at the last minute, Australian Commonwealth prosecutors -- for the third time since the case began 10 months ago -- requested another delay to change its lineup of accusations against him.
Maddeningly, the prosecution also indicated it will be dropping its initial charges against Bennett, and adding a slew of new ones.
Even more irritating is the fact that the prosecution apparently hopes to add Bennett's vulnerability testing of his own employer to list of charges.
One of the charges Bennett's counsel expect to be in the final lineup is "Heartbleed Vulnerability Testing for Cancer Support W.A. 2014." This is in regard to a Heartbleed vulnerability test created by Bennett to test his employer's servers (Cancer Support W.A.) for Heartbleed vulns, which would have put the CRM that Bennett was involved in building for the organization at significant risk.This addition of complete BS suggests the prosecution can't find much about the Anonymous ISP hack it can wrap charges around. Instead, it seems to be operating purely on bluster. Constant delays followed by last-minute data dumps aren't the sort of actions that indicate prosecutorial confidence. Instead, it gives the impression that the government hopes to obfuscate its way into a guilty verdict.
Meanwhile, Bennett is still living under restrictive bail conditions that prevent him from using the internet for anything other than banking, employment (he lost his job at the cancer support group after his arrest) or legal advice.
While the government may be right to complain about the unauthorized use of an ISP's data, it seems to be more concerned with making an example out of someone who may have had something to do with providing a practical demonstration of the stupidity of data retention laws. The fact that it's going after him for testing his own employer's defense against vulnerabilities suggests there will be some prosecutorial "piling on" when it finally gets around to enumerating its criminal charges -- presumably in hopes of deterring future exposures of flaws in its lawmaking logic.
This is what happens when governments try to "protect" citizens with little more than expansions of surveillance and law enforcement powers. Retained data is just as apt to be misused by cybercriminals as it is by law enforcement/security agencies. Any time you ask a third party to hold onto data it normally doesn't, it increases the risk of serious breaches involving plenty of normally private information. There are no exceptions. Anonymous exposed the short-sightedness of data retention laws. In response, the government has decided to shoot as many messengers as it can get its hands on.
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Filed Under: adam bennett, adam john bennett, anonymous, australia, data retention, hacking, loraxlive
Companies: aapt
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Working as intended
It's not so much that they can't figure out what to charge him with, it's that they know that their case is weak enough it would be a dicey court case, and would just draw more attention to the problems that were exposed, and so they are intentionally making his life as difficult as possible both for vindictive reasons, and to try and pressure him to 'agree' to a lesser deal to avoid having to deal with their sadistic actions for years to come.
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Same old, same old...
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Re: Same old, same old...
Of course, Inalchuq was a right dick, but I'm not our present-day states-folk are better behaved. Certainly not our representatives in the US.
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Re:
If someone exposes a critical flaw in something that those in politics were/are pushing for, what consequences do the politicians face because of it?
Answer the above, and you'll understand why they always go with 'shoot the messenger' over 'fix the problem'.
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From bikers to anonymous
WHAT THE HELL DID MY GRAND FATHER FIGHT FOR?
losing my civil rights and freedoms for the uber rich and greedy psychopaths that run everything...
we need a new world war against fascism again
and remember that Mussolini's party even had Jews in it...
this is the style it now follows with corporate support.
This world will not make it if we do not all pull together and work this crap out....
ANYONE with a brain sees the future is NOT GOOD....look how they buggered us with global warming all to line there pockets...
the 2012 33.1 trillion tax evasion bank and like i said as HSBC shows it is not the only such bank...
back then the world total debt was 40 trillion
THIS IS UTTERLY DISGUSTING...imagine how much less crime would get done if the world had less debt , food , sheltar and nicer living ..not to mention the greek and euro issues.
WE ARE ( whoever we are ) ARE FED UP.
Are you?
waves at the nsa and the CSE ( canada ) who will now call me a radical and could arrest me like a terrorist also makes me disgusted )
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Not sure about Australia
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Re: Not sure about Australia
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Re: Re: Not sure about Australia
They'll just bankrupt him and then withdraw the case for some random technical reason. Rendering someone homeless and unemployable despite never getting a conviction is a powerful lesson to activists: you lose, even if you're right.
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Re: Not sure about Australia
In fact the more I and other see and hear about this case the more calls for prosecutorial misconduct, malicious prosecution and nonfeascance charges against the AFP seem more and more likely.
Oh and Courts here take a very dim view of extending charges over this period of time. The Govt knows exactly what they are doing but they also know they will have to pay the piper eventually. What th9is is is pure and simple intimidation and trying to make Bennett cave in both mentally and financially.
The problem now is it's gotten to the stage that the Government cannot control it and people are starting to help Bennett and not in ways the government here likes. Oh and I wont go into their lack of evidence, that is for another post entirely.
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Re: Re: Not sure about Australia
Gotta love an honest cop. If you can find one.
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to all hackers
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Ever Hear of:-
Alive and well down under...
Unless they get a pet judge, the judge will crucify them. I suspect all this hemming and hawing is to try and line up some sort of charge sheet that will syand up to scrutiny.
They should give it up as a bad job, and dialog with anonymous to settle the underlying flaws - or they will die the death of 1000 bites.
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It's no wonder that the government can't pin down their charges against this guy. Shooting the messenger is becoming the de facto position of this bunch of bastards we have in government. Witness their recent appalling treatment of Gillian Triggs, the human rights commissioner.
Enough said.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw1ryLGs2ws
It's so embarrassing I can hardly bring myself to watch it right through.
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..LOL
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The difference is now when you stand up to them there is an entire system dedicated to crush you for daring to point out they were full of shit and just trying to scare people into giving them their lunch money.
No matter what charges they bring or the circus they put on, the most important fact that needs to be shouted louder than anything else is they can't protect the data they demand. The are illequipt and unprepared to do it.
They are inventing more and more punishments to distract from the simple point, they haven't got a clue what they are doing. It doesn't matter how high you pile the charges, because the next one to get the data won't let you know about it... they will use it and the citizens will suffer for this ill conceived notion that if we have all the data we can magically somehow stop all bad things.
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The bully transits to politics with his gang experience
Why do people elect these thugs? Because the barnyard pecking order parrallels the political pecking order.
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"Why do people elect these thugs?"
Also, the campaign image that gets you into office has little correlation with the characteristics that will make you a good governor.
We like handsome athlete types to be chieftain of our tribe when all we need is a big guy to rally around. It's a bit more complicated when our tribe is millions strong, includes farms, ranches, industry and science and a plurality of cultures who are, each, creeped out by the others.
And to be fair, I'm not sure if the spazzy nerd or the emo artsy type are better suited either.
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Re: "Why do people elect these thugs?"
I seem to recall the Mandarins in China in olden times, had examinations for the civil service.
I wonder how the subject of testable qualifications being required before you are nominated passes muster?
Also secret ballot, not a public show of hands. The show of hands allows bribers to observe bribees earn their bribe.
US Congress and all elected officials need secret ballot.
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* They probably have a weak case with most of the evidence being inadmissible/illegally obtained. They want a plea deal.
* George Brandis, the AG, is a corrupt, incompetent lunatic. This government has pissed off EVERYONE, including the legal fraternity. Brandis may well be being undermined from within.
* Brandis et al are stupid, petty, vindictive photo-fascists. No outcome they foresee is harsh enough. Hence procedural punishment.
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Re:
Any recall provisions in Australian law? If there are, this guy and his lackies are faie meat for the process.
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Re: Re:
As the current PM Tony Abbott has already lied about taking us to a DD if his party's policies didn't get through the Senate last year (they didn't), & most likely again this year giving a reason for a DD us voters aren't holding our breath. His tea party policies haven't been fully enacted so he can't go just yet.
We are however rather shocked at how many sectors of the community that have been pissed off/marginalised in the last 18 months with only the rich & powerful getting let off on this score. That's on top of slagging off the UN, Putin, Indonesia & a few more international targets I can't think of at the moment.
The latest domestic gaff this year (& there has been plenty more) from our PM after knighting the Queen's consort Prince Phillip is calling Aboriginals living on their traditional lands a 'lifestyle choice' & they must leave when federal funding soon stops as our self appointed Minister for Indiginous affairs (aka the PM) considers it a waste of $150 million per year to keep them on their lands. Just because some of his rich mining buddies don't want to go throught the process of negociating with the aborigines' Native Title claims (when they leave their lands the title is extinguished)
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Moral of the story
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Re: Moral of the story
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If you want to live in one of these so called free countries then you best ignore what your corrupt leaders do or else end up targeted in retaliation
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Re:
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I mean, if the Government refuses to learn and do the right thing why should the other side bother?
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I can see the crap clearly, but have only the vaguest notion where the wipe might be...
Dooh Nibor.
Or Reverse Robin Hood for the non-puzzle folks...
What the USA needs now, is a large number of full time discussion groups that are 100% dedicated to finding and testing SOLUTIONS that might work, rather than just re-hashing the obvious problems over and over again.
But until then - hash on!
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Robin Hood as a folk hero...
But this is to say that money trickling away from the already impoverished to the rich has been long standing.
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Re: Robin Hood as a folk hero...
With things like asset forfeiture and the many phony "War On" programs that steal taxpayer's money for make-believe causes, the public is being milked like never before and the process is merely getting under way and guaranteed to escalate as the crooks in power suffer zero consequences from their activities. Greed knows no upper limit.
The rich have indeed always made their money from the poor - it is the poor that work in their fields or factories for subsistence wages and it is the poor that buy the very products they produce in those fields and factories.
In fact, the entire concept of "Getting Rich" in America is based on the idea of creating something that the peasants will buy in large quantities, or creating a service that the peasants will flock to your door to access. Without the public to make and purchase the products and services of the rich, the whole chain breaks down.
But today, the theft is institutionalized and "in your face" because the lords have no fear of legal consequence even when caught breaking the few remaining laws that try to protect the poor from the rich. The lawmakers are now the very same rich men and women that the laws were originally designed to protect people from.
Again, solutions that do not include politicians and law-makers are needed and the only place to find such will be the public itself.
There can be no succor from the wealthy by the wealthy.
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It does not look good for him.
Why not allow the indiginous people grant mining/exploration permits for a set fee, with a set % interest as a royalty for anything found on their lands?
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Re:
Using one of his billionaire mining mates to chair an inquiry into the 'welfare state' so as to justify the government's attack on the poor, disabled, old & unemployed.
Setting up an inquiry immediately after forming government into why Australia should cut back on the change to renewable energy & then acting on it is all in a day's work for this far right government who is owned lock, stock & both cheeks by big business.
Dismantling anything & everything to do with climate change, be it the scientists, their organisations, acts of parliament (carbon tax gone) etc as in our PM's own words "Climate change is crap" as he goes about following the business backed, far right wing Institute of Public Affairs think tank list of 75 things to do when in government. all for the benefit of business & to the detriment of the citizens, just warming up for the TPP which will be signed by the PM as soon as possible.
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Kill the Golden Goose
A mine is not like a factory. Most mines are good for 10-15 years and are then exhausted. (a rare few last a long time indeed). Coal is common, so when people dig too much the prices fall - as we have seen.
What is needed is a way to reduce wages when prices drop and increase them in super profit times. That would allow mines to make money when prices drop instead of closing the mine = zero wages or sales.
Too many left wing miners think money grow from the ground, and too many right wing mine owners want miners to eat coal dust. A middle ground where both live and the money is shared, but this would need statesmen current pols in all countries are just greedy grabbers, like most mine operators as well as mine workers.
You need a steady 20-30 years of reasonable wages all the time, in places of high wages- Laid off - high wages - laid off repeat until you die.
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Wages are already heading down despite the fearmongering from the treasurer last year with his OMG there's a wages breakout & the need to cut wage increases by law. The importing of overseas labour is also having an effect on local employment & wages as laws have been changed to suit the employers at the expense of local labour.
This government has a hatred of unions & has decided to shut down entire industry sectors (car manufacturering is just one example) just to kill off the unions (who support the opposition party) & privatise at all costs the public health & education sectors to also get rid of the union's power & financial base.
Now we are heading into a reccession as the nonstop doom & gloom talk from the current government from when they were in opposition for six years has seen business & consumer confidence plummet, our dollar has lost 25% of its value against the US dollar & interest rates are at all time lows.
We did have 30 years of steady wage growth, now we are in uncertain times which will possibly see wages drop in real terms & consumer spending curtailed. Remember it is the consumers that create employment, not the rich who offshore their money in tax havens, they only take on extra employees when there is demand for them.
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Re: The inexorable wage ratchett.
See what this did to Detroit in the USA and to the American auto unions. It gave a gift of all those autoworkers jobs to the Japanese and Koreans who built roll-on-roll-off (RORO) cargo ships so the old time high freight time and damage costs of importing cars from Japan and Korea were dramatically reduced.
These unions lost 90% of their jobs through greed and look where Detroit is now.
The truth is, you can not give one side all the $$, be they union or management. A balance must be struck. What good is it if the company goes broke and the high wages the union wanted are now gone.
Here in Canada an ex-union member is almost unemployable because if he is on strike, and working for pocket money the company know that if he is recalled he will not show up for work the next day = zero notice to the company that hired him. So reference are checked with care, great care.
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