Foto
ihsan daripada Perkhidmatan Marsyal Amerika Syarikat (Photo courtesy of US Marshals Service -
think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)
MADAyuMadyan | JohnnyAdam – Ahli2 yang dituduh kumpulan hacktivist amorfus Anonymous muncul di mahkamah persekutuan di
California pada hari Khamis untuk memasukkan rayuan berkaitan dengan bantahan
digital berusia hampir 3 tahun terhadap laman web PayPal.
Defendan
- yang mengakui yang mengambil bahagian dalam satu operasi Anonymous yang
diterajui yang seketika mengambil PayPal.com luar talian pada akhir 2010 -
memasuki rayuan bersalah di hadapan seorang hakim di Amerika Syarikat Mahkamah
Daerah bagi Daerah Utara California awal hari Khamis dan akan secara rasmi
dihukum satu tahun.
11
daripada yang dipanggil “PayPal 14” ahli setiap mengaku bersalah di mahkamah
atas satu tuduhan feloni daripada konspirasi dan satu tuduhan laku merosakkan
komputer akibat daripada penglibatan mereka dalam teragih penafian-pada-perkhidmatan
(DDoS) (distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) serangan yang dilancarkan oleh Anonymous pada
akhir 2010 tidak lama selepas PayPal berhenti derma pemprosesan kepada kumpulan
anti-kerahsiaan Wikileaks.
Pendakwa
berkata defendan menggunakan program komputer percuma yang dikenali sebagai Orbit
Ion Rendah Cannon, atau Loic, secara kolektif banjir pelayan PayPal dengan
jumlah yang besar daripada trafik internet yang tidak sah untuk satu minggu
musim sejuk yang pada saat-saat mengetuk laman web luar talian hasil dan menyebabkan
apa PayPal dianggarkan kira-kira $ 5.5 juta pada kerosakan.
Wikileaks
telah mula untuk melepaskan harta dikelaskan Jabatan Negara Amerika Syarikat
kabel diplomatik yang November, mendorong PayPal untuk membatalkan akaun
kumpulan whistleblowing akibat yang didakwa syarat-pada- perkhidmatan
pelanggaran. Kepada mereka, di Wikileaks mendakwa PayPal dipasang bersamaan
kepungan kewangan haram dengan menolak untuk memproses sumbangan.
Digabungkan
dengan tindakan yang sama diambil oleh Visa dan Mastercard pada masa itu,
organisasi ketelusan tersebut sekatan kos kira-kira $ 250 juta sejak kerugian
pada tahun-tahun.
Sementara
menunggu tingkah laku yang baik, 11 orang- yang didakwa Anons akan kembali di
mahkamah awal Disember depan untuk dijatuhkan hukuman, pada masa caj feloni
dijangka akan ditangguhkan.
2
daripada defendan mengurangkan baki tawaran yang mendapati mereka mengaku
bersalah atas tuduhan perbuatan kurang baik sahaja, mungkin mengeluarkan diri
mereka dari mana-mana sabitan feloni berlarutan tetapi memperoleh akhirnya 90
hari penjara berkhidmat apabila mereka akhirnya dihukum.
Defendan
yang ke-4, Dennis Owen Collins, tidak menghadiri pendengaran akibat komplikasi
yang melibatkan kes yang sama (similar case)
pada masa ini sedang dipertimbangkan oleh seorang hakim persekutuan di
Alexandria, Virginia di mana dia dan satu dozen yang lain dituduh (accused)
bersubahat untuk melumpuhkan laman web yang lain sebagai tindakan membantah
semasa secara kasar masa yang sama.
Anonymous ‘PayPal 14’ hackers enter guilty plea
in case surrounding pro-WikiLeaks DDoS attack
Accused
members of the amorphous hacktivist group Anonymous appeared in federal court
in California on Thursday to enter pleas pertaining to a nearly three-year-old
digital protest against the website PayPal.
The
defendants - who admitted to participating in an Anonymous-led operation that
momentarily took PayPal.com offline in late 2010 - entered guilty pleas before
a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of
California early Thursday and will be formally sentenced in one year.
Eleven
of the so-called “PayPal 14” members each pleaded guilty in court to one felony
count of conspiracy and one misdemeanor count of damaging a computer as a
result of their involvement in a distributed
denial-of-service (DDoS) attack waged by Anonymous in late 2010 shortly
after PayPal stopped processing donations to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.
Prosecutors
say the defendants used a free computer program called the Low Ion Orbit
Cannon, or LOIC, to collectively flood PayPal’s servers with tremendous amounts
of illegitimate internet traffic for one week that winter, at moments knocking
the website offline as a result and causing what PayPal estimated to be roughly
$5.5 million in damages.
WikiLeaks
had started to release a trove of classified US State Department diplomatic
cables that November, prompting PayPal to revoke the whistleblowing group’s
account due to an alleged terms-of-service violation. On their part, WikiLeaks
claims PayPal installed the equivalent of an illegal financial blockade by
refusing to process contributions.
Combined
with similar actions taken by Visa and Mastercard at the time, the transparency
organization said the blockade cost an estimated $250 million in losses in the
years since.
Pending
good behavior, those 11 alleged Anons will be back in court early next December
for sentencing, at which point the felony charges are expected to be adjourned.
Two of
the remaining defendants cut deals that found them pleading guilty to the
misdemeanor counts only, likely removing themselves from any lingering felony
convictions but earning an eventual 90 day jail stint when they are finally
sentenced.
A fourth defendant, Dennis
Owen Collins, did not attend the hearing due to complications involving a similar case
currently being considered by a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia in which
he and one dozen others are accused
of conspiring to cripple other websites as an act of protest during roughly the
same time.
Bercakap
kepada RT dari bangunan mahkamah di California petang Khamis, peguam pertahanan
Stanley Cohen berkata terma-terma penyelesaian telah dicapai berikutan lebih
setahun rundingan, “berdasarkan kekuatan, bukan kelemahan; Berdasarkan prinsip,
bukan persetujuan”
“Ia
tidak melibatkan kerjasama dan tidak melibatkan mana-mana defendan untuk keluar
daripada amalan kelakuan mereka,” kata Cohen melalui telefon. “Mereka semua
berdiri dan berkata,” Kami melakukan apa yang anda katakan kami lakukan . . .
Kami percaya ia merupakan tindakan yang sesuai dari kami dan kami bersedia
untuk membayar harganya.”
Berhubung
dengan hukuman yang baru dijadualkan kini dijadualkan untuk 4 Disember 2014,
Cohen berkata ia setanding dengan apa yang dirujuk sebagai pendakwaan tertunda
dalam sesetengah bidang kuasa. “Di sini, di awal hari jika semua kerja-kerja di
luar halus, defendan akan mendapat pelanggaran undang-undang.”
“Jika
tidak ada tangkapan baru pada akhir tahun ini, feloni itu ditolak,” kata Cohen.
“Laku ini ditinggalkan dalam sekeping dan rakyat pada dasarnya akan mendapatkan
pelepasan bersyarat pada ketika itu dengan pengembalian dalam jumlah $ 5,600
bagi setiap orang.”
Apabila
didarab dengan 14, orang-orang restitutions menambah sehingga hanya di bawah $
80,000 - hanya sebahagian kecil daripada $ 5.5 juta PayPal mendakwa gangguan
digital kos laman mereka. Walau bagaimanapun, dalam op-ed yang diterbitkan oleh
Huffington Post hari sebelum pendengaran itu, Pierre Omidyar - pengasas
syarikat induk PayPal, eBay - merayu mahkamah untuk kemurahan hati dan berkata,
“Pada pandangan saya, mereka harus menghadapi tuduhan perbuatan kurang baik dan
kemungkinan denda, dan bukannya caj feloni dan masa penjara.”
Cohen,
yang mewakili defendan PayPal 14 Mercedes Haefer di mahkamah, kata seorang
daripada hacktivists memberitahunya selepas pendengaran Khamis membuat
kesimpulan bahawa “Ini adalah perbuatan kurang baik lencana kehormatan dan
keberanian.”
Speaking
to RT from the courthouse in California Thursday afternoon, defense attorney
Stanley Cohen said the terms of the settlement were reached following over a
year of negotiations, “based upon strength, not weakness; based upon principle,
not acquiescence.”
“It did
not involve cooperation and did not involve any of the defendants renouncing
their conduct,” Cohen said by phone. “They all stood up and said, ‘We did what
you said we did . . . We believe it was an appropriate act from us and we’re
willing to pay the price.’”
With
regards to the newly scheduled sentencing now slated for Dec. 4, 2014, Cohen
said it’s comparable to what’s referred to as deferred prosecution in some
jurisdictions. “Here, at the head of the day if everything works out fine, the
defendants are going to get a misdemeanor.”
“If
there are no new arrests at the end of the year, the felony is dismissed,”
Cohen said. “The misdemeanor is left in piece and people will essentially get
conditional discharges at that point with restitution in the amount of $5,600
for each person.”
When
multiplied by 14, those restitutions add up to just under $80,000 - only a
fraction of the $5.5 million PayPal claimed the digital disturbance cost their
site. Nevertheless, in an op-ed published by Huffington Post days before the
hearing, Pierre Omidyar - the founder of PayPal’s parent company, eBay -
implored the court for leniency and said, “In my view, they should be facing
misdemeanor charges and the possibility of a fine, rather than felony charges
and jail time.”
Cohen, who
represented PayPal 14 defendant Mercedes Haefer in court, said one of the
hacktivists told him after Thursday’s hearing concluded that “This misdemeanor
is a badge of honor and courage.”
READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/dh1t52
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