‘Anonymous’ Hackers Arrested In Sting Opperation

anoynmous

BOSTON, Massachusetts – 

A US Department of Justice and FBI sting of a group of apartments in downtown Boston yesterday yielded the arrests of a reported 24 members of the hacking group ‘Anonymous,’ who in this case, turned out to be anything but.

“Anonymous hackers have been bombarding Twitter with account information of supposed terrorists – whether they be ISIS or otherwise related – in hopes of having them [the accounts] removed,” said Federal Agent Richard Gill. “In those takedown requests, several members of the group left key information about their location, and we were able to track their whereabouts and make the arrest.”

Although support for Anonymous has been at an all-time high after the group declared war on terrorists who use the internet to coordinate their attacks and pass along information, the FBI and other government agencies still list Anonymous themselves as a terrorist group.

“Hackers penetrate and ravage delicate public and privately owned computer systems, infecting them with viruses, and stealing information for their own ends,” said Gill. “These people, they’re terrorists.”

With an estimated half a million people on the internet claiming to be part of Anonymous or an avid supporter of the group, the arrest of 24 people – aged 19 to 38 – seems small in the grand scheme of things, although Agent Gill says it’s a “great start.”

“Naturally we know that we will never be able to arrest every member of Anonymous, and even if we could, a new generation of tech-enthusiasts would pop up in their place, but we need to put a stop to hacking, as much as possible,” said Gill. “Maybe it’s a war we can’t win, but hey, we’ve been uselessly fighting the war on drugs for decades, so why not the war on hackers, too?”

Sequel to ‘The Interview’ Green-Lit, Film To Mock Vladimir Putin

Sequel to 'The Interview' Green-Lit, Film To Mock Vladimir Putin

CULVER CITY, California –

One thing that’s always been a given in Hollywood is that studio executives love controversy, money, and pissing off world leaders. A decision by Sony Pictures on Monday confirmed what many had worried – a sequel to The Interview will be made, with a slated release date of October, 2016.

Blandly called The Interview 2, the likely-to-be-controversial film will feature the same cast, including Seth Rogen and James Franco. The plot of the film is reported to be based on the duo gaining an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with shenanigan-filled attempts to end his life. The upcoming movie is already being referred to as a “ballsy move,” from competitors like Universal Studios, and “extremely stupid” by Lionsgate Films. 

The new movie’s screenwriter, Mitchell Greenberg, believes his idea is just what America needs for moving into 2016. “The world is just getting crazier and crazier, with more secret threats from rival countries every day,” Greenberg said. “Why not poke fun at Putin before he blows us up? It’s going to happen sometime anyway. Who knows, maybe I’ll be known as the man who made Vladimir Putin laugh.”

Many people, although annoyed that America is trying to re-live a threat, think that perhaps the movie is needed to assert the power of the United States. Mathias Perry, an opinion columnist from Arkansas said, “We need to show those foreign bastards that we as Americans have power, and we are not afraid to use it. Above all, it’s just a movie and isn’t meant to be taken seriously. If this thing starts World War III, then at least it was started before the number and power of nuclear weapons increased anymore.”

Carla Bronson of New York City highly opposes the creation of the sequel. “Letting stupid people like these screenwriters run free is what will destroy our country, and potentially destroy the world! If there’s nothing good to say, don’t say it at all.”

Neither Russian president Putin, nor anyone on his staff, had a comment on Sony’s announcement of the new film.

Kim Jong Un Admits He Loved ‘The Interview,’ Plans To Show The Film To North Korean People

PYONGANG, North Korea – Kim Jong Un Admits He Loved 'The Interview,' Plans To Show The Film To North Korean People

Continuing with the controversy surrounding the new release of the movie The Interview, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said that he was wrong to have publicly debased the film, and that after watching the movie, found it to be “hysterical.”

Sony had initially pulled the movie from theatres after backing down due to terrorist threats, and the world let out a collective angry scream as they wouldn’t get a glimpse at why this movie was considered to be too dangerous to show. Shortly afterwards, though, the company reversed their decision, and allowed the film to be screened at any theatre wishing to show it, as well as releasing it through streaming media services such as YouTube and XBox Media Center.

“Having now been able to actually see the movie, his supreme ruler Kim Jong un has reversed his previous statements about it, and now deems it to be something the world should see, as he believes it makes him look very human,” said a publicist for Jong un. “The movie will even be shown in North Korea, albeit cut to promote our Supreme Leader as the hero and God that he is.”

Kim Jong un claims that the only reason he ever denounced the film was that he was angry that producers had never sent him a copy for review, and he had never even been given the chance to see it. Once the movie was made available publicly, he made time to watch and review the movie.

“Supreme Leader has said that he is glad that someone made him a bootleg copy of the film for him to see,” said the publicist. “Kim Jong un is an avid movie fan, and loves Hollywood cinema. He also wishes to be able to receive further screener copies of movies so as he can begin work on his new movie review website for the North Korean people, ‘SupremeLeaderWatchesMoviesBecauseYouCannot.com'”

 

76-Year Old Grandmother Arrested For Phone Hacking

PEORIA, Illinois – 76-Year Old Grandmother Arrested For Phone Hacking

Imagine Mavis Thompson’s surprise when on Christmas Eve, two uniformed police officers showed up on the mild-mannered grandmother’s doorstep with a warrant for her arrest.

“I thought the policemen had the wrong address,” said Thompson, “but there was my name right there and in big letters, and the paper said ARREST WARRANT.”

“We had to take her in,” said Officer Mark Macon. “We got several sworn complaints that she was making aggravated, inappropriate, and indecent phone calls which were recorded by other parties.”

Thompson suffers from chronic post nasal drip, accompanied by a persistent, hacking cough. “It’s bad,” she said. “I’ve had it for years and I call the drugstore for my new prescription. The police said that’s how it started. It was that neighbor lady’s daughter who was the ringleader. She’s into the gothic faith that kids are following now – devil worship it looks like to me, with all the black eye makeup.”

Indeed, upon further investigation, it was “that neighbor lady’s daughter,” ‘River O. Darkniss,’ née Louise Hicks, who had concocted a scheme where she and her goth friends filed several complaints, alleging Thompson had made repeated threatening and inappropriate phone calls to different local businesses.

“These kids were cruel,” said Officer Macon. They called up Mrs. Thompson and recorded her voice, and made a prank sound board. They added in her coughing sounds so we’d know it was her. Everybody knows she’s a hacker – I mean a cougher – but this was just plain mean.”

The re-edited sound mash-ups were convincing enough for authorities to seek Thompson’s arrest. The computer whiz kids managed to turn innocent conversation into highly inappropriate language by editing recorded conversations with Thompson.

“I really want something for my throat, *cough* and I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back down that way in town there to pick it up; can you do that for me please and get back to me?” was a mild enough question that the teens turned into dirty remarks.

“I really want something to get down in my throat, *cough* I want to get it down there, way back down in my throat, please *cough* really get it in way down in there, *cough cough* I want a pick up, can you do me please, do me, really do me back there, please do me way down back there *cough* in my *cough cough* throat.”

“Things like that were just very inappropriate from an older person,” said Macon, so we started to suspect foul play. “Once we found out what was going on, we released her and arrested the kids.”

“It was terrible, and I’m glad it’s over,” said Thompson. “I don’t use that drug store anymore even though they apologized, but I can’t show my face there. Forgive and forget, and I’m trying, but now I always watch what I say on the phone. I certainly don’t want to pull anymore boners like that.”

Time Warner Cable Announces Internet, Cable Services Will Be Down For Security Upgrades In February

NEW YORK, New York – Time Warner Cable Announces Internet, Cable Services Will Be Down For Security Upgrades In February

Time Warner Cable spokesperson Lavette Ansari announced that Time Warner Cable services, including broadband internet, would not be available to customers on February 29th, due to maintenance and network testing.

In the statement, Ansari said that the shut down for network maintenance was necessary to maintain the high quality broadcasting product and superior internet service the media giant company offers.

“We at Time Warner are proud of the fact that we have the best cable  and internet service available for all of America,” Ansari said. “In order to maintain our incredible product and services, it is absolutely necessary that we perform this uninterrupted testing and overall product assessment before any problems arise.”

The decision to shut down and perform these maintenance actions comes at a time during which many media companies and internet services are being attacked by groups of rogue hackers. Both Playstation and Xbox networks have each been hacked and shut down recently, as well as Chase Bank and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The plague is not confined to the United States either, as North Korea has gone without internet service throughout the entire country following the actions of sophisticated hacking.

Other internet and cable companies are expected to follow suit according to University of Maryland Professor of Media Technologies & Sciences, Dr. Mamauf Abdul Rahim. “In this age of vast technology, knowledge which is now easily obtained. With the modern age of technology, there are mostly positives but with that also comes the potential of attack,” Rahim stated. “No company, no matter how big or small, as well as individuals, no matter how powerful, are a potential victim of extreme cyber attack. The appropriate measures of prevention must be taken in order to keep hacking risks as low as possible.”

Ansari added in her statement to select members of the Associated Press that in order to keep customer complaints as low as possible, the company wanted to give fair warning. ” It is important that the news of this shutdown be highly anticipated in order for our loyal customers to prepare themselves,” Ansari said. “We know that a full 24 hours is an extremely long time to go for some people to not use the internet.”

13-Year-Old Boy Arrested In Connection With Sony Hacking Crime

WATERVILLE, Maine – 13-Year-Old Boy Arrested In Connection With Sony Hacking Crime

What is believed to be the most vicious cyber attack in history, and has been blamed on everyone from North Korea to Russian hackers, is now being directly linked to a 13-year-old boy from small town Waterville, Maine.

Many believed that North Korea and supreme leader Kim Jong-un were responsible for the massive hack against Sony Entertainment because of the Seth Rogen comedy film The Interview, a movie about the successful assassination of Jong-un. Even President Obama issued an official statement, denouncing Sony’s decision to give into threats and pull the film from its Christmas Day opening.

The teenager, whose identity is not yet being released due to his age, but uses the online handle ‘Cereal Killer,’ confessed to the crime in an email sent to federal investigators.

“Basically, he sent in emails confessing to the crime, and blamed it all on the fact that all his friends had gotten Playstation 4 consoles, and he was stuck with the old XBox 360. He felt abandoned, and like he had no friends left in the world,” FBI spokesperson Gerald Carmichael told the Associated Press. “So he wanted to ‘make Sony pay.’ Curiously, Sony Entertainment, as in the films, and Sony’s video game division, are two completely separate entities.”

“It’s just what I could get into, you know?” said the wayward teen in his emails. “I tried to break into the game division computers first. I thought I could maybe steal some unfinished games and release them online. But that one was too hard. Instead, I got into the movie studio computers, and got to watch Annie before it came out. The movie really, really sucked, by the way.”

“The boy is clearly a genius when it comes to electronics and the computer language in this technology age,” said Charmichael. “It reminds me of the movie War Games a little bit, that one from the 80s with Matthew Broderick. Here is this boy savant, who is just amazing at computers. It is really unbelievable that a young child could possess so much dangerous knowledge. Hell, I couldn’t do what he did, and I’ve been studying computers for ages.”

While the crime is being thoroughly investigated, the teen will be kept in the custody of the FBI. Carmichael declined to discuss what charges or any possible punishments the boy is facing.

Real-World Hackers Discredit Technology Used In Watch Dogs Video Game

MONTREAL, QUEBEC, Canada – empire-news-real-life-hackers-Discredit-technology-used-in-watch-dogs-video-game

Hackers around the World have been rampantly posting online about their opinions on the new Ubisoft video game “Watch Dogs,” which was released last week.  The video game is based around a fictional hacker who wanders the streets of Chicago using his cell phone to control nearly any electronic device he wishes, which he uses to gain information and help avoid cyber-terrorists.

“As a hacker, it makes me feel really lame – I could point my phone at a person, and it won’t just hack their bank account.  It’s completely absurd that this guy can do this stuff with such ease.” Said a self-proclaimed hacker who goes by the online name Lord Nikon. “The game makes it look too easy. He just scans people with his cell phone, takes their cash or their music, unlocks a car, and drives like an asshole through the city. I can’t do any of that at all. Watchdogs is totally unrealistic.”

Throughout the years, the art of hacking has been portrayed throughout movies, television, and now video games as some sort of exciting, other-worldly experience, where the hacker is always a half-step ahead of the law or other hackers, and spends their nights staring at a computer screen filled with gorgeous graphics. As hacker Cereal Killer points out to us, that isn’t generally the case.

“You know, I don’t see the big deal with this guy in the game.” Said Killer. “Even if I could just take a stroll and steal peoples stuff, walking just takes too much outta me, ya know? I like doing this stuff because I can sit here in my room, eating Bagel Bites, downloading music illegally and watching anime porn. That’s the true life of a hacker. Well, at least it’s my true life. I can’t really speak for everyone.”

Real-life hackers tend to experience extreme amounts of boredom brought on by so much waiting around, so bringing the technology developed for the fictional story in Watchdogs to life would be a silver lining for the hoards of anonymous hackers throughout the world.

“If these people could walk around while hacking the computers around them, it would greatly decrease their risks of collapse due to ennui.” Says Dr. Emmanuel Goldstein of the Chicago Memorial Hospital, cardiology division. “This concept would be the best thing to happen to cyber-crime since the invention of wireless internet!”

As technology expands, the hackers that we spoke with had mixed feelings about how great it would be to be able to commit hack the people around them like a character in a video game.

“I prefer to just relax, enjoy a Jolt cola, and watch reruns of The Outer Limits with my girlfriend AcidBurn.” Said a hacker whose online alias is ZeroCool. “I just can’t imagine why I’d want to run all over the city and get all sweaty. Hacking is an intelligent man’s game, a real-world thrill posed in an unreal world. I’ll keep playing the game, but I would never buy into that sort of technology.”

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