Thursday, November 03, 2011

Who Will the Hacker Group "Anonymous" Go After Next?

Update 6 Nov 2011: There are reports that the Zeta gang has released the individual associated with the Anonymous hackers. It is further reported that the Anonymous hackers have backed down from their threat against the Zetas. No harm, no foul, apparently. But regardless of the outcome of this isolated episode, the problem of the cartels and other organised crime gangs will not go away using conventional law enforcement -- particularly in third world nations such as Mexico or Peru. The corrupting influence of large sums of illegal money flowing through these organisations is too great for the defence and law enforcement operations of most undeveloped nations to withstand.
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The group of hackers calling itself "Anonymous" has gone after child poronography sites and is threatening Fox News. But now a person claiming to represent "Anonymous" is publicly threatening the notorious murdering Mexican drug gang, the Zetas!
The Zetas are one of the biggest players in Mexico's drug war, which has resulted in about 40,000 deaths since 2006. Earlier this month, a YouTube video showed a man in a Guy Fawkes mask who claimed to speak for Anonymous warning the Zetas that the collective would reveal the names of people who had aided the cartel, including taxi drivers, police officers and journalists, if a kidnapped member of Anonymous weren't released.


...BBC News reports that local authorities weren't able to authenticate the video, in which the claim was made that "we cannot defend ourselves with weapons, but we can with their cars, houses and bars" and that exposing Zetas is "not difficult ... we know who they are and where they are."


...In September, the narcogang decapitated 39-year-old Marisol Macías Castañeda in the town of Nuevo Laredo for supposedly posting comments to social-networking sites under the name Laredo Girl. The sign next to her body read, "Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networking sites, I'm The Laredo Girl, and I'm here because of my reports, and yours."


That same month, two bodies were found hanging next to a sign that stated, "This is going to happen to all Internet snitches. Pay attention, I'm watching you."


The name of the supposedly kidnapped Anonymous member was not revealed. If the collective does reveal the identities of Zeta members, those members will likely be vulnerable to attacks from rival gangs. _Techland
Technology is likely to play an ever greater role in the pursuit of violent gangs, cartels, and organised crime syndicates.

Better nanotechnological methods of surveillance and intervention will give the controllers of such technology what would once have been considered god-like powers. Of course, one would almost need god-like powers to deal with such ruthlessly murderous groups like the Zetas. In Latin America, such groups often have more power than governments, within their area of control.

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