Indy Media Watch

I previously reported on the vigilante behaviour and threats of violence surrounding alleged hacking of Indymedia servers.

Now, Jeremy Hammond, described as "Political Hacktivist" has been arrested and charged by the FBI. The website - FreeJeremy.com states:

He has worked to defend the IndyMedia project from right-wing hackers by finding and fixing several vulnerabilities. While his activities have been ethical and non-destructive, he has found himself a target of law enforcement because he has been brave enough to stand up to the injustices of the political system.

The site doesn't link to the FBI's rationale or transcripts, however from what I can gather, it surrounds his alleged hacking of Protestwarrior.com who are described in most unkind terms on the Free Jeremy site. They are not happy that he has been arrested.

Protest Warrior have their own version of events:

In January 2005, Jeremy Hammond and the hacker group collectively known as the "Internet Liberation Front" gained illegal access to the ProtestWarrior server. Thousands of customer credit card numbers were then stolen for the purpose of making millions of dollars in donations to various leftwing organizations.
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Upon discovering the hack, we immediately began collecting information on the breach and managed to penetrate Jeremy's inner circle. We then collected evidence that more than 5,000 credit card numbers had been stolen by Jeremy and the "Internet Liberation Front" and that they were planning on doing the following:

*charge hundreds of dollars per stolen credit card number as donations to various left-wing organizations by using an automated donation submission script

*send the entire ProtestWarrior HQ database (complete with usernames, passwords, and operation details) to left-wing groups hostile to ProtestWarrior (including the entire contents of our mail server)

*upload all credit card numbers and other sensitive customer information to hundreds of anarchist and left-wing sites (specifically Indymedia) as a downloadable zip file

*anonymously send press releases and material to thousands of media contacts to boast of the malicious hack and the millions of dollars defrauded, and to publish any and all sensitive information regarding the ProtestWarrior organization

*erase the entire PW server

*launch simultaneous attacks on other conservative sites

Upon discovering their plans, we contacted the FBI and the Secret Service, who immediately launched an investigation. We were able to provide them with a tremendous amount of evidence regarding the breach, the criminals responsible, and their plans to commit massive credit card fraud. We also reported the incident to all credit card companies involved to make sure that ProtestWarrior's customers were protected. With our help, the FBI was able to thwart Jeremy and his army of "hacktivists".

After contacting the FBI, we immediately hired a security consultant and removed all sensitive information from the server. We eventually moved the server to a new box, where we blocked off the system and data files from the web server and changed the online store software to a super-secure system that stores zero sensitive customer information. In addition, we hired an internet security firm to run a series of vigorous vulnerability tests on our server, which our server all passed.

The reason we haven't made this announcement earlier is that our customers were already protected and we didn't want to jeopardize the ongoing FBI investigation of Jeremy and his "hacktivist" army.

The reason we're posting this now is that Jeremy, in a desperate move, is publicly appealing to the internet community regarding his pending FBI investigation. Using his site www.freejeremy.com, he is trying to solicit donations for his defense fund and generate public sympathy while spreading slanderous disinformation regarding ProtestWarrior and the events leading up to the FBI investigation.

I can't really comment on the case as one side says he did it, one side says he didn't. It shouldn't matter, the US legal system is pretty good at examining evidence.

Compare this however to when the shoe was on the other foot and Indymedia had been attacked:

This attack against IndyMedia opened up again the endless debate as to whether it was correct or ethical that our defenders traced and discovered the intruder, and as to whether it is desirable or politically justifiable to request the FBI's help to prosecute the crime and protect us from future attacks.
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Ultimately, of course, regardess of what the outcome of the debates will be, either law enforcement will do their job to protect our right to freedom of expression, as it is their highest and primary duty to uphold the US Constitution, or our own forces will deliver some form of Peoples' Justice by any means necessary.

Scary stuff! On the one hand, Protest Warrior, desribed by "Free Jeremy" as "an ultra right-wing group that tries to provoke and disrupt" simply called the FBI. On the other side, law-enforcement, including the FBI isn't good enough (or even the enemy) and such matters need to be handled (ahem) privately.

I loath and detest criminal activity. This includes illegally hacking into other peoples' websites. The above however demonstrates a set of double standards.

If Jeremy Hammond is foud guilty and goes to prison, he, like Jeff Luers may want to reflect on the company he kept and what role they may have had in inciting him to break the law under the delusion it was "ethical" to do so.

Update: Via the comments, Evil Pundit advises the petition on the Free Jeremy site makes for some interesting reading. It also makes a point I missed - his defence as cited on the website: "and no credit cards were billed" doesn't deny having the credit card numbers, simply not having charged anything to them yet. In other words: "Yeah officer, I robbed the bank, but I didn't spend the money".

Update 2: This post on Indymedia condemns Protest Warrior with some very serious accusations. The subsequent comments defending it make some very good points, including questioning the accusations themself. There was also evidence of Indymedia double standards:

A lot of the information in this post is unsubstantiated, especially allusions to violence. Additionally, rampant use of "quotes" was quite questionable, especially quoting words such as ‘mysteriously.’ Supplying some kind of source would help to give credibility to such "quotes."

However, I found the complaint about Protest Warriors "crashing events instead of organizing their own" to be the most amusing and hypocritical. Don't leftists commonly crash other group's events (such as the Republican convention, etc.) rather than "organizing their own"?

Update 3: 14 October 2006, Sears ultimately pleaded guilty. See here for updates.