I know (or recognise) a few of those users, I think the rest are likely to be spam botts; just silly people who can't not click on stupid links.

Delly Doolittle too !

As the PERSON behind Until All Are Free's profile I can assure you that:

a) My profile has never been hacked or phished, to the best of my knowledge, and I regularly change my password anyway...simply because as a real world activist I'm subjected to the forces of darkness.

b) The claim that: "whoever it is while having done some "resaerch" into AR doesn't know much aboput the campaigns or activists", is utterly farcical as many of the "genuine" activists who know me will be able to vouch for!

c) Whoever has posted this is more likely to be the fraud....and their spelling/typing certainly doesn't suggest that they would be competent enough to ascertain the locations of either myself or other people!

d) MySpace has very recently, (within the last week), employed new measures against phishing (see "Tom'"'s blog for details....however, as has been suggested the people behind these profiles certainly aren't malicious as I have met some of them face-to-face and they certainly aren't one person who's done their homework!

e) This poorly spelt article, with absolutely no confirmed evidence, seems like nothing more than a poor attempt by someone to get back at people they are annoyed with on MySpace....and trust me I've pissed a LOT of people off on MySpace by trying to make them understand that "activism" isn't a social club event.

f) Make your own mind up, but most importantly keep struggling....

Always for the animals,
Until All Are Free

Activism is quite a social event, though. In fact, in my eyes the social aspect is more important than a lot of 'actual' liberation or activism that happens... Unless we are breaking people from the chains that hold them, ie society, we are merely adding to the workload. Just my opinion, feel free to differ!

"In fact, in my eyes the social aspect is more important than a lot of 'actual' liberation or activism that happens"

If I want a social club event then I do something that doesn't involve any personal risk, however as leafleting now seems to be illegal in the UK I can see how virtually any "action" presents "risk"...but the actual affect is BY FAR the most important aspect and I would much rather make a new veggie than a new friend!

I think my blogs sum up my opinions quite well, so feel free to read them at:
www.myspace.com/freedomforanimals

Maybe then you can also decide whether my profile's the result of "having done some "resaerch" into AR" but "not know[ing] much aboput the campaigns or activists"....although to be honest, I'm not fussed either way on that score, it is only MySpace ;-)

www.myspace.comOceanWitch or Angela Lily is indeed a phish site. Also Animal_Revenge or myspace.com/vikita777 has been hacked into as is already known....
I recall that some AR sites {It was either Caramarthen or Cornwall Animal Rights} sent a bulletin out stating that activists pages had been CLONED To send out threats and violent images / messages.

And to the pompous "Until All Are Free" - just because someone is either non-English speaking / English is not their first language or because they cannot spell {dyslexia?} does not make them stupid, incompetent, a fraud or malicious......

If someone is doing this stuff it should be taken seriously. {They are....and it is}.

Please don't confuse hacking with phishing, it makes you look like a right twat basicaly....


And oh, boo fucking hoo, lets all have pity on fox because they are so nice and want us all to use there social networking site out of the kindess of there hearts......

Some people have had their own page altered while viewing which won't be detectable to other uses linking onto asite being viwed...{with me so far?}
i.e. all your bulletins will suddenly become identicle / spoof ; but from legit / different users.

Or you can link onto alegit myspace page and the messages / stuff on that page will be "all fucked up" but only visible to you. So there is achance that it is your own page that has been "broken into" rathee than the others.....whether or not this is "hacking / phishing / ghosting / spamming / forces of darkness" I have no idea being of that age where my seven year old is better equipped to use the computer but hey.....Not being computer savvy doesn't make somone a "twat" -
TWAT YOURSELF whoever you are.....Squee {make that name up yourself...TWAT?}

Anyway.....I think that the hactivist featured further up the page has alot to teach all of us computer dummies and we should all HELP each other rather than resort to mockery and name calling. TWAT.

"we should all HELP each other rather than resort to mockery and name calling. TWAT."

Anybody know what's wrong with the sentence? If there was every a prize for stirring up CRAP then you my dearest friend would be the outright winner.

Actually, phishing is just an evolution of what hackers used to call 'social engineering' in other words hacking *people*. You could also argue that social engineering was an early form of identity theft too as the goal was often to extract enough information (names, passwords, etc.) to be able break into a system under a someone else's identity.

Sometimes the best route into a system was to call a receptionist and get some names of people in certain departments, then call their tech support and pretend to be someone else and and request a password change. Or vice versa calling a user and pretending to be tech support/sys admin and get the password off the user.

Highly organised scammers were using this technique years ago (and still do) to get information on people's work/home routine to be able to burgle them. The classic 'You have won a prize, we just need to know what time you will be at home to collect it...' routine. Or simply starting off a telephone call with a faux wrong number "oh! Who IS this then?" and following up later with another call fishing for another piece of the jigsaw. Perhaps a swipe of their rubbish when you have their home address- which can often be a mere rummage of the voters' roll away.

Not sure when the media started calling that 'phishing' but the practice is a lot lot older than the buzzword.

IF anyone knows some good hackers / hactivists then the various socail centres would be glad to hold hactivist training sesions.....

Best known hack.....when Russian AR activists got into HLS computer system! Yay!!!

The best first step would be to get some people to author a good information self-defence manual and do some teach ins with it. The old role play and a bit audiolinguistic reinforcement does wonders!

A few basics though. None of this will protect you from the full Monty being thrown at you, but it will at least make them jump through hoops. This will get more paranoid as the list advances hahahaha:

1. NEVER EVER EVER put your details on a web site.

2. NEVER EVER EVER put your details on a web site. If you are joining online forums etc. always use a second email addess that has no reference to your identity whatsoever: no name, no date of birth, no pets etc etc etc.

Also: never ever ever use passwords that are words. the best thing to do is go to a site that generates safe passwords and make one, as long a password as the system permits.

A password like 'chelseafc' is chickenfeed to a hacking.


3. Assume that if you are pissing off anyone with a lot of money they are paying people to try and find out everything they can about you. Assume that they can possibly buy your credit history, your criminal record, your utility bills, your telephone records, your school reports, medical reports... anything that has ever been recorded about you. Assume they can pay for someone to infiltrate or even skirt around your group hoovering up information.

But still there is no point in making it easy for them. So:

4. Avoid social networking sites. They are a godsend to sniffers.

5. Shred all your personal documents. Opt out from as much paper billing as possible.

6. Never list yourself in the phone book. Always give the Voters' Roll a fake name.

7. If someone calls you asking for any sort of details: assume they aren't who they claim to be.

8. Never give anyone new to you your real name unless they really need to know it.

If they were silly enough not to mask the number dial 141 write it down. Sometimes you can catch people out because they call you from a PBX/SDX system where all numbers are sequential. Reception is usually the lowest number:

e.g. 0181 333 3456 try 142 then 0181 333 3000.

I have caught a few debt collectors out with that one. You can always play their own game "Oh can I speak to Dave? Oh, who's this then. Oh, I was ringing Dave at blah blah ltd. Who the hell have dialed then???" Googling telephone numbers also often unearths things.

Assume your landline is unsafe. You don't have to be James Bond to break into a landline illegally.

9. Always install a firewall, and anti-virus. Use Tor for browsing and something like hushmail or riseup or no-logs for e-mail.

10. Always assume your Internet activity is being monitored and modify your communication accordingly.

If you really have to communicate sensitive stuff over the net, then try hijacking someone elses WiFi connection with a laptop. Dead easy in a town. Preferably don't store your computer you use for this at your own property and buy from Loot with cash.

Likewise never use your personal mobile for activism; never use the activism phone for anything else: get a cheap pay as you go mobile with cash and sim card from somewhere with no cameras. And use it in a very crowded area, like a busy High Street with plenty of traffic. Assuming you are already being tailed, all you are worried about is them monitoring your calls from a mobile unit (assuming they don't have your number already).

Change the sim card on a regular basis.

Never trust a text message.

11. Assume that your car registration plate, oyster travel card and bank cards are being tracked.


Groups

If you are working in a group have a pre-agreed flag word you can use to indicate that you may be being watched or are busted: choose an name that won't stand out in conversation and avoid anything that will be bizarre. E.g. some you can idly drop into a call or conversation "Is Joe back from Barcelona?" not "The red cow is dancing the polka"

Offline codes are harder to bypass than digital ones.


The golden rule of never getting caught? Simple: NEVER EVER EVER tell anyone! You may think you can trust them now. But what about when they have CID or Special Branch waving a custodial sentence in their face. Or some gumshoe hired by some company is waving a cheque in their face. Or when they find out you shagged their best friend...

Situations, relationship and people can change suddenly. So ration all information on a need to know basis.

If you are working in a large network, makes sure each group in the network only has one person who knows another group. So if you get busted there is only so much they can extract. I.e. work in isolation as much as possible and never talk shop.

If your group uses the same computer, install a password protected keylogger, if the data isn't incriminating. If it is incriminating, don't use a computer! The only way of cleaning a computer of dodgy data is to melt down in a furnace and shoot it into the sun and the blow the sun up...

Financial problems, relationship problems, drug problems, can all make people security risks.

Thanks for that fro me too. All common sense and good advice. It's amazing how many people ought to be following these common sense procedures and don't....{myself included...}. Perhaps you should write the self defense manual written by "A Right Twat Too" {you're not!!}, just an idea....

A lesson learned. As someone who should know better I did all the things I shouldn't and ended up with a situation known as "The Camden Stalker", but the less said about him and anything else from now on the better! Funnily enough he taught me a harmless lesson {in that no-one was harmed} in how not to do things.

So thanks to you both.

Mandy x

Well, I used to write manuals for a living so the learning curve isn't a problem. It's such a rapid moving and massive area of information. I think perhaps what may be a better idea is to start a wiki. Preferably encrypted anonymous access (no logging).

I'm bored shitless at the moment so I may just start drawing up a structure, header topics, what I personally can contribute and see what some of my "Interesting" friends can contribute too. And them in the spirit of non-hierarchy let people with better knowledge evolve it. Should the meme grow legs.

If anyone can suggest a good place for a wiki that can be (reasonably) protected from vandalism and dinsinfo?

Sorry to hear you got stalked. I was following that theme here since I too recently got stalked. A consequence of which I (and some other affected people) have withdrawn from direct action completely.

So this might be a parting gift!

Oh I laso forgot to mention about mobiles phones. It's the worst kept secret that the MI5 & the police use mobile phones as bugging devices and location trackers. If your phone is even switched on then they can activate microphone in it and listen in. In fact, they can break into any landline too.

Even 999 services can triangulate you position in the world from data of what network masts you are are broadcasting from. In somewhere like London they can get down to a matter of meters. In somewhere like Caithness it may be down to a few hundred square miles.

Removing the battery from the phone will prevent this.