2) They're primarily Visa approval/rejection notices
99% of the emails are boring, auto-send text, examples:
EMAIL A ------
Dear frederic norbert didier
Your visa request has received successfully.
You application ID is:99027
You will also be notified about your application process by e-mail.
Thank you.
EMAIL B --------
With reference to your visa application No 1000116698-1000102795 , we are glad to inform you that your request is approved under No. 901841. . After 3 working days of receiving this approval , please approach in person the Iranian Embassy / General Consulate in LAHORE . and collect your required visa .
Best regards,M.F.A / Passport and Visa Office .
---------
Pretty boring stuff. There is some Persian writing above the text in EMAIL B variants, so maybe that is interesting. I do not see any interesting English-text content.
It is boring in one sense, but in another way that is what makes it exciting. you and I have little or no use for this information, but it's great from an intelligence standpoint.
I'm not entirely sure about the provenance. I've often wondered if western governments use anon as a deniable vector for track II diplomacy. Either way, interesting.
You know, I can see real utility in a simple site that lets you upload data garnered from hacking escapades online to be easily searchable and presentable to the general public. It'd have the pastebin feature of a general press statement/greetz file as well. On non-US/EU/whatever harbors to protect from bring being easily taken down. Easy to upload massive amounts of files and can take the load from DoS attacks. Easy way to pipe massive amounts of data via shell. Is spartan so things like SQLi aren't a problem, with competent security in the backend. Basically a CableGates search site for all dox from large scale hacking events like all the high profile recent ones in this year. To make things interesting, it'd use fancy things like schemaless document stores, bitcoin payment processing and fiat-->bitcoin conversion, and other shiny things that are popular nowadays.
Pays the bills via ads and subscription-based early access to members. Also has pretty features like alerts via SMS on new uploads, easy viewing of images with jquery, auto-submitter to big news sites, etc. Could function as the role of media relative/press kit for news orgs as well.
Makes the process of rolling your own torrent of the data (hostable by thepiratebay amongst other choices) easy and deadsimple. Basically the ultimate CMS for hacking.
This is what Wikileaks was supposed to be/ originally was. Since they've changed gears a site for en masse data collection of value would be interesting, sadly the "wikileaks rivals" have no interest in this... so it's probably a good plan.
They changed gears because it turned out that passive reporting of giant fact dumps did not garner attention nor have significant impact on the world. As soon as they began taking on the role of curation or reporting on top of their cache of data, that's when things really took off (according to Assange).
>>>You know, I can see real utility in a simple site that lets you upload data garnered from hacking escapades online to be easily searchable and presentable to the general public.
Did you ever read Stephenson's Snow Crash? You just described what the CIA becomes in that novel: crowd-sourced intel uploaded to a central site.
That had one incentive lacking in the proposal though: cash to the uploader in exchange for access. Also, apparently, some rudimentary gatekeeping on what was uploaded (though it seems some people were able to upload tons of useless information for a while before getting the boot).
Downloads via Bittorrent would continue with ThePirateBay. This would just be an alternative way to view and search through the data without having to personally download it.
Hell, this could be quite useful for all those who use services or are employees of Gawker, Fox, PBS, the Iranian and US governments, and whoever else to see if they were part of the pwnd list and what information they have leaked out there.
In the process, a learning experience could be developed: change your passwords, and keep them unique across sites. This could be step #1 for a positive outcome.
Yeah, which is the point of the non-US/Europe hosting and domain registering, etc. Anonymous payment for hosting. What was the name of that really good French host that'd host anything and was aggressive about protecting its customers' privacy again? Basically any and all steps that could be taken to insure anonymity of those running the site. Likewise, no logs are kept of those using the site to search. Maybe minimal ones for security purposes in case of a breach for finding the cause and source. Ideally, little to no personal information of those running the site should be on there anyways. And no Tor please. Tor is a dead argument and very slow.
...did you pay attention to anything that went on with EG8? You have absolutely no guarantee that anything will be safe in France over the next few years, given Sarkozy's stance.
The second pirate pad is the most interesting (to me).
"2a. Suggestions on how to proceed
I know that there is an urge to "run and gun" this, perhaps go on a mad defacing spree, or start dropping anonymous based UI icons into the site's buttons, guy fakes banners, etc. We must resist this urge.
I think there is a tremendous opportunity if we get even 3 moderately popular anti-green sites. Let's look at sites A,B, and C.
What we should consider, is the ability to plant stories inside A, link to them from B, and then plant stories in B, and link to A and B's stories from C - the site with the most traffic.
The stories should be posted, if possible, two days ago, or yesterday, assuming a blog-like ability to set times and dates when you post.
Anyway, do what suits, thiswas just a thought. We may not have the luxury of time, in which case raw vandalization may do it - just put green party banners on the home page, and "anonymous" in text at the copyright on the bottom - that is just so they don't blame the green party for the exploit."
Interesting. It seems to indicate that perhaps some of Anonymous' actors have matured, or at least were able to use the petty vandalism phase of the group as a learning process.
I can't help but feel like with Anonymous talking about planting fake news, the whole government/HBGary thing about planting fake news, etc. that in the near future there may be some (albeit minor) crisis on the internet about finding news you can trust. Until the internet figures out how to route around the damage, of course.
Looks like Iran is doing business with several Nigerian dignitaries, helping them shift millions of US Dollars out of the country through Western Union.
I picked out a few dozen random ones - specifically with different subject lines and got nothing. Some passports in there, probably not good for the individuals.
The majority (or all of them, I can't tell) are directed to "e_visa@mfa.gov.ir" which seems to be related to http://evisa.mfa.gov.ir:7780/mfa/. That's the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs Online Electronic Visa Service"
I'm currently trying to see if I can find anything to do with: http://freethehikers.org/ Josh Fattal was a friend of mine in high school. Any help is appreciated.
2) They're primarily Visa approval/rejection notices
99% of the emails are boring, auto-send text, examples:
EMAIL A ------
Dear frederic norbert didier Your visa request has received successfully. You application ID is:99027 You will also be notified about your application process by e-mail. Thank you.
EMAIL B --------
With reference to your visa application No 1000116698-1000102795 , we are glad to inform you that your request is approved under No. 901841. . After 3 working days of receiving this approval , please approach in person the Iranian Embassy / General Consulate in LAHORE . and collect your required visa . Best regards,M.F.A / Passport and Visa Office .
---------
Pretty boring stuff. There is some Persian writing above the text in EMAIL B variants, so maybe that is interesting. I do not see any interesting English-text content.