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## Re: [CT] DISCUSSION - Anonymous vs Cartels

Released on 2012-03-02 01:00 GMT

Email-ID | 156645
Date | 2011-10-24 20:50:49
From | tristan.reed@stratfor.com
To | analysts@stratfor.com
List-Name | analysts@stratfor.com

I agree. I haven't seen any defining attributes of Anonymous as a group.
They may not even know the identities of each other. There are several
facebook / twitter Anonymous pages, which seem to be run by different
individuals.
What about defining Anonymous in terms of the individual? Instead of
saying Anonymous attacking cartels, Individuals acting under the Anonymous
name....
-But we don't know what information Anonymous' adherents have access to,
and doubt they have such information that provides any sort of existential
threat to the cartels as a whole or their networks.
This is a problem with the threat assessment. Technically, anything cartel
related (emails, online transactions, Mexican LEA information, etc.) would
be available to a hacker, but we don't know if they have had access to
this information, or if the hackers interested in harming cartels are
capable. It's not even confirmed hackers have revealing information on
cartel supporters which the video claims.
On 10/24/11 1:11 PM, Sean Noonan wrote:
Somehow we have to stop referring to 'anonymous' as a monolith. They
are a bunch of different people that essentially get together in an
online-form of a mob to carry out some action. I'm not sure how to do
this in writing consistently. But let's start with shit like 'people
joining Anonymous chatrooms and claiming to be part of the movement' or
something like that.
Comments in green below. This is coming together nicely.
On 10/24/11 11:19 AM, Tristan Reed wrote:
do they specify whether or not these are all in Mexico? Are some of
these in the US?
What is the significance of singling out taxi drivers?.
I will have to relisten to video to see if they specifically mention
whether all examples were in Mexico. The Taxi drivers are significant
because they were specifically mentioned as one of the targets in
revealing cartel connections. It also demonstrates a lack of
understanding of who they are attacking. A taxi driver in Acapulco is
expendable to cartels, but may also be cooperating with cartels out of
coercion.
Anonymous does not pose a direct physical security threat to Mexican
cartels. mmmm... i mean, they're not going hold a gun to the head of
el chapo, but there is something to be said for the using publication
as a tool to force government action. If you reveal actionable
intelligence, the government will use it against the cartels. That's a
physical threat, if one step removed. Agreed, but I want to specify
that Anonymous can not directly effect physical security. Any impact
to the cartel in revealing information will be from actions of rival
cartels or the GoM. They may release information on a given politician
being linked to the cartels, but it's not a guarantee that the
politician will feel an impact (Just because Anonymous says there is a
link, doesn't make it true). It would be up to others to take action.
I think the way you have it worded in the above sentence is good.
Follow with a sentence explaining the rest of it, because readers will
have the same question Karen did. Something like 'Rather, the threat
to cartels would come in what information anonymous could expose that
is useful to their enemies'
Anonymous has demonstrated it's ability to reveal illicit online
activity (child pornography rings) and the cartels are known to
conduct significant logistics and business online. We don't know how
much, but we do know they will have some points of operational
vulnerability I have heard of cartels doing business online, but don't
have specific examples which could be used in assessing their
vulnerability online.
by "no consequences" what exactly do you mean? They can be fired,
arrested or murdered, and that happens all the time. Point taken, I
should say, there is not a guarantee of consequences for calling out
politicians as colluding.
On 10/24/11 9:46 AM, Karen Hooper wrote:
Karen Hooper
Latin America Analyst
o: 512.744.4300 ext. 4103
c: 512.750.7234
STRATFOR
www.stratfor.com
On 10/24/11 9:32 AM, Tristan Reed wrote:
Reposting this with a new shorter focus. Instead of discussing
possible cartel responses, the focus is on what type of threat
Anonymous can pose to cartels. The video released by people using
the banner of Anonymous, threatens revealing personal information on
cartels as well as states a member had been kidnapped. I could not
find any sources outside of Anonymous' claims of the individual
being kidnapped. According to their facebook sites (Anonymous Mexico
and Anonymous Veracruz) it sounds like it may be an individual
posting flyers ['critical of cartels'?] in Veracruz as part of the
Operation Paperstorm protest, although that is speculation. [this is
good and will be enough information to go with, though you'll need a
quick explanation of what 'operation paperstorm' is. Adding
something in the explaining the flyers will work]
Link: themeData
Anonymous, a decentralized hacker collective famous for distributed
denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks on government and corporate
websites, lashed out at drug cartels via the Internet with a
statements denouncing Mexico's criminal cartels, including a video
depicting a masked individual addressing Mexican drug cartels on
October 10? With the most recent video release, Anonymous makes bold
threats towards the criminal cartels in Mexico. Threats such as
releasing identities of taxi drivers, police, politicians, and
journalists who collude with criminal cartels do they specify
whether or not these are all in Mexico? Are some of these in the US?
What is the significance of singling out taxi drivers?. The hacker
group demanded Los Zetas release a fellow kidnapped member otherwise
face consequences. In the Anonymous' video, this coming November 5th
was mentioned as a day cartels could expect Anonymous' reaction if
their demands of releasing a kidnapped member are not met. The
potential of conflict between Mexico's criminal cartels and hackers,
presents a unique threat towards TCOs [If TCO= transnational
criminal organization, it's not really unique. Many such
organizations do their crimes online, and have been hacked in
response--like the nigerian princess scams. I think you should just
say it's a unique threat to DTOs] . We know of cartels lashing out
at online bloggers, but I haven't seen any reporting on cartels
dealing with any headaches from hackers before.
What Anonymous brings to the table in a conflict
o Anonymous would not pose a direct physical security
threat to Mexican cartels. mmmm... i mean, they're not going hold a
gun to the head of el chapo, but there is something to be said for
the using publication as a tool to force government action. If you
reveal actionable intelligence, the government will use it against
the cartels. That's a physical threat, if one step removed.
o Anonymous' power base is the ability to exploit online
media
o Anonymous hackers do not have to be in Mexico to lash out
at cartels
While not certain, there is a potential for Anonymous to pose a
threat, if it had access to certain types of information:
-The threat is in the information they can expose that may
be of use to any cartel enemies. That could be to the government or
other cartels or even local citizens (the last one may be a stretch, but
i could imagine someone discrediting cartel members in the eyes of the
public).
o It is unknown if Anonymous's claims tocut possess
identifiable information on cartel members
o It is unknown what information Anonymous could acquire on
cartels [cut this part here, and make the point at the end of this
section/paragraph]
o Bank accounts, any online transactions or communications,
identifiable information on cartels members have to be considered in
the realm of possibilities for
Anonymous
o Anonymous has demonstrated it's ability to reveal
illicit online activity (child pornography rings) and the cartels
are known to conduct significant logistics and business online. We
don't know how much, but we do know they will have some points of
operational vulnerability
-They claim to have information on those that collude with cartels
(use the stuff you have above]. Releasing such information could hurt
cartels' support networks, but most of these people are also easily
replaceable.
-But we don't know what information Anonymous' adherents
have access to, and doubt they have such information that provides any
sort of existential threat to the cartels as a whole or their networks.
Most Anonymous hackers are likely far removed from the ultra-violent
world of drug trafficking in Mexico, but it's quite possible that
some of its members in this campaign are in Mexico and opposed to
the violence [or something like that. my limited understanding is
there are still activist crusader-types in Mexico, yeah? it seems
very possible those with a bit of time or computer skills could have
joined up with anonymous] . As a result, their understanding of
cartel activities may be limited. Anonymous members in other
countries may act with confidence when sitting in front of a
computer, but this may blind them to any possible retribution. They
may not even know the impact of any online assault of cartels. [the
part below and above is written rather normatively. We need to take
that out. just state the facts]
o Revealing information on taxi drivers and journalists
will cost lives. Anonymous may not understand some of these
individuals are forced to collude with cartels. Taxi
drivers are often victims of extortion or coerced to act as
halcones. Revealing the identity of these individuals will not have
a significant impact on cartel operations.
Politicans have been accused of working with cartels (Guerrero &
Veracruz' governor) before, however there has yet to be any
consequences from this. by "no consequences" what exactly do you
mean? They can be fired, arrested or murdered, and that happens all
the time.
o Anonymous hackers may not understand the extent cartels
are willing to go protect their operations.
o Any hackers in Mexico are at risk.
o Cartels have reached out to the computer science
community before, coercing computer science majors into working for
them.
o This provides the cartels with the possibility of
discovering hackers within Mexico.
need to mention that if Anonymous goes the route of simply
publishing tactical details of cartel activities, they'll be in the
same camp as the bloggers [yes, i think it needs to be clear that
their damage will be similar to what bloggers or wikileaks can
do--limited. But maybe more a danger to themselves, since they are
no longer challenging governments, but criminal organizations]
On 10/17/11 10:19 AM, Marc Lanthemann wrote:
Oh man we are threading new ground here - I like the idea but
there are several issues to address and fix here.
These are the bullets of my main analytical concern with the
discussion:
o we don't know who got kidnapped or why. that's fine but
we can't gloss over that fact
o "hackers" is a blanket term - there's a difference
between stealing bank records from government computers and
overloading www.loszetas.com main page.
o There's no thought out process of what sort of
information could anon have on the cartels. What kind of info is
kept online and accessible to potential attacks? You seem to be
talking about identities, whose? If anything it's dirty cops,
politicians and businessmen who need to worry about what anon is
going to be saying. Think about why the bloggers and media were
killed in previous instances. Was it because they revealed
operational details, because they acted as informants, because
they exposed links with officials or because they somehow sullied
the cartel's reputation? In short, what kind of information is
damaging to the cartels themselves?
o Once you identify this info - think about if anon can
realistically access it and disseminate it so it causes a measure
of damage. Anon doesn't have any intelligence capacity except for
the technical ability by a very small number of its members to
infiltrate certain networks and databases and steal information.
Now what kind of information would a cartel keep on a network that
is connected to the internet (aka no intranet)? Where else could
information be found? Government databases? Once we know what kind
of information is accessible, we can also know more about the
consequences of dissemination.
o What's the IT capacity of a cartel? Sufficient to trace
back attacks? If it's not, there risks to be a lot of killings
done by people who may not understand the difference between an
anon hacker and a blogger.
On 10/17/11 9:47 AM, Colby Martin wrote:
wanted to forward Karen's thoughts to analyst
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [CT] DISCUSSION - Anonymous vs Cartels
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 09:28:18 -0500
From: Karen Hooper <hooper@stratfor.com>
Reply-To: CT AOR <ct@stratfor.com>
To: CT AOR <ct@stratfor.com>
you've got some of the issues here, but this is going to need a
lot more work
You need to lay out:
a) What exactly is going on with Anonymous, your trigger section
is unclear
b) what our assessment of the online cartel presence is, and
therefore their vulnerabilities and capabilities
c) How capable is Anonymous of breaching high security anything
d) how far the cartels would be willing to travel to kill anyone
who breaches their systems or exposes their connections
I also just want to point out that we have reasonable reliable
insight that Sinaloa at the very least has some significant
levels of sophistication in their online presence, to include
the use of cyber currencies and significant IT capacity. There
is no reason to assume that Los Zetas don't also conduct
business online, in a protected fashion.
Karen Hooper
Latin America Analyst
o: 512.744.4300 ext. 4103
c: 512.750.7234
STRATFOR
www.stratfor.com
On 10/17/11 8:46 AM, Renato Whitaker wrote:
On 10/17/11 8:25 AM, Tristan Reed wrote:
Link: themeData
Trigger
Recently, Mexican cartels have faced a new enemy, hackers.
Anonymous, a well-publicized hacker group famous for...?, lashed
out at drug cartels via the Internet with a statements
denouncing Mexico's criminal cartels, including a video released
depicting...? a person talking? a voice? words on a screen?
exactly when?. With the most recent video release, Anonymous
makes bold threats towards the criminal cartels. Threats such as
releasing identities of Mexican? American? taxi drivers, police,
politicians, and journalists who collude with criminal cartels.
The hacker group demanded Los Zetas release a fellow kidnapped
member otherwise face consequences. The potential of conflict
between Mexico's criminal cartels and hackers, presents an
unprecedented war front for the cartels. The vastly different
operations of Anonymous and Los Zetas leave a conflict both
Anonymous and the cartels have little experience in handling. i
believe that Anonymous has no experience with the cartels. I do
not believe for a second that the cartels have no experience
with hackers.
In the Anonymous' video, this coming November 5th was mentioned
as a day cartels could expect Anonymous' reaction if their
demands of releasing a kidnapped member this should be mentioned
right up front. Cartels have a member, Anonymous is threatening
to hit back. Provide enough details so we understand who this
guy is and why/how he was abducted. are not met. If Anonymous'
claims of possessing revealing information on cartel members and
operations are true, cartels will likely respond with violence
against individuals revealed as opposing cartel members huh? you
mean Anonymous members?. It also is likely that public
disclosure of GOM officials who collude with DTOs will force the
GOM to take action, giving the Anonymous threat complexity i
don't understand what this means. You mean the GOM will threaten
Anonymous?. How effectively any cartel will be able to retaliate
against Anonymous remains unanswered . However, cartels will
continue their threats against any individual using online media
WC.... you mean tools? or weapons? We're not talking about
bloggers here. against the cartels.
The Battle Space
Anonymous's and the cartels activities exist in two separate
realities from each other. Anonymous operates solely in sphere
of the computer networks. Anonymous does not experience
geographical boundaries. All personalities within Anonymous,
exist solely in cyber space. (That is not entirely true. They
are physical people tho live in the real world. They have names
and addresses - although most of them are likely outside of MX.)
Anonymous' power base consists of their technical capabilities
in hacking. Any information connected to the Internet is
vulnerable to exploits by hackers. (Identifying the pc's of
individual cartel members in the midst of Mexico's population
could be quite difficult. Remember that most of what Anonymous
has done are DDOS attacks. Sucks if you are Mastercard or a big
company with a website that brings in revenue, but it does not
really matter if you don't run operations on the web. Los Z
don't make much money via e-commerce. They are also far less
dependent on the web than the jihadists.)
Anonymous is known for its hacking endevours, but it's power
base consists of the perceived anonymity that its members
believe themselves to have, real or otherwise, by operating
through the internet. This gives an opening for people
disgruntled by anything and everything to practice general
dickery. As the popular meme goes, anonymity + audience = troll.
Only a fraction of the large web of people who identify
themselves as "anonymous" have any sort of serious IT
capability.
The largest threat towards a hacker's existence so far has been
from targeted arrests by Law Enforcement Agencies.
The criminal cartels in Mexico operate on the streets in US and
Mexican cities. They are run as a business, always looking to
maximize profits and expand. But they are bricks and mortar
commerce. Yes..... but they use the internet to launder money
and issue commands. We know that Sinaloa does that from insight.
There is no reason to assume that Los Zetas don't have a similar
capacity. Their power base is built by large amounts of revenue
and escalating brutal violence. Cartels like Los Zetas, are
experienced in facing different types of threats. Cartels are
always suffering at the hands of cartel on cartel violence.
While battling each other, cartels still face arrests by Law
Enforcement Agencies. As cartels wish to avoid any hindrance in
the flow of drugs and money, cartels have targeted media
outlets. Murdering journalists and online bloggers in order to
cover details of their operations. ok... but that's kind of a
red herrng for this discussion. You need to focus on the
possible vulnerabilities of the cartels. Don't just assume they
have no cyber presence.
Anonymous' Weapons
Whatever impact will be felt due to Anonymous' actions against
criminal cartels has yet to be seen. Anonymous' only ability to
combat cartels lay in information operations, mainly
disseminating sensitive information on cartels and propagating
anti-cartel statements via social media and defaced websites in
Mexico you mean so far and that we know of?. As Anonymous
admitted in their video to cartels, they cannot fight with
guns. The significance of a targeted information operations
campaign by technically elite individuals can not be overlooked
should not be underestimated. Cartels view main stream media
outlets and social media blogs as such a threat to their
operations, that they have continued to target journalists and
bloggers. Last month, a message signed by Los Zetas was placed
with a dead female body more relevantly, on the body of a
blogger. The message threatened any users who denounce cartels
on blogging websites. getting repetitive here, and it's not
really addressing the subheading
As stated earlier, any information connected to the internet
risks disclosure by Anonymous. There is ample reason to suggest
Anonymous is capable of possessing information they threaten to
release. By releasing identities of individuals cooperating with
Mexican cartels, Anonymous threatens the life of those
individuals. Anonymous's ability to disseminate sensitive
information is limited by what is available via the Internet.
Government computers connected to the Internet should always be
considered a possibility of an attack. However, as with the
compartmentalized nature of the US governments computer
networks, information available to Mexico's intelligence
collection may not be easy to acquire. what are you trying to
say here? This isn't clear at all
Cartel's Defense
A counter response to the video? by the cartels has
yet to see fruition. However, Anonymous' claims of a kidnapped
member by Los Zetas suggest Los Zetas have begun addressing the
threat posed by hackers so... how has there not been a counter
response? also this undermines your statements above about how
Anonymous is soley internet based, and underlines the
vulnerabilities of associated members. How did they find teh
Anonymous member? The answer to that could very well give you
some indication to the technical ability of the cartels . As
Anonymous exists in abstract reality of the world wide web , the
cartels will face a number of challenges which rarely are posed
for them Again, how do you know? The USG has whole agencies
dedicated to fucking shit up in cyberspace. You can assume (and
we have good intel indicating that) they are working on
disrupting the cartels.. Hackers threatening cartels, can
operate in any region of the world. Personal information
including locations is only available if a hacker chooses to
divulge it or if the subject of the attack is savvy enough to
figure it out. Hackers don't only work for Anonymous. Cartels
are only capable of dealing with their online enemy, if they can
physically reach out to them. Or start employing hackers of
their own under their payroll? Stranger things have happened,
Why not a Zetas 2.0?
Cartels have been known to coerce the services of
Mexican citizens with a technical background. Recruiting the
help of computer science majors through personal threats has
been reported in the past where? What cartels? reported where?.
Since cartels operate in the world of urban violence and drug
trafficking, they will likely need the assistance of technical
experts to help combat any threat by computer hackers. While
identifying bloggers inside of Mexico has been demonstrated, it
is unlikely cartels are capable of identifying any hackers
operating outside of Mexico. Even law enforcement agencies such
as the FBi, with far more technical experience and resources
than cartels, struggle to find hackers through investigations.
A) How do you know they are not in Mexico? (Who was the guy they
kidnapped???) B) I'm goign to assume that not all hackers are
equally difficult to track down
In order to compete with an online foe, cartels will
likely continue counter tactics they are most familiar with,
brute force. Cartels are still capable of their HUMINT
operations within Mexico "still"? why would we assume they
wouldn't be?. Individuals with alleged connections to hacker
communities will likely be targeted and interrogated by cartel
members. Narco banners and public display of violence will
likely continue to be used to scare online media into submission
i'm not really seeing the online media-international hacking
group connection here. The cruel manners in which cartels
inflict harm, is something computer hackers have unlikely
encountered before in their life. Whether the fear of cartel
violence softens the confidence of Anonymous will remain to be
seen until cartels are able to seek out and capture members of
the hacker group.. Or the Narcos could call the collective bluff
and simply go on and shrug off any inconvenience that Anon can
inflict.
--
Marc Lanthemann
Watch Officer
STRATFOR
+1 609-865-5782
www.stratfor.com
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com