Well, it looks like the war is on. The Church of Scientology’s attempts to squash circulation of a video of Tom Cruise last week seem to have been the final straw for a group that calls itself “Anonymous.” According to a recent report in Wired, the cryptically-named organization recently stated that its main goal is to destroy the leadership of the Church of Scientology.The first public salvo was launched over the past couple of days as a group of hackers claiming affiliation with Anonymous took down the home page of the Church with repeated distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. DDOS attacks flood target servers with requests, so that they become overwhelmed with data and shut down. This results in a site that doesn’t work, which is exactly what visitors to the Scienology Web site experienced during the attack. The attacks flooded Scientology’s Web servers with as much as 220 megabits per-second, which security experts claim is a mid-sized attack. While this attack is not the largest of its kind ever seen, it does show some level of organization, “It’s not just one or two guys hanging out in the university dorms doing this,” said Jose Nazario, a senior security engineer with Arbor Networks. The church has since moved its site to servers run by Prolexic Technologies, a company that specialized in protection from DDOS attacks.
OK I know I’m not commenting much. Part of that is because I’m busy, and part is that sometimes, the comments write themselves!
They should set their goals higher. They should attack and dismantle all of the world’s religions.
So, when are the followers going to learn that the religion was founded by a sci-fi writer on a bet?
I lived near Clearwater, FL for four years, and they all looked like zombies. I’m really curious what they do to these people behind closed doors.
They truly are some of the most whacked-out people in the world.
where do I sign up. I’ll willingly donate some spare cpu cycles to Anonymous.
Don’t $cientologists have every right to post their message, crazy and dangerous as it is, on the internet? I really can’t say that I support these guerilla saboteurs.
alexatheist
no they don’t.just where in the articles of confederation is there any thing about free speech limey.
In their persecution of ’squirrels’ (sects of the Church of Scientology), Scientologists have abused their rights by bending the law to further their agenda. Copyrighting ‘religious’ material is tantamount to violating the establishment clause, in my not-so-authoritative opinion. I just hope Anonymous has some serious resources.
I didn’t have any problem logging on to $cientology.org during the days of the DDOS attack, or just now, so I don’t know how successful the group was.
And like I said before, what if they decided to set their sights on us?
Alex has a point. Free speech and all that. Even Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptists have the right to post their brand of hatred. When it comes to $cientology, let the buyer beware.
Sounds like what we have here is a bunch whacked-out religious nuts, without the huevos to be publicly connected with their cyber-jihad, attacking another bunch of whacked-out religious nuts. Now that’s just unheard of!
I’m not even sure I’d call Scientology a ‘religion’, other than they have the tax free status of a ‘church’ (smart move there Elron). It’s more some kind of self-improvement cult based on aliens and stuff.
BTW, I have a friend who lives in Clearwater Florry Duh (their home base for those who don’t know) and I’ve spent a few months visiting him out there over the years, he enjoys nothing more than ranting and raving about them, and pointing them out as well as all their real estate interests. The followers are not only wandering all over the place like an army of Jehova’s Witness zombies with their briefcases and suits and ties, they pretty much own the city, at least as far as real estate goes. As we drove around my friend would point out motel after hotel, all empty. He said if you go in there and ask for a room, they will say they are booked up solid and have no rooms to let, even tho it’s obvious the place is deserted. But come one of their conventions or whatever they call their mass gatherings, and every room is full–they own the motels but ’save’ the rooms for all the devotees when they’re in town, won’t rent if you’re not one of Elron’s Own. They also own some pretty impressive high rise office buildings right down town–a lot of money behind the group.
Anyway, while I think they go beyond even the regular ‘religions’ on the Whack-o-meter scale, I’m don’t approve of the DOS attack…what goes around comes around, and who’s to say we won’t be next by another group? Besides, They got more money that gawd anyway, it won’t slow them down a bit.
Mocking and exposing their insanity (or letting them shoot themselves in the foot like Cruise is doing so well)is probably more effective.
Hay guys, bit of an anon maself. Perhaps I should explain their little plan here.
First, these cats are not just a bunch of 11 year olds. They are HACKERS ON $TEROIDS.
From http://partyvan.info.nyud.net/index.php/Project_Chanology
our goals is stated as:
* Save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing and helping Scientologists realize that the Church of Scientology in its current state is a vast money /\/\aking scheme under the guise of “religion.” Everyone has the right to freedom of religion, but religion should be free.
* Gain experience of performing operations on a global scale.
* Alert the public to our presence and recruit active participants.
* Lulz.
DDOS attacks are just phase one. Nows, we is staging real life protests to stop Scientology.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WTEZwAFNWqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfKQ75F0XsA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U98bio91ygM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cGtUd_zBEA
Phase 3 shall commence shortly. Scientology will die. Support Anon.
Horus,
I don’t, as a general rule, support illiterates, nor do I support criminals.
Furthermore, the quickest way to spread a message is to actively try to suppress it.
Anonymous is doing Scientology’s work for them. I wouldn’t be too surprised if this DDOS attack was staged by the Church of Scientology as a publicity stunt.
Also, this phrase is really funny:
Translation: they are hackers with shrunken testicles.
Horus
What’s the deal with the video of the yellow van parked in front of the $cientology building? I don’t get it?
I hope I dont have to hear a bunch of crap about scientologists being persecuted. Amusing as it is.
Karen, the van is the /b/ party van. /b/ is the random board on all the chans that spawned anonymous (they do not allow user names).
alatham, I know you wouldn’t understand my post, its written in a style more common on /b/. Hackers on $teroids is in reference to a report fox news did on us.
We are doing this, not Scientology. We are protesting their attempts at censorship across the internet as well as their constant bullying of internet citizens. We are internet super heroes.
Karen, the van is the /b/ party van. /b/ is the random board on all the chans that spawned anonymous (they do not allow user names).
alatham, I know you wouldn’t understand my post, its written in a style more common on /b/. Hackers on $teroids is in reference to a report fox news did on us.
We are doing this, not Scientology. We are protesting their attempts at censorship across the internet as well as their constant bullying of internet citizens. We are internet super heroes.
Horus,
There is a difference between “style” and “grammar”. Deliberately using poor grammar is a good way to get yourself ignored. If nobody respects the way you communicate, why would they respect the message?
Super heroes? Hardly.
The Church of Scientology is not stupid, I have no doubts that they could easily rope people into a scheme like this in order to get themselves publicized and to endanger non-scientologists who go along with the plan. I would not be surprised if they found a nice fall-guy for this DDOS attack. It may very well be that you’re falling into a trap.
Besides, why would you stoop to their level?
Horus,
You also wrote this under the post about Scientists making artificial genetic material:
If you buy into the existence of Hell, why do you seem to be bothered that Scientologists buy into the existence of a different set of fairy tales?
Many other churches are just as guilty of suppressing free speech and thought as the Church of Scientology is.
Horus,
One final message, I suggest you read this article about the Church of Scientology’s past activities:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporgery
Internet Super Heroes? There goes my interest. You aren’t a super hero. You are an 11 year old BBS poster/candystriper who splits his time between icanhascheezburger and world of warcraft. lulz u pwnzor Horu$ ,>
That said, I can’t say I didn’t chuckle and secretly hope for Anons success. And whatever, don’t kill the messenger I guess.
I don’t know that scientology is a religion either. Do they actually worship a deity of some type?
I always got the impression it is a whacked out self-improvement organization which is crazy expensive.
Admittedly I don’t know much about them other than what I’ve seen on south park.
Alatham, I’m sorry my interweb speak offends you. “Internet Super Hero” is an inside joke amongst us ediots and channers.
Scientology(or scifags as we call them) are definitely not stupid. They have been fighting back by revenge DDOS attacks(on the wrong sites, of course). They also try to follow us home after we leave the protests. They are certainly getting wise to us.
But despite this anon IS prevailing. We took down scientology.org for a week straight. We have stolen and leaked secret Scientology documents. We have made them look like fools in their neighborhoods. We are winning this fight.
On your second post:
Alatham, I’m definitely an atheist. Definitely joking there about the burning in hell.
Do non-atheists come to this site? I thought the part about the “nogodblog” would scare them away.
Horus
No religion is free. They all demand money from their believers. xians ask for 10% of their members income for tithe, so technically nothing is free.
It is the right of any organization or business to charge or ask for whatever amount of money they want for their services.
I just don’t get the reason for picking scientology to attack.
Screwing with the scientologists seems like a waste of time.
dawnisis,
Scientology takes a much bigger percent of the believer’s income then any other “religion.” Churches need tithes for priest salary’s and church upkeep. Scientology takes huge amounts of money and kicks it up to the head guys, who get incredibly rich. They build enormous unneeded structures that the actual believers will almost uniformly be denied access to unless they are incredibly wealthy. They hire lawyers who bring frivolous lawsuits to exhaust the money supply of critics. They bleed the believer’s money dry to recruit celebrities.
Scientology also commits numerous human rights violations. Just read a bit of this interview with Elron Hubbard Jr: http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/scien240.html
There was also an incident where they locked a defector in a room for days as punishment and she starved.
Lastly, in my opinion, Scientology has a superior conversion and indoctrination system when compared to the Abrahamic faiths. They could very likely be the next major world religion. Why not destroy this cult now before it grows even more powerful and violent?
I think you give scientology way too much credit. They are not gonna be the “next major world religion”. The majority of religious folk cannot grasp what scientology is selling.
It takes a very long time to starve to death and it ain’t a few days. So I ain’t buying that as the cause of death.
Furthermore, you can’t honestly think they meant to kill her? That makes it an accident.
I read that link of yours and look at this quote:
Need I say more? This whole thing is just a bunch of unsubstantiated craziness. Satanism and black magic?
Whatever man.
Scientology is just an expensive self-help club and it is ridiculous to go after them.
At least if scientology became the world religion the trolls that come here would be more interesting and we wouldn’t have to talk about jesus anymore.
One more thing about your post Horus,
I am just gonna set aside the fact that you somehow think it’s okay to destroy organizations you don’t agree with and just ask you exactly HOW you think hacking a website is gonna impede the growth of scientology?
Scientology just made the news because of the hack. The attention will make even more people curious about scientology and thereby scientology gathers more followers. This hack HELPED scientology not hurt them.
Good for them. A fool and his money are soon parted. So it’s illegal now to exploit stupid people? Hell, that’s the american way.
Hell, even I’m curious about scientology now.
Too funny!
Horus
The whole Anon thing sounds childish. You don’t have to convince us that Scientology is whacky and abusive. When is Anon going after the Southern Baptists?
Scientology is [more than] just an expensive [and fraudulent organisation that pretends to be a] self-help club and it is ridiculous to [not] go after them [with the full force of the law and every bit of public scorn and satire we can manage].
Letting them portray themselves as victims rather than perpetrators of illegal activity, is not so good. It is certainly going to be spun for any positive effect they can manage, be sure of it.
You know there was a time when the established Roman and Jewish religions were challenged by a new death cult based on a warmed over god named Mithras. It was frequently the subject of persecution by the old religions, often through state edicts.
When Constantine found it politically expedient to support Christianity during his bid to unite the separated parts of the Roman Empire under his rule, that was the beginning of the end for the old Roman Gods. He even declared the bishops the source of doctrine, with himself as Christian Emperor and enforcer against heresies.
The $cientologist leaders have every intention of expanding their influence and power as far as they can. They already enjoy a very luxurious lifestyle. It is based, amongst other things, on the labour of $cientologists assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF. There is little to distinguish this from slavery.
How much success they will have in reaching their goals, who can say? Every day that they continue to exist, they damage some more people, financially, mentally and socially.
I wonder what other vigilante actions we will see from the youth of the Internet Age.
DD,
So every movement that shows signs of success should be destroyed? The sheep will always seek a shepherd.
Scientology has as much right to exploit the stupid and desperate as any other religion.
As for the idea scientology is gonna spread like wild fire, I still don’t buy it. But even if it does, who cares?
Atheists will remain atheists and the others will remain slaves. I have no sympathy for these people and their choices.
Horus,
“Offends” is not the right word to use. “Disappoints” would be more appropriate. I was trying to explain to you the importance of clear communication (let’s ignore that this is one of the core doctrines of Scientology).
If you want to use your interweb speak, I don’t care. I grok it. But you have to accept that people outside of that community will not take you seriously. If you don’t want to be taken seriously, then please continue.
Calling them “scifags” is really not helping the case. Homophobia (or even the impression of it) is not going to win you any friends.
All you did was give 10,000 people a reason to check out their website to see if it was down. How many of them stayed to read their self-help nonsense?
Even then, you use the word “we” but you don’t actually know the people involved. Why do you disregard the idea that the CoS is really the one pulling the strings here? Public sympathy (even if undeserved) is an excellent thing to have on your side.
Glad to hear you’re not a theist.
And yes, we get lots of theists here spouting nonsense. I took you for one of them since I had never seen your username here before.
Theists aren’t scared of our presence, they are scared of our logic. I think we get a new troll twice a month here, they never stay long since they are never prepared for logical arguments.
Agreed. If there were more than 100,000 of them I might be worried about it.
Dawnisis,
Wanna know more about the crap of scientology?
http://www.xenu.net/
Thx for the link 666 I will give it a thorough going through. I’ve heard so much about them it seems so hard to believe they get any members.
These people arent just conning, they are brainwashing people. They encourage members to cut contact with friends and family who disapprove of the cult. They expect you to work for practically nothing. Lisa McPherson died of dehydration. The Sci. church even harassed the conductors of the autopsy. Ron H. is known to have said that the easiest way of getting rich is to start a religon. With most mainstream religons, the dogma has developed over centuries. New age beliefs are generally vague or extensions of old myths and they develop from a wide variety of sources. Scientology however, is based on the ‘teachings’ of one man. There isnt any kind of framework that ron used, he created every last bit of it in his psychopathic head.
These people arent just conning, they are brainwashing people. They encourage members to cut contact with friends and family who disapprove of the cult. They expect you to work for practically nothing. Lisa McPherson died of dehydration. The Sci. church even harassed the conductors of the autopsy. Ron H. is known to have said that the easiest way of getting rich is to start a religon. With most mainstream religons, the dogma has developed over centuries. New age beliefs are generally vague or extensions of old myths and they develop from a wide variety of sources. Scientology however, is based on the ‘teachings’ of one man. There isnt any kind of framework that ron used, he created every last bit of it in his psychopathic head.
Oopsy, sorry about the duplicate post. As I was saying…
The fair game policy explicitly sanctions ruining any defecting sciologists financially, socially and even physically. They permit physical attacks! They locked up Lisa when she was unstable, put her on a liquid diet, gave sedatives without a prescription (and they are supposedly against the use of medications that affect the mind – thats what tom said about brooke shields, right?) and did not inform her family.
Dawn,
Since you find it hard to believe Lisa was dehydrated, look at the autopsy pictures. Her body is horribly bruised and she had been REPEATEDLY BITTEN BY INSECTS (COCKROACHES) ALL OVER HER BODY. These pictures are horrible so dont see them if youre squeamish- http://whyaretheydead.net/lisa_mcpherson/autopsy/autopsy_03/index.html
http://www.lisamcpherson.org/lisapics.htm
Anonymous gets my thumbs up.