A well-known figure known as the radio voice of Anonymous, LoraxLive, Adam Bennet who had also been arrested last year when he was found guilty of computer crimes, will eventually come to find out on March 11 about what exactly he had been charged with.
It had been expected that this will take place this week. However, the Australian Commonwealth prosecutors requested to be given permission for postponing it right at the last hour so as to change the lineup of accusations against Bennet. This has been done for the third time since the beginning of the case 10 months ago.
Infuriatingly, it was also specified by the prosecution that they shall be putting down the original charges against Bennet and replacing them with a set of new one.
Case adjourned until 11/03/15 – Charges are being dropped but new ones pending. 10mnths later we still don't know the charges are #freelorax
— Gemma (@g_advocat) March 4, 2015
The charge that will be held by the prosecution is one that relates to the criminal charges for a proof-of-concept penetration test done by Bennet on the vulnerability of Heartbleed so as to give him the opportunity to the check the security of his employer.
Last status update by LoraxLive:
Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!
— The Loraxlive show (@Loraxlive) May 17, 2014
The Australian Federal Police arrested and stormed Adam John Bennet on the 22nd of May, 2014 as he was found to have hacked into the AAPT Telecommunications and Indonesian government websites in 2012 according to the claim that the hacktivist entity Anonymous proposed as part of the actions.
Related Post: Protest Against Spying: Indonesian Gantengers Crew Hacks Australian National University Domain
The claims made by the Australian sect of Anonymous that the hacking caused 40 GB of data to be attained from the most significant Australian internet service providers (ISP) preceded the confirmation of breach given by AAPT in July 2012.
Anonymous declassified the data after the snatching away the information that was personally identifiable from the data, so as to make aware of the data security standard and expectations: To show that if the AAPT, one of the largest and most trusted ISP, is not able to keep its data secured, how can be trusted to keep the data of Australians safe according to the safety laws.
Anonymous also said, during the time when the incident took place, that breaking into the system of AAPT was a job that involved more than one man and so there were many people who were responsible for crafting the attack.
A proposition that is on its way to be declared as law was made by the Australian government that raised controversy. The proposal is to expand security by making ISP’s store user activity online for the duration of two years and this also includes the aspects of social networking and emails. Also, it was stated that the intelligence agencies would have an increased access to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
For consideration by the Parliament’s joint houses Committee on Intelligence and National Security, the proposal was revealed by the Attorney-General’s Department saying that it was for the protection of the nation.
Related Posts: #OpNSA: 31 Australian Government domains hacked amid spying row with Indonesia
An announcement made this week stated that this universal controversial data retention scheme is presently under Parliament’s considerations and it is expected that it will be passed. It may be possible that the legislators were prompted to append the security requirements for Australian telcos due to the attack made by Anonymous on AAPT so as to notify when there has been a breach of security of its own data stores that will be directed to be encrypted.
Criminal activity: Linking, Heartbleed pentesting
The prosecution on its presence in December 2014 stated that it will need more time as the task of completing the report is pretty huge and also involves copious amount of digital data and telephone intercepts covering 9000 Facebook messages which are still under consideration by the federal authorities. As such, Bennet’s hearing date was postponed to March 4, 2014 by the judge.
It is not the first time that the prosecution has delayed the hearing this week as well and also it is also not surprising that the Commonwealth has got a shell-game switchup of charges against Bennet. It seems that the prosecution is backed by a head Magistrate who happens to be granting them whatever they ask for and hence the charging of Mr. Bennet and the charges against it has been delayed three times.
After the business hours had been ended, the Commonwealth prosecutors on Friday March 4 put the considerably heavy evidence files on Bennet’s council, showing that the initial charges against Mr. Bennet of breaking into the systems of Indonesian government web servers and the AAPT will very likely be dropped.
Bennet, including an undercover operative, had been under full investigation since 2010 is what many believe. This means he was under the process well before the incidents of AAPT and the Indonesian government web servers took place which were actually the crimes which supported his warrant.
The “Heartbleed vulnerability Testing for Cancer Support W.A 2014” is one of the charges that is believed to presenting the final lineup. The charge relates to a Heartbleed vulnerability test invented by Bennet in order to test the servers of his employer for any Heartbleed vulnerability. Such an act would have brought the CRM that Bennet had been building for the company to a significant risk.
ZDnet was told by a source that was aware with the matter that while the POC was built, some amount of sample data had been used form an EDU as positive results also with some addresses that were found on his bookmarks for test data to run the program. The tests were run without any harmful reasoning and there were not any results to be stored.
Bennet lost his job as the Fundraising Manager at cancer wellness and support organization Cancer Support W.A after being arrested. Presently, Bennet is out on the bail conditions that he uses the internet only to find jobs, legal advice or for banking purposes. When Bennet has nothing else to do, he takes part as the Life-Saving Director of Scarboro Surf Lifesaving Club and a dedicated lifesaver. He has finished his first life-saving rescue of 2015 in January.
Bennet did not try concealing his work or his presence in the social media as LoraxLive even though many people pass the “Lorax” online. Topics that were covered in the online radio show LoraxLive included privacy, human rights, peaceful activism, hacking, surveillance, legal issues in the world and also worked hard to present under-heard voices from around the world.
Manning trial with Barrett Brown and Alexa O’Brien, Christine Assange, lawyers Jay Leiderman and Jesselyn Radack, the Eff’s Jillian York and Parker Higgins, writers Dr. Jack Heinemann and Violet Blue, Jeremy Hammond’s “second mum” Sue Crabtree, whistleblowers like Thomas Drake and ex-CIA operative Karen Hudes along with others are on the list of the extensive LoraxLive show.
ZDnet has been told by the show producer Pamela Drew who is very closely working with Lorax on the LoraxLive show that people advocating his release are very supportive and have provided information utilizing the #FreeLorax hashtag.
Australian Federal Police is responsible for holding majority of the LoraxLive shows and are not put in the area of public domain, Drew told ZDnet. She also told that since Bennet’s arrest, the show has been put off.
Due to charges of hacking being put against the Anonymous host of Lorax Live, he has been restricted from producing new shows, said Drew. Drew also explained that Lorax is a firm supporter of human rights and an enthusiastic believer in open information and also that Lorax had been giving out of generosity of his time and talents in order to educate others.
It was also said that the inspiration for the Lorax Live show was Nelson’s Mandela’s Radio Freedom which broadcast in disobedience of South Africa’s apartheid policy and was then followed by 8 year jail sentence for those listening. Lorax was well informed that he had become a target for a corrupt covert empire and like his guests, he is more than willing to pay a price no matter how much high it is as long as it is for speaking out the truth to power and fighting against the whole world for justice and peace.
Source: ZDNet | Follow @HackRead