“Julian and I met in a #BBS, an early community internet hub, in 1994. He’s highly gifted intellectually, self-taught, a deep thinker and motivated by wanting to solve the ills of the world. At that time, it was a lot of hanging out in warehouses listening to #techno and #geeking out with other people from those hubs. But he did real-life things too: he was a part of the community campaign to save the #Fitzroy Pool from closure.” — #SueletteDreyfus on #JulianAssange
“#Underground, with #JulianAssange: Underground is the compelling true story of the rise of the computer underground and the crimes of an elite group of hackers who took on the forces of the establishment.
Tracing an international ring of computer hackers which spanned three continents and nearly a decade of computer crime, author #SueletteDreyfus weaves a gripping tale against a backdrop of cutting edge technology.
Underground uncovers the previously hidden story behind hackers from #8LGM, #TheRealm, the publishers of International Subversive and other linked Internet hacking groups. These elite #hackers were the cream of the international computer underground and broke into tens of thousands of computers, belonging to some of the world's most prestigious institutions including #Citibank, the #Pentagon, #NATO, the #FT100, #NASA, #LockheedMartin, #DeutscheTelekom and .AustralianTelecom.
After hacking the Defence Data Network's .NIC, some had total control over the most important computers on the Internet - computers which would let them stop communications across the entire net. They divised methods of making free and untraceable telephone calls to hide their activities, invented worms, stalked, hacked and thumbed their noses at security experts such as Eugene Spafford & Cliff Stoll and reporters from the New York Times.
They monitored the police -- while the police monitored them. The hackers came from all walks of life, gathering on-line in Germany from Australia, Europe, the UK, the US and Canada, to pursue their targets with an obsessive fervour.”
“A single #bitcoin donation worth almost $740,000 has been made to #JulianAssange’s cause, covering nearly the entirety of the cost of his chartered jet.
Supporters of Assange have multiple forums to donate, including directly through cryptocurrency.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Canberra at 7.37pm on Wednesday.
#WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrived in Canberra at 7.37pm on Wednesday. A transaction recorded on mempool.space – a software website used to visualise data about the Bitcoin ecosystem – shows one user donated 8.07173122 BTC to Assange’s link, which converts to $739,789.
Assange’s wife, lawyer Stella Assange, told #Reuters on Wednesday that this week’s chartered flights cost $782,334.
Assange’s team has also raised $793,456 via #Crowdfunder and $20,384 via #GoFundMe, meaning his campaign has surpassed the cost of the jet hire.”
“The Australian government’s “hero” homecoming for #JulianAssange was political “grandstanding” and minimises legitimate concerns about the impact of his activities with #WikiLeaks, according to a former senior bureaucrat and Asio chief who served as ambassador to the United States.”
#ASIO / #DennisRichardson <https://theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jun/28/hero-homecoming-for-julian-assange-was-political-grandstanding-former-asio-boss-says>