Partial Transcript: Episode 52: (Anonymous)

Nick: It’s hackers versus cartels!

Andrew: Anonymous versus the Zetas.

Nick: Los Zetas!

Andrew: The general gist of what happened is this: A member of Anonymous got kidnapped, so Anonymous put out a thing saying, “If you don’t release our guy, we’ll dox of all of your members.”

Nick: For those who don’t know, doxxing is where they release the names, addresses, account numbers, and even social security numbers of the peopled being doxxed.  In this case, the Zetas cartel is huge in Mexico, and there are implications for tons of government officials being named.  American officials.  This would have been a big deal.

Andrew: Apparently it worked.  No one knows if they were bluffing or not, but apparently the kid was released the day before the deadline.

Virginia: And all was well in the world?

Andrew: Well, there’s still a murderous cartel out there, but the internet won in the short term.

Nick: The article pointed out that it was evil versus evil.  It made it look like these two bad organizations attacked each other and left Mexico on the sideline.  Let me pose the question: Didn’t Mexico already put itself on the sideline?  Banning all your residents from owning guns…

Andrew: I take offense with saying that Anonymous is inherently evil.

Nick: I kind of agree.

Andrew: For one, it’s not organized enough.  It’s a collection of random people.  There’s not really a core group.

Nick: There’s gotta be a core group by now.

Andrew: They’re decentralized.  There are certain groups that get together to spearhead activities.  One was Marblecake.  LulzSec was another.  They really branched off on their own for a while.  If you look at most of the stuff that’s been done, it’s been wrong but not evil.  It was because it was funny to them.  Not really evil, just to have fun.

Nick: Here’s another question: If Anonymous needed help on a cause that you agreed with, would you install botnet software on your computer to help them achieve their goals?

Andrew: Shit no.  I’m not a trusting person.

Virginia: Would you donate money?

Andrew: Depends on where it’s going.

Nick: So you would donate to them if they were using it in a way that you supported?

Andrew: Yeah.

Nick: I think I would too.  Now the question is: Would you do that for the Zetas?

Andrew: Fuck no.

Nick: Exactly.

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