MEXICO CITY: An internet assault inspired by Anonymous, the hacking activist network that promised to expose collaborators with the Zeta drug cartel, has targeted a former senior law enforcement officer from the southern Mexican state of Tabasco.
Hackers blocked a website dedicated to promoting Gustavo Rosario, the former Tabasco attorney-general, with the words ''Gustavo Rosario is a Zeta'' signed by Anonymous Mexico.
The internet has become a new battleground in Mexico's drug wars in which cartels are fighting each other as well as a military-led offensive launched by the President, Felipe Calderon, in 2006. So far, more than 40,000 people have been killed.
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In some areas, the mainstream regional media is too frightened to cover the violence.
A regular contributor to a site that denounces cartel operations in the north-eastern state of Tamaulipas was killed in September, her body dumped beside a monument in the border city of Nuevo Laredo with a note signed by the Zetas that read: ''I am here because of my reports and yours.'' Maria Elizabeth Macias Castro worked for a local newspaper that did not even report her death.
The Anonymous threat to expose Zeta collaborators was launched in a video last month featuring a man wearing the movement's trademark Guy Fawkes mask. A voice-over claims the operation is aimed at forcing the Zetas to liberate an unnamed Anonymous participant kidnapped in the state of Veracruz. ''You have made a great mistake by taking one of us,'' it says.
The video was picked up by the mainstream press at the weekend, prompting a frenzied debate on Twitter about the risks.
Tweeters associated with Anonymous Iberoamerica, which claims to be the biggest Spanish-speaking Anonymous network, shifted their positions and at one point announced the cancellation of the operation. ''#OpCartel is dead. I do not wish to endanger other anons,'' Sm0k340n tweeted on Sunday.
Anonymous Iberoamerica posted a blog on Monday announcing the creation of ''a special task force'' that would continue to execute the plan. It called on insecure hackers not to get involved. ''Are we frightened for our lives? Of course. Nevertheless, we believe it is time to say stop,'' the post said.
Stratfor, a US security consultancy that published an analysis of the video on Friday, said anybody named would be immediately vulnerable to attacks by Zeta rivals, whether or not the information was true.
A person with knowledge of Anonymous operations, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said that online group conversations showed the hackers have ''a list of 100 or so of the main contacts of the Zetas''.
It was not clear how they obtained the tally or how accurate it was. Whether Anonymous will publish what it has is unclear. The original YouTube message, uploaded on October 6, said that November 5 would be ''a day to remember''.
Fuente: http://www.smh.com.au
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