WE ARE EVERYWHERE!
WE ARE ALWAYS WATCHING!
WE NEVER FORGET!
WE NEVER FORGIVE!
THE
TIME LINE
1823 (United
Kingdom)
In 1823, mathematician Charles Babbage
(1792-1871) was commissioned by the British government to develop a system for
calculating the rise and fall of the tides. The British navy ruled the oceans
of the world at that time, and crucial to that control was accurate knowledge
of the tides. Tides are caused by extremely complex gravitational interaction
between the earth, the moon and the sun. The task of accurately charting tidal
pattern was beyond the capabilities of most nations of the world at that time.
Babbage decided that the only answer was to build a devise he called the
“Analytical Engine.” Babbage designed a sophisticated, programmable machine
that contained basically some of the features of today’s computers. However,
Babbage’s concept was beyond the capabilities of the technology of his time,
and his machine remained unfinished at his death in 1871.
1937-1941 (United
States)
Physicist John Vincent Atanasoff
(1903-1995) and his assistant Clifford Berry (1918-1963) built the first
rudimentary vacuum-tube digital computer at the Iowa State College.
1941 (Germany)
German engineer Konrad Zuse
(1910-1991) completed the Z3, the first fully functioning relay-based
programmable digital computer to be controlled by a program. Switching among
the relays controlled its logical operations.
1943 (United
Kingdom)
British mathematician Alan Mathison
Turing (1912-1954), in a secret project, developed a special purpose electronic
computer, known as the Colossus, to break down Nazi codes.
1944 (United States)
The first large-scale
information-processing computer, the Mark I, built by Harvard professor Howard
Hathaway Aiken (1900-1973) and IBM, went into operation. This relay-based
computer was eight feet high and 55 feet long.
1946 (United States)
Two engineers at the University of
Pennsylvania, John Presper Eckert (1919-1995) and John William Mauchly
(1907-1980), working for the US army, completed the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer), the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was
also the first computer to store parts of its programming. However, the
computer weighed 30 tons, occupied an entire room and uses over 18,000 vacuum
tubes.
1947-1969 (World)
From the post World War II era,
inventions and discoveries in the field of computer technology, one after
another, accelerated the development of the modern computer.
1969 (World)
The Advanced Research Projects Agency
(ARPA) of the United States Defense Department established the ARPAnet, an
experimental four-computer network primarily for communication between military
research scientists. By 1971, ARPAnet linked about two dozen host computers in
15 sites, including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT). Ten years later there were over 200 hosts. In 1983, the military
component of ARPAnet established their own network, the MILNET, and ARPAnet was
dissolved in 1990.
1971 (United States)
Ray Tomlinson, an engineer at the Massachusetts consulting firm Bolt,
Beranek and Newman (BBN), sent the first email message across the Net that
started the cyberage communication revolution. In parallel to the advancement
of Internet tools, 25 years and 100 million emails after, by mid-1996 this form
of electronic messaging became the major means of communication throughout the
world. Hence, no business establishment can move without using emails.
1975 (United States)
The first commercially-distributed computer,
the MITS Altair 8800, was introduced. It that same year, Microsoft was founded
by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
1976 (United States)
Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak formed
Apple Computer. Within a year, they introduced a computer, the Apple II,
capable of displaying text and graphics in color.
1979-1989
(Philippines)
Diosdado Banatao, a Filipino
electrical engineer and computer scientist, developed the first working
graphical user interface (GUI, 1979), the first five-chip motherboard (1985), the
first ethernet controller chip (1988), the first Windows accelerator chip
(1989), becoming the first Filipino to make a solid mark in the world of
computers.
1980 (United States)
Bill Gates started to dominate the
world of personal computing by providing software that controlled the way users
interacted with their machines – a program called disk operating system (DOS).
1981 (United States)
IBM introduced the Personal Computer
(PC), which used Microsoft’s DOS. Three years later, Apple Computer released
the first Macintosh with its own proprietary operating system – the first
computer to have a graphical user interface (GUI) and a mouse.
1984 (World)
In 1984, Paul Mockapetris introduced
the Domain Name System (DNS) as part of Internet Resources. Since 1988 a
nonprofit corporation called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) had overseen the system of domain names.
1985-1990 (World)
Developments in the fields of
operating systems, softwares, programming languages, and the Internet continues
at a very fast pace.
1986 (Philippines)
The first Bulletin Board System using
a dial-up connection protocol in the Philippines was established by computer
hobbyists and enthusiasts.
1988 (Finland)
The Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was
developed by Finnish student, Jarkko Oikarinen, enabling people around the
world to communicate via the Internet in “real time.”
1989 (World)
The World Wide Web was developed by
Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau as an environment in which scientists at
the European Center for Nuclear Research in Switzerland could share
information. In this same year, the first commercial Internet Service Provider
(ISP) supplying dial-up access, known as The World, was made available.
1991 (Philippines)
On September 19, 1992, three young
professionals from three different universities, all of whom are friends of
slain Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) leader, Leandro “Lean” Alejandro
(1960-1987), met to commemorate the fourth year of martyrdom of Alejandro. Among
the subjects of conversation were the discoveries of Diosdado Banatao in the
field of computer technology and recent developments in the realm called
Internet. An aspiration evolved in the discovery of the media to where
Filipinos can become a superpower – the cyberworld.
1992-1999 (World)
More developments and improvements in
Internet technology.
1993 (Philippines)
The PhilNet was established, and
through its gateway, students from partner universities were able to send and
receive emails.
1994 (Philippines)
On March 29, 1994, the Philippines
connected to the Internet for the first time. On June 1994, Mosaic Communication
(MozCom) became the first commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the
Philippines.
2000 (Philippines)
On May 5, 2000, Filipino computer
programmers, Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman gave birth to the ILOVEYOU, the
computer “love” bug that infected tens of millions of Windows personal
computers.
The outbreak was
later estimated to have caused 5.5–8.7 billion dollars in damages worldwide,
and estimated to cost 15 billion dollars to remove the bug. Within ten days,
over fifty million infections had been reported, and it is estimated that 10
to15 percent of internet-connected computers in the world had been affected.
Damage cited was mostly the time and effort spent getting rid of the infection
and recovering files from backups. To protect themselves, the Pentagon, the CIA,
the British Parliament and most large corporations decided to completely shut
down their mail systems. The ILOVEYOU virus infected computers all over the
world. At the time it was one of the world's most destructive computer related
disasters ever.
Since
there were no laws in the Philippines against writing malware at the time, both
Ramones and de Guzman were released with all charges dropped by state
prosecutors. To address this legislative deficiency, the Philippine Congress
enacted Republic Act No. 8792, otherwise known as the E-Commerce Law, in July
2000, just two months after the worm outbreak. This single incident, however,
showed the world what a single computer hacker can do with simple scripts.
Cyber-experts consider De Guzman as top “identified” hacker of all time.
2001
(Philippines)
A group of
Filipino engineers and computer programmers met to discuss the aftermath and
consequences of the ILOVEYOU virus. The foremost objective was to “reprogram”
and “redirect” such knowledge and competency to useful, practical purposes,
beneficial to the people of the world; to conceptualize the possibility of
spearheading a social movement, decentralize, but acting on common goals and
aspirations. It will be Internet-based, non-extremist, a movement seeking
solutions to unresolved problems plaguing the Filipinos and the Philippines and, on a larger scale, humanity and the world. Tentatively
called the Philippine Cyberwarriors.
2002 (World)
Hackers
from different nations, including the Philippines, talked for the first time
with a common goal – the establishment of an Internet social movement of their
own, unbiased of race, religion, language and country of origin.
2003 (World)
Anonymous, as a decentralized
community of hacktivists, came into existence.
New Zealand became the first country
to offer free nationwide wireless access to the Internet using Wi-Fi
technology.
2003-2007 (World)
The Anonymous movement started and
continued to take “form” and “substance.” The Collective is born.
2007 (Canada)
The Toronto Sun, a Canada-based newspaper published a report (December 7,
2007) on the arrest of Internet child predator Chris Forcand. The report stated
that Forcand was tracked and identified by “cyber-vigilantes.” The Global
Television Network later identified the group responsible for Forcand’s arrest
as a “self-described Internet vigilante group called Anonymous.” This is the
first time that a pedophile was arrested as a result of Internet vigilantism.
2008 (World)
Anonymous gained worldwide attention
with its “Project Chanology” (January-April 2008), a protest and social war
against the Church of Scientology.
2011 (World)
Anonymous launched “Operation Darknet”
(October 2011), a campaign against child pornography. The collective
cyber-attacked 40 child porn sites including Lolita City hosted by Freedom
Hosting. In an effort to eliminate child pornography from the internet, the
group posted 1,589 usernames, emails and IP addresses of pedophiles frequenting
the websites, on the online forum PasteBin.
Some of the traced usernames revealed to have originated from the Philippines,
including from several Catholic churches and the House of Representatives.
2012 (Philippines)
The official website of Vatican was
brought down (March 7, 2012). It was explained that the attack was not meant
against Catholics and Catholicism but against the church itself and its leaders
which Anonymous viewed as corrupt and anti-Christ.
Anonymous Philippines targeted and
defaced the website of China University Media Union, which claimed that
Scarborough Shoal is Chinese territory (April 21, 2012), and more than 200
other Chinese websites. They left a message that reads “Scarborough Shoal is
the Philippines’ Territory.” The attack was also in retaliation against Chinese
hackers defacing the University of the Philippines’ website.
Anonymous Philippines warned that they
will attack more Chinese websites if provoke further (April 25, 2012). One
Chinese hacker sent a message to his Filipino hacker-friend that reads “Your
president (Noynoy Aquino) already sold Scarborough to our (the Chinese)
government.” This started a worldwide silent search for huge bank transfer from
China to dummy accounts allegedly owned by Pres. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Sen. Antonio
Trillanes IV.
Anonymous Philippines launched a
series of attacks against several websites of the Philippine government
(September-October 2013) to protest against certain provisions of Republic Act 10175
(Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012). The hackers urged for the revisions of the
cybercrime law that violates freedom of expression and described the law as the
“most notorious act ever witnessed in cyber-history.” Four months later, the
Philippine Supreme Court ruled out that the online libel provisions of the law to
be unconstitutional.
2013 (Philippines)
On March 14, 2013, Anonymous Philippines
hacked and defaced 115 government websites including that of the Office of the
President for “mishandling” the Sabah crisis caused by the revival of the
sultanate of Sulu’s claim on Sabah. Senator Trillanes IV expressed alarm with
the group’s capabilities, suggesting the possibility of the group to hack
government websites and compromise State operations and data storage.
During the Lahad Datu standoff tension
in Sabah due to the clashes between the Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu and
Malaysian security Forces. A cyberwar sparked between Philippines and Malaysia.
Malaysian hackers attacked and defaced Philippine websites, posting online
threats and videos giving a message to the Filipinos to keep away from the
region of Sabah. In response to these attacks, a group called the Philippine
Cyber Army, close ally of Anonymous Philippines, defaced 175 Malaysian sites
(including state-owned pages).
On August 26, 2013, when thousands of
people took part in the “Million People March” demanding the abolition of the
pork barrel system, Anonymous Philippines hacked government websites. It joined
the call for the scrapping of the pork barrel amid the 10-billion-peso scam
that channeled government funds to bogus non-government organizations.
According to the Department of Science and Technology, at least 30 government
websites were defaced, including the Office of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
On November 8, 2013, Anonymous
Philippines hacked government websites to protest the incompetence, ineptness and
corruption of the national leadership in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda
(Haiyan). More than 10 government websites were defaced by the said group and
33 more were rendered inaccessible for seven hours.
2014 (Philippines)
During the anniversary of the
Supertyphoon Yolanda Tragedy, which was expected to be a day of prayer and
thanksgiving, turned out to be a day of protest from different “online” groups
and organizations in the Philippines spearheaded by Anonymous Philippines
through “Operation Infosurge.”
2015 (Philippines)
On April 2, 2015, Anonymous
Philippines attacked and defaced a total of 132 Chinese government, educational
and commercial websites in response to China’s reclamation work in the disputed
islands in the West Philippine Sea. Much of southeastern China was also
blacked-out with no Internet access.
2016 (Philippines)
On March 22, 2016, the COMELEC
database was breached by three hackers, two were identified as Paul Biteng of
Anonymous Pilippines and Joenel de Asis of Lulzsec Pilipinas. Around 340
gigabytes of voters’ data – 77,736,795 records affected – were downloaded. Five
days later, on March 27, the COMELEC website was defaced leaving a message that
calls for “tighter security measures of the Voter Counting Machine (VCM) to be
used for the 2016 Philippine General Election.” On that same day, the voters’
data were leaked through Lulzsec Pilipinas website. The incident was considered
the “biggest data breach in Philippine history.”
On April 20, Paul Biteng was arrested
by the National Bureau of Investigation. Biteng admitted the hacking, but said
“it was intended to show how vulnerable the COMELEC website is.” At 20 years
old, Biteng is the youngest hacker to be arrested in the Philippines. Eight
days later, Joenel de Asis was also arrested.
On May 2, Anonymous Philippines staged
a protest rally demanding the release of Paul Biteng. They argued that Biteng
only helped the government in exposing the serious
flaws of the COMELEC’s website, which stores data of over 70 million voters.
They countered that it is the COMELEC that should be charged for its failure to
secure the voters’ information. They also suggested that the government should
recruit Biteng to protect other government websites. “Instead of putting
him in jail, why not recruit him and other hackers who have the skills to
protect the system? Why are we being arrested when we are only concerned and
defending the cyber security of our country without asking for a single peso?”
read one Anonymous’ banner. “Why are corrupt officials remaining at-large while
a fresh graduate of IT known in Facebook
as a security expert is arrested and jailed? Where is justice? This is why we
in Anonymous will continue to be on guard,” one of the Anons told reporters.
The intended message was put across:
Greetings
Philippines! We are Anonymous.
The Constitution so
asserts that “Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority
emanates from them.”
One of the processes by which people exercise their sovereignty is through
voting in an election- where people choose the candidates who will best
represent them,
who will serve them
under the principle that “Public office is a public trust.”
But what happens when the electoral process is so mired with questions and controversies?
Can the government still guarantee that the sovereignty of the people is
upheld?
We request the
implementation of the security features on the PCOS machines.
Commission on
Elections, We are watching!
We are Anonymous,
We are legion,
We do not forgive,
We do not forget.
EXPECT US!
On May 9, 2016, the Philippine General
Election was held. Up to midnight, Vice-presidential candidate Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos was leading his closest opponent, Leni Robredo, by more than
one million votes. Suddenly there was a “glitch” that delayed the updates of
the transmitted votes in the transparency server. The alleged glitch was the
computer showing “?” instead of “ñ” as in “Nape?as” for “Napeñas.” When the
glitch was corrected, Robredo’s numbers started gaining, and by 5 a.m. of May
10, Robredo was ahead with a quarter of a million votes. A mathematical
impossibility! The script change may not directly cause the cheating, but
something “secretly” done favored the Robredo count. Fortunately, in the
cyberworld, you can’t hide conspicuous anomalies like these. There are good
people, some “anonymous,” who will reveal these dastardly schemes. What
happened in the election count between midnight of May 9 and early morning of
May 10 is a mathematical anomaly. Impossible unless something sinister was done
to change the algorithm of the counting machines.
The website Get Real Philippines.com posted on May 10, 2016 a revealing article
titled “1.37 Million ‘Registered Voters’ Discrepancy Observed in Unofficial
Results Reporting Operations!” The author, “Benigno,” related how several netizens
took keen interest in the extraordinary way that Robredo “chipped away” at the
more than 1-million vote lead of Marcos, and then succeeded in wresting the lead.
They noticed the algorithmic way the process was accomplished. An algorithm is
a systematic procedure of solving a specific problem. Algorithmic, in a sense,
means a mathematical program was introduced into the system that produced the
fixed linear summation progressively giving Robredo higher tallies than Marcos.
Benigno’s article read: “Facebook
netizen Benjamin Vallejo, Jr. plotted the progressive decrease of Marcos’ lead
over Robredo over time and found an almost perfect linear correlation and posted
it on his Facebook profile. The
correlation plotted a straight path downward trajectory for Marcos’ lead. Di kapanipaniwala! (unbelievable!)
Observed Vallejo, noting the perfectly straight line. Statistician and Ateneo
de Manila faculty member David Yap also closely monitored the movement of
Marcos’ lead over Robredo and arrived at the same conclusion independently.
Like Vallejo, he also posted the results of his analysis on his Facebook profile. Yap said: ‘Starting
from the 80% (of returns) mark, BBM’s lead has been dwindling by 40k per 1%.
The progression is so consistent.’ What is going on?”
To answer why was there an anomaly. It
is because the election tally counts that came in the server for each candidate
(six of them) should be random. The probability that it became linear for the
two candidates, Marcos and Robredo, is staggering, exceeding perhaps that of
winning through a single combination the 6/55 lotto jackpot.
2018 (Philippines)
A Filipina domestic helper named
Joanna Demafelis was found murdered and stuffed inside a freezer in an
abandoned apartment in Kuwait on February 6, 2018. A call for help was issued
by the family to help them get justice. The incident prompted a diplomatic crisis
between the Philippines and Kuwait. Pres. Rodrigo Duterte ordered the banning
of deployment of domestic workers to the Gulf State. On February 21, 2018, the
Interpol received an “anonymous” call identifying the location of Demafelis’
killers, Lebanese Nader Essam Assaf and his Syrian wife, Mona Hassoun. They
were arrested three days later. On April 1, a Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced
them to death by hanging. This is just one act of an “Anonymous” among many,
without coercion, without fanfare, without credit.
Anonymous Philippines helped trace and locate website operators in the Philippines catering to pedophiles and sex traffickers.
2019 (Philippines)
On May 2019, at least 30 members of
Anonymous Philippines alternately guarded the transfer of election returns and
the COMELEC vote counts, preventing several attempts by hired black hat hackers
to penetrate the system and alter the outcome.
On July 8, 2019, the third telecommunication
company, Mislatel Consortium, got its license to operate. Pres. Rodrigo Duterte
held the company in its commitment to improve the country’s prevailing Internet
speed from 4.5 Mbps to 55 Mbps. They better deliver!
MORE TO BE POSTED.....
