There’s a certain air of expectation and mystery when you don’t know who to talk to. It’s been almost ten years since you’ve had feelings like this, but you get used to it since most of it is online. The scenario changes when this encounter is lively and you don’t know what to expect: especially when your conversation is with someone who carries a social stigma as online crime, unknown, faceless.
on Thursday (12), Technology World The EterSec cell, a branch of the cyber activist group Anonymous in Brazil, represented by one physical point and six virtual points, was taken to their studio. The one hour and fifteen minute interview reveals a group that can dictate the parameters for a new Brazilian digital activism.
Wearing a mask is an ideal balance between protection and unity.
Pragmatic, succinct, and focused on spreading its ideas more closely and amicably to the public, EterSec is driven by more planned political actions, with more disclosure and disclosure of data, less actions seen as script-child actions – with falsification and XSS attacks, for example. The cell is big, more than 20 people scattered across Brazil: and they want to get bigger.
It’s interesting to note that your interlocutor deviates from the pattern I’ve come across for years, especially in small cybercrime groups, the so-called teams on the Internet. He’s not a 15-year-old kid who’s learned a programming trick or two, but the existence of a well-educated, well-spoken person who has logical arguments and who knows what he’s looking for.
Nickname or nickname Nicolay. Along with her, the interview was accompanied by the names of members such as Sense, Muriel, Proc Yon, Lumen, Reverse, and Luna.
Meeting
Throughout our interview, the representative also clarifies a point that often bothers the cybersecurity community on the internet – maybe out of lack of knowledge, maybe tantrums, maybe mistakes made by previous cells: EterSec was not created by hackers. However, this does not mean that people with this information are not present in the group.
came to their studio. Technology WorldHe drank some water, got “caught” by our producer, put on a sweater to make our job of censoring his image easier, and started a conversation that showcased his vast knowledge of ways to convey messages between replies.
The Anonymous ideal, as mentioned, is neither right nor left.
“There are too many cells at the moment,” says the EterSec representative. He adds that in order to verify the accuracy of a cell, it is necessary to understand the ideals of Anonymous. “Transparency, quality information and popular support. All Anonymous actions are for social purpose, social justice. It is not for private interest. It is also important to check the support of the old collectives”.
EterSec values the Anonymous philosophy and states that it is one of the key points to understand whether a group is there to do cohesive work or is using the name for personal gain.
The ideal of Anonymous, as mentioned, is neither on the left nor on the right of the political spectrum: it is anarchist. There is no choice for government A or B. “Living in society, you are already a social being, a political being,” concludes Nicolay.
It is believed that basic education is the key to achieving the outcome of a lawless world utopia, in which adequately educated people can distinguish between right and wrong. “Wrong information is the worst evil we experience today”.
History
EterSec, which has a history of three years since 2020, was born in Brazil after a break in Anonymous cells. They explain that no cell is better than the other, that sometimes a group may arise and soon disintegrate just to perform a certain action.
It is worth noting that it is possible to detect some female voices among the virtual participants of EterSec. It is a flag that they carry diversity according to the group. That’s why EterSec was the first cell to broadcast the classic Anonymous video with a masked but female voice.
Anonymous promotes gender, cultural and regional diversity
“It revolutionized. What was the image of Anonymous until then? There was a man there… Camouflaged. And that’s too bad. Anonymous gender promotes cultural and regional diversity. This is very important to us,” he said.
Anonymous cells often enter the legal realm, which indicates crime: by exposing sensitive data and carrying out attacks on websites, activism enters the illegal realm. But there is a difference between them and cybercriminals, according to EterSec.
“We have that insistent reason (…) But that’s all, we’re not afraid. Corruption and injustice cannot stay under the table. This is transparency, the public needs to know. And we are not afraid of the consequences.”
Birth
The first of the operations carried out by the group were those related to the military coup in Myanmar (formerly Burma), a country in Southeast Asia. Then they turned to activism about TepCo, a Japanese company that would dump radioactive water into the sea. They also made OpColombia against local police violence.
- This raises an interesting question: why was such a belligerent cell born to attack international issues?
For Nicolay, it was important to attract non-activist hackers. “Often, hackers are entering the corporate world. There is a shortage of activist hackers, not just in Brazil, but around the world. But we soon looked back to Brazil (…) Indigenous Anhangá operation leaks about Funai and ex-Minister Ricardo We did it with actions against Salles”.
In another cell, the interlocutor states that in 2014, operations were carried out against the Dilma Rousseff government, mainly on the use of “unbridled money”.
undemocratic actions
Before EterSec sat down in our studio, he was immersed in exposing the so-called financiers of the anti-democratic actions that took place on Sunday, January 8, at Praça dos Três Poderes in Brasília.
A list of 50 names was made public a few days ago. It included information such as full name, CPF, date of birth, family names, residential addresses, RG, CNH, Serasa score, registered companies, billing, voter registration, income tax data, registered emails, and various online services.
“Everything starts with the GSI (Office of Corporate Security). At the end of last year, General Heleno, together with GSI, started to receive some financial transactions and connections, order requests. And we have access to some services and systems, so we follow a few cases that are suspect to us. Second, we also receive complaints and investigate them through tools and documents. The GSI of the Bolsonaro era is more complex than you might think, with its possible links to the Marielle case (…) They not only funded it, but encouraged it”.
While the group did not want to go further at this time regarding the accusation raised at the end of the speech, they commented that resolving this story and finding who ordered the murder of the councillor was the focus of their future actions.
The group also claims that it can be seen as a watchdog for the Bolsonaro government, something every citizen should have, and that work is currently ongoing with the Lula government.
The Future of EterSec
The cell, as I said, is not afraid of the consequences and does not intend to cease its activities anytime soon. Leaving the scope of “cyber attacks only”, EterSec seeks to openly position itself as an activism hotspot on the internet that brings together all kinds of professionals in the community.
To that end, he embarks on Operation New Blood to attract more people. According to Nicolay, very few members of EterSec will know the true identity of those interested and the cell follows strict protocols in this regard.
The group also examines Brazil’s cyber defense and says it has close relationships with both major defense groups and touchpoints in all governments, whether Bolsonaro’s old or Lula’s new government.
This story will be told for years.
We don’t know if EterSec will be able to achieve its purpose as a cell and solve hitherto unresolved cases, such as the case that ordered the murder of Marielle Franco. This story will be told for years. On the other hand, the Anonymous scenario in Brazil is growing exponentially: we may be facing a new and inclusive way of attacking Brazil’s social problems through cyber activism.
For all of you who come here and read or watch this interview, can you believe a faceless group? How consistent and compliant does an anonymous group need to be to get credit? Or rather: to be heard by you?
Source: Tec Mundo
