Angriff auf Bristol Indymedia

Screenshot bristol.indymedia.org: The Police have physically accessed the Bristol Indymedia server.

Am 27. August meldete Bristol Indymedia, dass die Polizei einen Gerichtsbeschluss erwirkt hat, um physischen Zugriff auf den Server von bristol.indymedia.org zu erlangen. Die Mods in Bristol gehen davon aus, dass der Webhoster dem Beschluss entsprochen und der Polizei Zugriff auf ihren Server gegeben hat. Aus diesem Grund wurde das OpenPosting abgeschaltet und die BesucherInnen der Seite werden gewarnt, dass ihre IP vermutlich von der Polizei aufgezeichnet wird.

 

Folgende Meldung steht auf Bristol Indymedia¹:

 

The Police have physically accessed the Bristol Indymedia server.

 

Last week we heard from our web hosts that the police had a court order to access the Bristol Indymedia server. We don’t know for sure, but assume that our web hosts have complied with the order and given the police this access.

 

We consider this server to be compromised, users should assume that from this point on the Police have access to the IP address of anyone accessing this site.

 

In light of this it is unlikely that open publishing of news items will ever be re-enabled as it would require complete re-installation of the server.

 

We are going to leave the calendar on for now, but note that it is likely that IP addresses are now being recorded and accessed by the Police.

 

¹ bristol.indymedia.org/2014/08/27/the-police-have-physically-accessed-the-bristol-indymedia-server

Zeige Kommentare: ausgeklappt | moderiert

Falls ja, wie bekommen es die Nutzer_innen rechtzeitig mit? Wären die Behörden dann in der Lage IP abzuschnorcheln?

Nein, das bekommst du nicht rechtzeitig mit. Es soll Menschen geben, die nur noch per TOR unterwegs sind, hab ich gehört :)

...the incendiary anarchist minority, raid Bristol IMC, who shut down their project (UK)

via: http://325.nostate.net/?p=11746

 

Breaking news: A report and warning posted on self-publishing civil activist “citizen-journalist” website “Bristol IMC”, advises that police have physically accessed their server and have gained possession of 16 months worth of IP addresses that were stored “accidentally” by an admin. Indymedia websites usually state that they don’t store IP addresses, but in this case it was a false policy. Indymedia was previously part of the anti-capitalist movement from the alter-globalist era, but has been recuperated by the liberal democratic system.

 

325 has long regarded the Bristol IMC project to largely be passed any relevancy and considered it as in the hands of the enemy for some time. It doesn’t surprise us at all that their server is now to become part of the regime’s hand to be used against the new anarchist urban guerrilla operating in the UK. This incident confirms our view that the admins of Bristol IMC were totally unprepared to be running a website such as they were and 325 was correct to position ourselves in antagonism towards them. Their persistent attempts to denigrate the new urban guerrillas and their lack of any kind of respect when we attempted to communicate to them means they will find no solidarity from us.

 

Bristol IMC’s recent cowardly and civil society orientated “statement” announcing that they were not going to be publishing any more communiques for destructive attacks on their pages also confirmed that they were the worst kind of pacifist-judiciary and cowards of the tendency of civil democracy. Fools who beg for their rights and proclaim their ‘innocence’. They can make their apologia in the courts with the rest of the activist sludge and stay far away from us with their appeals to the legal liturgy.

 

For the destructive attack against society and the state.

Troll warning

28.08.2014 21:06
Untrue statements have been posted to this newswire claiming to come from "On(sic)of Bristol IMC collective". The false claim is that IP logs were kept for the last 16 months. As the site only launched, with a brand new CMS,on March 21st, 2014, this clearly cannot be true.

An IMC uk Moderator

hat irgendwer zugriff auf diesen artikel?

 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4189888.ece

Activist website Indymedia shuts down after police raid

Jules Mattsson and Alannah Francis
Last updated at 5:48PM, August 28 2014​

Police accessed servers belonging to the Bristol branch of activist news website Indymedia in a move that later ‘forced organisers to close it down’. The raid is believed to be the latest effort in the long pursuit of the “Bristol unabomber”.

Officers have been trying to locate those responsible for a series of attacks in the city — including a fire in a new police firearms training centre that took a fortnight to extinguish — for more than a year.

A copy of the production order, marked restricted but seen by The Times, authorises officers to seize “special procedure” journalistic material. It demands access to the details of administrators and bill-payers, login credentials, information on those who posted articles and the IP addresses of everyone who visited the site over an unspecified period.

Bristol Indymedia initially said: “Bristol Indymedia only knows the information that a user chooses to provide with a post. We do not keep any IP data on users.”

However, a statement on the national site claiming to be on behalf of the Bristol group reads: “Regretfully owing to an administration error by one of the techies all IP address details for the past 16 months were still stored on the server and these have been recorded by the police.”

The post adds that the Bristol site is “now officially closed for good” following the raid. Indymedia said that they are now consulting lawyers.

Indymedia is a global network of contributors and open publishing sites, effectively allowing anybody to post news reports, pictures and statements on activist issues. The Bristol site was previously used to anonymously post claims of responsibility for the series of arsons and other attacks, signed by the “Informal Anarchist Federation/Earth Liberation Front”.

Those involved in the group also called themselves the “Rogue Fire Brigade” in a number of claims of responsibility posted to Indymedia and other activist websites.

Although it is unlikely that the arsonists would have posted without masking their user details, the data now in the hands of police will send chills through activist circles.

Previous actions claimed by the insurrectionist group include burning a communications mast, disrupting broadcasts and emergency communications, sabotaging train lines, burning politicians’ cars and razing other vehicles ranging from the border agency to broadband providers.

The UK cell is one of many insurrectionist terror groups under the same umbrella worldwide. Most UK attacks have taken place in and around Bristol, with some in Nottingham.

In 2012, the same year as the first visible UK actions by them, an Italian cell took credit for the shooting of a nuclear executive - kneecapping him on his doorstep in Genoa. Other cells have claimed responsibility for attacks as far as Argentina and the United States.

The raid on Indymedia Bristol’s server providers Bytemark Hosting took place on Friday August 15 but details of the seizure have just begun to emerge.

Because of the citizen journalism element of Indymedia, as well as the open posting of statements, their files have sometimes been treated as journalistic in nature with the associated legal protections.

Matthew Bloch, managing director of web hosts Bytemark, said: “The police turned up unannounced at the office door with the court order, demanding several things from the Indymedia servers.

“Bytemark don’t have any choice about compliance with court orders, but we have never been keen on them.”

A source close to Bristol Indymedia said the first they knew of the seizure was when their web hosts contacted them while the warrant was being executed. They said that they had not seen a copy of the order “or know of the contents of it”, adding that they were unaware of any of the supporting evidence and were not informed of the application.

The legal position is that while normal search warrants can be granted ex parte, without the chance to contest them, this type of special material production order must have both parties informed and present.

In a recent Supreme Court case involving Sky News this principle was reiterated, with a previous decision to allow supporting evidence to be given in secret overturned as unlawful. It is not known what process was followed here.

Mr Bloch also said the web host did not “hand over hard discs or offer up physical access” to the police, saying that they “follow the letter of each order, painstakingly extracting and filtering the information ordered, accessing the bare minimum, even if that takes much more time.”

This isn’t the first time Indymedia have found themselves the subject of raids. In 2005 the British Transport Police seized a server and other IT equipment from the same Bristol group. This was believed to be over a posting to the site that referenced direct action against a freight train, which suffered £100,000 in damage.

In 2009 police in Manchester seized a server after personal information about the judge on an animal cruelty trial was posted to another Indymedia site and in 2004 the FBI seized hardware from their London branch for reasons unknown. Indymedia described police actions as an “attack on their infrastructure in the UK.”

Avon and Somerset Police said: “We have obtained a production order in order to access the server of a website as part of an ongoing inquiry.

“The action was taken to investigate claims made on a website about possible crimes committed in the Avon And Somerset force area. No arrests have been made in connection with this incident.” When asked whether proper procedure had been followed, the force declined to comment due to the “ongoing investigation”.

This latest move by police in the protracted case will prove controversial. After the 2005 Bristol raid the National Union of Journalists and pressure group Liberty condemned the force’s decision, arguing that journalistic material exemptions should have been engaged. Although on this occasion a special procedure material order was obtained, its legality could be challenged with claims of no prior notice of the application.

In a statement posted to the Bristol Indymedia site after learning of the raid, organisers said “we consider this server to be compromised” and that it was “unlikely that open publishing of news items will ever be re-enabled”.

In the further post to the main website they say that are now “closing down” and said “the power of the State when threatened can be immense and we have seen that this week.”​

Anarchist website Bristol Indymedia to close following police raid

By The Bristol Post

 

A NEWS website which has hosted claims by anarchist groups of their involvement in crimes in and around Bristol could be set to close after police accessed its servers.

For more than 10 years, groups have used the Indymedia site to anonymously post statements claiming responsibility for crimes including an arson attack on the new police firearms centre in Portishead, the destruction of phone masts and damage to banks.

In an effort to identify and locate those posting the articles, Avon & Somerset police was granted a court order earlier this month which allowed officers to access the website’s servers.

This could see officers accessing information on those who posted articles and the IP addresses of everyone who visited the site over an unspecified period.

A statement on the national Indymedia site claiming to be on behalf of the Bristol group reads: “Regretfully owing to an administration error by one of the techies all IP address details for the past 16 months were still stored on the server and these have been recorded by the police.”

The post adds that the Bristol site is “now officially closed for good” following the raid.

A message on the Bristol Indymedia site said: “Last week we heard from our web hosts that the police had a court order to access the Bristol Indymedia server. We don’t know for sure, but assume that our web hosts have complied with the order and given the police this access.

“We consider this server to be compromised, users should assume that from this point on the Police have access to the IP address of anyone accessing this site.

“In light of this it is unlikely that open publishing of news items will ever be re-enabled as it would require complete re-installation of the server.

“We are going to leave the calendar on for now, but note that it is likely that IP addresses are now being recorded and accessed by the Police.”

A spokesman for Avon & Somerset police said: “We have obtained a production order in order to access the server of a website as part of an on-going enquiry.

“The action was taken to investigate claims made on a website about possible crimes committed in the Avon and Somerset force area.

“No arrests have been made in connection with this incident.

“Because this is an on-going investigation it would be inappropriate for us to go into further details or make any other comments.”

According to the Times, the raid on Indymedia Bristol’s server providers Bytemark hosting took place on August 15.

Matthew Bloch, managing director of web hosts Bytemark, told the Times: “The police turned up unannounced at the office door with the court order, demanding several things from the indymedia servers.

“Bytemark don’t have any choice about compliance with court orders, but we have never been keen on them.”

Previous actions claimed by the anarchist groups via the website include burning a communications mast, disrupting broadcasts and emergency communications, sabotaging train lines, burning politicians’ cars and razing other vehicles ranging from the border agency to broadband providers.

It isn’t the first time Indymedia have found themselves the subject of raids. In 2005 the British Transport Police seized a server and other IT equipment from the same Bristol group. This was believed to be over a posting to the site that referenced direct action against a freight train, which suffered £100,000 in damage.