{"id":6403,"date":"2012-03-15T22:33:46","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T22:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/?p=6403"},"modified":"2012-03-15T22:33:46","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T22:33:46","slug":"anonymous-operating-system-downloaded-by-more-than-26000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/anonymous-operating-system-downloaded-by-more-than-26000\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous operating system downloaded by more than 26,000"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

More than 26,000 people have downloaded an operating system which members of the Anonymous hacker group claim to have created.<\/p>\n

The software is based on a version of the open-source operating system Linux and comes outfitted with lots of website sniffing and security tools.<\/p>\n

The “official” Anonymous group has distanced itself from the software.<\/p>\n

In a widely circulated tweet, AnonOps claimed the operating system was riddled with viruses.<\/p>\n

Tool box<\/strong><\/p>\n

The operating system is available via the Source Forge website – a well-known repository for many custom code projects.<\/p>\n

The 1.5GB download is based on Ubuntu – one of the most popular versions of the Linux operating system. The software’s creators say they put it together for “education purposes to checking the security of web pages (sic)”.<\/p>\n

It asked people not to use it to destroy webpages.<\/p>\n

Soon after the operating system became available, the AnonOps account on Twitter posted a message saying it was fake and “wrapped in trojans”.<\/p>\n

The creators of the OS denied it was infected with viruses adding that, in the world of open-source software, “there were no viruses”.<\/p>\n

Code check<\/strong><\/p>\n

After downloading and running the software, Rik Ferguson, director of Trend Micro’s European security research efforts, said it was “a functional OS with a bunch of pre-installed tools that can be used for things like looking for [database] vulnerabilities or password cracking”.<\/p>\n

It also included tools such as Tor that can mask a person’s online activities. In many ways, he said, it was a pale imitation of a version of Linux known as Back Track that also comes with many security tools already installed.<\/p>\n

Mr Ferguson said he was starting work to find out if there were any viruses or booby-traps buried in the code.<\/p>\n

Graham Cluley, senior researcher at hi-tech security firm Sophos, wondered who would be tempted to use it.<\/p>\n

“Who would want to put their trust in a piece of unknown software written by unknown people on a webpage that they don’t know is safe or not?” he asked.<\/p>\n

He warned people to be very wary, adding that some hacktivists keen to support the work of Anonymous had been tricked earlier in the year into installing a booby-trapped attack tool.<\/p>\n

“Folks would be wise to be very cautious,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After downloading and running the software, Rik Ferguson, director of Trend Micro’s European security research efforts, said it was “a functional OS with a bunch of pre-installed tools that can be used for things like looking for [database] vulnerabilities or password cracking”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[68,9],"class_list":["post-6403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-macau","tag-annonymous","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\nAnonymous operating system downloaded by more than 26,000 - iGaming Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/anonymous-operating-system-downloaded-by-more-than-26000\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anonymous operating system downloaded by more than 26,000 - 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