I am sick and tired of being labeled a group of hipsters. Just being young(ish) and standing up for your freedom does *not* make you a hipster. Sure, we like coffee. Who doesn’t like coffee? Yeah, we liked a lot of cool things before they were cool, too – that’s because we’re cultured, not because we’re trendy. I dare you to insult steampunk. Just try it. 

DedSec - I need to take a minute to tell you how much you amaze me. Look at us. Look at how far we’ve come. We have to keep this going because we are giving people permission to rebel without fear of retaliation and they are taking it. Our system is controlled by people who do whatever they can, pay whatever it takes, to punish dissent and keep their machines running. But you know what – we’ve accomplished more operations than any other hacking group in history (unless you count the government spooks). Let that sink in. We’ve had many losses. Many leads that didn’t quite pan out. Disappointments. But that’s OK because we are winning this fight. The people are waking up and coming to us with their own ideas for operations, volunteering time and resources, and promoting us. So let’s stay on target. Let’s not collapse under the weight of our fame. Let’s keep juggling those plates. Let’s choose NOT to be stupid and ruin what we have. I love you guys.

It’s WRENCH again. Sitara told me to stop logging into her account, so Hawt Sauce offered to HELP ME lock her out to deliver some major news. No doubt I AM IN major trouble with the boss-lady and she’s working hard as HELL to get back in, so time is severely limited here. By the way, she keeps making fun of my use of caps, but that’s making fun of my self-expression. Shame on her. And ShE caN’t stand it when they are maDe compleTely random.  Confession time: it tickles tHE old wigglies when she goes into PSYCHotIC rage mode. But hey, At LeAsT I DoN’t AlTeRnAtE eVeRy LeTtEr LiKe I dId In HiGh ScHoOl! OUCH, right?

Onto serious business! I’ve been digging into TONS of research about our local SHUFFLER legend and I’ve mapped it all out scientifically for you. Without further doo-doo, here’s it is in all its TENTACLEd Splendor:

What are those numbers? I’m glad you asked. They are SCIENCE. Pull up a desk and I will educate your brain.  (1) People claim to have seen its face. I have seen PAINTINGS of it. Graffiti. But this is not its face. It’s a dimensional probe, flat so it can slip through the TIMESPACEFOLDS. It has sensory organs on it to report back DATA. (2) Since it is preoccupied with dimensional travel, it must have some kind of badass defensive system. I went with BLOWFISH spikes because spikes > ALL. (3)  It must have tentacles. SCIENCE demands it. (4) I spent a lot of time in a lot of books trying to figure out why it makes shuffling noises. It turns out animals with a lot of wiGGly things probably shuffle. SCIENCE. I call them shufflation appendagery. (5) If Spielberg taught us anything, it’s that other dimensions produce a kind of SLIME-WOMB barrier that leaves you SOAKED when you come back out. The shuffler probably has dimensional PARASITES that eat it all up after he’s back from travel. It’s very likely some of them followed it through when it probed, so I’m watching for them. 

You know, even though the Shuffler is WITHOUT A SINGLE POSSIBLE DOUBT, ONE-HUNNARD-PERCENT real, I like to keep a healthy skepticism before I get excited about things. That’s just who I am.  But you guys were RIGHT. I can hear BENNY in the ambient sounds of idle machinery. But hey---healthy SKEPTICISM... Josh has given me a cleaned up file of some audio that was running on another frequency next to Benny's laptop to share with you guys.

Here >> http://bit.ly/AudioSitaraTumblr

SHUFFLITES, you never cease to AMAZE! It’s fan-FREAKIN-tastic to get this kind of DedSec support (EpicStreamMan, I’m lookin’ at you! BTW, I always read that as EPIC STEAM MAN which is even more epic). We know this isn’t a hoax, and we’re going to PROVE it.  Once we do—we’ll… lock ourselves up in padded rooms and wish to BAJEEBUS we were wrong. ANYWAYS. The TRUTH is everything!

INinja_DragonI has been talking to Benny… from the OTHER DIMENSION. Yes, Benny. WE HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR. But now what?! Skauron’s been hearing Benny around the hackerspace, which is both terrifying and completely terrifying. Also a lead. Does anybody have a spirit board? Josh and I are going to PROBE these noise, but we could use some help. I know Lumi’s on the case with her VERY PARTICULAR SET OF SKILLS.

KlockoBL has been finding some suspiciously named files out there using a hex editor. Something about a PORTAL. This is HUGE. Was this part of the original investigation before our TRAGIC TEENS were swallowed up? Is this portal their way out? Or our way IN? He seems to think it’s related to a specific time. This COMPLETELY lines up with my own research – Shuffler activity goes NUCKING FUTS in the early spring months with most documented disappearances in APRIL. Let’s hope KLOCK0 lives up to his name and figures out a timeline here.

We’ve got DizzyDave studying those WHACKED OUT symbols people keep finding. Will he crack the code?

Legend has it this thing does NOT take kindly to people snooping, so if you hear SHUFFLING, run. And stay away from cracks. In the walls. In the sidewalk. Loan your plumber a belt, because it’s NOT worth the risk, people!!!

JOIN US:

Reddit

Sitara, here. You can probably tell since I don’t capitalize half of every other word, unlike some people (cough-Wrench-cough).

As Wrench so thoughtfully reminded me, there’s a ton of BS out there on the web pretending to be news when it isn’t. It’s made up to con you. Let’s talk about how to tell a fake news story from a real one, okay?

Here are the top 3 reasons people post fake news:

1. They’re selling something. 

A research group that’s paid for by a cigarette company has a conflicting interest in not saying anything bad about cigarettes. Nudle saying their smart cars are awesome isn’t reliable—it’s not like they’re going to say their own product sucks. A TV station is really unlikely to criticize their major investor.

2. It gets them ratings or traffic, which means influence. 

News outlets will sensationalize things (like this Shuffler BS) because they know it gets them clicks, and those clicks matter to the advertisers who buy space on their pages. Websites will post insane articles about celebrities to increase their traffic.

3. For shits and giggles. ‘Cause some people are just trolls. 

Yeah, that one’s pretty self-explanatory.

I can’t emphasize this enough—do your research! We don’t go into an op half-cocked (not if we can help it). You shouldn’t make major decisions without knowing the facts. So check if someone else is saying the same thing. If it’s WKZ, take it with a grain of salt. We already know they’ll take money to kill a story. But, if it’s WKZ and the local radio station, and the Valley newspaper, and a Stanford researcher… better chance it’s real. Because we’ve got a bunch of different independent sources saying it. This isn’t foolproof, but it’s a good test.

THE SHUFFLER IS REAL! Don’t let Sitara FOOL you.

(Hi kiddies, this is your friendly neighborhood HANDSOME-PYROMANIAc-gENIUS, WRENCH!)

Okay. Sitara told you all about Benny, right? College kid. SMART. Bit of a doofus. All around great DedSec member. He disappeared. DISAPPEARED! And so did his BEST BUDDIES. Him and three other kids. The Shuffler 4.

I KNOW he was looking into the Shuffler when he disappeared. He was KEEPINg NOTES and making MAPS of the CITY and s @#$. We STILL have his computer with some of his files. Kid encrypted them pretty good, but I’m SURE we’ll find some INTERESTING s@#$ in there.

Some people are saying it’s just a bunch of flakey kids RUNNING AWAY and they’ll show up again. Well, they WON’T. Not unless we find them! I mean, shit. Even THEIR FAMILIES are GIVING UP on them now. We went to Benny’s FUNERAL. They didn’t even have a body!

Because the truth matters.

Hacker Group Exposes Police Shooting

The hacker group known as DedSec recently released footage of a deadly encounter between a police officer and an unarmed youth. They claim there was a cover-up within the police department and that officials attempted to “bury the truth”.

The released footage shows a police officer approaching a young African American man identified as Mike Nassan. The encounter quickly escalated with the officer throwing the young man to the ground and the young man pushing the police officer in return. There were two shots fired and paramedics said the young man was dead before they arrived on the scene.

Amidst accusations of corruption, the police department released a statement declaring they “deeply regret this tragic event” and they offer their heartfelt “sympathy to the young man’s family and community.” They refuse to release the name of the officer involved.

DedSec claims the death was a result of poor police training, which allowed the incident to escalate, and erroneous ctOS information. Nassan was apparently marked as a high risk criminal in his ctOS profile, although there is no record of him committing any crime and, indeed, he appears to have been a promising high school athlete. The hacker group claims the police officer was primed to consider Nassan a threat because of the ctOS profile.

----------------------

Mysterious Disappearances Haunt Oakland

It’s been a year since Richard Jackson disappeared and still we have no new information, just more disappearances. The young man was reported missing in January 2016 by his girlfriend, Seema Mashruwana, who herself went missing four months later. A well-known street artist, she was last seen working near the train tunnels in south-east Oakland. Two other members of the same social circle have also disappeared.

Josh stumbled on something really interesting while he was looking into Prime_Eight’s police file. Looks like the PD has been suppressing reports of a fatal shooting. Cop shot an unarmed black kid. A witness recorded it on their cell phone, which the cops of course confiscated for evidence.

You’d think this would be a huge f!@#$%$ deal, but someone over at WKZ massively edited the released footage and most of the other media outlets don’t seem to know about it. It looks like ctOS flagged the vic (Mike Nassan) as high threat. Just like they flagged Marcus. And just like with Marcus, so far we aren’t finding any actual evidence of dangerous behavior in the boy’s background. We won’t know more until we get a hold of the rest of that footage—and trust me, we will—but it looks like a cover-up.

We celebrated in typical DedSec fashion: loud and proud. Pretty sure Wrench and Marcus still have hangovers. You really gotta keep hydrated, kids.

A bunch of leads poured in after our last post. We’re loving it, so keep ‘em coming. We also got a lot of questions about how we work, so I figured I’d explain a bit.

We each pick our own ops to research and then pitch them to the group. Whoever is interested joins in. Those who aren’t interested, don’t. Sometimes there’s not enough to keep more than one or two people busy on a single op, even if a lot of people want to do it. If there’s a lot of interest, and a lot to do, that’s when the whole group throws in on something. It’s different each time.

Right now Wrench is following up on the Nudle stuff. Josh picked up on some strange noises coming out of Prime_8 (the jerks). Marcus and I are following up on the disappearances. One of our own disappeared a while back, so this one hits close to home. Kid named Benny. Benicio. He’s a good guy, and not the kind to just drop off the grid without warning. All of us are really invested in this one. I’m sure you can understand why. For now it’s just Marcus and me working on it because we don’t have enough for the others to do yet.

I think we’re dealing with a couple different causes on this one. The disappearances are too random. Whoever is taking the homeless isn’t the same person (or people) taking tech savvy college kids. I’m betting on something sketchy with one of the tech giants. Marcus is betting on the mafia. Could be both. Or neither.

For those of you who keep sending us messages saying it’s The Shuffler, or The Hook, or Bigfoot… please stop. Those are urban legends and just waste our time.

I’m back. Been a lot going on around here. Got a new member, hacked a bunch of a**holes, you know the drill… Welcome to the DedSec State of the Union address.

Marcus is the new guy. Some of you might know him as Retr0. He’s another case of ctOS targeting someone incorrectly, and potentially ruining their life. Potentially. But our boy is an excellent hacker. We met while he was correcting his ctOS profile. Nice bit of work. Now he and Wrench are in the middle of an epic bromance.

Aside from recruitment, we’ve been pursuing some leads on your favorite corrupt tech giants. Most leads that come our way don’t pay out, but some… some do. And we’ve done good work.

As for our goals for the New Year? We’re hearing whispers that Nudle has some fancy s*** planned for their key note in February, so we’ll be looking into that. Also been hearing about disappearances around the old trainyards and in the homeless encampments. (If you have any info about that, please send it our way.) I’m sure we’ll unearth even more work for DedSec.

Lesson — never bet against me. I said I knew who my money was on… and I was right.

Josh tracked Prime_Eight’s payment for hacking us, and it lead to a Blume employee. A Blume employee who is also a member of @#$!W#$@$#% New Dawn.

We got too close to something big… But you know what this means, right? It means we double our efforts and start digging deeper. They just painted a target on their backs by telling us they had something to hide.

So, a message for our corporate friends at Blume and our cultist friends at New Dawn: