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Gay Nigger Association of America

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Gay Nigger Association of America
AbbreviationGNAA
Formation2002[1]
TypeInternet Trolls
HeadquartersTarzana, Los Angeles[1]
President
paz[2]
AffiliationsGoatse Security[3][4][5]
WebsiteGNAA Corporate Website

The Gay Nigger Association of America (often referred to as the GNAA) is an anti-blogging Internet trolling organization that takes their name from the 1992 Danish movie Gayniggers from Outer Space. They have trolled several prominent websites and Internet commentators, including members of the blogosphere, Slashdot, Wikipedia, and CNN. They have also released software products and leaked information about operating systems. In addition, they maintain a wiki-based site dedicated to Internet commentary in a style parodying Slashdot posts and offer a Subversion-based software repository containing various GNAA coding projects.[6]

Members of the GNAA also founded Goatse Security, a grey hat information security group. Members of Goatse Security released information in June 2010 about a vulnerability located on AT&T's website that notably affected the privacy of people who pre-ordered the iPad. After the vulnerability was disclosed, the then-president of the GNAA, weev, and GNAA member "JacksonBrown" were arrested.

Origins and purpose

The group claims to have been founded in 2002.[1] Little is known about the group's structure. New media researcher Andrew Lih has claimed that it is unclear whether there was initially a clearly defined group of GNAA members, or if founding members of the GNAA were online troublemakers united under the name in order to disrupt websites.[7]

The group's name has been controversial, having been described as causing "immediate alarm in anyone with a semblance of good taste",[7] and as being "spectacularly offensive."[8] However, the group claims that it promotes neither racism nor homophobia. GNAA members deny allegations of actual racism, implying that these statements are made only to elicit angry responses and to subvert or otherwise challenge long-standing social norms, noting that the name of the organization came from the 1992 Danish satirical blaxploitation film Gayniggers from Outer Space.[9]

Trolling

The GNAA uses several methods of trolling. One method involves flooding weblogs with a massive amount of repeated words and phrases, referred to as "crapflooding".[8][9] They have also produced shock sites containing malware.[9] One such site, "Last Measure", contains malware that opens up pop-up windows containing shocking pictures.[10] On Wikipedia, members of the group created a page about themselves, while adhering to every rule of Wikipedia, essentially using the system against itself.[7]

They have also attacked several Internet Relay Chat channels using IRC flooding. GNAA used an old but obscure method to force users of the Freenode network to execute disruptive commands after visiting websites containing malware.[11] They also have used bugs in Firefox to crapflood IRC channels.[12] They have also performed proof of concept demonstrations.[13][14] These actions have occasionally interrupted the normal operation of popular websites such as Slashdot, even forcing some websites (such as 4chan) to shut down temporarily.[15]

In July 2004, two GNAA members submitted leaked screenshots of the forthcoming operating system Mac OS X v10.4 to the popular Apple Macintosh news website MacRumors, which read "With WWDC just days away, the first Tiger information and screenshots appears to have been leaked.[16] According to sources, Apple will reportedly provide developers with a Mac OS X 10.4 preview copy at WWDC on Monday. The screenshots provided reportedly come from this upcoming developer preview."[17] Later, when accusations were raised that the images were fabricated, the GNAA released a press release which claimed that the screenshots were genuine and stated that they had "trolled" the Apple community.[18]

In June 2005, the GNAA claimed to have created a Mac OS X Tiger release for Intel x86 processors which caught media attention from various sources.[19][20][21] The next day, the supposed leak and was mentioned on the G4 show Attack of the Show.[22] The DVD image released via BitTorrent merely booted an image of hello.jpg[23] instead of the leaked operating system as many were led to believe.[24]

On February 3, 2007, the GNAA successfully convinced CNN reporter Paula Zahn that "one in three Americans" believe the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were carried out by Israeli agents.[25] CNN subsequently ran a story, erroneously reporting this, including screenshots of the GNAA-owned website "jewsdidwtc.com." The story involved a round-table discussion regarding antisemitism and an interview with the father of a Jewish 9/11 victim.[26] The GNAA-owned website included claimed that "over 4,000" Jews were absent from work at the World Trade Center on 9/11.[26]

Goatse Security

Goatse Security logo
Main article: Goatse Security

Several members of the GNAA with expertise in grey-hat[27] security research began releasing information about security vulnerabilities under the name "Goatse Security." They chose to publish their work under a separate name because they felt that information released by the "Gay Nigger Association of America" would not be taken seriously.[28]

In June 2010, Goatse Security attracted mainstream media attention for their disclosure of 114,000 email addresses[29] registered to Apple iPad devices for early adopters of Apple's 3G iPad service.[4][30] The data was aggregated from AT&T's own servers by feeding a publicly available script with HTTP requests containing randomly generated ICC-IDs, which would then return the associated email address. The FBI soon investigated the incident. This investigation led to the arrest of then-GNAA President,[31] Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer, on unrelated drug charges[32] resulting from an FBI search of his house.[28][33]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "About GNAA:". GNAA. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  2. ^ "New GNAA President paz is Elected" (Press release). GNAA. August 28, 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
  3. ^ Emspak, Jesse (2011-01-19). "The Case Against The iPad Hackers". International Business Times. Retrieved 2011-03-19. 14. The Goatse Security website describes defendant Auernheimer as having "[e]xtensive offensive web app vuln and business logic exploitation experience. Bash while drunk, perl while tripping, Ruby while living in SF SoMa. Representing anti sec, Bantown and Encyclopedia Drarnatica. President of the GNAA." Defendant Spitler is described as an "embedded and mobile devices engineer. PPC assembly. GNAA, obviously." The Goatse Security website provides a hyperlink to the GNAA website. 15. The GNAA website states that "[t]his website is maintained by the GNAA, world-famous trolling organization." The GNAA website provides hyperlinks to the Goatse Security website, as well as defendant Auernheimer's LiveJournal weblog.
  4. ^ a b Chokshi, Niraj (2010-06-10). "Meet One of the Hackers Who Exposed the iPad Security Leak". The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company. Retrieved 2011-02-25. Weev rails against Jews in his LiveJournal and he and several other members of Goatse Security claim to be members of the Gay N***** Association of America. In an oddly generous literary reference, Forbes has described him as a modern Shakesperian Puck. Make of that what you will.
  5. ^ Rohr, Altieres (2010-06-11). "Saiba como ocorreu falha que expôs e-mails de 114 mil usuários do iPad". Rede Globo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2010-09-13. "weev", um dos integrantes do grupo, já foi citado em outras matérias do grupo Gawker Media, que deu a notícia como "exclusiva". Ele, assim como outros membros, faz parte da GNAA, a "Associação de Gays Negros da América". São pessoas que passam boa parte do tempo on-line tentando realizar "trotes" ou trolls. Entre os membros do grupo, e um dos principais da GNAA, está um desenvolvedor do Linux Debian. O "ex presidente" da GNAA, timecop, é conhecido na internet por fazer parte do Dattebayo – fãs que realizaram traduções dos desenhos japoneses Naruto e Bleach. Translation: weev, one of the members of the group, has been quoted by Gawker Media, which broke the news as exclusive. He, like other members, is part of the GNAA, the Gay Nigger Association of America. These are people who spend much of their time online trolling and carrying out practical jokes. One of the principal members of the GNAA is a developer of Linux Debian. The ex-president of the GNAA, timecop, is known on the internet for being part of Dattebayo, a group of fans who translated the Japanese cartoons Naruto and Bleach.
  6. ^ "FreeNode, allarme sicurezza". PuntoInformatico (in Italian). 2006-06-28. Retrieved 2011-08-26. Qualcuno ipotizza che la GNAA, un gruppo di buontemponi nato su Slashdot e dedito allo spamming, abbia firmato questo assalto.
  7. ^ a b c Lih, Andrew (17 Mar 2009). The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World's Greatest Encyclopedia. Cambridge, UK: Hyperion. pp. 170–171. ISBN 1400110769. What were some ways to troll and cause trouble? Create an article about something extremely controversial and offensive, but otherwise adhere to every rule of Wikipedia and use the system against itself. This was the case with creating an article that had an intentionally offensive name, the Gay Niggers Association of America. GNAA was a name that caused immediate alarm in anyone with a semblance of good taste. It was a phenomenon for many years in the online tech communities, as legions of trolls attempted to have an article in Wikipedia about the mischievous group. It's not clear a defined group ever existed as GNAA. Supposed GNAA "members" were simply troublemakers online who unified under a common moniker in an effort to disrupt Wikipedia for amusement. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. ^ a b KIRKPATRICK, STEWART (2005-11-22). "Lazy Guide to Net Culture: Dark side of the rainbow". scotsman.com. The Scotsman. Retrieved 2011-03-20. Such people include trolling organisations. These are individuals who delight in flooding web bulletin boards with crass and offensive comments (aka "crapflooding"). One such group goes under the spectacularly offensive name of the "Gay Nigger Association" – revealing themselves to be insecure white kids who have worries about their own orientation.
  9. ^ a b c Dean, Jodi (2010). Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745649702. Retrieved 2010-08-27. Then I got a comment from the GNAA or Gay Nigger Association of America, a group of organized anti-blogging trolls who take their name from a 1992 Danish movie, Gay-Niggers from Outerspace. GNAA claims that it promotes neither racism nor homophobia but aims rather to sow disruption on the internet. The comment on my blog was a minor instance of their more extensive disruptive practices (like "crapflooding" a site with a massive amount of text or data with no meaning or relevance: for example, a word, phrase, or group of letters repeated over and over, or producing hoax or shock sites and inserting links or code that redirect viewers to the site). {{cite conference}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ Porn.com: making sense of online pornography. Peter Lang. 2010. ISBN 1433102072. Retrieved 2011-03-20. {{cite book}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help)
  11. ^ Constantin, Lucian (2010-01-30). "Firefox Bug Used to Harass Entire IRC Network". Softpedia. Retrieved 2011-03-17. A group of self-declared Internet trolls, called the GNAA, has used an old but obscure attack method to wreak havoc on the Freenode IRC network. Users were forced to execute IRC commands after visiting maliciously crafted Web pages.
  12. ^ van der Meijs, Sander (2010-02-01). "Bug in Firefox gebruikt tegen IRC netwerk". Webwereld (in Dutch). IDG Netherlands. Retrieved 2011-03-17. Een groep die zichzelf de GNAA noemt heeft voor grote problemen gezorgd bij een IRC netwerk. Ze gebruikten een bug in Firefox om het netwerk te spammen. Translation: A group that calls itself the GNAA has caused major problems in an IRC network. They used a bug in Firefox for the network to spam.
  13. ^ Firefox-based attack wreaks havoc on IRC users The Register. Accessed 2010-08-27
  14. ^ Very Ugly Bug at BarackObama.com. TechCrunch. Accessed 2010-08-27.
  15. ^ Poole, Christopher. "DING DONG, 4CHAN IS DEAD". 4chan. Retrieved 10 June 2011.
  16. ^ "Wie typisch". giga.de. 2004-06-28. Retrieved 2011-08-26. Die Screenshots stammten allesamt aus einer Quelle: Einer merkwürdigen Anti-Slashdot-Organisation namens GNAA.
  17. ^ Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) Screenshots?. MacRumors. Accessed 2010-08-27.
  18. ^ "GNAA Leaks Info about Apple's Next Major OS" (Press release). GNAA. June 26, 2004. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
  19. ^ Report: Apple Mac OS X 10.4.1 for Intel hits piracy sites. Accessed 2010-09-06.
  20. ^ OS X for x86 already in the wild?. Accessed 2010-09-06.
  21. ^ Mac Hacks Allow OS X on PCs. Wired. Accessed 2010-09-08.
  22. ^ "Attack of the Show!". Attack of the Show!. June 2005. G4. G4.
  23. ^ MacInDell Part Quatre – The Ruby Goldmine. Gizmodo. Accessed 2010-08-27.
  24. ^ Jumping on the bandwagon: OS X on x86! OMG!. TUAW. Accessed 2010-09-07.
  25. ^ Welaratna, Deepthi (2007-04-06). "Terror! Conspiracy! Hoax!". KQED Arts. KQED. Retrieved 2011-03-18. The conspiracy theory – found in crevices on the Internet – claims Jews are behind the 9/11 attacks. Surprise! Farfetched anti-Semitic theories abound online! The actual ugly truth here is that CNN uses the parody conspiracy site jewsdidwtc.com as a LEGITIMATE source for the piece, proof of the legions out there who buy into this theory. A cursory click through the site, aided by a sense of humor, quickly makes it clear that this is a joke site, particularly as it is owned and run by the GNAA (visit at your own peril – contains humor some will find distasteful and NSFW). The blunder made all kinds of news online, on Slashdot, Something Awful and Digg. Mostly saying ha ha, the GNAA trolls CNN. The ultimate troll, LOLZ!! It's true, it's hilarious, but it's also very very sad. Neither Boston nor CNN officials are willing to admit their mistakes
  26. ^ a b "Paula Zahn Now". Paula Zahn Now. February 3, 2007. CNN. CNN. {{cite episode}}: External link in |transcripturl= (help); Unknown parameter |transcripturl= ignored (|transcript-url= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ Apple's iPad security breach reveals vulnerability of mobile devices. Washington Post. Accessed 2010-09-02.
  28. ^ a b Kaiser, Leon (2011-01-19). "Interview: Goatse Security on FBI Charges Following AT&T iPad Breach" (Transcript) (Interview). Interviewed by Mick, Jason. Retrieved 2011-01-21. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help)
  29. ^ Apple's iPad Breach Raises Alarms. NPR. Accessed 2010-09-06.
  30. ^ "Falha de segurança que expõe donos do iPad investigada pelo FBI". tek (in Portuguese). Sapo.pt. 2010-06-11. Retrieved 2011-03-17. A falha foi identificada pelo grupo Goatse Security , que pertence à GNAA (associação norte americana de gays e negros). Translation: The flaw was identified by the group Goatse Security, which belongs to the GNAA (Gay Nigger Association of America).
  31. ^ "United States of America v. Daniel Spitler and Andrew Aurenheimer".
  32. ^ Richard Torrenzano, Mark W. Davis (2011). Digital Assassination: Protecting Your Reputation, Brand, Or Business. Macmillan. p. 116. ISBN 9780312617912.
  33. ^ Hacker in AT&T-iPad security case arrested on drug charges. CNET. Accessed 2010-09-01.
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