Destroy Daily Dot

Austin-based news organization targeted by aggressive hacker group

A major hacktivist group has a bone to pick with an Austin-based website. Anonymous has waged a cyberwar against Daily Dot, an online newspaper that focuses on Internet community topics ranging from viral videos to hard-hitting pieces on Internet activism.

Anonymous is attacking Daily Dot for publishing two articles written by former member Hector "Sabu" Monsegur, who became an FBI informant. Monsegur's work with the FBI led to the imprisonment of Jeremy Hammond, who was convicted of hacking Austin-based intelligence firm Stratfor in 2011. Daily Dot called it "one of the most significant and costly cyberattacks of the last decade."

Daily Dot published reviews of Blackhat and CSI: Cyberwritten by Monsegur on January 18 and March 4. Anonymous viewed the collaboration as a betrayal by the news website, which it has steadily supported, and launched "Operation Destroy Daily Dot" in response.

"Anonymous does not attack media nor does it censor it, however there are various ways to hold those who build their media empires and careers on the backs of movements, actions and individuals accountable," Anonymous said in a video published Monday. "Operation Destroy Daily Dot is a boycott action. Given that Daily Dot was given its credibility, celebrity and wealth on the back of Anonymous and our operations, we seek to destroy it in the same manner it rose."

Daily Dot defended the decision to contract Monsegur for the reviews and stated that asking for his viewpoint did not constitute support of his actions. "The Daily Dot does not necessarily agree with or endorse the views in each story it publishes," the website said in a response. "As a news organization, our job is to illuminate dark corners and share a variety of perspectives."

The Anonymous campaign has centered around Twitter (hashtag #OpDDD), and Daily Dot has not experienced serious repercussions thus far. The official Daily Dot Twitter account has lost 75 of its 212,000 followers.

unspecified

Power Up

$1.4 billion Texas project to match 446,000 cars in clean energy yearly

Photo courtesy of SMECI

The San Miguel Electric Cooperative has received a major investment for clean energy.

The United States Department of Agriculture recently announced that San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc., located in Christine, Texas, in Atascosa County, just outside of San Antonio, will transition its operations to produce 600 megawatts of energy using solar panels and a battery energy storage system (BESS).

The project is expected to reduce climate pollution by 1.8 tons annually, the equivalent to removing 446,000 cars from the road each year, says USDA.

The project with the San Miguel Electric Cooperative plans to use the more than $1.4 billion investment to procure 600 megawatts of renewable energy through solar voltaic panels and a battery energy storage system to power 47 counties across rural South Texas. The clean project also hopes to support as many as 600 jobs.

This is part of the more than $4.37 billion in clean energy investments through the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Empowering Rural America (New ERA) Program, which has rural electric cooperatives supporting the economy via job creation, lowering electricity costs for businesses and families, and reducing climate pollution. The New ERA was made possible by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was the largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936.

San Miguel plans to convert its operations to a 400-megawatt solar generation facility and 200-megawatt battery storage facility, and the transition should be complete by 2027. Currently, San Miguel produces 391 megawatts of electricity through a contract with South Texas Electric Cooperative (STEC).

“USDA is committed to enhancing the quality of life and improving air and water in our rural communities,” Secretary Tom Vilsack says in a news release. “The Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investments enable USDA to partner with rural electric cooperatives to strengthen America’s energy security and lower electricity bills for hardworking families, farmers and small business owners.”

---

This story originally appeared on our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

renewable energy usda