The hacker group Anonymous is back in action. This time they have launched an attack against the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, who have announced plans to picket the funerals of those lost in the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. SiliconANGLE Contributing Editor John Casaretto described Westboro Baptist Church as having a lot of extreme ideologies. He said they tend to gravitate towards what he termed as “shock events” and like to blame these unfortunate situations on what they see as immoral behavior.

So far Anonymous has published data about Westboro members, including their names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Casaretto believes their motive is to discourage WBC from protesting at the school and exacerbating the situation. However, he also feels it’s unlikely the retaliation by Anonymous will deter the WBC. In a related action, a petition has been posted to WhiteHouse.org asking President Obama to have Westboro Baptist Church legally recognized as a hate group. While Casasretto doesn’t deny the WBC their right to freedom of speech, he acknowledges that their actions are easily categorized as hate group activity. He rationalized, “It’s a very hard thing . . . to dance that line between free speech and what’s too much.”

Various Samsung Galaxy Models Open for Exploitation

A member of XDA Developers who goes by the username alephzain has discovered a security vulnerability in several Samsung devices that allows malicious code full access to all physical memory. This security hole has huge potential for a number of issues. According to Casaretto, hackers could use malicious apps to wipe date, brick a device, wipe it out completely or compromise user data. There are several Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III smartphone models, as well as Galaxy Note II devices which all have a common processor, the Exynos4, that makes them susceptible to this particular vulnerability.

While there has been no word from Samsung on their plans to address the problem, Casaretto shared the fact that a community fix is available, but he emphasized users should be aware that it’s not a fix the average user would employ, as it’s not an official fix. Casaretto recommended that viewers should demand an update from Samsung by emailing them and asking for a solution. He anticipates a quick resolution from Samsung, based on their quality customer support.  See the entire segement with Kristin Feledy and John Casaretto on the Morning NewsDesk Show.