From its origins and symbolism to some of its most notable operations, here are 11 things
you didn’t know about Anonymous:Today's video was requested by Starzic Animation.
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Number 11 What It Is Anonymous is an international decentralized
hacktivist group that has drawn its notoriety from the various DDoS cyber-attacks launched
against corporations, governments, institutions, the Church of Scientology and other organizations.
As hacktivists, some members of Anonymous use their knowledge of computer systems and
networks in a subversive manner in order to promote different facets of the group’s
philosophy.
However, that doesn’t mean that all of its members, known as Anons, are elite hackers.
There’s no particular requirement for joining Anonymous and the group operates in a decentralized
command format, without an established leader or infrastructure.
The overall philosophy is loosely agreed-upon while the cyber-attacks are coordinated by
like-minded hackers that are part of the Anonymous movement.
Some have called Anons criminals and vigilantes while others refer to them as outlaws, akin
to digital Robin Hoods.
Number 10 How It Started The roots of Anonymous can be traced back
to 2003, to a 4chan message board.
The site’s /b/ board was the first place where the term ‘anonymous’ was used as
a shared identity for a collective of unnamed individuals.
From it, a community of like-minded users emerged as Anonymous, which first tasted popularity
in the form of an Internet meme.
These users engaged in mass pranks or raids which eventually drew the attention of mainstream
media.
A Fox station in LA was the first to report on Anonymous and described the group as ‘hackers
on steroids’, an ‘Internet hate machine’ and ‘domestic terrorists’.
Number 9 Philosophy In 2012, Time magazine called Anonymous one
of the ‘100 most influential people’ in the world.
Yet, in its early days Anonymous was more of an expression of anarchic entertainment
and trolling culture.
This was also reflected by ‘doing it for the lulz’, one of the common phrases used
by its members.
As the group started gaining attention it began to develop a voice focused on social
change.
A long-standing and even divisive argument within the group debated whether Anonymous
should primarily stand for entertainment and pranking or for serious activism.
Since the group consists of thousands of members, it’s fairly difficult to outline a central
philosophy.
Nevertheless, some of the main ideas that Anonymous opposes have to do with Internet
control and censorship, assaults on free speech or limiting the sharing of information.
There’s also a set of rules within the group, some of which include not attacking the media,
not talking about the group and not disclosing one’s identity.
Number 8 Symbolism There’s a tagline that’s frequently used
by Anonymous members and this is ‘We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
Expect us.’
This indicates that the group doesn’t work for the objectives of a single leader but
rather as a unit that’s unrelenting in its resolve once it collectively agrees upon an
objective.
The group’s anonymity and lack of a central governing authority is also reflected in its
emblem that depicts a man with a question mark instead of a head.
Perhaps the group’s most famous symbol is the Guy Fawkes mask.
Fawkes was the best known member of the Gunpowder Plot, in the early 17th century.
Along with his conspirators, Fawkes sought to flow up the House of Lords in London, on
November 5, 1605.
The mask used by the group was designed by illustrator David Lloyd.
It was a major plot element in the 1982 graphic novel ‘V for Vendetta’ as well as in its
2005 big screen adaptation.
Number 7 Being Anonymous As Anonymous puts it, you can’t join Anonymous,
as it isn’t a party, a club or even a movement.
In a YouTube video Anonymous refers to itself as a collection of people who travel the same
short direction for a short period of time.
Becoming an Anon requires nothing in exchange.
However, taking part in more elaborate Anonymous stunts most likely involves building relationships
and proving yourself as a hacker.
Anonymous operates a revolving door of people with various backgrounds and philosophies.
Journalist and former member Barret Brown described the group as a series of relationships,
where power is held by those who can rally people to their cause or by those who’ve
established themselves as capable hackers.
Some websites affiliated with the group advise would-be Anons to pursue forms of activism
that operate within the confines of the law.
If you’re confident that the more subversive Anonymous route is for you, these sites teach
you how to contact the group over IRCs, which are encrypted Internet relay chats, and how
to encrypt your computer for maximum privacy.
From that point on it’s a matter of developing relationships while maintaining anonymity.
You can then find the IRC channel that’s dedicated to a particular cause and pledge
your support.
Number 6 Attacks As recent history has proven, Anonymous will
pick a fight with any entity that it views as being corrupted.
The Distributed Denial of Service or DDoS attack has traditionally been the group’s
main form of subversion.
This type of attack crashes a network by overloading it with information, basically rendering a
website unusable for a period of time.
It’s the equivalent of a small website abruptly increasing in popularity and being unable
to cope with the increase in traffic flow.
Anonymous DDoS attacks are launched from a type of software called the ‘low-orbit ion
cannon’ or LOIC.
It can be used to dish out large-scale hits to any website.
After the Anons that organize the operation agree upon a target, they’ll give you a
target URL.
When the signal is given all you have to do is enter the number of hits you want to send
and click a button to unleash the attack.
If you don’t agree with the target, you can withdraw your computer from the botnet,
thus weakening the LOIC.
The power of the LOIC depends on the number of computers participating in the botnet.
Yet, the use of such software comes with a degree of risk as it is traceable.
Brian Thomas Mettenbrink was 18 years old when he took part in the Anonymous LOIC attack
that took down the Scientology website in 2008.
He had to pay $20,000 in compensation to the Church of Scientology and served a year sentence
in prison.
Number 5 Project Chanology Project Chanology enhanced the Anonymous scope
of operations beyond trolling to include hacktivism.
In 2008, the Church of Scientology attempted to remove a clip from the Internet in which
church member Tom Cruise was praising the religion.
Anonymous retaliated to what the group perceived as being a form of Internet censorship.
Anons sent black faxes to deplete the church’s ink cartridges, prank called its hotlines
and DDoS attacks were launched across Scientology websites.
In one viral video during the DDoS attacks, Anonymous vowed to expel Scientology from
the Internet.
Additionally, thousands of Anons wearing Guy Fawkes masks physically protested Scientology
facilities around the world.
This marked the first wide-scale adoption of the mask that would steadily come to be
associated with Anonymous.
Number 4 Operation Payback By September 2010, Anonymous all but lost
its media coverage and Anons had become divided between those seeking to wreak havoc for pure
amusement and those that wanted to remain politically active.
Indian software company Aiplex Software would unwillingly bridge the Anonymous divide.
Aiplex contracted with film studios as well as record labels and was using Anonymous-like
tactics to take down copyright infringers like The Pirate Bay.
This was something that didn’t sit well with Anons all-around, since it went against
the idea of freely sharing information.
Anons coordinated through IRCs to take down the sites for Aiplex, the Recording Industry
Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, as well as a multitude
of other websites associated with copyright protection.
When the dust settled, Operation Payback had caused almost 540 hours of downtime for the
sites targeted.
Number 3 Operation Avenge Assange In November 2010, Anons extended Operation
Payback to include Operation Avenge Assange.
After WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables, the US Government
issued legal threats that prompted Visa, MasterCard and PayPal to cut off service to WikiLeaks.
This prompted Anonymous to issue a press release in support of the organization, declaring
PayPal a target.
A series of sites were brought down but the LOIC was not strong enough to take down the
PayPal site.
Civil and Snitch, two Anons that had taken part in the attack, used a virus to hijack
a legion of computers and boost the attack.
These ‘zombie computers’ formed an involuntary botnet and provided the necessary edge to
take down the PayPal main site, which ended up costing the company $5.5 million.
On December 8, 2010, Anons also disrupted the sites for MasterCard and Visa.
Number 2 Anonymous Against ice is Shortly after ice is took credit for the Paris
attacks, which claimed the lives of 130 people, Anonymous declared war on the terrorist organization
and promised to ‘hunt down its members’.
They claimed to have shut down thousands of ice is-related social media accounts, although
the exact number has been disputed.
An offshoot of Anonymous calling itself GhostSec started targeting ice is-affiliated sites
in 2015.
The group would eventually divide into two factions.
One maintained the name GhostSec and the Anonymous ties.
The other rebranded itself as Ghost Security Group and chose to cooperate directly with
law enforcement and ended its association with Anonymous in November 2015.
Nevertheless, both factions continue to work against ice is.
Number 1 Operation Dark Discovery In October 2011, Anons took on dark web child
photography site low litre City, and publicly released 1,589 usernames from the site.
A multitude of tend to file sites employing the Tor network were subsequently disabled
by the group.
They used the online forum PasteBin to post the IP addresses and emails of suspected tend
to files.
They also reportedly contributed to the capture of Internet predator and tend to files Chris
Forcand, in 2007.
Anons posed as children online to gather evidence against Forcand, which they then turned over
to law enforcement.