This eventually led to his arrest. The arrested hacker, known online as Sabu, became an informant. The identity and structure of Anonymous make it difficult to determine the exact effects of these events. The marked slowdown in claims made by the group in the years following drove speculation that greater caution among members drove major players to keep a lower profile. However, the group continues to announce actions and issue warnings via its official website and Twitter account.
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We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. News Political News. These tactics often work. For years, Anonymous has succeeded in garnering worldwide attention for specific causes, or other times, just for fun.
Here's just one example: In , Sony sued one of its customers -- George Hotz -- for creating a workaround that allowed PlayStation 3 users to run the Linux operating system. The thing is, Sony had initially advertised Linux capability as a PS3 feature, but backtracked and created a patch to disable Linux operability.
Sony's actions were so outrageous to Anonymous that it sabotaged Sony's PlayStation Network, the company's online multiplayer system. For nearly a month, no one could access the network, and the company's stock price took a major hit. Was Anonymous in the wrong for punishing Sony? Or were these hackers merely exacting justifiable revenge on a gigantic, litigious company that lashed out at its own customers?
Whichever side you support, Anonymous got exactly what it wanted: headlines. The breathless news stories that follow Anonymous attacks often condemn Anons shorthand for group members as cyber-terrorists, evil vigilantes or anarchists. Other publications brand them as saints who fight back against corruption and injustice in the only way they can. When enough members of Anonymous latch onto a particular crusade, awful and wonderful things happen. Keep reading and you'll see much more about this famed hacktivist group, which trumpets its presence with the apocalyptic slogan: "We are Anonymous.
We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us! But what is Anonymous, exactly? To be clear, Anonymous is not a well-defined group of computer hackers. It's not a club of anti-social geeks hiding in their parents' basements or well-trained, militaristic outlaws hiding in shadowy bunkers equipped with high-speed Internet access.
Depending on who you ask, Anonymous is a digital consciousness, a worldwide hive mind, a culture, a political and social movement or an online collective. It's really all of the above. Anonymous is a massive group of users of varying computing abilities who have a lot in common.
As with any subculture, Anonymous didn't spring forth from a single moment. It developed slowly over time. It began in on 4chan, a so-called image board , which is an Internet discussion forum where users post images on just about any topic you can imagine including some you don't want to imagine. Here, people share anything that's on their minds with zero self-censorship, in part because they can and do post anonymously.
Because you're reading this information on a family-friendly Web site, it's worth noting that 4chan is anything but family-friendly. And in fact, that's exactly how the denizens of 4chan like it. The often over-the-top and obscene language, personal attacks and roughhouse atmosphere act as filter to repel entire swaths of the Internet population. To get lulz, 4chan lovers will do just about anything, from stooping to the lowest and crudest form of personal insults to reaching for more sophisticated and coordinated trickery that may or may not involve computer hacking.
Most of the time, these pranks are short-lived, pointless and quickly forgotten. The whole point, in fact, is to not take anything too seriously. But as 4chan evolved, some users saw possibilities for achieving bigger and more elaborates schemes beyond sophomoric practical jokes. These people gravitated from the image board towards IRC Internet relay chat systems, where they could communicate more quickly and exchange more detailed information.
It's in this environment that Anonymous began its slow and often fractious rise. There are many splinter groups within Anonymous, all with various causes that may or may not gain traction.
But they all have many things in common. There are no leaders. Although some people take on organizational roles, there is no established hierarchy. Everyone is considered equal. Anyone on the planet can be Anonymous. And to be truly considered a part of Anonymous, you must take real and definitive action to help a cause.
On the next page you'll see one of Anonymous's first accomplishments that really gathered widespread acknowledgement, to both cheers and jeers from people around the globe. The man on the line told me his name was John Vibes.
I made the video. Vibes told me he had worked as a party promoter organizing raves in Baltimore and Philadelphia for the past decade, which had led him into countercultural thought and, eventually, activism. Vibes is a freelance writer who writes and produces videos for the Facebook page, which functions as a news hub.
Indeed, the Facebook page releases Anonymous videos regularly, many of them made by Vibes. But he was not the masked figure speaking to the camera in the most recent viral video. The page often recycles the same footage and simply uses new audio. The purpose of the Facebook page was to create an outlet for that message. Still, my conversation with Vibes left me feeling uncertain about whether Anonymous was really back. The new hacks in May and early June were tied to the group largely through rumors.
In some sense, Vibes was simply another fan, remixing a remix. Was it all just smoke and mirrors? But when I spoke with a variety of current and former Anonymous hackers over the past month, they all insisted that Anonymous was indeed reactivating.
But then there is the second definition of Anonymous. Anonymous members will tell you that Anonymous has no members, that it is not a group, but rather a banner. People rally to it. In its initial founding, it existed as trolls … people doing whatever they wanted, with that hint of vigilantism.
It was designed to be totally open. Anyone can be Anonymous. In the new video Vibes made, Anonymous represents extrajudicial justice, the superhero entering to right what the normal course of the law cannot—an idea that can seem deeply appealing now that the ordinary enforcers of justice—the police—appear to some to be the source of the crime. A viral video generates a wave of enthusiasm.
Then the leaderless collective debates what to do. Sometimes it settles on performative acts of protest, such as hacking police scanners or briefly downing a website. But as occurred with BlueLeaks, oftentimes more skilled hackers steal and leak documents intended to buttress a political cause with substantive evidence. However, both the group of people and the movement have changed over the years. Thousands of users were on these boards—almost all young men—but among them was a more die-hard band who hung out in the same chat rooms, feuded online, and met up in real life.
They called themselves Anonymous. The name was derived from the way 4chan presented usernames. Cottle was 20 and still living with his mother in Toronto. I would never work for the feds. In , American hacktivist James Robinson was sent to prison for six years after being convicted for carrying out DDoS attacks. Another hacker, Deric Lostutter, was sentenced to two years in prison after infiltrating the website of a high school sports team for exposing the alleged coverup of a rape case.
Click here to join our channel indianexpress and stay updated with the latest headlines. Om Marathe Om Marathe writes on geopolitics, law, and science, and has a strong p Home Explained Explained: Everything you need to know about the hacktivist group Anonymous Explained: Everything you need to know about the hacktivist group Anonymous Anonymous members have had several run-ins with the law, with government agencies making arrests for computer hacking, fraud, and cyber-stalking.
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