During the revolution of Information Technology in early1990s and tremendous growth of its services and quality in the 2000s, many virtual communities materialized on Cyberspace. “Anonymous group” one of them and it has attracted huge attention recently by the quantity of operations made by the group.
The questions rose: Who are they? Why they do that? And what kind of operations they adapt?
Anonymous or "Hacktivist" is a collective hacker group, with no formal leader. According to Wikipedia, Anonymous emerged in 2003, but it became popular in 2008, when the group organized controversial actions as attacks on the Church of Scientology (the so-called "Operation Chanology") and hacked a forum run by the Epilepsy Foundation of America to display flashing animations with the intention of triggering headaches and seizures in epileptics.
First thing to consider is that Anonymous is not one organized group. There are many people claiming to be part of Anonymous but don't know each other. Individuals would suggest a campaign and the others help or don't according to their inclination. Recently, Anonymous group became more organized virtually. When they declare an attack operation, it would attract attention, and that requires many preparations to avoid this cyber attack.
Anonymous Group announce their operations on the Social Media - YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and forums - and it finds large echo that spreads quickly among these groups. Anonymous share the announced operation from everywhere in the world, they speak different languages and different thinking but they have the same objective. This Group has flag conveying symbolism associated with Anonymous.
The picture of the "suit without a head" represents a leaderless organization and anonymity. Anonymous use this motto as their signature "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us".
Anonymous did many operations that completely annoyed the international society, especially after supporting Wikileaks and started their operations to show the world they can change fuzzy facts into what they feel is true regardless if it is an ethical way or not. Based on research by VeriSign and open sources, you will find below some of Anonymous operations done recently. The examples below not praising or marketing the group, it is just show where they are up to in Cyberspace,
Mar. 29, 2011 - Operation Britain: Anonymous released a manifesto against the British government and the British media (ie the BBC, who had the site offline a few days after the group disclosed its manifesto), claiming the media, and in particular the BBC, has been distorting the news, exaggerating the role of a violent few, and failing to adequately address the underlying reasons for the recent march and protest in London.
Mar. 2011 - # OpNewZealand (aka # OpNZBlackOut): Anonymous protests against New Zealand bill about anti-piracy and copyright protection, which includes a three-strikes rule where local Internet Service Providers (ISP) must disconnect and fine online users who received three complaints about sharing copyright protected material.
Mar. 2011 - # OpPalestine Anonymous members launched a cyber attack against The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The attack is aimed at the website, aipac.org, and conducted via a modified LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) used to execute DDoS attacks.
Mar. 22, 2011 - # OpAustralia: Protests apparently against Australian government and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
April 06, 2011 - # OpACTA (Mexico): Series of online and real life protests in the streets of Mexico city to protest about Mexican congress discussing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) pact .
April 07, 2011 - # OpSpain and Operación V de Votaciones (Spain): To protest against political parties who support Sinde Law, a Spanish bill to regulate online copyright and fight online piracy. It includes street protests and DDoS attacks scheduled to May 20th.
June 15, 2011 - Operation Malaysia (# opMalaysia): DDoS attack against Malaysian government website to protest against the Malaysian government's Communication and Multimedia Commission ban on 10 file-sharing sites and censoring WikiLeaks.
August 13, 2011, Kuwait: Anonymous hacktivists who identify themselves as AnonKuwait defaced the Fast Telecommunications (FastTelco) website, a major Internet service provider in Kuwait, who Anonymous claim has been dishonest about pricing, Internet speed, and has been following a draconian government download policy.
Jan. 2011 - # OpVenezuela: Operation against Venezuelan government, after the parliament in Venezuela had approved a law which will tighten the rules regulating Internet content.
May 29, 2011 - # OpGreece: Hackers group "Anonymous" declared Operation Greece, an online attack against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 's website over the strict conditions imposed by its bailout for Greece. The group created a website criticizing the austerity plans imposed on Athens by the 110 billion euro joint European Union-IMF rescue.
June 03, 2011 – Operation Syria: Series of attacks targeting Syrian embassies after Syrian government had shut down the Internet within Syria to censor local protesters (Reference: news story).
From ethical prospective what Anonymous group did is not accepted at all .because, the severe damage that happened from this attack it causing much negative reflection on the government and business. When Anonymous group attacked SONY Play Station they stop their portal for 2 months to clean it and that cost 170 Million dollar. If we take this as damages measurements you see how much their action were exaggerated. This kind of cyber-attack cause damage in human life and might and loses jobs.
Apart from their reason to start their Operations, anonymous group might exploit to be a reason for criminals attack from terrorist group and they use same technique to drag some sympathetic from the public .
In my point of a view, Anonymous should be consider misdemeanor group even they did some attack to stop Child-porn-Site. That should a Cyber-law control the illegality policies.
Anonymous has become a reality and they feel they have their own "law" regardless of international rules. Therefore, they are a fact and will be in front of you always. We in the Technology community should compromise this issue and find solution, because they will not ever stop.
The questions rose: Who are they? Why they do that? And what kind of operations they adapt?
Anonymous or "Hacktivist" is a collective hacker group, with no formal leader. According to Wikipedia, Anonymous emerged in 2003, but it became popular in 2008, when the group organized controversial actions as attacks on the Church of Scientology (the so-called "Operation Chanology") and hacked a forum run by the Epilepsy Foundation of America to display flashing animations with the intention of triggering headaches and seizures in epileptics.
First thing to consider is that Anonymous is not one organized group. There are many people claiming to be part of Anonymous but don't know each other. Individuals would suggest a campaign and the others help or don't according to their inclination. Recently, Anonymous group became more organized virtually. When they declare an attack operation, it would attract attention, and that requires many preparations to avoid this cyber attack.
Anonymous Group announce their operations on the Social Media - YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and forums - and it finds large echo that spreads quickly among these groups. Anonymous share the announced operation from everywhere in the world, they speak different languages and different thinking but they have the same objective. This Group has flag conveying symbolism associated with Anonymous.
The picture of the "suit without a head" represents a leaderless organization and anonymity. Anonymous use this motto as their signature "We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us".
Anonymous did many operations that completely annoyed the international society, especially after supporting Wikileaks and started their operations to show the world they can change fuzzy facts into what they feel is true regardless if it is an ethical way or not. Based on research by VeriSign and open sources, you will find below some of Anonymous operations done recently. The examples below not praising or marketing the group, it is just show where they are up to in Cyberspace,
Mar. 29, 2011 - Operation Britain: Anonymous released a manifesto against the British government and the British media (ie the BBC, who had the site offline a few days after the group disclosed its manifesto), claiming the media, and in particular the BBC, has been distorting the news, exaggerating the role of a violent few, and failing to adequately address the underlying reasons for the recent march and protest in London.
Mar. 2011 - # OpNewZealand (aka # OpNZBlackOut): Anonymous protests against New Zealand bill about anti-piracy and copyright protection, which includes a three-strikes rule where local Internet Service Providers (ISP) must disconnect and fine online users who received three complaints about sharing copyright protected material.
Mar. 2011 - # OpPalestine Anonymous members launched a cyber attack against The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The attack is aimed at the website, aipac.org, and conducted via a modified LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) used to execute DDoS attacks.
Mar. 22, 2011 - # OpAustralia: Protests apparently against Australian government and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
April 06, 2011 - # OpACTA (Mexico): Series of online and real life protests in the streets of Mexico city to protest about Mexican congress discussing the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) pact .
April 07, 2011 - # OpSpain and Operación V de Votaciones (Spain): To protest against political parties who support Sinde Law, a Spanish bill to regulate online copyright and fight online piracy. It includes street protests and DDoS attacks scheduled to May 20th.
June 15, 2011 - Operation Malaysia (# opMalaysia): DDoS attack against Malaysian government website to protest against the Malaysian government's Communication and Multimedia Commission ban on 10 file-sharing sites and censoring WikiLeaks.
August 13, 2011, Kuwait: Anonymous hacktivists who identify themselves as AnonKuwait defaced the Fast Telecommunications (FastTelco) website, a major Internet service provider in Kuwait, who Anonymous claim has been dishonest about pricing, Internet speed, and has been following a draconian government download policy.
Jan. 2011 - # OpVenezuela: Operation against Venezuelan government, after the parliament in Venezuela had approved a law which will tighten the rules regulating Internet content.
May 29, 2011 - # OpGreece: Hackers group "Anonymous" declared Operation Greece, an online attack against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 's website over the strict conditions imposed by its bailout for Greece. The group created a website criticizing the austerity plans imposed on Athens by the 110 billion euro joint European Union-IMF rescue.
June 03, 2011 – Operation Syria: Series of attacks targeting Syrian embassies after Syrian government had shut down the Internet within Syria to censor local protesters (Reference: news story).
From ethical prospective what Anonymous group did is not accepted at all .because, the severe damage that happened from this attack it causing much negative reflection on the government and business. When Anonymous group attacked SONY Play Station they stop their portal for 2 months to clean it and that cost 170 Million dollar. If we take this as damages measurements you see how much their action were exaggerated. This kind of cyber-attack cause damage in human life and might and loses jobs.
Apart from their reason to start their Operations, anonymous group might exploit to be a reason for criminals attack from terrorist group and they use same technique to drag some sympathetic from the public .
In my point of a view, Anonymous should be consider misdemeanor group even they did some attack to stop Child-porn-Site. That should a Cyber-law control the illegality policies.
Anonymous has become a reality and they feel they have their own "law" regardless of international rules. Therefore, they are a fact and will be in front of you always. We in the Technology community should compromise this issue and find solution, because they will not ever stop.
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