Hacktivism: Anonymous
Origin
The hacktivist group Anonymous was founded in 2003 on an imageboard, 4chan, which was a forum where users could anonymously post images and discussions. The name Anonymous originated from the default username that new chat room users were given upon entry to 4chan. What started out as a discussion board for shared interests quickly evolved into a trolling and cyberbullying group. By 2006, they began hacking and going after well-known individuals like radio show hosts. But it wasn’t until 2007, after a television segment slandering their actions, that the group became politically motivated. The segment aired on KTTV, a Fox station in Los Angeles and depicted the group as domestic terrorists even showing flashes of physical violence suggesting that the group didn’t just exist online. This is when Anonymous decided to become a public entity. They announced themselves to the world on twitter with tagline “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”
Structure
The group has a decentralized structure meaning that there is no leader or figurehead for the collective. They operate on ‘ideas rather than directives.’ The group is full of conflicting opinions but there are two main activism interests that hold the group together. The first is their opposition of internet censorship. The second is their shared interests in defending privacy and ‘exposing of injustice.’ Their loose structure means that the group doesn’t always act as one. Most projects are carried out by smaller groups within the collective. Anonymous is better described as a movement rather than an organization because of their open-door policy. They have previously stated that anyone who believes in their initiative and sees themself as a member, is a member.
Hacks
An excellent example of this decentralized structure comes into play with their first involvement with the media. In 2007 radio show host Hal Turner attempted to sue Anonymous for illegally publishing his show online. It was quickly thrown out due to lack of response. Because there is no leader there was no figurehead or committee present to respond to the lawsuit.
Later that year, Anonymous completed their first act of true hacktivism. The group outed a string of sexual predators to law enforcement in Canada. Several of the tips have led to arrests in the U.S. and Canada. They would go on to do this again in 2012-2015, even launching twitter campaigns to troll and expose predators across the world.
In January of 2008 the group officially announced their war on the Church of Scientology. This ‘war’ included a series of DDoS attacks as well as Google bombing and black faxes. A black fax is essentially a fax that only includes pages and pages of black tone. The purpose is to run the recipients fax out of ink and toner. Google bombing is a way to get certain web pages to a higher rank in the search engine. This way, when someone searches for anything related to the Church of Scientology, a chain of unrelated or even slanderous articles come up before any of the church’s web pages. This was followed by a movement dubbed ‘Project Chanology.’ It was a sequence of protests by members of the group adorned in Guy Fawkes masks. This is when these masks fully became a symbol of the group. Anonymous's main qualm with the church is their acts of censorship. Many celebrities belong to the church and at the time were having interviews and public appearances cut or censored by the church.
Anonymous’s history of hacking isn't exclusive to big movements like this one, it is peppered with seemingly random and pointless instances of hacking. For example, in 2008 the group hacked the website of Support Online Hip Hop, the biggest forum for Hip Hop dancers. The site was defaced and down for a few hours but Anonymous never provided any explanation of why they did this in the first place. Another instance of this occurred in 2009 when the group targeted McKay Hatch who ran a No Cussing Club at his high school. The group published his address and phone number which led to his family receiving copious amounts of hate main, harassing phone calls, and disturbing deliveries.
Another majorly publicized hack by Anonymous was the Sarah Palin email hack. They claimed to have aided David Kernal in his hacking and publication of the politician's personal email account. The first posting of her emails occurred on the group’s discussion forum 4chan.
In 2009-2010 the group had a stint of political involvement starting with a website for Iranians to communication regarding the 2009 presidential election. The forum was used to coordinate protest and movements for and against various candidates. This wouldn’t normally be possible for citizens because of Iran's strict censorship laws. Later the group launched a denial-of-service attack on the website of the Prime Minister of Australia. The site was shut down for a few hours and the group stated the action was a warning against the Prime Minister's plans for tighter internet filtering. Soon after, Anonymous also launched attacks shutting down multiple of Australia's government servers in protest. Their attempts ended up being fruitless because the governments went ahead with their plans anyways. Anonymous has continued with anti-censorship campaigns like this for years, all with the same basic structure. The group also had some brief involvement in WikiLeaks. They launched several DDoS attacks on companies that had withdrawn or outright refused to work with the site. These companies included Amazon, Bank of America, MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal.
Anonymous has also thrown their support to countless movements over the years. They got involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests which were movements against big finance. Operation Darknet was a collective campaign against child pornography sites in which Anonymous helped launched DDoS attacks on over 40 sites and published over 1,500 usernames. They also partnered with Occupy Nigeria to protest the removal of the fuel subsidy. They hacked the websites of the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to demand the subsidy be reimplemented. In 2012 they launched a series of DDoS attacks on Polish government websites to protest the upcoming signing of an anti-counterfeit policy. Their attacks latest for around a month until protests came to a head in several cities leading to arrests and the postponement of the signing. Most recently they particpated in Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations.
Arrests and Retaliation
In 2011 the CEO of HBGary Federal, a technology security company, announced that the firm had ‘infiltrated’ Anonymous and that he would publicly announce the findings at an upcoming conference. In response the group hacked the company’s website, took control of their email, and published several thousand documents and emails from the firm online. On HBGary Federal’s website the group displayed a message of warning not to mess with them. They also took control of the CEO’s twitter account and posted his SSN and address. Needless to say, there have not been many reports of infiltration since.
There have been copious amounts of arrests in association with anonymous throughout the years all related to varying hacks. The biggest arrest took place in Turkey when 32 individuals were arrested for a DDoS attack against government websites. Another string of arrests occurred in 2009 across the U.S., Canda and Europe where dozens were arrested for their involvement in several of Anonymous’s attacks. Five individuals were arrested in 2011 in Britain in association with an ‘Avenge Assange’ movement which included several DDoS attacks in protest of Julian Assange arrest. This list does not account for any arrests that were not published by law enforcement or the group.
These are just a few of the group's early hacks and political involvements. Since, they have launched countless attacks on governments, political groups, companies, law enforcements, universities, and have stood behind major political and social movements. Their decentralized structure allows for a wide range of attacks backed by an even wider range of political and social beliefs. They are by far the clearest example of hacktivism and the longest running hacktivist group. However, clearly, all of this doesn’t come without a price.
There is no accurate way to estimate how many attacks members of Anonymous have carried out or how many have been charged in relation, but one thing is clear: Anonymous’ reach cannot be understated, and they are the best example we have of modern hacktivism.
