‘We Are Anonymous, We Are Legion’
Members of Anonymous made cyber-terror history by flooding an epilepsy support forum with JavaScript code and animated gifs designed to trigger seizures in pattern-sensitive and photo-sensitive epileptics. It was the first recorded computer attack that caused physical harm to people:
Internet griefers descended on an epilepsy support message board last weekend and used JavaScript code and flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users.
The nonprofit Epilepsy Foundation, which runs the forum, briefly closed the site Sunday to purge the offending messages and to boost security.
“We are seeing people affected,” says Ken Lowenberg, senior director of web and print publishing at the Epilepsy Foundation. “It’s fortunately only a handful. It’s possible that people are just not reporting yet — people affected by it may not be coming back to the forum so fast.”
The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims, began Saturday, March 22, when attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded with flashing animated gifs.
The attackers turned to a more effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that redirected users’ browsers to a page with a more complex image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.
[...]
Circumstantial evidence suggests the attack was the work of members of Anonymous, an informal collective of griefers best known for their recent war on the Church of Scientology. The first flurry of posts on the epilepsy forum referenced the site EBaumsWorld, which is much hated by Anonymous. And forum members claim they found a message board thread — since deleted — planning the attack at 7chan.org, a group stronghold.
Yet after these and similar incidents, Anonymous is still viewed as a group of freedom-loving folk heroes fighting for justice on the web. Both libertarians and leftists laud Anonymous, no matter the depths to which the hackers sink.
It sounds like they are legion in the biblical sense.
The same could be truthfully said of Scientology and all its deluded minions.
Anonymous and Scientology deserve each other.
Perhaps enhanced persuasion is required to set this right.
I take it seriously anytime someone makes threats and has the means to carry out those threats. Consider for a moment the “Kill the wealthy” talk. It does not mater how little you earn or own, someone somewhere considers you wealthy.
When I see things like:
“How hard is it for us to stake out one of the obvious access roads to some tech company, tail an employee home and toss a liquor bottle full of flaming gasoline through their nice picture window into their cute house.”
and:
““I’m going to pay a visit with my carbine to one of those tech companies and shoot every spoiled Ivy League [expletive] I can find.”
I take those threats seriously and pay extra attention to my personal safety. You should too.
Having been one of the last bunch of draftees in the Army, I had the chance to observe some of these NYC geeks in action. Unless they can figure out some way to do physical harm with an iPad, you are safe. These guys handled an M-16 the way your mom handles snakes. Nevertheless, I do believe anyone threatening (or, better, assaulting) harm via hacking ought to be hunted down and assassinated. Guys like this are cowardly, chicken-sh*t zeroes who simply deplete the world’s oxygen supply with no compensating benefit. Please note the most important words in this report — both Leftists and Libertarians support these a–holes. Leftists and Libertarians are ultimately united in their delusion that human beings are born as blank slates and that human behavior can be infinitely manipulated by changing their environment. Leftists think humans are herd animals, and Libertarians believe humans are solitary animals. Of course, both are wrong — humans are social animals. That’s why Leftism and Libertarianism have never worked, and can never work. Not to say they won’t commit mass murder one more time in the attempt to make it work.
Think yourself lucky that you don’t live in Britain, where a retired antisemitic judge was specially brought out of retirement to hear a case against a group of leftard antisemite animal vandals who caused $250,000 damage to an EDO-Brimar factory which manufactured, among other things, bomb-release mechanisms, used by Israel. Judge George Bathurst-Norman willfully bought all the left-wing LIES and propaganda of said vandals, and their leftard supporters, and bombarded the jury with his opinions, directing them to an acquittal. Which he got.
1,000 years of jurisprudence stood on its head. An Englishman’s home is his castle, until some imbecile judge decides otherwise. I hope that comes back to bite him in the arse so hard, until the country can do something to reverse his parody and put him in the stocks, or in gaol. Someone should trash HIS estate to the tune of $250,000.
It looks like you don’t understand Anonymous. Their is no “Legion”- Anonymous as it stands is a cultural meme between 15-27 year old hackers and supporters. There is no “control” over who it attacks. A crazy idiot with a few scripts can claim to be Anonymous just as much as a smart, refined hacker who writes all his own code.
Its a matter of differentiating what is a real movement versus what is unserious minorities. The attack on Scientology IS real Anonymous, as no sane person would subscribe to that mockery of human dignity. The attack on the Epilepsy site does not sound like Anonymous, and the so-called “Wallstreet Attack” is as ridiculous as the Facebook attack.
A majority of people claiming to speak for Anonymous pointed out that Facebook was much too hard to attack, as was Wallstreet.
You’re taking something too seriously, and don’t know how to differentiate between real and fake threats.
If yuou don’t take threats seriously you’d be an idiot.
Any and all threats should be taken seriously in the absence of any other information.
There was the real Anon attack against SoE in which the personal information (credit card #’s and addresses) was released online. This did nothing to hurt SoE but it did real harm to the customers, the ones Anon was claiming to protect.
Who made Anon judge, jury, and executioner?
Who watches the watchers?
So you would open Pandora’s box, unleash all the woes present in the world and blame … Oh, I dunno, the hinges on the lid?
This man speaks truth. Anon isn’t one group. Its as many groups as it is people. Some sit and post funny cat pictures, some screw with Jessi Slaughter, some with Chris Chan. Some hack, some DDoS, some protest in masks… but not all of Anon are that, and to treat the entire Anon community as one massive “organization” is a failure, on a deep level, to understand it.
No true Scotsman would do that …
Hey Not so Smart, this is incendiary speech in incendiary times.If some of your little amoral playmates get some blowback so be it. If you can’t run with the big dogs stay on the porch.
Is that you Neal Rauhauser.
Neal who? I don’t live in that world wherever it is. I just don’t like pasty faced little dorks who threaten people online and pull malicious crap because they can.
Better he should cower under the porch so others won’t see him soil himself.
I’ve noticed that hackers do not go after drug dealers, child porn purveyors, murderers, terrorist groups, counterfeiters, drug smugglers, people who run sexual slavery rings, or anybody who does real harm in the world. No. They go after people who are incapable of harming them. It’s like a bunch of teenage boys going after a grandma in a wheelchair. The hackers, using “tough” graphics to portray themselves, seem quite unaware of their own cowardice.
At least in the old days a young man had to learn how to use a sword, which took some skill and strength and required that he actually confront the person he wanted to attack. Nowadays, all a young man needs is the ability to press the keys on a keyboard. A 12-year old girl could be just as competent. The scary pictures the hackers use should be replaced by pictures of barbie dolls.
“I’m so much cooler online”.
Giving anonymity to someone or someones who SHOULD remain anonymous, because in the grand scheme of things, he or they are just frustrated little troglodytes who feel insecure and need some sort of power over others to satisfy their hunger(s).
In short, bullies.
Hopefully, the law will catch up to them and they will be placed under appropriate psychiatric care, after they are flogged.
SG-1 aproppiate care in my opinion would be 40 years at hard labor for all hackers,
Gloria, I think you’re close. If it hasn’t happened already, Anonymous will be co-opted like every past group of useful idiots, from the phony anti-war movement to Wiki-leaks, and used exclusively against the West.
In the old days David used a sling on Goliath. Big and strong doesn’t mean as much as one might think. Never did. On the other hand, that Goliath fell was meant to encourage a small nation in the midst of larger neighbors.
Anon is hardly a David.
No it isn’t but the analogy is still good. Someone small, with very little actual power can produce reactions totally out of proportion to the force applied just as David with his little rock took down big, strong Goliath. To bad they don’t use the power they think they have against those bad guys listed above but then someone who doesn’t care about law and order nor their rights might just come after them and they are deathly afraid of that happening.
“Someone small, with very little actual power can produce reactions totally out of proportion to the force applied.”
Sounds like the definition of ‘terrorist.’
They don’t go after those people because they ARE drug dealers, child porn purveyors, murderers, terrorist groups, counterfeiters, drug smugglers, and people who run sexual slavery rings
…Actually, Anonymous DOES go after CP sites. Shuts them down. Much more effectively than our government does.
Because of the anonymity of the internet, there can be no telling who actually perpetrates attacks/hacks like these. There actually is a group of people who call themselves Anonymous. Sometimes they do things because they’re bored. Sometimes it’s only one person acting, sometimes it’s thousands. Sometimes they do things that really need to be done (see the shutting down of child porn sites). I don’t always agree with things “they” do, but to dismiss the entire movement as “evil” is an overreaction. Also, trying to label it as a political entity is stupid. they’re not left, they’re not right. Sometimes it’s a bunch of nerds who just get their LULZ from posting pictures of cats or DDOSing websites, sometimes they actually affect real change–like shutting down child porn websites. They also have a special affinity for animals and do not tolerate animal cruelty–if someone posts videos/pictures of animal cruelty on the web and they get a hold of it, they often figure out who it is and can enact police action against them (or shame them to no end with lifetime supply of tampon shipments to their house).
Maybe you should all do your research before jumping to conclusions. They might do some pretty stupid things, but they also DO try to protect people (and animals), which, in light of recent police brutality, is more than anyone can say of the people we PAY to protect us. These kids are doing it for free.
Anonymous is a joke, people. It’s a little internet epithet that’s meant to say “hey, I know common web references”. There is no organization. People like that “we are legion” line because it’s fun and edgy.
There is no legion. There is no organization. At various times, different low-class hackers (and people who pretend to be hackers, having zilch programming skills) have used the name because it sounds cool. For added japery, they like to quote V for Vendetta at each other. Egad, the horror.
For the third time: There is no organization. It’s a joke. And you are falling for it. As a young conservative, I am deeply dismayed that my elders are taking an internet meme so seriously when ourcountry has so many real problems. What’s next, the war on LOLCats? A national initiative to make Milhouse a meme? Innoculations against Weegee infection? Pajamas Media, I am disappoint.
But we can forget. We can forgive. We are Anonymous, and we are a bunch of people who like running around in Guy Fawkes masks for the same reason the Shriners drive those little cars; it’s silly and fun. Don’t expect anything more sinister of us.
Making Milhouse a meme? Sir, you have jumped straight to the nuclear option. May God send us cooler heads and firmer hands in the parlous times.
Ink writes: ” . . . people who like running around in Guy Fawkes masks for the same reason the Shriners drive those little cars . . . ”
So Anonymous raises money to build children’s hospitals? Who knew.
Ink writes: ” . . . people who like running around in Guy Fawkes masks for the same reason the Shriners drive those little cars . . . ”
So Anonymous raises money to build children’s hospitals? Who knew?
The more you try to convince everyone that there is no legion the more likely it seems to most that there is and you are trying to cover them up so they can remain anonymous.
I have 30+ years of both software and database development skills on all manner of platforms and in many enterprise environments all the way from big iron to today’s web farms and now the cloud. What you need to be really dangerous and do real harm are skills in a very narrow speciality – software, communications and computer security. IMHO, most of those folks at least in the USA are honest. Of course nothing is 100% guaranteed. I am sure out there somewhere it is possible that there is the security expert equivalent of the unibomber.
I’m an “elder” and I was brought up to speed the teh internets really fast by reading Encyclopedia Dramatica. After a few weeks and a lot of side-aching belly laughs, I got a good feel for it. Yeah, when a perfectly coiffed and tailored news anchor puts on his serious face and talks about “the group known as Anonymous”, it’s a face-palm for sure. But give the conservatives some credit for being a tad bit smarter. We know about the nature of the thing, and we use the term “Anonymous” as a shorthand, because it takes too long to explain the whole history of this stuff going back to those ancient days of 2004. I think you’re missing the main point of the post – that some of these guys are not merry pranksters, harmless geeks having a little fun. There are some sick bastids out there, and they ruin it for everyone else. I knoe. I took Computer Science III and posting this through 7 proxies.
Alfred: A long time ago, I was in Burma, my friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But in six months, we never found anyone who traded with him. One day I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.
Bruce: Then why steal them?
Alfred: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with………. Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Excellent quote from The Alchemist, if memory serves correctly.
Nay, The Dark Knight.
Wow, I must apologize for that semi-blasphemy. I’m not certain how it is that I crossed those two items. >.<
I once had associations with such people (including one convicted “Phreaker”), although years ago when they were not quite as malicious, and everything wasn’t quite as networked and interdependent as now.
The sole reason these people do what they do is because they can. Simple as that. There’s a sort of gleam in their eyes and a frenzy to it, when they get their teeth into their latest “cause.” The gleam is because they know they own you and can do what they will with you. The frenzy is due to Mountain Dew, and lots of it. The cause is whatever amuses them at the moment.
No joke.
Exactly. Most all of us old folks who do computer security started out blueboxing, or phreaking, or cracking systems for fun; go back some years and hacker culture got involved with locksmithing and opening combination locks — read Dick Feynmann’s reminiscences of Los Alamos.
The “power” of Anonymous, such as it is, is that it can get a whole lot of nasty little assholes making trouble at the same time. So you get, as you describe, guys calling in threats from 10,000 miles away.
Evil? Possibly.
Capable? No bloody likely.
Just like military technology: measure/countermeasure, and in the long run they can’t win. There are too few of them, and too many big interests to really be concerned at their petty annoyances.
When Y2K was imminent, I prepared not at all. People I knew asked me, “concerned,” about my not being “cautious.” and “really worried.” And my reply was, “do you really think that multi-billion dollar corporations and governments will allow themselves to be brought to their knees by a poorly written piece of code? Get real.”
You know the worst issue I read of Y2K post-facto? It was that the Maine RMV database defaulted to 1900, and kept printing vehicle registrations as “Horseless Carriages.”
I would like to have one of those on each of my cars. In CA any car older than 1974 doesn’t have to have a smog check.
Anonymous HAS. NO. POWER. It is NOT organizing anything. It’s just a name! You are just feeding the small, sad webtrolls. You’re the ones who give them power by acting like they’re some kind of death-cult! This just encourages the few low-class hackers to mess around with the system.
But that’s all they do. They mess around. They will never bring about ANY kind of change because THEY ARE NOT REAL. It’s not an organization, it’s just a name trolls like to use. People only continue to use the name because they know it makes you upset!
How can you expect my generation to take conservatism seriously when you overreact to things like this? If you ignored Anonymous, it would go away, because it is NOT legion, it’s just a few bored trolls! Anyone can claim to be part of Anonymous, just like people can claim to be in the Illuminati. That doesn’t make either group real! People in the OWS crowd just use the name because, again, it’s edgy.
You’re wasting so much energy on this. You’re letting so much real evil fly past you while you focus on lonely nerds.
Completely agree.
I love conservative principles and I understand why liberalism sucks, but there are times it drives me crazy watching conservatives overreact to something they don’t actually get. I don’t even blame the people who are commenting and reading these articles, I blame the author. This dude has no flipping clue what he’s talking about, but since he’s on Pajamas Media, people trust him and his word. I come here for my news every single day, and it pisses me off to see this article because all it does is misinform people and lowers PJM’s credibility (at least in my and other young people’s eyes).
Maybe I’m short sighted, but I don’t really care what young people think. I think it’s you that don’t get it. A society full of amoral twits and parasites
pulling the house down is a society heading over a cliff. Drip, drip, drip…bit by sorry bit , the vandals like these hackers are eroding the foundation of our society.
TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
W.B. Yeats
Trang, you simply used today’s language to articulate what WB Yeats seemed to be observing then… Good comparison.
Two possibilities that we need to worry about.
1) While there is no central “Anonymous” organization, there are some talented hackers who could use the announcements as an excuse/cover to wreak some havoc.
2) The Chinese (who have cyber-warfare experts deployed at the brigade level) could do the same, using this as a cover for cyber-warfare against the West’s economy. Not enough to really damage our economy, but enough to knock us down a peg.
Well it is all Edgy, Fun and Games, until some troll hacks a db with names and addresses posting that info online, and other trolls start showing up on your door step …
Maybe if you quit trying to freak people out and did something constructive people would have a better view of you.
As yet another young conservative, I agree completely with Ink and am dismayed to see this article. I generally come to a small number of websites for my daily fill of news/opinion/politics and Pajamas Media is on that short list. However, this article shows that while the author has heard of Anonymous, he does not understand it or the majority of internet culture.
Anonymous IS a joke, it’s a meme, it’s all inclusive. There are no members and the population is transitory in nature. Ever laughed at LOLcats? Welcome to Anonymous! Ever trolled someone online? Welcome to Anonymous! Have you ever watched Anime or visited that asshole of the internet 4chan? HOLY GOD YOU MUST BE A 1337 HAXXOR!!!1!eleventy!1 As has been previously stated, it’s a web meme that encompasses a young age group. The whole premise behind it is the fact that on the internet, no one knows your name so you can say whatever you want. While some assholes actually do horrible and dangerous things under the guise of being ‘Anonymous’ and should be punished for their very real crimes, most of ‘Anonymous’ is too busy making fart jokes, looking at internet porn, and eating hot pockets to actually do anything other than offend people, which they think is funny.
Most of these so called attacks are very simple from a technical stand point. DDoS attacks can literally be done by anyone with an internet connection who takes the 2 minutes to download a program for it. Similarly, the postings on the epilepsy site, which, yes, were horrible and actually dangerous (you will never find me defending such actions), didn’t actually take much in the way of real coding. Are there dangerous threats out there? Of course. I strongly recommend people take their internet security seriously since almost anything anyone does anymore involves the ‘net. However, the real question is are a bunch of 13-25 year olds watching cartoons and joking about genitalia actually evil, to which I would personally say: No, they’re just stupid.
The whole point of this long and rambling post is to say this:
There are real threats out there, but laying everything on Anonymous’ doorstep is stupid and counterproductive. In this article, PajamasMedia joins the ranks of the Mainstream Media in getting almost nothing about Anonymous and Internet Culture(tm) right. By and large, the so called members of Anonymous have the attention spans of 13 year old girls and are about as dangerous. Calling Anonymous a ‘shadowy and satanic organization of elite computer terrorists’ is like calling Barack Obama the greatest president in the history of the United States.
tl;dr you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Varyar, and that’s the purpose of the commentators here (well, one of our purposes). Sharing knowledge and experience lest the uninformed be led astray.
Yeah, sounds hokey, but it’s the truth no less. Everybody here is expert in something relevant to the issue at hand, and no one hesitates to share and inform.
Allston, I understand that, which is why after years of reading articles posted here and lurking the comments I decided to place one of my very few comments on this article. My point, and I think that Ink and the others are trying to make as well, is that the articles carry a certain weight. Yes, we commenters can try and correct things we think are wrong, and we can point out aspects of the situation that the writer has missed, but how many people read the article and don’t read the comments? I know that I myself find the comments enjoyable and informative, but I don’t always have time to read them for every article. If this piece was simply about the dangers of the internet, attacks that have happened, a threat that has been put out there, that’s one thing. However, the author went beyond that. He instead engaged in what I personally see as fearmongering and either through ignorance or willful disinformation (I’m guessing ignorance) completely misrepresented this story.
Anonymous has become the internet’s boogeyman, and as ink stated, they like it that way. It’s funny, it’s interesting, it’s a friggin game to them. One of the ‘rule of the internet’ is don’t feed the trolls. Articles like this are chum to these adolescent idiots. Document real threats, sure, but don’t try to tell me that a bunch of prepubescent idiots are a malicious group of superhackers. Seriously, it’s definitely NSFW, but check out 4chan.org/b/ sometime. It will probably disgust you, it will most certainly offend you, but that is anonymous.
We aren’t saying that individual people that may self-identify as Anonymous can’t be dangerous, they can and those people should be watched and prosecuted as the individuals they are. The point is this article makes it sound like there is a well trained, organized, and dangerous terrorist cell called ‘anonymous’ just waiting to kill people and target innocents, and the facts don’t justify that. Anonymous is, quite literally, an incredibly schizophrenic entity that spends most of it’s time insulting itself.
Anonymous is like Wikileaks – both are infowars tools for western spy agencies.
They are probably run by a British agency, since I doubt an American group would harass a legally recognized church like Scientology, but you never know….
Not just Western spy agencies!
That’s interesting. I’ve been wondering how say, Russia, could possibly miss half the conspiracies I’ve discovered just by reading the news.
Does that mean they’re in on it too? That would be nuts, but it’s worth considering….
Wrong on all accounts concerning Anonymous. Anonymous is that nerd that everyone picks on in high school. Anonymous is vengeful and throws a tantrum whenever it doesn’t get its way. Anonymous could never be contained as a reliable informant for ANY government because it would be too busy fighting itself for the honor.
Also, since I haven’t seen anything about the Scientology / Anonymous fight, here’s the deal behind it:
Anonymous hacked into a bunch of Scientologist computers because they were bored, like always. Scientology “fed the trolls” by prosecuting the so-called hackers responsible. Anonymous responded in typical fashion by throwing a fit and deciding to declare war on the Scientologists. Thousands of people in Guy Fawkes’ masks all claiming to be Anonymous marched around the world to protest the treatment of Anonymous by the Scientologists. The protesters did an insane amount of childish pranks to prove “Anonymous’ will”. The Scientologists “fed the trolls” again, and then Anonymous responded in turn, again.
This has been the war between Anon and Scientology. It’s about as complex as an insult followed by “I know you are, but what am I?”.
Nerds join it, agents lead it.
If it turned out that an American agency was harassing a religion, even an unpopular one, that would be quite a scandal… Only the British have no qualms about it apparently.
Again, you miss the point. Anonymous isn’t capable of having a leader or even a master! An agency dedicated to leading Anonymous is subject to fail horrendously. You cannot put Anonymous on a government payroll because you cannot identify everyone that is associated with Anonymous. There aren’t even any criteria in place for joining Anonymous. If you have posted even ONE time on 4chan /b/ then you are part of Anonymous.
….
Think about that. That alone proves your conspiracy theory to be completely unpractical and silly fear-mongering.
Then I guess Pajamas Media also has no direction, no leaders, no payroll….
I don’t know why Anonymous being a tool for intelligence agencies should inspire fear. Are they bad?
Baobo, no it doesn’t inspire fear. It’s that your conspiracy-theorizing inspires a rolling of the eyes. You seem to very badly want us to believe your rather odd theory that an intelligence agency not only could control a formless bunch of internet vandals, but that there would be any reason for them to do so.
It’s bad because you don’t want intelligence agencies to be dealing with wild cards. Anonymous is as likely to hack the CIA as it is to help the CIA take down tyrannical governments from the inside.
Agreed. I too am a young conservative and I cannot emphasize enough: Anonymous are the dregs of the Internet. When they actually do something worthy of notice, then run articles on them. Otherwise, just ignore them like the majority of the nation is ignoring the Wall St. Occupiers.
The “Occupy Wall Street” and other “Occupy America” protests are astroturf. (See #OccupyWallStreet park owner gets Obama administration money and Who is behind #OccupyWallStreet and #OccupyAmerica?.)
The posers in “Anonymous” are merely a bunch of juvenile pranksters, with a greatly exaggerated sense of their own importance, piggybacking along for the ride. I am sure that this publicity delights them no end.
They are bullies who will end up giving governments a great excuse to reign in the internet.
Understanding the psychology and culture of Anonymous is absolutely critical for conservatives because it does represent a powerful (if annoying) segment of the online world; however, hysterical “hide the women & children” posts like this give Anon both too much credit and too little.
First, to understand Anon, you have to understand, this is not the Borg! There is no global collective, just individuals with relatively homogeneous interests and chaos tolerance levels. Anon is a title that exists largely independent of any ‘structure.’ Info security professionals suspect there is a small core group of Anon activity but not a huge network. Did you even read the comments at the Wired article? Everyone in the comments is pointing out that there is no Anon “group.” As others in this thread have pointed out, the type of activity Anon specializes in does not require a lot of people.
Second, “This is not so much a protest as a plot to murder those people.” Are you serious? That’s as ludicrous as Bachmann’s “government needle” comment. There was one video (One!) and again, there is no ‘Anonymous’ organization-this could have been created by anyone. Yes, there are anarchists who would be all for a true meltdown, complete with riots and death, but that isn’t necessarily universal.
Third, Anon adherents do stupid, cruel, and sometimes plain evil things; however, they also do some remarkably useful, or at least understandable, things such as when they hacked the Iranian government’s system, stole emails & launched a full DDOS, shutting down BART’s website after they blocked cell service to quell protests, or killing Westboro Baptist’s website for a little while.
The ones engaged in in these activities are not in league with the Devil. And before you run screaming into the streets, why don’t you learn more about them than what is written here or what shows up in the headlines when they do something dramatic? They may be jerks but they are important jerks and some of them do have important issues to address.
For starters, try reading InfoSec pro Krypt3ia’s blog: https://krypt3ia.wordpress.com/ He/she does a lot of commentary & analysis of the Anon mindset and is usually pretty even-handed about it.
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/06/03/anonymous-steals-10000-iranian-government-emails-plans-ddos-attack/
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/02/25/westboro_baptist_church_anonymous_website
There’s something appropriate about the first image.
The M1911 .45′s are not cocked – and since he’s holding 2, cannot BE cocked and thus can not be fired. Second, he’s got rotten trigger discipline.
So he’s got weapons he doesn’t know how to use properly and has poor control over handling them.
Sums up Anonymous pretty well.
Orion
if chambered and hammer lowered a 1911 can be cocked with a thumb by pulling hammer back.
As other users have pointed out, the website 4 chan (/b/) is where “Anonymous” began and lives. The 4 chan (/b/) website isn’t your typical message board. Everyone there is completely anonymous, so it creates a haven for exchanging disgusting images such as gore and underage pornography.
This piece of drivel seems to be nothing more than an adolescent rant by a testosterone challenged Collumbine wannabe geek. Cowerdly, as he stands behind anonymity, he visciously attacks people and institutions that he neither knows, nor understands. Yesterday, Scientology, today, the banks. He defends the likes of Julian Assange and his sort of criminal anarchy, but doesn’t have the courage to come out of the closet and confront anyone openly.
They, anonymous, are dangerous, as are any frustrated group of adolescents with too much time and money on their hands. But for the power of computers, they are puny, powerless geeks.
Anonymous can cause some mayhem, but hardly has the power to bring down the system. They may, very well, be able to do some damage and inspire some loners to kill third parties, but they are hardly a movement. They are a bunch of malicious, adolescent, and puny geeks, who will come to be sweet meat when they meet with their fates of incarceration.
Imagine a group that forces women to go masked
Imagine a group that wants mass executions by stoning
Imagine a group that mutilates its newborns to mark them as members of their tribe
then complain to me about evil
Mohammad Atta and his accomplices weren’t rocket scientists. Box-cutters are not the height of tech weaponry.
I worry about evil idiots as much as I worry about evil geniuses.
You should read up on the group on Wikipedia:
“In January 2009 members of Anonymous targeted California teen McKay Hatch who runs the No Cussing Club, a website against profanity.[62][63] As Hatch’s home address, phone number, and other personal information were leaked on the internet, his family has received a lot of hate mail, lots of obscene phone calls, and even bogus pizza and pornography deliveries.[64]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)
Hmm the joke will be in their hand, if and when they could take down the ‘financial’ markets and it all collapse into the ash heap of history, they will be living Fallout 3 not just playing it on a computer … someone with no skills when the lights go out …. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
The Markets are usually closed on the second Monday in October, due to the Columbus day holiday. foreign markets will be open however.
Yes James 22, I wondered how long before someone made that cogent observation! Attack the NYSE when it is… closed? Whatever. We came across some post somewhere that Anon was cancelling the event “…due to infiltration!” heh.
For whatever it’s worth, there is at least one flavor of Anonymous that explicitly denounces illegal & violent approaches http://www.whatis-theplan.org
But, as with any group or -ism, it is always a question of how soon ( if not at the inception) a movement gets co-opted or hijacked- witness the Unions involvement & Pelosi’s blatherings about the freaktastic “Occupy Wall Street” scene. I have to wonder if Soros & co. have a backdoor to that. Another Cloward-Piven Streategy… Discoverthenetworks. Time for me to re-read “The True Believer” by Eric Hoffer. I tend to see all these groups a bit like Burningman, efforts to explore other social models. My own tastes are to the relative civility of the Tea Party.
Closing note, we recently read an account of a woman who left Scientology & was thanking Anon. She recounted some false flag agitprop that C.of Sc. was generating to smear the reputation of Anon. Who knows what tail is wagging what dog, this many levels in…it would be hard to know for instance if the attack on the epilepsy support group ( the author does not state the perps RATIONALE?) might have been generated by C of Sc.
This intertubes thing is the current frontier. A place where, because of the technology, laws are sometimes unenforceable.
In our own frontier days, most people took with them their beliefs and their understanding of the rule of law when they emigrated to that vast wilderness, and made little bubbles of civilization wherever they settled.
But some did not. Some, a relative few, finding themselves beyond the reach of reason and right, became transformed into lawless, murderous animals. They cast off civilization and the law, performing evil against any that they could prey upon. Eventually, the folks who carried their sense of right and reason with them ended up killing the beasts among them, as the only way to be rid of them.
In the first decade of the 20th century, a man, a convicted thief, rapist and killer, escaped from Wall Walla Penitentiary, and made his way to the Big Bend country of the Columbia River. He proceeded to commit several murders, attacking farmsteads around Waterville. He killed everyone he found at these homesteads, and you could follow his progress by that pall of smoke from the burning ruins of house and barn. Over a hundred men in the area banded together and hunted this man, finally catching up with him in a cornfield near the Columbia River in Douglas County. Ringing him inside the cornfield, the self deputized posse of wheat farmers and ranchers shot this animal to doll rags. My grandmother’s father and all of her neighbors were in that posse.
To the Anonymous crew out there, this should be taken as a cautionary tale. Eventually, the rational and fair minded among us will hunt you and you will spend your own time in the corn field.
Sounds like a pipe dream. We no longer live in a world where you could do this and not end up in prison. The libertarians here should be able to tell you all about why what you propose is bad and immoral.
Anonymous thinks of themselves as Chaotic Good, but really they’re Chaotic Neutral. They’re just interested in chaos, and they don’t really care whether the targets of that chaos are good or evil.
My youngest son informed me of Legion and explained to me. That Legion is very popular with the younger crowd and they are trying only to get the truth out to the public and protect anyone being harassed by the main stream. Before you jump to any conclusions, do some research on what legion puts out. You may be very surprised by what you find. Facebook, Twitter and the Internet have world governments running scared, just look at the arabia spring.
And how ’bout you do some research on the line “My name is Legion.” Legion was the name of a group of demons that possessed a man and drove him mad until Jesus healed him.
Again: America’s youth thinking evil is “cool.”
They must be doing something right, they have world governments soiling their pants!
Anonymous: A problem looking for a 230-grain solution.
Welcome to the internet. you are OBVIOUSLY NEW, and apparently need to be led by the hand like any other toddler.
Anyone who has lived long enough to survive their first unwilling introduction to goatse.cx knows what Anonymous is. It’s not a “hacker elite,” it’s not a “subversive underground movement,” it’s certainly not Satanism, other than in the sense that idle hands are the Devil’s playground….
It’s a bloody stupid internet meme.
“Anonymous” was a random meme started on the scurrilous /b/ image boards of 4chan. The concept was simple; to bring trolling to real life. Anyone who wished to participate merely had to don a Guy Fawkes mask, gather a few like minded individuals, and go make a public nuisance of themselves in a way that provoked and annoyed the target of your schadenfreude. They didn’t pick on the Scientologists out of any sense of heroism or nobility, or under orders from any mysterious “leader,” they did it for the same reason that all the bullies in a school pick on the fat kid— because Scientology (being a massive, corrupt and blatantly obvious criminal cult) was an easy target. The slogan “We are Legion” and “Anonymous does not forgive” is a straightforward reference to the fact that, here on the internet, the faceless masses will show absolutely no compassion or restraint or mercy— they will watch a cripple fall down the stairs and laugh; they will post the “after” photos of bridge-jumpers for the amusement of the masses; they will be as ruthlessly carelessly cruel as any faceless, nameless mass of jackasses can be expected.
So in announcing with stentorian tones that “Anonymous has done evil things,” you’ve successfully proclaimed last year’s news.
Perhaps if you had a life (in which you learned manners beyond that of a twelve year-old) outside your bedroom in Mommy’s and Daddy’s house…
As others have said, Anonymous based on public arrests are small time, non-elite hackers, mostly script kiddies, who vandalize but do no real damage. Far more threatening are widespread criminal rings targeting electronic payments. Imagine what would happen if you could no longer reliably use your ATM/Credit Cards and had to pay cash for everything. Because you risked having your bank accounts looted using an ATM card, and Credit Cards were subject to so much fraud merchants refused them.
One of many Anonymous’ sites
http://www.whatis-theplan.org/
They have 90843 registered users
What is it with that mask? I keep seeing it in videos of organized anarchist protests.
maybe I should be more specific. What is it with the white mask with the black moustache and goatee (displayed in the video on page three of this article)? You can see someone wearing it in all of the occupy wall street news coverage shots or youtubes including those in NY, Madison, Cleveland, Portland Boise, Occupy Wall Street Facebook Page etc.
I’m just curious, what does the mask represent?
It represents complete stupidity.
It’s Guy Fawkes – a Catholic terrorist who was planning to blow up Parliament with “the gunpowder plot.” Because the mask was used in the comic book and movie “V For Vendetta,” all the young morons have adopted it as the edgy, hip thing for secret dissenters to wear.
Don’t tell them that it’s a Catholic who wanted to set up a theocracy.
Underneath is Che Guevara.
So, these anonymous hackers don’t go after seriously corrupted, negarious and dangerous illegal entities because they know if they got caught they would be treated according to the standards of these said business? Well, then they have some sense even if they are sociopaths.
All you geeks, It Pros, DOD Skywalkers. Every switch, every cable headend, every satellite receiver and whole bunch of Euro based cell phones. They know, they may think they are Anonymous, but they are not. Hey Nutso, “BB” is inside your decision tree!
better check then move your “6″
The diagnosis of sociopathy seems correct.There is no proven treatment methodology except extermination. There may be bounties in some states and counties.
It’s Guy Fawkes – a Catholic terrorist who was planning to blow up Parliament with “the gunpowder plot.” Because the mask was used in the comic book and movie “V For Vendetta,” all the young morons have adopted it as the edgy, hip thing for secret dissenters to wear.
Don’t tell them that it’s a Catholic who wanted to set up a thoecracy.
thank you! Haha. Yes,rebels without a clue. Well, if they want to be Guy Fawkes, may all their wishes come true.
After reading over the comments, I have to say I’m not impressed with those who are posting that Anonymous is just a meme and nothing serious. In defense of the author of this article, the group has actually done things, hacking, public smears, and other malicious things. That is quite a bit different than just merely a ton of talk on some thread no one but freaks go to. And are they all related to anime? News to me if that’s the claim, because lots of people like that. But anyway, whether you merely call what they do “childish” or a nuisance, it still has real-world consequences, and why shouldn’t the Scientologists go after them legally? It’s still a free country whether you like this group or not, correct? It’s illegal and costs money to fix your machines after being hacked, correct? If they are willing to take trolling to the streets, how can you be sure of anything?
“What divinity inspires mobs to lynch unarmed people?”
A look to Egypt in recent days would answer that question: Allah.
GAds!!!This is the same screed which had those evil comic books burned in the 50′s. Find these idiots, arrest them and move on. Anon. are ants at the picnic-no more and no less. Meanwhile, our sitting MArxist pres and his minions….
They picked on EPILEPTICS? YES, I’m YELLING about that. They are setting off seizures in people who can’t drive? don’t present as normal- the drugs they take change their body and their facial affect and tone of voice. They are picking on some of the weakest, most defenseless members of society? The people who go to epilepsy boards are lonely, and sad and cannot hide their disease. And they got something that gave them a seizure?
A seizure causes further brian damage. One seizure potentiates the next seizure. Lose enough, you have to take higher doses of medication- which can kill you- or go to sleep- and that transition to sleep can kill you- or just have a long, tiring day- and that can set off the seizure that kills you.
What sort of person brings that sort of evil into play? Why don’t they cut the brakes on wheelchairs while they are at it? It’s a similar group to bully- the rendered ill and vulnerable.
As myth buster said, they do these things because they can. They don’t think about consequences, or, those that do, are sociopaths and don’t care.
I don’t know if this matters, but I just got a chance to watch this video and noticed that the music is from “The Last Temptation of Christ” and features a Qawwali singer from the Middle East. It’s a great album by Peter Gabriel even if the movie was trash, the music was very groundbreaking in it’s day, long before world music became popular. What a shame that it should be used for this kind of message.
Hello,
It seems your twisting of words and truth has attracted quite a bunch of people.
Please know that Anon is here to help the people and to push transparency from governments and tyrannical sects like Scientology.
And we know allot of people view us in a very bad light, due to the media spreading the word that we are baddies and have no soul.
Indeed we are baddies to certain degrees however aren’t the governments that took your money, brainwashed you from birth, and then spun information to justify wars across the globe worse?
Or is this something you accept as the norm?
Greetings,
Anonymous, We do not forget, we do not forgive, expect us!
I wish Anonymous would shut this clown down. Taylor is such a hypocrite. He supports other groups called Perverted-Justice and Absolute Zero United, two websites that make many false claims and have used threats and cyber-attacks, including website hacking and character assassination, all under the false premise of preventing “pedophilia.” They have even gone so far as impersonate and threaten sex crime victims into silence. Rob Taylor keeps some very bad company behind the scenes. He has even been known to collaborate with known pedophiles. He is a hypocrite in every sense of the word.
To Anon,
I would like to see you the so-called “Anonymous” hack this site when people like you claiming to “help the people” That way it show your true color. I know people like you and you are full of it.
To Anon Supporter,
I would like to see evidence which mean prove or disprove, not just bitchin. Peace XD
Anonymous will help the people when the people do not want help and refuse help. We are the thread that holds the fabric of every nation on this planet together.
we are Legion
for we are many
we do not forgive
we do not forget
expect us