Anonymous (Anon)


Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a loosely associated hacktivist group. It originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain. It is also generally considered to be a blanket term for members of certain Internet subcultures, a way to refer to the actions of people in an environment where their actual identities are not known. It strongly opposes Internet censorship and surveillance, and has hacked various government websites. It has also targeted major security corporations. It also opposes Scientology and government corruption. Its members can be distinguished in public by the wearing of stylised Guy Fawkes masks.

In its early form, the concept was adopted by a decentralized online community acting anonymously in a coordinated manner, usually toward a loosely self-agreed goal, and primarily focused on entertainment. Beginning with 2008, the Anonymous collective became increasingly associated with collaborative, international hacktivism. They undertook protests and other actions in retaliation against anti-digital piracy campaigns by motion picture and recording industry trade associations. Actions credited to "Anonymous" were undertaken by unidentified individuals who credited the group. They have been called the freedom fighters of the Internet, a digital Robin Hood, and "anarchic cyber-guerrillas."

Although not necessarily tied to a single online entity, many websites are strongly associated with Anonymous. This includes notable imageboards such as 4chan, their associated wikis, Encyclopdia Dramatica, and a number of forums. After a series of controversial, widely publicized protests, distributed denial of service (DDoS) and website defacement attacks by Anonymous in 2008, incidents linked to its members increased.

Anon is known for:

(1)anti-cyber-surveillance
(2)anti-cyber-censorship
(3)Internet activism
(4)Internet trolling
(5)Internet vigilantism

Joining Anonymous:

Anyone can be part of anonymous, there is no leader, no ranking, and no single means of communication. Anonymous members are spread all around the world!


Anonymous consists of:

Users from multiple imageboards and Internet forums. In addition, several wikis and Internet Relay Chat networks are maintained to overcome the limitations of traditional imageboards. These modes of communication are the means by which Anonymous protesters participating in Project Chanology communicate and organize upcoming protests.

LOIC:

The Low Orbit Ion Cannon is a network stress testing application that has been used by Anonymous to accomplish its DDoS attacks. Individual users download the LOIC and voluntarily contribute their computer to a bot net. This bot net is then directed against the target by AnonOps.[31] Joining the bot net and volunteering one's resources for the use of the group is thus one way of being a "member," a concept that is otherwise hard to define.

Timeline of events:

The Pirate Bay

In April 2009, after The Pirate Bay co-defendants were found guilty of facilitating extensive copyright infringement "in a commercial and organized form", Anonymous launched a coordinated DDoS attack against the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an organisation responsible for safeguarding recording artists' rights.[32] When co-founders lost their appeal against convictions for encouraging piracy, Anonymous again targeted the IFPI, labelling them "parasites." A statement read: "We will continue to attack those who embrace censorship. You will not be able to hide your ludicrous ways to control us."

Anonymous supporters at an Occupy OKC rally near the Oklahoma State Capitol Building.

Megaupload

On January 19, 2012, Megaupload, a website providing file-sharing services, was shut down by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the hours following the shutdown, hackers took down the sites of the DOJ and FBI, as well as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Barrett Brown, described as a spokesperson for Anonymous, called the attack "the single largest Internet attack in [Anonymous'] history." With the protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) protests only a day old, Brown stated that internet users were "by-and-far ready to defend an open Internet."

Some commentators argued that the denial of service attack risked damaging the anti-SOPA case. Molly Wood of CNET wrote that "[i]f the SOPA/PIPA protests were the Web's moment of inspiring, non-violent, hand-holding civil disobedience, #OpMegaUpload feels like the unsettling wave of car-burning hooligans that sweep in and incite the riot portion of the play." Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle concurred, stating that "Anonymous' actions hurt the movement to kill SOPA/PIPA by highlighting online lawlessness."[39] The Oxford Internet Institute's Joss Wright wrote that "In one sense the actions of Anonymous are themselves, anonymously and unaccountably, censoring websites in response to positions with which they disagree."

Government websites

Anonymous claimed responsibility for taking down government websites in the UK in April 2012 in protest against government extradition and surveillance policies. A message was left on Twitter saying it was "for your draconian surveillance proposals."

Occupy movement

Anonymous activists helped to organize 2011's Occupy Wall Street protests in New York City's Zucotti Park, supporting the movement on the ground and through social media. The group called for the movement to remain peaceful via its Twitter account. A similar protest occurred outside the London Stock Exchange in early May 2012 during a May Day Occupy protest.

Internet pedophilia

Alleged Internet predator Chris Forcand, 53, was charged with child sexual and firearm offenses. A newspaper report stated that Forcand was already being tracked by "cyber-vigilantes before police investigations commenced. A television report identified a "self-described Internet vigilante group called Anonymous" who contacted the police after some members were "propositioned" by Forcand. The report stated this was the first time a suspected Internet predator was arrested by the police as a result of Internet vigilantism.

In October 2011, "Operation Darknet" was launched as an attempt to cease the activities of child porn sites accessed through hidden services in the deep web. Anonymous published in a pastebin link what it claimed were the user names of 1,589 members of Lolita City, a child porn site accessed via the Tor network. Anonymous said that it had found the site via The Hidden Wiki, and that it contained over 100 gigabytes of child pornography. Anonymous launched a denial-of-service attack to take Lolita City offline.

Bank Of Amarica Hacked by Anon!
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FBI Hacked by anon!
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Fox News Hacked during live interview!
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Quotes by anonymous!

We are anonymous we do not forget we do not forgive.

We are legion.

We laugh in the face of tragedy.

We mock those in pain.


I Dont mean anything by this I just think its interesting and want more people to see this kind of stuff!

Very Interesting!