Anonymous: Fun Facts You Should Know

It all started as fun, then it took shape and seriousness, when they went out in a Hackers and imageboard forum 4chan. The beginning of Anonymous It was in 2002. But in 2008, the movement gained greater strength and prominence in its adventures, in the world of research, complaints and protests.

Although they don't have a defined ideology, their fundamental pillars or their struggle are for freedom of expression, internet independence, and free access to information. That's why they love to expose corruption in organizations and entities.

Furthermore, it violates copyright laws and various organizations such as Scientology, public services, global corporations, and government censorship systems.

Obviously, taking into account its name of AnonymousIt's really difficult to confirm the source of the news. They don't have a leader because they don't consider themselves a group. Everyone decides whether they want to participate in this movement. Of course, the idea behind the name is that a community could be represented as a single person.

Its origin and motto

We can say that its name is inspired by anonymity, when images were once published on websites without having to include the name or identification of the person posting them.

Thus, image websites grew in popularity, so much so that users sometimes refer to Anonymous as if he were a real person.

Well, it all started, as previously stated, in 2002. When a user typed a message into a form on a website. Interestingly, their IP address was hidden.Another user later uploaded a political cartoon, which led to criticism. In response, the anonymous user defended the uploader, stating that we all have the right to speak.

Anonymous attacks in history

The cyberattacks they've carried out since their inception are a few well-known cases. Initially, the hacktivists took on the Church of Scientology and companies that opposed web piracy. From then on, it's hard to believe you haven't heard of them.

Activated at a higher frequency

Between December 2006 and January 2007, individuals identified as Anonymous, Turner's website was taken offline. This resulted in thousands of dollars in lost bandwidth bills. Although the victim sued 4chan, eBaum's World, and 7chan for copyright infringement, he was unsuccessful in his case.

At the end of that year, alleged online predator Chris Forcand was captured. He was charged with two counts of luring a child under 14. According to police reports, he was being tracked by cyber vigilantes, who were monitoring adults' inappropriate behavior toward minors.

Chanology Project

It was called that, to the protest that began in 2008 against the Church of ScientologyIt was on January 14th when a video of Tom Cruise was leaked on YouTube. Therefore, The church filed a complaint against the video website for copyright infringement..

In this way, the members of the Chanology project, They organized attacks to deny access against Scientology websitesBy January 21, they announced their declaration of war against the Church of Scientology and Religious Technology via a video and press release.

Later, on January 28, they uploaded another video, "Call to Action," to hold protests. They began in Orlando, spreading to Santa Barbara, California, and Manchester, England. Days later, on February 10, the protest spread to 93 cities, and many people wore V for Vendetta masks.

They then called for another protest on March 15, and a third on April 12, called Operation Reconnection, to raise awareness about the Church of Scientology's disconnection policy.

Epilepsy Foundation

On March 28, Wired News reported on the support forum for the Epilepsy Foundation of America. JavaScript code was modified, and flashing animations were posted to induce seizures and headaches in photosensitive people. It's worth noting that it was reported as an attack by anonymous people, evidently. Anonymous indicated that the attack had been carried out by the Church of Scientology..

Iranian protests

When allegations of electoral fraud emerged in the results of the Iranian presidential elections in June 2009, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was proclaimed president and protests began. Anonymous, The Pirate Bay and other hackers launched a website in support of the Iranian Green Movement, called Anonymous Iran.

Operation Didgeridie

In September 2009, they reappeared to defend the civil rights of citizens. After Several governments began to block access to their websites.But the most critical moment came when the Australian government revealed its plans to censor the internet at the internet service provider (ISP) level. Anonymous, on September 9, took down the prime minister's website for approximately an hour.

Operation Smaltits

Months later, in February 2010, They attacked several Australian government websites, causing a denial of service (DDoS) for several hours.This was in retaliation for the upcoming legislation that was leaked at the time, which would attempt to censor pornography of women with small breasts and female ejaculation.

Payback

It all started when in 2010, Bollywood hired Aiplex Software to launch DDoS attacks on websites that ignored its app removal requests.For this reason, Operation Payback was launched to attack Aiplex, but hours before, they realized that another user had taken down the website. They then decided to target companies that are strict about copyright, anti-piracy, and legal issues.

Then, on April 2, Anonymous launched an attack against Sony and its PlayStation websites.. PlayStation Network has subsequently had short interruptions, reportedly due to intrusions by subgroups of Anonymous.

On the other hand, Sony caught the attention of Anonymous when it sued George Hotz (GeoHot), because he managed to run the homebrew software for PlayStation 3 again and Alexander Egorenkov (Graf_Chekolo) for his efforts to revive Linux for the same console.

WikiLeaks: The leaked documents

When Julian Assange revealed information in December 2010, through thousands of documents related to the government and companies with shady dealings. Anonymous supported this cause, and was even involved in DoS (Denial of Service) attacks on PayPal, MasterCard and Amazon services. who wanted to prevent donations to WikiLeaks.

Against dictatorships

Tunisia and Egypt had their headache in the Arab SpringWhen the Tunisian government attempted to curtail freedom of expression on the internet, they were surrounded by members of Anonymous, who successfully attacked eight websites.

In this way, in Egypt in 2011, during the Egyptian revolution. They developed instructions for routines to circumvent website blocks.. This is how they distributed information to confront the forces of the dictatorial regime. They also hacked and took down websites belonging to the Egyptian government and the ruling political party. Therefore, they remained inactive until President Hosni Mubarak resigned.

As for Libya, Anonymous was divided, with one side unsuccessfully defending dictator Muammar Gaddafi and the other hacking government websites. They also took advantage of the situation and persuaded the host of the Libyan leader's website to remove him from the network.

The HBGary attack

On the first weekend of February, the HBGary Federal website was hacked, infiltrated by Anonymous. Although it didn't provide any information to the police, it did provide information at a conference in San Francisco. For this reason, the group hacked the website and posted a message advising not to bother the Anonymous users. They also took complete control of the company's email account, deleting around 68,000 emails and dismantling its phone system.

The leaked information presented details of other cybersecurity companies and data from systems like Endgame, high-quality offensive software. A presentation called "The Wikileaks Threat" was also leaked, listing Assange's key contributors.

Sony again

In that same year, They announced the attempted attack on Sony's websites. Because the corporation obtained the IP addresses of everyone who visited George Hotz's blog, as a form of defamation. Calling it an offense against freedom of expression and the internet.

It's worth noting that one group of Anonymous members accepted responsibility, while another group called AnonOps chose to take responsibility. Since this group or organization has no leaders, the groups often work in different ways.

Against the Spanish Police

Almost halfway through the year, on June 12, They attacked the Spanish Police website, due to the arrest of 3 people. Presumably, they were related to acts of cyber civil disobedience, which is why the site was down for approximately an hour.

Operation Independence in Colombia

On July 20, 2011, former President Álvaro Uribe's Twitter account and President Juan Manuel Santos' official Facebook account were hacked. They called this operation Operation Freedom, and the message "Operation Freedom" was posted on the former president's account. "Are we really freed from our oppressors? Or are we simply changing names and policies?"and the link to a YouTube video on the subject. That same day, the websites of the Ministry of Defense and the High Council were attacked, rendering them inoperable.

Later, in 2012, The Senate's website was the target of attacks due to the feared and possible return of the Lleras Law.One of their reasons was that they intended to regulate copyright in the world of the Internet.

Against child pornography

By October 2011, They launched a collective campaign against 40 child pornography sites. They published the names of around 1,500 users who frequented these websites. and they also invited the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol to take action on the matter.

Even against the Zetas

On October 6th they released a video, where They threatened the Zetas with disseminating information about the cartel members and their collaborators to public and state security agencies., if they didn't release a hostage from their group. Beginning in November, the gang members released the victim without the knowledge of his anonymous affiliation.

After further investigation, little information was found that matched the description given, in addition to the limited support from Anonymous groups.

Operation Nigeria

In 2012, they joined forces against the People's Liberation Front and the Naija Cyber Hackers, with the goal of carrying out a devastating attack on Nigerian government websites. The protest began with the elimination of the fuel subsidy on which most citizens depend, leading to higher transportation prices. By January 13, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's website had been hacked.

MegaUpload

In retaliation for the decision of shut down the Megaupload file-sharing service and the arrest of 4 workers. Anonymous proceeded to apply massive DDpSed to several websites on January 19, 2012. Among those affected were DUnited States Department of Justice, the Copyright Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Warner Brother Music, the MPAA, and the RIAA.

All of these actions were prompted by the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protecting Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

Against a rape case

Beginning in 2013, the group released a video, photos, and tweets incriminating the Steubenville High School football team for allegedly being involved in the rape of an underage girl in the Ohio area. As if that weren't enough, they also published leaked emails and photos of one of the promoters who had supposedly been covered up.

North Korea

On April 2, 2013, the IT professional website BRG published an article claiming that anonymous hackers had launched Operation Free Korea. They demanded that Kim Jong-un abandon his duties and nuclear programs, as well as allowing his citizens unrestricted internet access.

Cyber warriors indicated that failure to comply with these demands would trigger a Cyber War. Days later, Anonymous reported that they had hacked the Uriminzokkiri website and its respective Twitter and Flickr pages. Then an image of the dictator with a pig-like snout and a Mickey Mouse shirt appeared. It also came with text that read, "Threatening world peace with ICBMs and nuclear weapons, wasting money while your people starve."

Anti-Gay Law in Nigeria

In July 2013, Nigeria's national website was hacked after laws were passed punishing homosexuals. These penalties could carry up to 14 years if found guilty.

NSA Operation

That same year, in November, they announced plans to attack the National Security Agency and other US institutions. The motive was to spy on the internet activities of all Americans, in addition to censoring the free press in the same medium.

Operation Ferguson

It started in 2014, with the Release of a video warning police in Ferguson, Missouri, for fatally shooting unarmed African-American teenager Mike Brown.

They also vowed revenge if any other protesters were harmed. Later, they launched a series of allegations against St. Louis Police Chief Jon Belmar, citing his failure to reveal the name of the officer who fired the shot and his dismissal of Anonymous's allegations.

In Hong Kong

That same year, they posted another warning video on News2Share for the Hong Kong government. Announcing the start of the Operation condemning the use of police force in protestsHe promised that if protesters suffered further harassment, they would attack all government assets, including its websites, databases, and the disclosure of officials' personal information.

Since the announcement, neither the Hong Kong nor the Chinese governments have commented on the situation. By October 2, Anonymous had reportedly taken over some websites, according to the Apple Daily. On the other hand, the government indicated that its servers were operating without incident and that they were prepared for any attack.

Against the Islamic State

When the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, received the ISIS terrorist attacks on its facilities in 2015Anonymous threatened cyberattacks against the Islamic State. Months later, it released a long list of Twitter accounts of users linked to the jihadist group.

Operation ICE ISIS

At the beginning of the Red Cult, they began attacking the Islamic State's social media accounts and recruiting campaigns. They allegedly destroyed months of work searching for sympathetic personnel. They also issued a statement saying they would take down their websites and emails and expose them.

Response to Phillip White's attack

Following the attack on a New Jersey teenager named Phillip White by Vineland police, Anonymous released a video demanding that the officers be placed on leave and the perpetrator's name revealed. Failure to do so would result in the officers' personal information being revealed and the cyberattacks would begin.

Operation KKK

The KKK couldn't be left out of this group, so on October 22, 2015, Anonymous announced that they had accessed a Twitter account associated with the Klan, promising to expose some 1,000 users by name. It's worth noting that months earlier, they had launched a campaign against the Klan organization after they threatened to use lethal force in self-defense during the Ferguson protests.

Darknet relaunch

In 2017, some 10,000 Tor-based websites were greeted with a message that Freedom Hosting II had been hacked when attempting to access them. An anonymous group compromised the application's servers because, according to the 50%, the sites contained child pornography.

#BlackLivesMatter Movement

So in this 2020, Three days after the murder of African American George Floyd, they addressed the world in reference to police brutality.He also promised that they would be exposing many of the crimes being committed. Meanwhile, the websites of the City of Minneapolis and the Police Department were down for a time, presumably due to the work of anonymous hackers.

Tik Tok a Chinese creation

In his last appearance, Anonymous revealed a well-kept secret of the famous app Tik Tok. They They claim that the application for uploading short videos is Chinese spyware.. Just like Instagram and Facebook are for the United States.

Michael Jackson and other suicides

Regarding the deceased pop star, they claimed he wasn't killed. As proof, they released an audio recording in which he can be heard speaking to the King of Pop and one of his lawyers during a call. This incident occurred a few days earlier, on June 25, 2009.

On the call, a voice very similar to Michael Jackson's, very worried, said that a group of powerful people could kill him. When the caller asked for more details, he responded evasively. Ultimately, what mattered to him was that his children were safe.

They also mentioned the cases of Avicii, Chris Cornell (Soundgarden and Audioslave) and Chester Bennington (from Linkin Park), Paul Walker (Fast and Furious actor saying they weren't suicides. They were murdered because they knew the secrets of a high-level child prostitution ring.

As you could read in this extensive post, those of AnonymousThey have a long history. Their history will continue to grow. Because wherever there is a violation of rights and government abuses, they will be there to raise their voices in support of the oppressed. Tell us, did you know this group's history?

Image: Anonymous Hackers