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"Cyber Vigilantes Unveiled: The Story of Anonymousđ¨âđť"
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"Cyber Vigilantes Unveiled: The Story of Anonymousđ¨âđť"
Contents of Article :
1. Introduction.
2. Hacktivism.
3. Emergence of hacktivism
4. Story of Anonymous
4a. Famous hacks of Anonymous.
5. Conclusion.
1. Introduction :
According to the Oxford Dictionary, "Â anonymous "Â means " of a person or thing: not identified by name; of unknown name or identity; whose real identity is unknown or untraceable."
So, when the word Anonymous! is heard, it triggers people's curiosity due to its unknown, unidentified, untraceable characteristics. Anonymous is a great name to think about when starting a group that performs undercover operations for the benefit of society.
Anonymous is a decentralised hacktivist group that has been active since the early 2000s.
Before knowing the story of Anonymous we need to know about hacktivism which clarifies "Why were hacktivist organisations like "Anonymous" and several others founded?".
2. Hacktivism :
Hacktivism is the practice of using computer techniques such as hacking to expose politics and social and religious injustice. Hacktivists frequently target businesses, governments, or other groups they perceive to be involved in harmful or unfair acts.
source:Wallstreetmojo
The legal status of hacktivism is difficult to determine and varies from country to country. While it is accepted as free speech in certain countries, it is a crime in others.
It is clear that there are many different forms of hacktivism in society, some of the most well-known of which are included below:
Distributed Denial Service Attacks: Attacks that deny users access to a website or server by flooding them with traffic are known as distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Data theft: Taking private information from a target company, including money-related data, client information, or intellectual property.
Website defacement: Altering a website's content to add words or graphics that support their cause.
source: websitesecuritystore.com
Past Website defacement Attacks :
Viruses and malware:Â Producing or disseminating viruses, worms, or other malware to interfere with or harm the computer systems of a target organisation.
3. Emergence of hacktivism :
The word âHacktivismâ dates back to the 1980s when hackers used to do hacking to show their revolt against the government of the country or the states.
During the early 1980s, Hacktivists used their skills in many forms, especially for dealing with issues that were not considered by the government.
During the emergence of Hacktivism, it can also be stated that the hackers in the beginning also used to show protest against social injustices that were spreading during that time.
The year 1989, the first case of hacktivism emerged, named âWorms Against Nuclear Killersâ (WANK), which was related to the activist group in Australia based io anti-nuclear groups.
In the year 1990, the hacktivist group CDC (Cult of the Dead Cow) started DDoS attacks using the internet.
In the year 2000, new groups of hacktivists emerged by the name of LulzSec and Anonymous. Such types of groups carried high-profile cyber attacks, and their main targets were corporations, Scientology churches and the agencies that were associated with the government. Hence hacktivist groups have emerged since the born of the technology during the 1980s, where the technology was beginning to enter the world.
One of the sudden emergence of the very famous group of hacktivists known as âAnonymousâ returned in the year 2020 after the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a policeman in Minneapolis. It is evident to understand that such types of hacktivist groups have some agendas for which they spread their fear among governments and corporations.
It is also essential to know that such types of groups are unpredictable as sometimes they go underground where after several years, they return to society.
4. Story of Anonymous:
Anonymous is an International group of hacktivists and activists formed back in 2003 where no central authority like a president or CEO to carry out the group's operations rather localized groups were formed and they operate independently under the name of Anonymous.
Anonymous is a movement where no membership is needed.
According to British journalist Carole Cadwalladr, "If you believe in Anonymous, and call yourself Anonymous, you are Anonymous".
Anonymous has a logo, Motto and Mask too like Batman, spiderman, Captain America etc
The Anonymous logo is of a man with a "?" (rather than a head on his neck) representing anonymity and a leaderless movement/group.
The Anonymous Motto is "We are Anonymous, We are Legion, We do not forgive, We do not Forget, Expect us"
The Anonymous Mask was inspired by the graphic novel "V for Vendetta" which the novel itself inspired by "Guy Hawkes" a famous iconic rebellion involved in the "Gunpowder plot" to assassinate King James VI and I for the prosecution of Catholics in England which showcases his Protest and resistance for the oppressive Governments.
4a. Famous hacks of Anonymous! :
Hack 1: Anonymous Against Sony 2011:
One of the famous hacks of the Anonymous hacktivist group against Sony Company was in 2011 when the company lawsuit was made against Geroge Hotz.
George Hotz was also a hacker who hacked the PlayStation 3 console for which the group launched multiple attacks on the company that took down the company's website and the PlayStation network through the help of DDoS. However, after multiple attacks from the hacktivist group Anonymous, Sony dropped the charges against George Hotz. The group still has not stopped attacking the company as they gained access that is associated with the internal network of Sony Company. Anonymous exposed all the personal data of the company to around 77 million PlayStation users in the network which also consisted of the personal information of the company. As a result, the reputation of the company was damaged, and it has cost them billions of dollars to fix everything from the beginning.
Hack 2: Anonymous Hacks FBI website:
Anonymous in Defence of Megaupload 2012 -
In the year 2012 in January, the Anonymous group also created major attacks on the US government due to the shutdown of the Megaupload site that was based on pirated movies and music. This was one of the largest attacks of the hacktivist group Anonymous where they again used DDoS (Distributed denial-of-service), and it also hacked the FBI website of the US government along with some of the sites that are associated with pirated movies and music. The FBI agency of the US shut down the Megaupload website, for which the hacktivist group took immediate action. The Anonymous Group has not only attacked the FBI website of the US government but also the Department of Justice. The group released a huge amount of information to the public based on the personal information of the FBI agents along with their home addresses and family details.
Anonymous Cyber War Against Vladimir Putin :
Hack 3: Anonymous Against Putin 2022
One of the recent and famous attacks done by the Anonymous hacker group is against Vladimir Putin since the beginning of the Russia against-Ukraine war. The group also hacked the space agency of Russia known as Roscosmos, whose data has been leaked along with the personal information of the employees working under that space agency. Not only that, even the government website of Russia, banks and outlets of the media were also being hacked by the Anonymous hacktivist Group. Therefore it can be stated that this was also one of the famous hacks done by such hacktivist group known as Anonymous. Hence can also be stated that around 200GB of information is secret and associated with the Defence and Ministry of Russia. Therefore this was also one of the biggest and most famous hacks the Anonymous group has recently done.
5. Conclusion :
"In conclusion, Hacktivist groups like Anonymous have various agendas, but they usually target political and governmental institutions to oppose the state and combat social injustice".
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very useful and informative article, keep doing great work on.