How did it start?
Anonymous is not a mere “hacking group”-- it’s an idea that is vague but yet powerful. Originating from the image boards of 4chan during the years 2004-2007 where people posted pictures and texts anonymously this group got it’s basic form and strategy.
“Users of imageboards sometimes jokingly acted as if Anonymous was a single individual” [Wikipedia]
Giving this “group” a sense of unity in anonymity the idea went further when they started collectively pranking on habbo using identical avatars. These were however only casual stuff that became the origin of Anonymous.
A step further..
The so-called Project Chanology (“[4]CHANology” LOL) in the year 2008 pushed the group for the first time in the world of “hacktivism”. The word hacktivism is basically hacking and activism joined together that means activism through web hacking. Since, Anonymous consisted by now a considerable number of web developers, hackers, programmers, etc., naturally they thought of taking the online method of protesting against things a step further. It began with opposing the Church of Scientology and its activities. Anonymous conducted massive worldwide DDoS attacks against them.
However, by no means the group was only limited to cyber world only. Thousands of “Anons” (as they were called by then- short form of Anonymous), for instance, joined protests on 10th of February 2008 (Christian Era) before Church of Scientology worldwide. Here many of them came wearing Guy Fawkes Masks that became famous as a symbol of Anonymous later.
The rise to power
Anonymous emerged as a prominent hacking group by the year 2011 when it launched massive DDoS and hacking attacks on a number of government websites around the world as protests for different issues. For example, the attacks on the website of governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, etc., to name a few.
Anonymous has also targeted the servers of MNC’s like Sony, PayPal, PostFinance, etc. and took them down for a good amount of time.
Ideology and Methods
Anonymous does not have a well-defined ideology or goal. It is like a flag- whoever can pick it up and carry it wherever he want. The active parts of group are generally from USA or Middle East- and of course from all parts of the world. The main theme of activity is the “Ops” like OpEgypt, OpSyria, OpPedo, etc., that basically defines a course of action. Participation is the basis of taking in members because there is no central authority to ‘admit” anyone into the group. Even the participation is by volunteering. The general convention is to start an “Op” against some evil activities happening somewhere (generally on a large scale) and once it gets some support and momentum more Anons come and join it.
The method of DDoSing is widely used by Anonymous because that’s what noob kids can do very well with a little bit of propaganda and very little technical knowledge (or effort). A very famous tool called LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) is used for sending thousands of packets to the target server to take it down. The funny name of this tool seems to have come from a computer game called Command and Conquer in which one of the factions called GDI uses a satellite beam weapon called Ion Cannon to obliterate and totally vapourize huge enemy bases.
Trend
Anonymous has recently become very fractioned (it WAS always fractioned) into groups with conflicting opinion. For example the infamous #OpIsrael seeks to “destroy the cyber space” of Israel because of its “oppression and killing of innocent Palestinians”. Now, if the real culprits are Israelis or the Palestinian terrorists relentlessly shooting missiles towards civilian cities in Israel is a very controversial matter. The Israeli so-called “occupants” are being told to “stop killing Palestinian women and children” who are the rightful holders of the landmass called Palestine by them.
I wonder if the Jews have been living on the said territory for thousands of years (called Canaan and Israel) how come the “Palestinian” Arabs be the owners. Most of the supporters of OpIsrael have been Muslims all around the world (even Bangladeshis and Pakistanis who themselves rape and murder Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Ahmadiyya minorities in their countries).
The final word
Anonymous is a great asset to the common people given its fundamental goals and principles to save the common people from injustice. Sub-groups like LulzSec, AntiSec, etc., and supporting organizations like WikiLeaks have helped it grow into much more than a common “hacking group”. But the values are dying because of over-whelming incursion of selfish Islamic groups creeping in into it and using it for their own purposes. Also, many youngsters and even kids are fooled into supporting them just because they are “some cool hacking group” but they fail to see the difference between Good Ops and Bad Ops.
So, Anonymous is the essential evil that is like a storm against oppressors. But if the controls go into the hands of wrong masses it could take away the rights and harm the very people it was made to defend. Let us not the vision die.
And please-- for people guessing things-- I AM NOT ANONYMOUS.
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