Anonymous - the story of the world's most secret hacking organization

[Carding Forum]

​

Origin of the organization​

Anonymous dates back to 2003. A group of hackers united on the 4chan site, where trolls and prankers were usually regulars. Activists, or as they are commonly called “hacktivists,” Anonymous made themselves known five years after their inception. A major operation was carried out against the Church of Scientology. DDoS attacks were organized on their website, and then everything came to protest actions. Then Anonymous demonstrated their strength and cohesion to society as a new subculture.

In 2010, hackers showed all their abilities in paint. HBGary CEO Aaron Barr has said he can disclose the identities of Anonymous residents to anyone willing to pay for this information. He did not forget to add that he could happily start cooperating with the FBI. If you believe the words of Barr, then he managed to find all the information thanks to social networks. After a short period of time, the site of the HBGary company was hacked by hackers. All correspondence was leaked to the network, and all personal pages on Barr's social networks were hacked. According to unconfirmed reports, Anonymous also deleted all data from the personal tablet of the company's CEO.

After these events, the slogan went around the world: “We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. Let's not forget. Wait. "There was an assumption that the phrase" We are legion "came from the biblical statement of pure evil" My name is Legion. "

In the years that followed, Anonymous only gained momentum and popularity. Hackers from all over the world were opponents of censorship, supporters of revolutions and pirate movements. In 2012, they were published in the American magazine Time. According to the magazine, they were among the most influential people in the world. Year after year they were discussed by different publishers, thanks to their new actions. For example, they declassified documents, collected data on popular people, and even opposed the Islamic State (IS, an organization banned in the Russian Federation). They were said to have collected personal information about Donald Trump, including a personal cell phone number and health insurance details. They attacked IS in the following way: they hacked websites and personal accounts of followers,

The beginning of the calm​

In 2012, 8 successful cyber operations were carried out, including operations against the FBI, Interpol and other large organizations. But after that, a lull began.

As former Anonymous activist Gregg Housh said, structure and organization have never been the strengths of the union. Anyone could become part of the group. If a hacker wanted his activity to be under the Anonymous “brand”, he simply talked about it. There were members of all ages in the community, political views could differ, wealth and nationality did not play any role either. The group had absolutely no difference who you are in ordinary life. Therefore, disunity led to general disunity. Small parts of residents could communicate with each other, but there was no talk of any large-scale associations.

The community did not have a specific goal. Different parts of the organization implemented the common ideology of “anti-oppression” in their own way. Most of the hacktivists fought against censorship within the network, they wanted to make the Internet more free. This policy soon influenced the emergence of virtual democracy within Anonymous. If some part of the organization wanted to do one specific thing, then there were chances to get together with like-minded people for the sake of common ideas and interests. But this led to the following problem: as the former residents said, it was impossible to find at least one person who would be completely happy with what was happening on the network. But I had to accept everything that other members of the community do, since everyone was in the same boat.

A series of troubles and an actual end​

At the very beginning of Anonymous's journey, a number of countries did not want to put up with the antics of hackers, so several arrests were made in 2010. It didn't really hurt the community, but on the contrary, they had fun in the chats.

Soon, Anonymous decided to join forces with another well-known hacker group, LulzSec. In 2012, hackers of both groups were arrested and handed over by Hector Monsegur, recruited by the FBI. Thanks to him, one of the popular Anonymous hacktivists, Jeremy Hammond, also fell into the hands of law enforcement officers. Over the next few years, over a hundred hackers were caught.

But a tangible blow to the unification came during the presidency of Donald Trump. Most likely, the former president himself did not realize how much he would become a controversial figure for hackers. Many American hacktivists wanted to join forces and destroy Trump. They feared what he might bring on the United States that could not be remedied. This opinion was shared by the oldest members of Anonymous. But this approach was not supported by the other part of the "anonymous". They loved that Trump was like an upstart who brought confusion to politics. This approach of the president was quite popular with the hackers due to the fact that it suited their ideals. Thanks to this, a rift occurred in the team. Most of the community members were unable to come to some kind of general compromise and because of this, many left the group.

Former community members also say that Anonymous also broke up due to a misunderstanding of goals. According to some reports, today, many former hacktivists have moved to work in the legal sector - in information security, participate in various conferences, etc. Also, most already have families. According to the results of research in cybersecurity since 2015, a decrease in the activity of hackers has been recorded. The number of break-ins decreased by 95%. Interestingly, this period of time is just right for the extinction of the activity of the Anonymous group.