ANONYMOUS HACKERS GROUP

Context:

Anonymous is a decentralized multinational activist and hacktivist movement most known for its cyber-attacks against government agencies, institutions, governments, companies, and the Church of Scientology.

Key Points:

• Anonymous began in 2003 on the message board 4chan.
• It symbolizes the idea of many offline and online community members working together as a digitized anarchic hivemind at the same time.
• Anonymous members are referred to as Anons.
• Anons disguise themselves as Guy Fawkes in Guy Fawkes masks. 
• To mask their voices, some Anons utilize voice changers or text-to-speech software.

Hacktivism first venture:

In 2008, Anonymous became identified with hacktivism after a series of attacks against the Church of Scientology known as Project Chanology. 4chan users planned raids on the Church's websites sent black faxes designed to waste ink cartridges, prank-called their hotline, and launched DDoS attacks. A video was also put online in which the organization threatened the Church of Scientology with internet eviction.

Numerous Operations of Anons

1. Operation Payback

2. Operation Avenge Assange

3. Operation Tunisia 

4. Cyber Attack against Aaron Barr

5. Target Homophobic Organizations
6. Operation Darknet 

Several Attacks of Anons

2012 

• Anonymous knocked down 485 Chinese government websites in 2012 in retribution for the oppression of Chinese citizens.
• After Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip in 2012, Anonymous knocked down Israeli websites.

2014

• During the Ferguson riots, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sent death threats, prompting Anonymous to declare cyberwar on the KKK. They targeted servers hosting KKK websites and began exposing members' personal information after hacking the KKK's Twitter account.

2015 

• After the Charlie Hedbo incident in 2015, Anonymous declared cyberwar on Al-Qaeda and ISIS. KKK members' email addresses and phone numbers were also made public.
• After the November 2015 Paris attacks, Anonymous targeted ISIS websites and pulled down 20,000 of them. They also doxxed (publicly releasing personal information about an individual or organization).

2020

• Following the murder of George Floyd, Anonymous targeted the Minneapolis Police Department's website.
• The 269 terabytes of internal US law enforcement material released by Anonymous in 2020 is known as BlueLeaks or #BlueLeaks.

2021 

• Following the passage of a Texas law prohibiting abortion, Anonymous turned its attention to anti-abortion websites.
• Epik, a web hosting company that provides services to websites that post neo-Nazi, far-right, and other extremist content, was also targeted by Anonymous. Their data was stolen, and all information about the extremists was released into the public realm.

2022 

• Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Anonymous declared cyberwar on the country, focusing on official websites. And they were taken down. Also published by Anonymous were 200GB of communications from Tetraedr. This Belarusian arms company provided logistical support to Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.