The Anonymous Hacktivist group has been in many headlines this past year. Who are they? What did they attack? How do they communicate?

As we put the final touches on this article, operation Megaupload, #OpMegaupload, is in full force (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Operation Megaupload tweet.

The hacktivist group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for a coordinated attack on the websites of the Justice Department, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and Universal Music. They used their weapon of choice: the Low-Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) to carry on distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on these sites. According to the chatter on IRC and Twitter, these attacks were carried out in retaliation for the takedown of the popular site Megaupload by US and New Zealand authorities on charges of copyright infringement, racketeering, and money laundering (Figure 2). One of the chief Megaupload executives, Kim Dotcom, has since been denied bail in New Zealand.

Figure 2: Megaupload.com seized by the US government.

An Internet blackout also occurred the same week, and a reported 75,000 websites went dark, including Wikipedia, in a protest against the anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA in the US Congress. In view of all the protest, Congress postponed the bills and is going back to the drawing board. The timing could not have been better or worse, depending how you look at it; the actions of Anonymous could harm more than help the cause of net neutrality.

Who Are They?

If you’ve heard about Anonymous on the news, you have seen the Guy Fawkes masks and the YouTube videos portraying alleged Anonymous members taking responsibility for an attack or warning a company of an impending one. You might also have read their rather eerie mantra, “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” Their actions have made quite a few headlines in the last couple of years, ranging from protests against the Church of Scientology, to a fight against the Mexican cartels, to, more recently, a break-in of Stratfor Global Intelligence servers, from which they accessed 2.7 million email accounts and some credit card numbers, which have been used to make charitable donations. Although Anonymous is becoming increasingly synonymous with a hacker group committing crimes, there is more to it.

Anonymous in its larger definition is a social activism group empowered by social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. They represent a new type of activism – leaderless, unorganized, rooted in the Internet – with the ability to mobilize a large number of people quickly around a specific issue. The four top Anonymous-related Twitter accounts (@anonops, @AnonymousIRC, @Anonymous, @Lulzsec) have more than 800,000 followers, giving them significant clout. YouTube videos about or from Anonymous get millions of views. During the DDoS attacks on the Justice Department, LOIC saw a large increase in its number of downloads, peaking around 50,000 in a week. Anonymous reported that 5,630 members participated in the attack.

Figure 3: Guy Fawkes mask.

A Guy Fawkes mask (Figure 3) is a stylized depiction of the most famous member of the Gunpowder plot that aimed to bomb the British parliament on November 5, 1605. It was made famous by the comic book and movie "V for Vendetta" in 2005. Although its meaning has evolved over the years, it has been embraced by Anonymous has a symbol of protest.

A Short History of Anonymous

Although most social activism groups have a clear structure and well-defined communication channels, that is not the case for Anonymous, perhaps the first virtual social activism group. In the beginning, members might have used a site like 4chan, which allows anonymous posts, but they now use various IRC channels, primarily on the server irc.anonops.com. Most of the talk is about random topics ranging from computer games to programming and occasionally current events. This has always been the case for Anonymous and is the core of Anonymous at large.

Anonymous became more than various people chatting anonymously when they realized they could do things outside of the IRC channels. The first acts were relatively childish and motivated by entertainment and for lulz. For example, when Dumbledore died in the the newest Harry Potter book, someone likely spoiled the ending for everyone in the chat room. The news spread to the point that the ending was spoiled for everyone in what seemed like a coordinated action by Anonymous. With the history of simple pranks for entertainment and fame, Anonymous grew used to looking for things to do as a collective in the real world.

Eventually, operations shifted toward activism. Core discussions still take place on IRC channels, although not all focused on activism. As ideas come up, most are ignored, but the most interesting ones gain support. No one votes on what they should or should not do, but if someone likes an idea, they might tweet about it, post it on Facebook, make a YouTube video, or mention it on a blog, thus lending their support and helping make it a reality. In turn, more people find out about the idea and try to contribute to the goal in whatever way they can. From an idea in an IRC channel to real action, growth is purely organic and generates an eventual consensus on the operation at large, although not on the specifics of the operation.

In a sense, the decision about what to do is made by actually doing it. Generally, each operation has an overall target, and any actions taken are at an individual’s discretion, which leaves a wide range of interpretations about how the operation can be carried out. Sometimes coordinated actions, like protests, gain support, and a group manages to agree on dates and a place. The occupy movement, for instance, received support from Anonymous, and the Guy Fawkes mask could be seen among the protesters. More computer savvy individuals might decide to hack websites in support of an operation, thereby engaging in criminal activities. So even though a consensus might be reached on the operation, not all members of Anonymous agree on individual deeds that could include criminal acts. This has lead to the current portrayal of Anonymous solely as a hacker’s group, attacking corporations and stealing information and could lead to the demise of true social activism being associated with the group.

The Anonymous Hacktivist group has been in many headlines this past year. Who are they? What did they attack? How do they communicate?