Considered the most powerful non-government hacking group in the world, Anonymous started in 2003 on the website 4chan. Their name was inspired by the anonymity of users that posted on 4chan.
Used and composed by people from all over the world, the members call themselves “hacktivists”: a combination of a hacker and an activist. Usually, they wear in public the Guy Fawkes masks with a style of the film of 2006 “V for Vendetta”. The “man without the head” is also one of the symbols of the group. Today, the Guy Fawkes masks is one of the most popular ways of hiding faces during anti-establishments protest all over the world.
Anonymous main goal is to use their technological knowledge for a specific purpose.
The start of Anonymous
Anonymous can be described as a group of people who hack for a similar intent. In general, they hack to computer systems to take many kinds of data.
When they start, Anonymous activities had the most fun note. However, with time, they change and are now known to be an anti-establishment group. Members come from many places all over the world, from different philosophies and backgrounds. Many times they participate in only a single cause.
2008 was the year when the group first came to the public attention and made headlines with “Project Chanology”. At the time, the Church of Scientology removed a video of Tom Cruise promoting the church and Anonymous took action. They posted “Message to Scientology” on Youtube, talked about the dangers of Scientology and also add that by removing Tom Cruise video they were violating free speech.
The incident was then followed by more videos and marches near Scientology churches.
Anonymous’ philosophy
“Knowledge Is free. We are Anonymous. We are legion, we do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us”. This is the group sign-off. Without any kind of structure or organization, it won’t be easy to find a spokesperson for Anonymous. They are like an internet gathering and because of their absence of leadership, any action is attributed to the membership as a whole.
Most of the group actions have governments, organizations or corporations as targets. On the subject of rules, there are a few knowns: not talking about the group or disclosing one’s identity and not attesting media
How to join the group
Everybody who is really thinking about joining Anonymous should first join other activist groups, build relationships and earn trust over the years. Your role in the group can be diverse and when you got in, you just need to choose a cause to support.
The truth is that there is a really low barrier to entry in the group. Only a few of the group are amazing hackers, but they still need many people. Why? Because do a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) every time they perform and for this, they need everyone they can get.
Anonymous acts against cases of injustice or corruption and most of their actions are controversial. They are always around but you never know what it will be the next step.