Anonymous

One of the largest and well known groups of hidden identities goes by “Anonymous”. The group is known for hacking and shutting down multiple websites, relating to the government, major corporations, and religious groups. They do do not have any set guidelines, they do whatever they want and whenever they want, whether it’s hacking into accounts to steal money or rebeling against the governtment propoganda. They began in 2003 and did mediocre pranks that got them large critism from the media. But in 2008 they caught the medias attention by campaigning against the Church of Scientology. They had multiple DDoS attacks on the Church’s website and sent black faxes to waste all their ink catidges. [ i ] In 2010, they attacked multiple websites of large companies like VISA, Mastercard, and Amazon. The anonymous group claims that they do whatever they want whether the public views it as good or bad, but they always have a reason for their actions. Anonymous has grown into such a large group that they have even more groups associated with them such as LulzSec and Operation AntiSec which have also targeted the government and specific media groups. Since the groups power has been recognized and they gained large numbers, they started holding rallies (in person) around the world for protesting and are well known to wear the iconic Guy Fawkes mask to keep their identity hidden. Anonymous takes their hidden identity very seriously, for instance when an Internet security company named HPGary threatened to disclose the members of the group to the FBI, they took action immedieatly. After hacking the firms website, they proceeded by retaining thousands of private e-amils and posting a message on the company website. [ ii ] The group has gained the most admirers from it’s campaign against ISIS.  They hacked and actively took down websites relating to the spread of propoganda with terrorism, the group claims that they are against injustice. Most recently, the group has involved itself in taking down the Trump Towers website after Donald Trumps remarks on Muslim immigrants in the USA. The group has been involved in many contriversal situations with members from all over the world. In 2012, Anonymous was claimed as one of the “100 most influential people” in the world by Time news magazine. Most catfish situations are looked at negatively but Anonymous  has done some good for the use of false identities.

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[i] Raza, Ali (January 25, 2016). The Anonymous Group: What is it and How big is it. Retrieved from https://www.hackread.com/anonymous-group-what-is-it-and-how-big-is-it/

[ii]Sands, Geneva (March 19, 2016). What to Know About the Worldwide Hacker Group ‘Anonymous’. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/US/worldwide-hacker-group-anonymous/story?id=37761302