Anonymous - A Brief Overview

Today I am going to be talking about one of the major players within the hacktivism world: Anonymous.

History
Anonymous was established in 2003 to represent the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing. The term is considered to be a blanket term for members of a certain Internet subculture where people interact within an online environment but their actual identities are not known. The group has claimed responsibility for thousands of incredibly notable online attacks which will be described in more detail below. The group can be easily identified however by their use of the Guy Fawkes masks to mask their identity but maintain a consistent image when out in public.

Their official logo

A Guy Fawkes mask used to hide members identity

Purpose
Anonymous was first established as an online community wishing to work towards a goal and primarily focused on mere entertainment. However, beginning in the 2008, the group had become increasingly more associated with collaborative hacktivism. The group began to undertake a variety of protests in retaliation against anti-digital campaigns.

Membership
Anonymous members wishing to join can simply join the movement. No membership is required as there is no formal leader, hierarchy or headquarters. All member activity is conducted through a variety of online medias. Anonymous membership spreads all over the world with members being loosely identified in over 100 countries!

A group of Anonymous members protesting in Germany

Notable Attacks

2009 Iranian election protests
In 2009 during the Iranian presidential election, the Iranian government was accused of vote rigging once the results were announced. Anonymous, along with an Iranian site launched the Iranian Green Movement which allowed for an online forum for locals to display their displeasure. As a result, over 22,000 supporters worldwide showed their displeasure.

Operation Malaysia
On June 15, 2011, the group launched an attack on 91 website of the Malaysian government in response to the blocking of websites such as The Pirate Bay and Wikileaks within the country. The group changed all 91 websites to display information on censorship of basic human rights information

Future
It is quite clear that Anonymous has set up 'shop' and is here to stay. Government agencies must now learn how to co-exist with this hacktivism group so that more confident information is not leaked onto the internet for the world to see.

--Matthew Dicker