Anonymous is an international hacker group that has been hacking into government websites for a long time.
Birth of a legend
The hackers from the Anonymous group are now known all over the world. Not the hackers themselves, of course, but just their actions. But how did it all start, and what were their goals?
In their first phase of development, Anonymous saw nothing but the freedom of the Internet and entertainment as their goal. They easily DDoS-attacked the servers of copyright holders, carried out various playful and not quite actions, but soon a bunch of amateurs grew to a decent size and turned into an international organization of hackers Anonymous, terrifying the governments of many countries. These cyber fighters easily hack into the most secure sites, be it the CIA or the Pentagon.
In fact, the Anonymous hacker group operates so successfully and is not caught only due to the fact that none of the members of the group has ever seen the other live, and all communication takes place virtually. Their faces are always hidden behind Guy Fawkes masks from the movie V for Vendetta. In addition, Anonymous hackers are scattered all over the world from the UK to China, so calculatethere is no possibility of them. The police can arrest 2-3 people, but the organization will not suffer much damage.
Groups of anonymous hackers have formed in almost all developed countries of the world. And Russia is no exception. The Anonymous Russia group operates in the Russian Federation. Like every self-respecting organization, Anonymous also has its own Twitter account, where they inform people about the latest promotions and plans.
Anonymous and ISIS
Not so long ago, Anonymous hackers declared war on the Islamic State (ISIS), a Muslim terrorist organization. Craftsmen hacked about 5,000 accounts of militants. This allowed them to find out where the militants were planning to carry out attacks. Anonymous published the results of their actions, and the world shook. Among the intended targets were France, Italy, the United States, Lebanon, Indonesia. Now some hackers are working closely with the intelligence agencies of the above countries in order to prevent the tragedy.
During the war of hackers with ISIS, Turkey also got it. By hacking Turkish President Erdogan's mail, Anonymous hackers learned how loyal he is to ISIS militants and promised the Turkish government retaliatory measures. A series of attacks were made on the government's servers, as a result of which they were blocked. In addition, Anonymous promised to “put down” the servers of Turkish airports and banks and completely paralyze their work.
Some IT security experts consider Anonymous's "war" against ISIS to be frivolous. As one of the experts said, "speci althey did not bring harm to each other and are unlikely to do so, since on both sides there are people who are incompetent in terms of protection and hacking. True, these words are somewhat at odds with how easily hackers overcome various site protections.
Anonymous and China
Besides ISIS, the Anonymous hacker group decided to attack China as well. The hackers were not satisfied with the attitude of the Chinese government towards the freedom of the Internet and freedom in general. As a result, they hacked about 500 websites owned by the Chinese government. The sites were blocked for a long time, and instead of information from the Chinese Communist Party, they contained ways to bypass the blocking of unwanted information imposed by the "repressive government."
Official China itself does not confirm the attack on its servers. However, the fact is there. Anonymous decided to raise the people of the Celestial Empire to fight against censorship and restriction of freedom. On the official Anonymous Twitter channel, the hackers are calling on the people of this country to rise up and continue to attack the Communist Party's servers with them until "the regime collapses."
Strike on Russia
The interest of hackers and Russia did not pass by. The Russian organization Anonymous hacked the Kremlin websites. True, the hackers did not cause much damage, but it was more of a show of force. Having gained access to the personal data of officials, hackers could "merge" it all into the network. And then another scandal would surely flare up.
However, something has been leaked. In addition to the official Kremlin website, Anonymous-hackers also hacked into the website of the Nashi organization, which at one time actively promoted Vladimir Putin. And here very interesting data surfaced on the financial costs of agitation of the population of the Russian Federation. The hackers promised to publish the history of the dark deeds of the United Russia party on the net if Nashi did not stop their propaganda.
True, a biased political motive begins to be traced in their actions. Recently, hackers from the Anonymous group published information that does not stand up to any serious criticism, allegedly it was Russia, and not Ukraine, that blocked the water to Crimea. According to them, Russia deliberately turned off the pumps and paralyzed the water supply, blaming Ukraine for this, in order to increase its level of influence in the Crimea. The assumption is more than absurd.
Other countries
Anonymous-hackers have not bypassed their attention and other states that have caused their displeasure with certain actions. They carried out hundreds of attacks on Japanese government websites. The website of the Prime Minister of Japan, for example, was unavailable for a very long time. The US only recently rebuilt the CIA server after their attacks. And in London, hackers hacked into the servers of the well-known companies Visa and MasterCard. Government websites were also attacked in Canada. Again, the website of the Church of Scientology was subjected to DDoS attacks in the USA. One gets the feeling that Anonymous has declared war not only on ISIS or China, but on all countries and governments at once.
Instead of a conclusion
Anonymous are amazing with their abilities. Attack well-defendedservers of various states is a rather difficult and troublesome business. They are rescued only by the fact that crackers are scattered all over the world, and it is not so easy to calculate them. But there are also failures. For example, in London, two people were arrested during the attack on MasterCard and Visa.
Reviews about this group and their activities, as usual, can be found very different. Some support them wholeheartedly, others admire the fact that there are no barriers to the Internet for them. And some consider them ordinary maximalists.
Many young people would love to join Anonymous Hackers. The programs run by these justice fighters seem pretty right these days. However, do not forget that no matter how much Anonymous stands up for freedom and justice, what they do is a criminal offense. It is better to watch from the side than the confrontation between states and hackers will end.
