Anonymous is an international hacker group that has been hacking government websites for a long time.
The birth of a legend
Anonymous hackers are now known around the world. Not the hackers themselves, of course, but just their stock. But how did it all begin, and what were their goals?
At their first stage of development, Anonymous saw their goal as just the freedom of the Internet and entertainment. They easily attacked the servers of the copyright holders with DDoS attacks, carried out various humorous and not quite actions, but soon a handful of fans grew to a decent size and turned into an international organization Anonymous hackers, which terrifies the governments of many countries. These cyber fighters can easily crack the most secure sites, whether it's the CIA or the Pentagon.
In fact, the Anonymous hacker group acts so successfully and is not caught only due to the fact that not a single member of the group has ever seen the other live, and all communication is virtual. Their faces are always hidden behind the masks of Guy Fawkes from the movie "V - means Vendetta." In addition, Anonymous hackers are scattered all over the world from the UK to China, so there is no way to figure them out. 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. In Russia, the Anonymous Russia group operates. Like every self-respecting organization, Anonymous 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 plan to carry out the attacks. Anonymous published the results of their actions, and the world shuddered. Among the alleged goals were France, Italy, the USA, Lebanon, Indonesia. Now some hackers are working closely with the special services of the above countries in order to prevent a tragedy.
During the war, hackers with ISIS went to Turkey. Hacking the mail of Turkish President Erdogan, Anonymous hackers found out how loyal he was to ISIS militants, and promised the Turkish government retaliatory measures. A series of attacks were made on government servers, as a result of which they were blocked. In addition, Anonymous promised to "put" the servers of Turkish airports and banks and completely paralyze their work.
Some IT security experts consider Anonymous's “war” against ISIS a frivolous affair. As one of the experts said, “they didn’t bring much harm to each other and are unlikely to bring, because on both sides there are people incompetent in terms of protection and hacking.” True, these words are somewhat at odds with how easily hackers overcome various site protection.
Anonymous and China
In addition to ISIS, a group of hackers Anonymous decided to attack China as well. Hackers were not comfortable with the attitude of the Chinese government towards Internet freedom and freedom in general. As a result, they hacked around 500 sites owned by the Chinese government. Sites were blocked for a long time, and instead of information from the Chinese Communist Party, they found ways to bypass the blocking of unwanted information introduced by the "repressive government."
Official China itself does not confirm the attack on its servers. However, the fact is clear. Anonymous decided to raise the people of the Middle Kingdom to combat censorship and restriction of freedom. On the official Anonymous channel on Twitter, hackers urge the people of this country to rebel and continue to attack the Communist Party servers with them until the "regime collapses."
Blow to Russia
The interest of hackers and Russia did not pass by. The Russian organization Anonymous hacked the sites of the Kremlin. True, the hackers did not cause much damage, but it was rather a demonstration of strength. Having 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 leaked. In addition to the official Kremlin site, Anonymous hackers also hacked the site of the Nashi organization, which at one time was actively promoting Vladimir Putin. And here very interesting data surfaced about the financial costs of campaigning for the population of the Russian Federation. Hackers have promised to post on the network and the history of the dark tricks of the party "United Russia", if "Ours" do not stop their propaganda.
True, in their actions a biased political motive also begins to be traced. Recently, hackers from the Anonymous group released information that could not stand any serious criticism, supposedly Russia, and not Ukraine, blocked the water in the Crimea. According to them, Russia deliberately turned off the pumps and paralyzed the water supply, accusing Ukraine of this in order to raise the level of its influence in the Crimea. The assumption is more than absurd.
Other countries
Anonymous hackers have not ignored other states that have caused their displeasure with certain actions. They carried out hundreds of attacks on Japanese government sites . The site of the Prime Minister of Japan, for example, has been unavailable for a very long time. The US only recently rebuilt the CIA server after its attacks. And in London, hackers broke into the servers of all the well-known firms Visa and MasterCard. Government sites were also attacked in Canada. Again, in the United States, the Church of Scientology website was subjected to DDoS attacks. It seems that Anonymous declared war not only on ISIS or China, but also on all countries and governments at once.
Instead of a conclusion
Anonymous amaze with their abilities. Attacking well-protected servers of various states is a rather difficult and troublesome business. They are only helped by the fact that crackers are scattered around the world, and it is not so easy to calculate them. But failures do happen. For example, in London, two people were arrested in an attack on MasterCard and Visa.
Reviews about this group and their activities, as usual, can be found very different. Some fully support them, others admire that for them there are no barriers on the Internet. And some consider ordinary maximalists.
Many young people would love to join Anonymous Hackers. The programs conducted by these fighters for justice seem to be quite correct in our time. However, do not forget that no matter how Anonymous advocates freedom and justice, what they do is a criminal offense. It is better to observe from the side than the confrontation between states and hackers ends.