Anonymous is a decentralised virtual community.[1] They are commonly referred to as an internet-based collective ofhacktivists whose goals, like its organization, are decentralized. Anonymous seeks mass awareness and revolution against what the group perceives as corrupt entities, while attempting to maintainanonymity. Anonymous has had a hacktivist impact.[2] This is a timeline of activities reported to have been carried out by the group.
January: Radio hostHal Turner sued several online groups, alleging Anonymous "posted unauthorized copies of his radio shows online, attacked [his] server so as to make it unavailable, and placed unauthorised orders for goods, services and merchandise from third parties in [his] name." The case was dismissed in December for lack of response.[3]
December: A man was arrested in Toronto on charges of luring a child under the age of 14, attempting to invite sexual touching, attempted exposure, and other charges. Police stated that Anonymous, a cyber-vigilante group which trolls for pedophiles and then "outs" them, had targeted the suspect before law enforcement was involved, and cautioned that such interference could impede official investigations.[4][5][6]
February–December: Known asProject Chanology, Anonymous organized multiple in-person pickets in front of Churches of Scientology world-wide, starting February 10 and running throughout the year, achieving coordinated pickets in over 100 cities, thousands of protestors, and wearingGuy Fawkes masks.[9]
March 28: The Epilepsy Foundation's forum was salted with posts displaying flashing computer animations with the intention of triggering seizures inphotosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics. There was some evidence pointing to Anonymous, but Anonymous named other likely culprits including the Church of Scientology seeking to discredit Anonymous.[10][11] (See alsoEpilepsy Foundation § 2008 forum invasion)
June: Anonymous claimed responsibility for attacking and defacing websites and forums ofSOHH (Support Online Hip Hop) andAllHipHop, causing the sites to temporarily shut down. They also stole personal information about SOHH employees.[12] (See alsoSOHH § Defacement.)
September 16: Anonymous declared they hacked the private email account ofSarah Palin. An individual was convicted and sentenced to a year in federal prison.[13][14] (See alsoSarah Palin email hack.)
January: Anonymous targeted California teen McKay Hatch who runs the No Cussing Club, a website againstprofanity. Hatch's home address, phone number, and other personal information were leaked on the internet, and his family received hate mail, obscene phone calls, bogus pizza deliveries, and pornography through the mail.[15][16][17]
January: Anonymous attacked websites of the governments ofTunisia andZimbabwe over censorship issues related to WikiLeaks.[20]
February 10: Anonymous conducted DDoS attacks against a wide range ofAustralian government servers in protest of proposedinternet filtering legislation which would block some pornography. Australian anti-censorship groups complained that the attack only hurt their cause, and Australian government members dismissed the attack and said that they would just restore the service when the attack finished.[21][22] (See alsoFebruary 2010 Australian cyberattacks.)
July: Anonymous flooded the OregonTea Party's Facebook page when they found out that OTP had been using part of Anonymous' slogan, "We Are Legion". OTP surrendered, apologized and recanted.[23]
July: In response toChelsea Manning's imprisonment and treatment after leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, Anonymous threatened to disrupt activities atMarine Corps Brig, Quantico by cyber-attacking communications, exposing private information of personnel, and otherharassment methods. Military spokespersons responded that the threat has been referred to law enforcement and counterterrorism officials and requested an investigation.[24][25]
September: Anonymous targeted major pro-copyright and anti-piracy organizations, law firms, individuals, and entertainment industry websites in retaliation for DDoS attacks on torrent sites.[26][27] (See alsoOperation Payback.)
December: Anonymous started DDoS attacks on websites of companies who had withdrawn banking facilities from WikiLeaks including Amazon, PayPal, BankAmerica, Swiss bank PostFinance, MasterCard, and Visa.[28][29] Over the next year, dozens were arrested and several convicted for their part in the operation. (See alsoOperation Payback § Operation Avenge Assange andAnonymous (hacker group) § Operation Avenge Assange.)
December: Anonymous promoted sifting through WikiLeaks to identify potentially overlooked cables, making short videos covering the topic, and flooding the internet with them.[30]
January 3: Anonymous got involved during theTunisian Revolution and engaged in DDoS attacks on key Tunisian websites—including the president, prime minister, ministry of industry, ministry of foreign affairs, and the stock exchange—taking down at least 8 websites and defacing several others. Anonymous distributed information and scripts to help Tunisians bypass government censorship, and Anonymous' own website also came under DDoS attack.[31][32][33][34]
January 9: Anonymous hacked and defaced the website ofFine Gael, an Irish political party.[35]
February 5–6: The CEO of security firm HBGary announced they had successfully infiltrated Anonymous. In retaliation, Anonymous hacked and vandalized the company's website, took control of the company's e-mail, and took down the phone system. Anonymous also hacked the CEO's Twitter account and doxed him online.[36]
March 14: Anonymous threatened to releaseBank of America emails purported to show evidence of fraud in theforce-placed insurance market. The emails were alleged to have come from a former employee of a subsidiary to Bank of America.[41]
June 12: Anonymous claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack of the website of theNational Police Corps of Spain, asserting it was a legitimate form of peaceful protest in retaliation for the arrest of three individuals alleged to be associated with acts of cyber civil disobedience attributed to Anonymous.[44]
June 15: The group launched DDoS attacks on ninety-oneMalaysian government websites in retaliation for their censoring of websites.[45]
June 20: Members of the group took down the websites of theOrlando, Florida Chamber of Commerce and inserted a message into the website of theUniversal Orlando Resort requesting that users "boycott Orlando". The group did so in response to the arrests of members ofFood Not Bombs for feeding the homeless inLake Eola Park against city ordinances.[46] The group had planned and announced the attack on their IRC channel.[47][48] The group has vowed to take a different Orlando-related website offline every day, and have also targeted the re-election website ofMayor of OrlandoBuddy Dyer and theOrlando International Airport. A member of the group left aGuy Fawkes mask outside of the mayor's home; the police are treating the picture taken of the mask as a threat against the mayor.[49] On July 11, the group took down the website of theRoman Catholic Diocese of Orlando and theRotary Club of Orlando.[50]
June 20:Operation AntiSec — The group collaborated withLulzSec to hack the websites of a number of government and corporate sources and release information from them.[51][52] As well as targeting American sites, Anonymous also targeted government sites in Tunisia, Anguilla, Brazil, Zimbabwe, Turkey, and Australia. On July 21, Anonymous released two documents allegedly taken fromNATO.[53]
June 28: Anonymous announced that within the next 24 hours, it would hack into the website of theKnesset, the legislature ofIsrael, and knock it offline. It was stated that the planned attacks were a response to alleged hacking attacks by Israeli intelligence such as theStuxnet virus, a computer virus which allegedly was created by Israeli and U.S. intelligence and targeted theIranian nuclear program.[54]
August: Someone announced "Operation Facebook", an alleged plan to take downFacebook on November 5, 2011. It was an attempted revival of an earlier OpFacebook that was also abandoned.[55]
August:Operation BART — AfterBay Area Rapid Transit shut down cell phone service in an attempt to disconnect protesters from assembling after a police shooting, Anonymous sent out a mass email/fax bomb to BART personnel and organized multiple mass in-person protests at the network's Civic Center station. Anonymous also hacked the BART website, and released the personal information of 102 BART police officers, as well as account information for about 2,000 customers.[56]
August: Dubbed "Shooting Sheriffs Saturday," Anonymous hacked 70 (mostly rural) law enforcement websites and released 10 GB of leaked emails, social security numbers of police, training files, informant information and other information.[57]
August: Anonymous hacked the SyrianMinistry of Defense website and replaced it with an image of the pre-Ba'athist flag, a symbol of the pro-democracy movement in the country, as well as a message supporting the2011 Syrian uprising and calling on members of the Syrian Army to defect to protect protesters.[58]
August 17: (Operation Pharisee) Anonymous organized efforts against the Vatican's websites, coinciding withWorld Youth Day 2011. Hacking was unsuccessful and a two-day DDoS attack failed to slow the website.[59]
October: Operation DarkNet — AnonymousDDoSed 40 child porn sites, published the usernames of over 1500 people frequenting one of those websites, and invited the U.S.Federal Bureau of Investigation andInterpol to follow up.[60]
October 6:Op Cartel — Anonymous claimed Mexican drug cartelLos Zetas had kidnapped one of the group's members, demanded the hostage be freed, and threatened to publish personal information about members of the cartel and their collaborators in politics, police, military, and business. The website of Gustavo Rosario Torres, a former Tabasco state prosecutor, was defaced with a message suggesting his involvement with the organization. Anonymous claimed in early November that the victim had been freed, but reporters did not find evidence of Anonymous involvement and noted a lack of details and police reports. TheVeracruz state attorney general couldn't confirm the kidnapping.[61]
November 7: (Operation Brotherhood Takedown) Anonymous threatened to take down the websites of theMuslim Brotherhood, and on November 12 the Muslim Brotherhood announced that four websites were temporarily taken down by a DDoS attack.[62]
November 22: In response to theUC Davis pepper-spray incident, Anonymous released the personal information of the officer that pepper-sprayed protestors.[63]
December 24: (Stratfor email leak) Anonymous claimed they stole thousands of e-mail addresses and credit card information from security firmStratfor. The hackers includedJeremy Hammond, who worked with Anonymous to release Stratfor's 5,543,061 emails toWikiLeaks. The emails revealed Stratfor's surveillance of groups such asOccupy Wall Street and protestors of theBhopal disaster.[64]
January: Anonymous hacked the website of the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association and released information about its members' identities, addresses, and credit cards.[65]
January 13: The NigerianEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission website was hacked, with a false report of the arrest of people involved in the oil sector replacing the normal page.[66]
February: (Operation Russia) Anonymous hackers obtained access to the emails of several prominent pro-Kremlin activists and officials includingVasily Yakemenko, head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs,Kristina Potupchik, press secretary for theNashi youth movement, and Oleg Khorokhordin, deputy head of the Department for Internal Affairs at thePresidential Administration. Twitter account @OP_Russia posted links to copies of the emails, which disclosed how some influential bloggers and trolls had been paid to post pro-Putin comments and stories on negative press articles on the internet.[69]
In 2012, Anonymous claims to have added a firewall they called The Great Oz, allegedly designed to prevent election tampering in the United States.[71]
On February 6, 2012, Anonymous broke into the mail server of theSyrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs, gaining access to some 78 inboxes of Bashar al-Assad's staffers in the process. One of the email files was a document preparing Assad for his December 2011 interview with ABC'sBarbara Walters. One of the passwords commonly used by Assad's office accounts was "12345."[72]
In July 2012, Anonymous gave over 2.4 million e-mails to WikiLeaks.[73]
On Friday, February 10, 2012, Anonymous claimed responsibility for taking down the Central Intelligence Agency's website for more than 5 hours. Several servers went back up while others stayed down.[74] This followed a conversation leak, in which Anonymous took responsibility, between FBI and Scotland Yard officials discussing members of Anonymous being put on trial as well as other topics on the group, which took place a week before.[75] On March 6, 2012, Donncha O'Cearbhaill was charged in connection with the leak.[76] He was released 24-hours later.[77]
Following Interpol's announcement on February 28 that they made arrests of 25 suspected members of the hacking activist group Anonymous in Europe and South America, their site went down for a moment.[78]
On March 4, 2012, Anonymous took down theAmerican Israel Public Affairs Committee website. An AIPAC spokesman was questioned on the matter but did not respond.[79] A video titled "Anonymous: Message to AIPAC" was uploaded on YouTube earlier the same day.[80][importance?]
The official website of theVatican was brought down temporarily by aDDoS attack from Anonymous on March 7, 2012. Later that day the website recovered. Anonymous has also attempted to take the site down in 2011 but the attempt did not succeed. They claimed that their attack was not targeted against the followers of the Catholic Church but against the Church itself, which Anonymous viewed as corrupt.[81]
On March 12 the Vatican's official website was brought down for a few hours by a second DDoS attack. Anonymous also hackedVatican Radio and gained access to the Vatican Radio database in protest against the Vatican Radio allegedly using "repeaters with power transmission largely outside the bounds of the law."[82]
On March 21, 2012, 1.7GB of data was stolen from theUnited States Bureau of Justice Statistics by Anonymous. The leak reportedly contained "shiny things such as internal emails and the entire database dump."[83][84]
In April 2012, Anonymous hacked 485Chinese government websites, some more than once, to protest the treatment of their citizens. They urged people to "fight for justice, fight for freedom, [and] fight for democracy".[87][88][89]
On April 21, Anonymous defaced the official site ofFormula One, in protest against the2012 Bahrain Grand Prix. The race was the subject of ongoing controversy, as it was being held duringongoing anti-government protests, with the support of the government.[90][91] Anonymous posted a press release criticising the decision to hold the race despite the violent crackdowns,[92] and posted data of ticket sales for the event with sensitive information — particularly the credit card numbers of spectators — redacted. Other sites related to the sport and the Bahraini government were also the subject ofdistributed denial-of-service attack.[93]
On April 21, 2012busabos of Anonymous Philippines attacked the China University Media Union website, as a retaliation against alleged Chinese hackers who defaced theUniversity of the Philippines website, which claimed that theScarborough Shoal is Chinese territory. Anonymous left a message that the Scarborough Shoal is the Philippines' territory. On April 25, 2012,busabos of Anonymous #OccupyPhilippines warned that they had not yet started their attack against Chinese websites. The members that can be counted in hand called the cyber attacks were a result of the2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff.[94][95]
On May 17, 2012, Anonymous launched an attack against the websites of the India Supreme Court and the then-ruling Congress party in reaction to internet service providers blocking popular video sites like Vimeo as well as file-sharing sites like The Pirate Bay.[96]
Anonymous then threatened to disrupt theFormula 1Grand Prix of Canada, to be held between June 7 and 10 inMontreal, the same way they did for theBahrain Grand Prix. They claimed to have accessed personal information stored in the F1 website.[100]
An Anonymous video was released on June 8, 2012, claiming that an attack against the government of Cyprus would take place due to reasons of government corruption, media misinformation and theAnti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement[103] On June 26, DDoS attacks took place against 47 websites of theRepublic of Cyprus, which were taken down for 15 hours.[104] The government stated that it was a coordinated attack by Anonymous.
On June 26, 2012, the website of theJapanese Business Federation, was taken offline, with Anonymous claiming this was part of "Operation Japan". The reason for their action was the new amendments to the copyright laws in Japan.[105] For those found to have illegally copied material such as music, DVDs or Blu-ray discs, fines could run as high as $25,000 and carry a sentence of two years in prison, according to CNET Japan.[106]
On July 25, 2012, Anonymous launched an online protest in response to theAnaheim police shooting. It began with the release of the personal information of some of the top officers, including police chief John Welter.[107]
On July 6, 2012, as part of theYo Soy 132 student protest movement, the Mexican branch of Anonymous defaced the PRI party website, the party that held the power of the country for 70 years and that the 132 movement accused of human rights violations during that period. Anonymous hacked the site leaving slogans against the electoral fraud and the imminent return of the PRI party to power.[109][110][111]
On July 20, 2012, a second attack on a PRI related website was performed as part of theYo Soy 132 student protest movement, by the Mexican branch of Anonymous. This time Anonymous did it on the birthday of president elect Peña Nieto, and as "a gift" they left a picture of Peña next to slogans against electoral fraud and a penis shaped birthday cake.[112]
On August 10, 2012, Anonymous launched a DDoS attack and defacement of more than 100 Myanmar websites, all hackers from all over the world joined this operation as a protest forkilling Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar.[113] Myanmar's hackers also made a lot of counterattacks.[114]
In mid-September 2012, Anonymous hackers threatened the Hong Kong government organization, known as National Education Centre. In their online video, Anonymous members claimed responsibility for leaking classified related government documents and taking down the National Education Centre website, after the Hong Kong government has repeatedly ignored months of wide-scale protests against the establishment of a new coreMoral and National Education curriculum for children from 6–18 years of age. The new syllabus has come under heavy criticism and international media attention, as it does not award students based on how much factual information is learned, but instead grades and evaluates students based on their level of emotional attachment and approval of theChinese Communist Party.[116]
busabos of Anonymous Philippines launched a series of attacks against several websites of the Philippine government to protest against theCybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. The hackers urged for the revisions of the cybercrime law. On September 26, Anonymous defaced several websites, including that of theBangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and thePhilippine National Police.[117][118] They claim that the law violates freedom of expression and described the law as "most notorious act ever witnessed in the cyber-history". On October 1, they hacked again several government websites in an operation dubbed as "Bloody Monday" and asked for "a revision of the [Cybercrime Law] for the betterment of the Filipino netizens."[117] In February 2014 the Philippine Supreme Court ruled out the online libel to be unconstitutional because of its some provisions.[119]
Release of Westboro Baptist Church Personal Information
Anonymous re-posted the names, addresses, and emails of the prominent members of theWestboro Baptist Church on December 16, 2012, due to announced plans to picket the funerals of the victims of theSandy Hook Elementary School shooting,[120] followed by saying that God would protect their site. They also caused severalDDOS attacks on the site itself, hacked the social media accounts of the members involved, and started a whitehouse.org petition to get the Church legally branded as aHate Group.[121][122]
In December 2012, Cleveland police fired 137 rounds at a car, killing its two occupants.[123] Anonymous responded in April 2013 by releasing the personal information of the officers involved.[124] 12 officers were later fired or disciplined for their role in the shooting, although criminal charges are still being considered by a grand jury.[123]
In early 2013, the groupreleased an incriminating video, photographs and tweets from theSteubenville High School football team allegedly involved in agang rape of an underage girl in rural Ohio. They also released a number of e-mails and photos hacked from the e-mail account of one of the football programs boosters, whom they alleged to have helped cover up the case.[125]
On January 13, 2013, the SEDENA (the Mexican Army) website was penetrated by the Anonymous branch in Mexico, and all the information found on the vulnerable servers was disclosed (including usernames and passwords). The content of the site was changed for a video with images of the riots that occurred during Peña Nieto's presidential inauguration (on December 1, 2013), and a voice in the background pronounces theZapatista manifesto. The reason behind the attack was in retaliation for what they called the return of an oppressive government imposed by electoral fraud.[126]
In January 2013, the group attacked and defaced theUnited States Sentencing Commission website turning it into a game page repeatedly after which traffic to the website made it crash following the suicide ofReddit co-founder and activistAaron Swartz. Swartz was accused of stealing materials from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology with intent to distribute them freely.[127]
On April 2, 2013, a professional IT webzine BGR carried out an article stating that hacker group Anonymous has started the 'Operation Free Korea.' This calls for 'controversial leader Kim Jong-un [to] resign', 'install free democracy' 'abandon its nuclear ambitions' 'uncensored Internet access', et cetera. The hackers also proclaimed that if North Korea do not accede to their demand, they will wage "Cyber War."[129] On April 3, 2013, hacker group identifying itself asAnonymous claimed it had stolen all 15,000 user passwords as part of a cyberwar against theDPRK.[130] A few days later, Anonymous claimed to have hacked into theUriminzokkiri main website, and the Twitter and Flickr pages representing the website.[131]
Instead, a picture posted Thursday on the North's Flickr site shows Kim's face with a pig-like snout and a drawing of Mickey Mouse on his chest. Underneath, the text reads: "Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death." It found common ground with its alleged arch-enemy and hacktivistThe Jester in which the latter had claimed responsibility for the cyberattacks againstAir Koryo and other North Korean websites.[132]
On June 22, 2013, Anonymous claimed that it managed to steal military documents from North Korea, and that the documents would be released on June 25, the day theKorean War started. However, no such documents appear to have been released.[133]
OpIsrael was a coordinatedcyber-attack byanti-Israel individuals and Anonymous-affiliated groups that target websites perceived asIsraeli[134][135] The attack, mostlydenial of service assaults, was coordinated to coincide withHolocaust Remembrance Day.[136] OpIsrael's stated goal was to "erase Israel from the internet".[137][138] The attack targeted several government online operations banking and commerce sites, but most of the cyber attacks were repelled, with no significant damage done, although an attack may have succeeded in temporarily taking down theCentral Bureau of Statistics site. Media and small business sites were also targeted, and some attacks succeeded in temporarily replacing some of homepages with anti-Israel slogans.[138][139] However, there were several Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and web sites from the alleged hackers making false claims to have "caused Israel to lose $5 billion" and "Tel Aviv loses all Internet connection."[140] It was one of Anonymous's biggest failures.
Nir Goldshlager a famous "white hat" hacker and CEO of Break Security Goldshlager, told reporters that OpIsrael hackers "lacked the sophistication and knowledge...while they told many lies to enhance their reputations."[140] Israeli hackers responded to OpIsrael by taking down the OpIsrael website and replacing it with pro-Israel statements and the Israeli national anthem,Hatikvah. In addition, they brought down anti-Israeli sites like Hezbollah's and Islamic Jihad's websites, targeted servers belonging to hackers, and broke into the personal computers of the European leaders of the operation, telling them to look for the facts and not believe everything they see on the Internet.[140][141]
In response to thesuicide of Rehtaeh Parsons and the lack of action on the part of Canadian authorities, Anonymous threatened to release the personal information of the rapists. However, the group claimed to back down from the threat following pleas from Parsons' mother, Leah.[142] The group has staged protests outside theRoyal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters in Halifax.[143]
In March 2013 during theLahad Datu standoff tension in Sabah due to the clashes between the Royal Army of the Sultanate of Sulu and Malaysian security Forces. ACyberwar sparks between Philippines and Malaysia. According to the Philippine Cyber Army the Malaysian hackers appeared to have started the attacks and defacement on Philippine websites, posting online threats and videos meaning to send a message to the Filipinos to keep away from the region of Sabah.[144] In response to their attacks the Philippine Cyber Army defaced 175 Malaysian sites (including state-owned pages). TheMcafee Lab Researchers in their 2013 Threats Report placed the Philippine Cyber Army in the list of Global Threats onhacktivism.[145] The Philippine Cyber Army are close toAnonymous.[145]
On May 9, 2013, a number of Philippine Coast Guard soldiers fired at an unarmed Taiwanese fishing boat,Guang Da Xing No. 28, and killed a Taiwanese fisherman in international waters. On May 10, Hackers recognizing themselves as "AnonTAIWAN" hacked into Philippine Official websites asking for the Philippines' government to apologize to Taiwan's government. They interfered with government official websites of the Philippines, causing inconveniences for thePhilippine General Election. Its resulted in great difficulty and delay in making general access through the Philippine government websites at the time of elections.[146]
In May 2013, Anonymous published the personal information of variousEnglish Defence League members online in what Anonymous said was the first part of an attempt to destroy thefar right protest movement.[147]
On June 7, 2013, Anonymous released what was claimed to be secret documents related to the NSA. In reality, the documents were already publicly available.[148]
On June 30, 2013, aHawthorne, California police officer, Jeffrey Salmon of Torrance, was filmed shooting a dog and arresting his owner. Anonymous responded by issuing a video threat to the police department.[149] The city website also suffered a DDoS attack, although it is unclear if Anonymous was involved.[150]
On July 4, 2013, Anonymous hacked the national website of Nigeria after the country passed laws that would make homosexuality punishable by up to 14 years in prison.[151]
Anonymous NZ, a New Zealand-based offshoot of Anonymous, carried out its first operation by staging a DDoS on the web site of theGovernment Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), following the passage of law changes that allowed the electronic intelligence agency to surveil New Zealand citizens. In addition, the web sites of politicians who supported the law changes were also shut down by Anonymous NZ.[152]
Anonymous New Zealand claimed attacks onNational Party-linked websites in protest against the GCSB Bill have had no thanks from spied-on internet mogulKim Dotcom.[152]
Anonymous Philippines has hacked 115 government websites, prompting Philippine law enforcement agencies to go after them, citing the unnecessary use of hacking.[155] The NBI has been ordered to probe into the hacking of government websites.[156] While a few Senators have downplayed the attacks, they were willing to listen to their grievances,[157] Senator Trillanes IV expressed alarm with the group's capabilities, suggesting the possibility of the group to hack government websites since "it could compromise State operations and data storage."[157]
In response to the controversial custodial case of Justina Pelletier in which the Boston's Children Hospital alleged her parents of child abuse while Justina was believed to have contracted a mitochondrial disorder, Anonymous performed DDOS attacks against the hospital. As a result, a member was arrested after an unsuccessful flight attempt toCuba.[158][159]
Anonymous posted a video warning to the Ferguson, Missouri, police, admonishing them forfatally shooting Mike Brown, an unarmed African American teenager, and swearing revenge if any protesters demonstrating against the police are harmed. The group, which has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask as its symbol and frequently becomes involved in contentious legal matters, said in the video late Sunday Brown's death Saturday is just the latest example of police misconduct having deadly big consequences.[160]
On August 12, a series ofdoxes were released against Jon Belmar, the St. Louis County Police Chief. There were two reasons for this target. 1) Because he refused to release the name of the officer who shot Mike Brown and 2) Because he challenged Anonymous, calling their threats hollow. A Twitter account affiliated with Anonymous struck back with information regarding Belmar's location, phone number, family members, and their accounts on social media.[161] That same account also released information claiming to be the dox of the officer who shot Brown, but wound up being incorrect.[162]
Anonymous posted a video warning onNews2Share[163] to theGovernment of theHong Kong Special Administrative Region on October 1 announcing the engagement of Operation Hong Kong, condemning the government'spolice's use of force in the ongoingprotests.[164] The group stated that it supports the protesters' fight for democracy[165] and promised the government that if the protesters are further harmed or harassed they would attack all web based assets of the Hong Kong Government including but not limited to the taking down of government websites, seizing of government databases, and releasing the personal information on government officials. Anonymous stated that it is time for democracy for the people of Hong Kong and condemns the police for harming the citizens and calls for them to instead protect the citizens.
On October 2, there have been reports that Anonymous have already taken over a few company websites in Hong Kong in accordance to a Hong Kong newspaperApple Daily.[166]
The Hong Kong Government responded that its servers and web assets are functioning normally, and have arranged to strengthen its cyber defences. The Government further stated that it is prepared against any attempts by Anonymous hackers on its servers and web assets.[167]
November 8, Anonymous Leyte began hacking Philippine government websites to protest the alleged incompetence government officials exhibited in the aftermath ofSuper Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).[168]
More than 10 government websites were defaced by the group and 33 more were rendered inaccessible for up to 7 hours.[169] A week before, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was reportedly hacked[170] with some 2,000 email addresses, usernames, and password hashes released on Pastebin.[171]
The "Operation Infosurge" was done during the Haiyan Anniversary, which was expected to be a day of prayer and thanksgiving, but turned out to be a day of protest from different "online" groups and organizations in Philippines.[172]
In response to theCharlie Hebdo shooting, Anonymous released a statement offering condolences to the families affected by it and denounced the attacks as an "inhuman assault" on freedom of expression. They also addressed the terrorists: "[a] message for al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other terrorists – we are declaring war against you, the terrorists." As such, Anonymous plans to target Jihadist websites and social media accounts linked to supportingIslamic terrorism with the aim of disrupting them and shutting them down.[173]
On February 11, Anonymous hacked at least 1 gas station automated tank gauge, changing the online name from "DIESEL" to "WE_ARE_LEGION". Theregister.co.uk stated that a hacker with this kind of access could shut down the entire station by "spoofing the reported fuel level, generating false alarms, and locking the monitoring service out of the system".[174]
During the week of February 14, Anonymous launched Operation Death Eaters for collating evidence against international pedophile rings and their severe abuse of children to bring them to justice.[175]
On April 2, 2015. The Pro-Philippine Hackers of Anonymous Philippines attacked and defaced a total of 132 Chinese government, educational and commercial websites in response toChina's reclamation work interritorial disputes in the South China Sea, parts of which Manila calls theWest Philippine Sea.[176]
On July 17, 2015, an Anon in a Guy Fawkes mask was shot and killed by aRoyal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer. As a result, Anonymous websites and YouTube channels vowed revenge, initiating Operation Anon Down. The RCMP website was reported down nationwide on July 19.[177][178]
On July 21, 2015, Anonymous posted a video claiming that due to "Racism, Antisemitism, Islamophobia and Holocaust Denial" they were going to attack the websiteStormfront.[179] This website is a white-supremacist website run by former KKK LeaderDon Black. The attack was planned for August 1, 2015.[180]
Operation KKK says it has identifying data on as many as 1,000KKK members and supporters. On Oct. 22, 2015, an Anonymous-associated Twitter account announced that the hacking collective had accessed a Klan-associated Twitter account and promised that they would expose about 1,000 Klan members by name. A later news release promised that the operation would release "names and Web sites, new and old" of "more than 1000″ members of the hate group. According to the Daily Dot, Anonymous later released "a few hundred names, Facebook pages, and Google+ accounts."[181][182]
February: A hacker broke into the servers ofdark web hosting companyFreedom Hosting II, discovered that half of their client's websites were child pornography or other illegal activities, stole information, publicly dumped it, and compromised the company's servers. Security experts later noted that theTor network had shrunk by 15-20%.[185][186]
November: Allegedly in retaliation for thesiege of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Anonymous hacked various Chinese websites, and revealed personal identity information about government employees and corporate data.[187]
December: Anonymous gained access to six email accounts of theChilean Army and revealed information related to intelligence, operations, finances and international relations from 2015 to 2019.[188]
May 28: (#PLDTHacked) Anonymous Philippines hacked into the Twitter account ofPLDT's customer service, changed the profile's name to "PLDT Doesn't Care", and posted a message which began "As the pandemic arises, Filipinos need fast internet to communicate with their loved ones. Do your job."[189]
June 1: Anonymous Brasil posted personal, location and financial information on Brazilian presidentJair Bolsonaro, his family, and his cabinet. They also published information about billionaire businessmanLuciano Hang.[191]
June 19: Anonymous claimed responsibility for stealing a trove of documents and leaking the 269-gigabyte collection throughDDoSecrets.[192] SeeBlueLeaks.
November 20: TheUganda Police website was down for a number of days. Anonymous claimed credit and said it was in response to the violent crackdown on protesters following the arrest of presidential candidateBobi Wine.[193]
January: (#OpsWakeUp21) Eleven Anonymous Malaysia suspects were arrested after theyhacked and defaced 17 websites of local governments and universities.[194]
February:Data breach of domain registrarEpik, a preferred hosting site for many far-right websites which had been kicked off of other webhosting sites.[195] (See2021 Epik data breach)
September 3: Anonymous announces #OperationJane to foil snitch-websites for the recently passedTexas Heartbeat Act.[196]
September 13: Release of hundreds of gigabytes of personal information ofEpik's customers, customer's credit card information, internal company emails, and other information.[198] A further 300 gigabytes of Epik's data were released on September 29 and October 4 including bootable disk images.[199] (See2021 Epik data breach)
September: Twitter suspended the account of Anonymous Germany (@AnonNewsDE) after they hacked accounts of conspiracy theoristAttila Hildmann anddoxxed him on Twitter.[200]
December 21: Anonymous Brazil hacked the website of theBrumadinho City Hall and left a video in remembrance of thedam disaster that occurred on 25 January 2019 which caused the deaths of 270 people.[201]
Anonymous conducted numerous cyber-operations against Russia starting February when the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Most of the actions were theft and publication of Russian emails and data. SeeAnonymous and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
October 7: Hackers engaged in several online disruptions to Israeli systems including a DDoS attack on Israel's Red Alert app which provides real-time rocket information to citizens. Anonymous Global issued a warning to Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu about theGaza war.[202]
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^Halupka. M., Star. C. (2011)The Utilisation of Direct Democracy and Meritocracy in the Decision Making Process of the Decentralisehid Virtual Community Anonymous. Presented at the Australian Political Studies Association conference.
^Comunicación e Información; SA de CV (January 16, 2013)."Proceso" [Hacker Anonymous Sedena page; leaves Zapatista message] (in Spanish). proceso.com.mx. Archived fromthe original on October 24, 2014. RetrievedFebruary 7, 2015.
