by Dr. Dino Sossi

In this class exercise, students were asked to write an essay on the infamous hacker group Anonymous.

The responses below discuss its history, technical responses to hacks, as well as moral and ethical implications of hacking from a corporate level.

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Branka Romih

Anonymous is a semi-organized group of international hackers that begin its existence on internet chat boards in 2003. They present themselves as a group of political activists and are mostly known for their cyber-attacks against governments, political institutions, and big corporations. According to Infosec (2011), the “people behind Anonymous worldwide are united in a belief that corporations and organizations they consider to be corrupt should be attacked”.

Their initial hacking activity started as small-scale coordinated pranks that were often called “raids” whose purpose was to disrupt service in online gaming and chat rooms which by 2008 escalated to more serious objectives as they targeted political organizations and larger groups such as the Church of Scientology. They used tactics such as denial-of-service (DDoS) to attack the church’s websites, hoax phone calls, and fax black pages to waste their printer ink (Huddleston, 2022). They mocked the Church of Scientology by calling the cyber-attack the “Project Chanology,” as a “retaliation for what the hackers deemed as attempted censorship” and violations of free speech. This was in response to the church's threats of legal action after Anonymous leaked the Tom Cruise video to the media (Huddleston, 2022). The video contained Cruise’s passionate speech about Scientology, but also, exhibited some erratic behavior which was embarrassing to the church (Infosec, 2011). The group’s attack prompted many protests against the church and accusing Scientology of financially exploiting its members and isolating those who try to leave the church or blackmailing them. To protect their identity the protesters wore Guy Fawkes masks which then became their signature symbol. It is believed that the initial group was created mostly by teenagers who would meet in these virtual chat rooms to discuss politics (Zhadan, 2021). It is possible that as the Anonymous group’s teenagers grew and matured, their views changed and became focused on more serious matters such as social and political issues.

Although, Anonymous is known to oppose corporations and governments for their practices of control, censorship, and inequality, have faced some internal turmoil and friction. Some of the Anonymous members may have disagreed with the group’s agenda or it could be someone from the competition, and in revolt “they published a list of Anonymous members on a public website” (Rosenzweig (2013).

Computer hacking and cyber-attacks could have devastating impacts on organizations, political and government institutions, or even a country. Depending on the length of the attack and how well the organization is prepared, there could be damage to the company's reputation and financial loss due to halted production in case a company must pay for a “key” to unlock its system. To best prepare and prevent hacking, every organization or institution should have defenses in place that can protect them from hackers, such as a good firewall, and backup system that will allow the continuation of business if the main system is hacked and locked. Moreover, in today’s globalized society, organizations must be aware of their social responsibility to minimize the risks of being targeted by hackers. Nonetheless, recovering from hacking or data breach is tough. To mitigate the damage and start repairing the reputation the organization must be the first to break the news as soon as possible. Transparency and timing are important, as well as keeping customers, employees, and stakeholders well informed with help of the public relations team (Hospelhorn, 2020). Governments and organizations fight against this type of insurgency as it often leads to criminal acts due to the direct or indirect financial and infrastructure damage these attacks cause. Several Anonymous members associated with various hackings over the last few decades have been arrested (Rosenzweig,2013).

Anonymous as a group without any formal structure present themselves as political activists or hacktivist as they operate over the internet. Over the years, they grew to become shadowy vigilantes and rebels against restrictive censorship. However, the group ideology may be noble, but their practice could be defined as unethical, if not boarder line criminal on some instances. Time will tell how their social activism and hacking actions will be measured in the future.

Bibliography:

Hospelhorn, S. (2020, March 29). Analyzing Company Reputation After a Data Breach. Varonis: https://www.varonis.com/blog/company-reputation-after-a-data-breach

Huddleston, T. (2022, March 25). What is Anonymous? How the infamous ‘hacktivist’ group went from 4chan trolling to launching cyberattacks on Russia. CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/what-is-anonymous-the-group-went-from-4chan-to-cyberattacks-on-russia.html

Infosec. (2011, October 24). A history of anonymous. Infosec: https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/brief-history-of-anonymous/

Rosenzweig, J. D. (2013). Hacktivists and insurgency [Television broadcast]. Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses.

Zhadan, A. (2021, March 21). Who are Anonymous and why are they fighting alongside Ukraine? Cyber News: https://cybernews.com/editorial/who-are-anonymous-and-why-are-they-fighting-alongside-ukraine/

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Manuel Gonzalez

Anonymous is a loosely organized international group of online activists with similar social and political ideals. Anonymous claims to support anti corruption and antiauthoritarian movements, As well as transparency, free speech, and access to information.

Since there is no controlling leadership, the group is generally regarded as anarchic. Members make their own decisions and communicate with one another via social media about their protest plans and activities. If enough people in that community support those ideas and activities and a collective agreement is reached, dates and virtual meeting times are set, and participants begin a campaign to achieve whatever goal they have set for themselves.

According to German, W (2012), Anonymous members, joining the group is simple. You can participate by simply concealing your identity while engaging in online activities. The protest strategies that Anonymous employs include DoS -Denial of Service- DDoS -Distributed Denial of Services, Doxxing-to leak personal, confidential, or incriminated against public figures or companies- and defacement that attacks the integrity of a website. These strategies are the major threats attacks so far that any company in the Anonymous list can confront.

These strategies violate Internet usage policies and the specific use policies of most Internet service providers.

However, it is not really possible to establish an accurate demographic on the group's membership due to the group's complex, informal, and, of course, anonymous nature. Additionally, they frequently break the laws of the nations where the attacks occur.

On the other hand, Alexopoulou, S., and Pavli, A. (2019) stated that Anonymous posted a video to YouTube on July 29, 2007, to make its first public announcement. With this video, Anonymous attempted to respond to criticism from Fox News, which referred to the group as the ultimate purveyors of Internet pranking and trolling. This video, which celebrates Anonymous's birth, features a suit-clad, headless man and provides some essential information about the group's actions, such as the following:

The name and nature of Anonymous has been ravaged … We are everyone and we are no one … We are the face of chaos and harbingers of judgment … We mock those in pain. We ruin the lives of others simply because we can … We are the embodiment of humanity with no remorse, no caring, no love, and no sense of morality.

The first coordinated Anonymous attack was on the Church of Scientology in 2008 after it demanded the removal from the web of a recruitment video featuring Tom Cruise.

Before that, McCormick, T(2013) said the roots of the Anonymous movement go back to the mid-2000s, specifically in 2003 when Christopher Poole launched the 4chan website. The idea behind 4chan is that users can upload pictures or messages anonymously under their names.

Notwithstanding, the website Panda security (2022) shared five helpful tips companies can have in mind to protect themselves from Hacktivism.

1-Train users on cybersecurity practices. Users of infrastructure should be aware of cybersecurity best practices, where sensitive data is stored in their systems, and safe ways to keep it safe or get rid of it.

2- Conduct regular assessments of your vulnerability: Infrastructures are examined for potential flaws in vulnerability assessments, which provide steps for analysis, prioritization, and remediation.

3. Use multi-factor authentication systems: Systems that use multiple authentication factors can help guard against weak or incorrect login credentials.

4. Put security software into use: Antivirus software protects information systems even further.

5. Develop and support security measures: After shortcomings are distinguished, security programming is set up, and multifaceted frameworks are used, it's vital to make and keep strategies to continue in case of an information break.

Since people started seeing the headlines about the stunts done by hacktivists, many more hacktivists worldwide have leaked sensitive information about and belonging to global organizations, defaced hundreds of web pages, rendered many worldwide organizations offline, and so forth.

There are several options in responding to an online short attack that any company or person can do. First, the company or person can do nothing. This strategy may be effective if the attacker lacks credibility or if a company is confident in its valuation such that the market quickly corrects itself and dismisses the attacker's allegations. Moreover, the company or person may avoid drawing further attention to the attacker's campaign. Second, the company may offer a limited response with its corporate communication team to address investor concerns and maintain market confidence. Last, the company can fully engage the attacker by providing point-by-point rebuttals to the attacker's allegations or initiating litigation. Regardless of the response, according to Hancock, A & Katz, J. (2017), the company should be prepared to assess its strategic options and react immediately by considering the following steps:

1- Pre-Attack Preparation.

2- Identify Your Attacker.

3- Analyze the Attacker's "Playbook.

4-Decide Whether to Engage.

5- Framing the Response.

6- Choosing the Right Channel.

As anonymous short campaigns become more common and more effective, public companies should have a defense plan in place and be prepared to react immediately.

References

Alexopoulou, S., & Pavli, A. (2019, March 6). 'beneath this mask there is more than flesh, beneath this mask there is an idea': Anonymous as the (super)heroes of the internet? - international journal for the semiotics of law - revue internationale de Sémiotique Juridique. SpringerLink. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11196-019-09615-6

German, W. (2012, March 1). What is 'anonymous' and how does it operate? RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.rferl.org/a/explainer_what_is_anonymous_and_how_does_it_operate/24500381.html

Hancock, A., & Katz, J. (2017, November 27). Short activism: The rise in anonymous online short attacks. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2017/11/27/short-activism-the-rise-in-anonymous-online-short-attacks/

McCormick, T. (2013, April 29). Hacktivism: A short history. Foreign Policy. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/hacktivism-a-short-history/

Security, P. (2022, October 31). What is hacktivism + how to prevent IT - Panda Security. Panda Security Mediacenter. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.pandasecurity.com/en/mediacenter/technology/what-is-hacktivism/

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Raquel Gonzalez

The political/ hacker group – Anonymous originated in 2003. They are a virtual community of a voluntary association, whose purpose is anti-cyber-surveillance, anti-cyber-censorship, internet activism, and internet vigilantism. According to Wikipedia, “it is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective, and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology. “ Although Anonymous has no leadership, it is a group of individuals that organize together ‘virtually’ to plan things – whether it be cyberattacks or other events. They are a movement of a nebulous group of people working together and doing things for various purposes. Some supporters have dubbed them as “freedom fighters” or digital Robin Hoods. While some critics have characterized them as “cyber terrorists” or a “cyber lynch mob.” Those who are associated with Anonymous, are called Anons. They oppose Internet censorship and control. Most of their actions target governments, organizations, and corporations accused of censorship. “We just happen to be a group of people on the internet who need – just kind of an outlet to do as we wish that we wouldn’t be able to do in regular society.” (Anonymous. 2008). However, Time magazine stated that Anonymous is one of the “100 most influential people” in the world. (2012).

From 2003 the beginning of its’ inception, Anonymous has waged crusades against several organizations. They started on 4chan raids – an imageboard, that has random content and raided other websites – anonymously, which lasted until 2007. From 2004 to the present,

Gonzalez, R. p. 2

Anonymous took on Encyclopedia Dramatica as its major platform, for parody and other purposes. This site was initially to document gossip related things, which led to Project Chanology a campaign against The Church of Scientology. In 2008, because of a series of actions of Project Chanology - Anonymous became associated with hacktivism. This is one of the ways they pose a threat to businesses, charities, governments, and/ or other organizations including acts of retaliation, raids, prank calls, sending black faxes to waste ink, and launching DDoS attacks against its websites. A company can run its organization in a way that it is protected from hacktivism by transparency. Full disclosure of their actions would make a business have credibility. Any website should be authentic and reliable to the point where it would not fall under the threat of any political activist. This is the many ways a company’s reputation can minimize any damage before an hacktivist attack. If an attack has already happened this is when a response from a business public relations person should be issued. The organization should even at the corporate level should respond with an apology, taking full responsibility and assuring its values to the people.

References:

McCormick, T. (2013, April 29). Hacktivism: A short history. Foreign Policy, 200, 24-25. https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/hacktivism-a-short-history/

McDonnell, M.-H., & Werner, T. (2016). Blacklisted businesses: Social activists' challenges and the disruption of corporate political activity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 20, 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839216648953

Stollznow, K. (2008). Anonymous vs. Scientology. Skeptical Inquirer, 32(2), 7-8.

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Jennifer Claxton

The slogan goes “We are Anonymous, We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us”. Viewed as a “Cyber Robin Hood”, Anonymous is an international activist group known for cyberattacks against government institutions and corporations. They gained national attention for their attacks on government agencies and various corporations. Anonymous goes against government agencies and corporations who partake in censorship and inequality.

“Often called hacktivists, anonymous employs coordinated cyberattacks against various world governments, corporations or other groups, often in the name of social or political causes” (Huddleston, 2022). Anonymous origins can be dated back to the forum website called 4Chan. 4Chan is an anonymous (no relation) commentary forum, which features users posting commentary under anonymous usernames. Some 4Chan users would often organize pranks that included flooding chat rooms that would cause disruptions. These disruptions inspired Anonymous to cause disruptions like these. Disrupting game rooms soon turned to disrupting political groups. Their first big “hacktivism” target came in 2008 with the focus being on the church of scientology.

The protest of the church of scientology was called Project Chanology. The protest revolved around internet censorship. This was also the first case to bring national attention to the hacker group. A video displaying tom cruise’s interview with the church of scientology leaked online. The video was leaked to YouTube. The church of scientology filed a copyright violation claim against YouTube for it to be removed. Anonymous found this action to be part of intent censorship. Scientology websites were hit with denial of attacks, prank calls and black faxes were sent to scientology centers. Anonymous released a statement as well as a press release declaring a war on scientology. “On February 2, 2008, 150 people gathered outside of a Church of Scientology center in Orlando, Florida to protest the organization's practices. Small protests were also held in Santa Barbara, California, and Manchester, England” (Braiker, 2010). A second wave of protests were held in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Paris, London, Vancouver, and Berlin.

Anonymous is a decentralized group. “A website associated with the group describes it as "an Internet gathering" with "a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives" (Cadwalladr, 2018). There is no one leader within the group and being that this is the case, it’s difficult to blame the group as a whole. The organization does not act as a whole, but under the same obligations. Membership is open to anyone who believes in the cause. British journalist Carol Cadwalladr stated “if you believe in anonymous and call yourself anonymous you are anonymous. Anyone can be a part of it. It is a crowd of people, a nebulous crowd of people working together and doing things together for various purposes” (Cadwalladr, 2018). They do have rules that maintain the group’s identity. Those rules include keeping your identity private not talking about the group and not absolutely no attacking media.

Anonymous has been applauded and detested for the handling of censorship and inequality. Many find the practices of Anonymous the gateway to finding immediate satisfaction among those who are corrupt. Those who oppose find the group’s vigilante tactics to be dangerous. Either way, Anonymous continues to rage against corporations and government agencies and throughout years have become a force to recon with.

References

Braiker, B. (2010, March 13). “Anonymous” Takes on Scientology. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/anonymous-takes-scientology-93883

Huddleston, T. (2022, March 25). What is Anonymous? How the infamous ‘hacktivist’ group went from 4chan trolling to launching cyberattacks on Russia. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/what-is-anonymous-the-group-went-from-4chan-to-cyberattacks-on-russia.html

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Danielle Hance

The world of hackers believes that anything that is on the internet platform should be free an available to any and everyone at the click of a button. Hackers came together in 2003 and formed a group called Anonymous. The Anonymous is a decentralized international movement who is viewed as an anarchic. It consists of activist and hacktivist who are responsible for cyberattacks against any government they can reach, government institutions, agencies, corporations. They infamously also attach the Church of Scientology. Anonymous stepped out on an imageboard 4chan representing as an offline and online community. They often have stepped out in disguised by wearing masks that are called Guy Fawkes. They mimic the same styles of the film V for Vendetta. In addition, they also hide or change their original voices by utilizing text to speech programs or voice changer devices.

While many people are for the Infamous Anonymous group and support them as they view them as freedom fighters and digital robins’ hoods, others do not support them and view them as cyber terrorist or a cyber lynch mob. When Russia invaded Ukraine and declared war with them in February, “a Twitter account with 7.9 million followers named “Anonymous” declared a “cyber war” against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Since then, the group has claimed responsibility for various cyberattacks that disabled websites and leaked data from Russian government agencies, as well as state-run news outlets and corporations.” (CNBC,2022) The purpose of them tacking overusing cyber war as an action was to ask for peace and safety in the world, and to promote humanity by Saying no to Vladmir’s Putin’s War. When Isis posed an attack, the anonymous proceeded targeting them to scare them into stopping the attack. They also targeted the company PayPal when the online payment platform had stopped allowing any donations from coming in that were connected to Julian Assange, who was the founder of WikiLeaks as he was facing much controversial issues at the time. “In 2012, Time magazine named Anonymous one of the world’s 100 Most Influential People. Today, millions of people follow Anonymous-affiliated social media accounts.” (CNBC, 2022).

The Anonymous group poses risk to business, governments, and other organizations that have potential information that can be detrimental if leaked or breaches in terms of national security or personable information. They have the potential to impact foreign policies, cause state level hostilities, implicate foreign governments for cyber-attacks as well. This makes it difficult to further run a company or organization making it costly to implemented new cyber security measures, constant2metrics measures and test to prove the system is protected and refraining from having someone on the team that is for cyber-attacks or wars, which can leak the ins and outs of any new system put into place. Things that can be done to prevent hacktivism, is to have firewalls set up and encrypt your information, educate your staffing team, adopt, and change security practices and policies, further evaluate the validity of these measures, inform your consumers, and having continuous trainings.

Breaches in cyber security are and have been very detrimental to many nations who have fallen victim to these attacks. They are malicious attempts to access and damage a reputation, leak files, expose people for the greater good and in negative aspects, and they can lead to the loss of money, personal items, other financials, and impact property. The Anonymous group have left an impact in negative ways and positive ways. Moreover, people will continue to have their opinions on the greatness and harm they have partaken in and caused thus far. It’s important that organizations, companies, governments, and an entity that has further been impacted by them remain vigilant and continue to protect their information to prevent cyber-attacks, war, or breaches in cyber security.

References:

Jr., T. H. (2022, March 25). What is anonymous? how the infamous 'hacktivist' group went from 4chan trolling to launching cyberattacks on Russia. CNBC. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/what-is-anonymous-the-group-went-from-4chan-to-cyberattacks-on-russia.html

Protect your company from cyber attacks. Mass.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved, from https://www.mass.gov/service-details/protect-your-company-from-cyber-attacks

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Carlos Leon

"Anonymous" is a group often referred to as being comprised of hackers but they also included political activists among their numbers.  This mixture of membership has caused them to be referred to as “hacktivists”.  They began as a loose coalition of internet users that would often stage disruptions in both community or game chat rooms. It’s these activities that serve as a precursor to their future actions.  While these disruptions were initially done for fun, they soon began to form into actions revolving around social or political themes.  

From these beginnings, this group has evolved into becoming better known for its various “cyber-attacks” against various organizations, governments, and groups often under the banner of social or political causes.  One of its more famous instances of “hacktivism” during its infancy was its coordinated attack against the Church of Scientology.  It employed tactics such as denial-of-service (DDoS), prank phone calls, and faxing black pages to waste its ink.

These attacks were in response to the church’s legal moves against a media website that had leaked a video that the church objected to.  The purpose of the attacks was to retaliate against what it deemed as attempted censorship.  These initial attacks led to many others that occurred worldwide in support of Anonymous against the church.  These are all in line with its continuing opposition to censorship or the promotion of inequality.  Anonymous lists its guiding principles as “freedom of information, freedom of speech, accountability for companies and governments, privacy and anonymity for private citizens.” (Huddleston, 2022)

Businesses/governments that seem to be in opposition to its guiding principles can look forward to being in Anonymous’ crosshairs.  Such attacks can result in many of their secrets coming out to light.  Secrets that they would rather not see the light of day due to the unfavorable light they will cast on their public image.

It is hard to try to run an organization that at some point won’t be in line with another organization’s viewpoints.  But what we can do is try to minimize the damage that it can do to those organizations.  One of those ways is to get ahead of the release of files that the groups are threatening to release.  By this, I suggest that we make those files known ourselves instead of letting the cyber attackers release them first.  In this way, we show that:

We are not afraid to show that we are as fallible as anyone else and can make mistakes but aren’t afraid to face them and more importantly, we control the narrative of the story.

And another way to mitigate the damage is to make sure we have protections in place to curtail the kind of attacks that expose our company data.  We need to monitor our data and constantly test its access in order to remain vigilant against these attacks. (Acanerler, 2022)

Acanerler, A. (2022, March 28). Anonymous Threatened Western Companies Operating in Russia Raises Concerns of Cyber Attack. SOCRadar® Cyber Intelligence Inc. https://socradar.io/anonymous-threat-to-western-companies-operating-in-russia-raises-concerns-of-cyber-attack/

Huddleston, T. (2022, March 25). What is Anonymous? How the infamous ‘hacktivist’ group went from 4chan trolling to launching cyberattacks on Russia. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/what-is-anonymous-the-group-went-from-4chan-to-cyberattacks-on-russia.html

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John Martinez

The group “Anonymous” is a decentralized group of hackers that typically target large organizations such as governments, corporations, and other institutions. As a decentralized group, there is no singular leader of anonymous, with the group instead working as a collective to achieve their goals. This collective action also shields their identities from the public and retaliation from law enforcement for their actions.

Anonymous, as a loose collective of hackers operating online, has no set concrete place of origin for the group, but its origins can be traced back to the website 4chan as early as 2003. According to an article from CNBC

“In the website’s early days, users often organized group pranks called “raids,” flooding chat rooms in games and other online communities to cause disruptions…Those raids formed the basis of Anonymous’ operations: a decentralized movement of like-minded online users who would communicate in encrypted chat rooms to plan online disruptions. At first, those plans were largely about cheap entertainment. Eventually, they began to revolve around social or political aims.” (Huddleston, 2022)

One of the group’s most famous target’s was the Church of Scientology in 2008. After the Church of Scientology tried to censor a video by Tom Cruise about the subject, the hacker group took it upon themselves to take action. According to an article from CNET at the time by Robert Vamosi,

“In response to the take-down of the Cruise video, a group of vigilantes--calling themselves Anonymous, or Anon--have retaliated against what they consider to be Internet censorship. The group includes computer experts capable of Internet mischief. In recent days, local chapter sites for the Church of Scientology have been defaced, and in some cases denial of service attacks have also prevented access to the same sites.”(Vamosi, 2008)

This campaign against the Church of Scientology propelled Anonymous into the spotlight and helped to make it a public name. Since then, Anonymous has gone on to attack other governments and organizations, typically in support of protecting freedom of expression and fighting back against regimes they have deemed repressive, such as in Egypt and Israel.

In the modern day, Anonymous poses a major threat for businesses, governments, and organizations that become its target. Most organizations lack the knowledge and infrastructure to effectively protect themselves from a coordinated cyber attack, as seen by numerous cyber attacks from both Anonymous and other hacker groups. This is shown clearly by the U.S. government hack in 2020, where hackers infiltrated numerous U.S. agencies. According to an article by CNN,

“US officials and cybersecurity experts are warning that the incident should serve as a wake-up call for both the federal government, including the incoming Biden administration, and private sector companies, as foreign actors will undoubtedly conduct similar attacks and improve their tactics in the future.” (Cohen et al., 2020)

For a company to protect itself from hacktivism groups such as Anonymous, companies should seek to take a stance on major issues and act upon it. An example of this may be a company taking a stance on a hot political issue at the time, such as the protection of the environment or eliminating poverty. While some may argue it would be better for a company to simply remain quiet on such issues, changes in the political and social sphere have made this more difficult. According to Forbes in an article about corporate activism “Some of the old guard stand firm in the traditional apolitical approach, but acceptance of corporate silence has been waning for years. Sustained social and financial pressure from activists and consumers has forced brands to make a choice.” (Quinlan, 2018) These stances should be backed up with action as well to avoid the company’s stance appearing hollow, which in turn may bring hacktivism groups to attack the company for its hypocritical message.

Before a hacktivist attack, a company should have strong safeguards in place to protect sensitive data should there be a breach in the company, as well as having several failsafe plans in place for such an event. In addition, staff training on cyber security can help reduce the chance of a cyber attack occurring through a vulnerability in the company. In the aftermath of a hacktivist attack, to protect the company’s reputation, a company should publicly issue an apology and rectify the issue as quickly as possible. If sensitive information was leaked or stolen, the company should inform customers and assist them in resolving any issues that come up as a result. Strong investment in both prevention of cyber attacks and in corporate activism by company’s will greatly assist in shielding a corporation from hacktivism attacks, allowing it to better navigate the rapidly changing political and social climate of the modern day.

References:

Cohen, Z., Marquardt, A., & Fung, B. (2020, December 17). Massive hack of US government launches search for answers as Russia named Top suspect. CNN. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/16/politics/us-government-agencies-hack-uncertainty/index.html

Huddleston, T. (2022, March 25). What is anonymous? how the infamous 'hacktivist' group went from 4chan trolling to launching cyberattacks on Russia. CNBC. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/what-is-anonymous-the-group-went-from-4chan-to-cyberattacks-on-russia.html

Quinlan, P. (2018, April 17). Council post: Corporate activism: Three reasons staying silent is the bigger risk. Forbes. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/04/17/corporate-activism-three-reasons-staying-silent-is-the-bigger-risk/?sh=5777adea1beb

Vamosi, R. (2008, January 25). Anonymous hackers take on the Church of Scientology. CNET. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/anonymous-hackers-take-on-the-church-of-scientology/

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Laurie Mollo

Abstract

Hacktivist group “Anonymous” origins are a result of an adolescent’s creation of a

prankster-slash-cyber-bullying message board (McCormick, 2013). The group has since amassed

into one of the world’s most well-known cyber activist groups who proclaim themselves to be

“fighters for internet freedom” (AnonOps, 2022). Are they mere cyber-activists or are they are

serious threat to institutions?

Anonymous is a decentralized Hacktivist protest collaborative with mutual social and

political interests (Hampson, 2012). They are often described as “vigilantes” (Kelly, 2012),

“lawless Wild West of the web” (Knutilla, 2011), “domestic terrorists” (Knuttila, 2011) and

“young cyber-geeks” who coordinate acts of cyber-disruption “all from a teenager’s bedroom in

the suburbs of the UK, Sweden or the USA” (Sorrell, 2015). Their website states they are “an

international communication platform frequented by activists, nerds, trolls and those who wish to

otherwise remain Anonymous” (AnonOps, 2022) and their Twitter headline reads “We are

fighters for internet freedom” (AnonOps, Twitter, 2022). Is that the only thing they are fighting

for?

Anonymous began as a relatively innocuous prank site called 4chan.org created by a 15-

year-old New Yorker. It subsequently attracted a “global army of anonymous hackers, many of

the politically minded, who exchange coding tips and eventually plot cyberops” (McCormick,

2013). Cyber operations (cyberops) is partially defined as a) Unauthorized access to computers,

computer systems or networks to obtain information and b) Operations intended to alter, delete,

corrupt or deny access to computer data or software for the purposes of propaganda or deception

(Einstein and Dahl, 2020). Anonymous user exchanges began within a platform known as the /b/

board - the more sinister of the meme-prank boardrooms. The introductory “attacks” appear to be

more closely associated with cyberbullying than cyber-activism until 2008 when they started

“Project Chanology,” a globalized operation against the Church of Scientology; “Project

Chanology’ marked the start of many highly organized, collaborative actions and a departure

from the early, more childish, lulz” (Knuttila, 2011). Knuttila goes on to say:

“Anonymous now operates regardless of its original nebulous incoherence — as there are

now several sects and splinter groups, each with unique enterprises and campaigns.

Although there is certainly still some overlap in users, it is increasingly problematic to

conflate Anonymous with 4chan, not only because of this slow dispersal, but also because

they are often unconnected and even at odds with one another. Finally, many of these

Anonymous groups now communicate through social media platforms like Twitter,

meaning the utterances no longer operate through 4chan’s interface or within its groups”

(2011).

Since Project Chanology in 2008, Anonymous has been very active in countless cyber

plots and operations promulgating their causes primarily by instigating DdoS (distributed denial

of service) service-interruption attacks (Rozenweig, 2013). The campaigns range in a myriad of

objectives such as anti-establishment, civil and human rights, censorship, war opposition - to

name a few. Within the last few years, noted “attacks” have included the governments of Iran

(Glover, 2022), Russia (Vijayan, 2020) and China (Meitav, 2022). While most reactive protestforward

measures of website interruptions appear harmless, Anonymous has been responsible for

damaging reputations of individuals, corporations and cultures. They have, by way of rebellious

retaliation, caused people to lose their jobs, most notably, the cybersecurity firm representative

who threatened to leak their names (Rozenweig, 2013), as well as possibly, and arguably, put

National Security at risk (Kelly, 2012).

How does an entity avert Anonymous outside of behaving morally and ethically? One

measure could be implementing “defensive cyber protocols” such as Amazon used to protect

itself against the Operation Avenge Assange attack (Rozenweig, 2013). Outside of other

preconceived cyber-security measures, a target of a decentralized insurgency with hyper-cybercapabilities

appears vulnerable. How does anyone ensure they are measurably secure when being

mysteriously interrogated by a collective insurgency? Can any person, corporation, government

take tactical steps to avoid conflict with a hacktivist regime? That question would require further

studies and conclusion. In the end, if an entity does find itself in a virtual hack-attack, one of the

most responsible things to do to in order to mitigate, diffuse, and assuage further reputation

damages is to ensure there is a very strong corporate communications team in place. Then issue a

strong and compelling press release and re-evaluate strategies from there.

Perhaps all of these constant battles are nothing more than an endless war on democracy.

References

AnonOps. (2022). Welcome to AnonOps. Anonymous Operations. Retrieved November 17,

2022, from https://anonops.com

Bellaby, R.W. (2021). An ethical framework for hacking operations. Ethic Theory Moral Prac

24, 231–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-021-10166-8

Einstein, Y., & Dahl, Arne Willy. (2020). Section II: cyber operations. Oslo Manual On Select

Topics of the Law and Armed Conflict. https://link.springer.com/chapter/

10.1007/978-3-030-39169-0_2

Glover, C. (2022, Oct 5). ‘Heart-warming for the revolution’: Hacktivists from Anonymous join

Iran protests. Tech Monitor. https://techmonitor.ai/technology/cybersecurity/anonymoushacktivists-

iran

Hampson, N. C. N. (2012). Hacktivism: A new breed of protest in a networked world. Boston

College International & Comparative Law Review, 35(2), 511–542.

https://search-ebscohost-com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=77927303&site=ehost-live

Huddleston, Tom Jr. (2022, Mar 25). What is Anonymous? How the infamous ‘hacktivist’ group

went from 4chan trolling to launching cyberattacks on Russia. CNBC.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/what-is-anonymous-the-group-went-from-4chan-tocyberattacks-

on-russia.html

Kelly, B. B. (2012). Investing in a centralized cybersecurity infrastructure: Why “hacktivism”

can and should influence cybersecurity reform. Boston University Law Review, 92(5), 1663–1711. https://search-ebscohost-com.remote.baruch.cuny.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=83630670&site=ehost-live

Knuttila, L. (2011). User unknown: 4chan, anonymity and contingency. First Monday, 16(10).

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v16i10.3665

McCormick, T. (2013, April 29). Hacktivism: A short history. Foreign Policy, 200, 24-25. https://

foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/hacktivism-a-short-history/

Meitav, R. (2022, Aug 4). Anonymous hacks Chinese gov't website, welcomes Nancy Pelosi to

Taiwan. The Jerusalem Post. https://www.jpost.com/international/article-713896

Rosenzweig, J. D. (2013). Hacktivists and insurgency [Television broadcast]. Chantilly, VA: The

Great Courses.

Sorell, T. (2015). Human rights and hacktivism: The cases of Wikileaks and Anonymous,

Journal of Human Rights Practice, Volume 7, Issue 3, Pages 391–410, https://doi.org/

10.1093/jhuman/huv012

Anonymous. (2009). [Twitter profile]. Twitter. Retrieved November 17, 2022, from https://

twitter.com/anonops

_____________________________________________________________________________

Erika Rodriguez

Hacktivism started as Lulz (a corrupted meaning of “Laugh Out Loud”) which refers to the like hackers had for foolish or silly behavior. For several years it remained as such, until 2000 when hackers graduated from Lulz to a more serious cyber operation-focused group. It developed a rich history in political activism known as Hacktivism. This concept of “hacking” that first served as harmless, began in the 1950s in Massachusetts at the Institute of Technology. In 1989 NASA computers and US Energy Department were infected by the “WANK” worm through computer log-in screens. November 1994 was the year when Zippies launched and were to be recognized as the “email bomb” that emphasized its political actions protest. 1996 is the year when “Omega” was distributed by members of the Texas group known as “Cult of the Dead Cow” (cDc). Its goal was to leverage technology to advance human rights and protect the free flow of web information. The continuing year served to create the Hacktivists movement an obsession. An example is taken from 2012; when Wikileaks completely breaks apart from Anonymous by putting millions of its documents behind a paywall. Anonymous reacted by twitting “Die in Fire” @wikileaks (McCormick, 2013).

Mostly known as cyber-attackers; anonymous is a large, decentralized global internet community composed of computer-literate individuals pursuing the “freedom of internet information”. Anonymous is a group of “Hacktivism”; a broad cyber community of political activists., which has come to define in the era of Wikileaks which dedicates to the publication of secret documents and confidential information. Organized as an internet group of hackers, and political activists’ movement, the Anonymous group shares similar social and political ideas. Through generations, this idea of free internet information has brought hacktivists to maintain united. Because of its hacktivist methods, like denial of service (DoS), cyberattacks, an even enabling citizen access to government-censored web pages; anonymous can be perceived as either traditional political activists serving different agendas, hacktivists, vigilantes, or just out for fun. There are 3 selections that can be made from the overall anonymous cyber activity from this group:

• Anonymous
• Political Activists
• Criminal Mischief Makers

2010 WikiLeaks disclosure contributed to the idea of the Hacktivist group: Anonymous being responsible to lead to Wiki wars. As a result, Master Card, PayPal, and Amazon stopped making donations to Wikileaks.

Social activists’ challenges affect politicians’ willingness to participate with certain Anonymous-targeted firms. Some non-market strategies used are boycotts, protests, and negative media campaigns. There is an increase in the prevalence of activist movements that directly target-market based actions to press for changes in corporate products, practices, and policies. This is similar to what hacktivists request from their targeted business. Hacktivists’ common targets are:

• Nation States
• Government agencies
• Corporations
• Religious institutions
• Terrorist organizations.

Because anonymous feel strongly about its purpose, the group has taken responsibility for the largest hacktivists attacks, on prominent corporations and government agencies through major threats. Their technique to push these agencies into change is nothing less than threats. As a result, hacktivists are not seen as protesters, but rather data thieves and criminals that seek to imply their will at any cost.

Opposing views suggest that instead of causing destruction, anonymous only cause disruption by requiring participants to join self-consciously and publicly leaving their internet addresses traceable. Anonymous “poses a greater threat to freedom of expression, creativity, and innovation than any trend posed by disruptions themselves (Kopsfstein, 2012).

Can your run a company that protects itself from hacktivism?

I think that nowadays, because of technological advances, it is imperative that businesses protect themselves from hacktivists. I believe I can run a company that seeks protection from this type of movement because it reflects the value, I have for any information being put on the web. Although it may seem as if by working for a company like such, the support for anti-hacktivist is implied, in many cases that is not the real reason. Any organization will need to be prepared for cases like “Operation Tunisia” which targeted many government websites that supported the 2012 Arab Movement (Crowdstrike, 2022). Companies cannot rely on “good intentions” narratives because that is how important information gets lost. An example is a healthcare organization, which must strongly rely on the safest Electronic Medical Record system because if patient health information ends up anywhere else than it is supposed to, the organization faces major lawsuits, sanctions, and penalties. When information gets lost like that, in the healthcare field it suggests a lack of compliance with the HIPAA Act.

I would guide an organization into preventing hacktivism from happening by developing an incident response that specifically outlines the steps the organization will take to minimize the damage hacktivists can cause. It is important that the organization also has cybersecurity protection or prevention guidelines that are recommended for malware, ransomware, along with other cyber threats. Recommendations will be as follows:

• Train all employees on cybersecurity best practices: Front-line security employees must practice good hygiene practices like strong password protection connecting only to secure Wi-Fi and maintaining a constant lookout for phishing.
• Keep the operating system and other software patched and up to date: Do not expose yourself, hackers are always seeking holes to intersect their malware.
• Use software that can prevent unknown threats: Traditional antiviruses are not as effective against hacktivists. New suggestions are CrowdStricke Falcon platform that proves next gen-antivirus (NGAV)
• Continuously, monitor the environment for malicious activity and IOAs: CrowdStrike Falcon Insight (EDR) acts like a surveillance camera across all endpoints. For steady watch, CrowdStrike offers Falcon Over Watch.

When an organization has been hacked, it is important to remain calm and proceed with a risk management procedure. It is extremely important that the company seeks to salvage its reputation with the customers Following are some of the steps that can be taken:

1.Recognize and respond; bring reassurance to the public.

2.Data breach notification

3.Make claims

4.Investigate the hack

5.Protect the company from future cyberattacks.

References:

Kopfstein, Janus. “Is Anonymous a Threat to National Security, or Just Trolling?” The Verge, The Verge, 9 Apr. 2012, https://www.theverge.com/2012/4/9/2930626/yochai-benkler-anonymous-cybersecurity-laws.

“What Is Hacktivism?: CrowdStrike.” Crowdstrike.com, 5 Oct. 2022, https://www.crowdstrike.com/cybersecurity-101/hacktivism/.

McCormick, T. (2013, April 29). Hacktivism: A short history. Foreign Policy, 200, 24-25. https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/hacktivism-a-short-history/

McDonnell, M.-H., & Werner, T. (2016). Blacklisted businesses: Social activists' challenges and the disruption of corporate political activity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 20, 1-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839216648953

Stollznow, K. (2008). Anonymous vs. Scientology. Skeptical Inquirer, 32(2), 7-8.

Rosenzweig, J. D. (2013). Hacktivists and insurgency [Television broadcast]. Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Shonelle Williams

Many have compared "Anonymous" to that of online "Robin Hood," remembering that legendary hero in the woods that stole from the rich and gave to the poor and acquired a band of merry men—leaving out the woods in the band of merry men. Anonymous is pretty much made up of the same theory. They are an online presence that seems to have cleared cyber war against several causes. Unlike Robin Hood and his band of Merry man, anonymous fight lies in governments and corporation and their ability to censor or control. Their fight is against "censorship or promotes inequality." What is being broadcast?

Anonymous employees coordinated cyber-attacks against "furious world, governments, corporations, or other groups, often in the name of social or political "is it fair to put anonymous in the same sentence as hackers? Do they stand for the same thing? It is hard to separate because when we think of hackers, we think of people getting into government or even companies we know, stealing our information, and using it sometimes to blackmail, make demands, or just shut down systems. Do they have do they stand for something? Is there a cause? Anonymous says they promote access to information, free speech, and transparency. They are fighting for us, the people. When we see attacks against Visa MasterCard or PayPal linked back to anonymous. Is this a fight for us, the people? How is this tied into democracy?

"Anonymous's original story began in an online message form of 4CHAND anonymous. Social community website was founded in 2003." anonymous does not have a leader. The members make their own decisions and rely on different protests and activities. They utilize social media to get their message out. If those ideas or activities rally enough support from you and me or community members, they have virtual meetings to see how they will move forward with different campaigns. All that is needed if you want to join the Anonymous group is your identity; remain, guess what, "Anonymous" while conducting online activities.

References:

Alexopoulou, Sofia, and Antonia Pavli. “'Beneath This Mask There Is More than Flesh, beneath This Mask There Is an Idea': Anonymous as the (Super)Heroes of the Internet? - International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue Internationale De Sémiotique Juridique.” SpringerLink, Springer Netherlands, 6 Mar. 2019, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11196-019-09615-6.

German, Wade. “What Is 'Anonymous' and How Does It Operate?” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 1 Mar. 2012, https://www.rferl.org/a/explainer_what_is_anonymous_and_how_does_it_operate/24500381.html.

Jr., Tom Huddleston. “What Is Anonymous? How the Infamous 'Hacktivist' Group Went from 4chan Trolling to Launching Cyberattacks on Russia.” CNBC, CNBC, 25 Mar. 2022, https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/25/what-is-anonymous-the-group-went-from-4chan-to-cyberattacks-on-russia.html.

by Dr. Dino Sossi

Anonymous actors beholden to neither state nor ideology can impact global events at the click of a button. How we cope with these non-state actors will help define how free the internet is over the course of both the near and distant future.

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