Five things you may not know about online 'hacktivists' Anonymous
by Emmet Purcell, 212.78.238.223October 1st 2011 7:44 PM
Has anyone seen Enda? He was sitting in a coffee shop just a few minutes ago. You may have heard Fine Gael's website was taken offline, but who is behind the Enda-foiling plot?
Fine Gael supporters hoping to be greeted by the slightly awkward sight of leader Enda Kenny sitting at a coffee shop and looking as if he's about to break up with them were instead greeted by an altogether different image when they attempted to log onto the party's website last night. Instead, visitors found the page defaced with a logo of a suited figure whose head had been replaced by a question mark and the following message:
“Nothing is safe, you put your faith in this political party and they take no measures to protect you. They offer you free speech yet they censor your voice. Wake Up!”
Fine Gael have confirmed today that the contact details of around 2,000 people were compromised in the denial of service attack and have emailed those affected to notify them of the occurence. The party had recently revamped their site to allow users to post their personal details such as phone numbers and email addresses so they can be kept abreast of Fine Gael news before the General Election. So just who are the 'Anonymous' culprits and why would they target Fine Gael?
According to the party's statement released today, "The group that participated in this attack called themselves the Anonymous Group. This group has been associated with the Wikileaks investigation and attacks on companies such as Visa, MasterCard and Amazon." In truth, however, the very nature of the term 'Anonymous' denotes what is not a structured and clearly defined organisation but rather an online community of like-minded individuals that engage in online activism and seek to disrupt perceived enemies.
Here are five things you may not about the group:
1. Anonymous aren't huge fans of KISS frontman Gene Simmons
KISS singer Gene Simmons has seemingly made it his duty to ensure he can destroy as much public goodwill and respect, yielded from decades of fronting his legendary rock group, as possible. Aside from TV projects such as My Dad the Rock Star and his reality TV projects Gene Simmon's Family Jewels and Rock School, the singer has made a number of obnoxious statements on everything from Islam to telling Billboard magazine in 2006 of his unique views on music piracy:
"Every little college kid, every freshly scrubbed little kid's face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning."
Last year at a MIPCOM conference Simmons repeated his views, a little stronger this time, encouraging media providers "Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars,". Suffice to say, members of Anonymous weren't too fond of Simmon's tone and launched denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) on GeneSimmons.com and SimmonsRecords.com, successfully shutting down both sites. Simmons responded thusly:
"Some of you may have heard a few popcorn farts re: our sites being threatened by hackers.
Our legal team and the FBI have been on the case and we have found a few, shall we say "adventurous" young people, who feel they are above the law.
And, as stated in my MIPCOM speech, we will sue their pants off.
First, they will be punished.
Second, they might find their little butts in jail, right next to someone who's been there for years and is looking for a new girlfriend.
We will soon be printing their names and pictures.
We will find you.
You cannot hide.
Stay tuned."
In response, Simmon's sites were again taken down by Anonymous members. Thankfully, however, GeneSimmons.com is running smoothly today, so you can read all sorts of unmissable news such as 'Nick Simmons out with his girlfriend in LA', the current main headline on the site.
2. The group first gained worldwide press by protesting the Church of Scientology
On 14 January, 2008, Anonymous effectively announced itself on the world stage with a video uploaded to YouTube entitled 'Message to Scientology', in which Microsoft Sam informs Tom Cruise's church that, "Anonymous has decided that your organisation should be destroyed."
Members of the notoriously litigous religion responded by issuing a copyright violation claim to the site requesting removal of the video, emboldening Anonymous members to take to the streets worldwide, in a protest subsequently entitled 'Project Chanologoy'.
Over 7,000 people protested on 10 February 2008, less than a month after the original video caught the public's imagination. Meanwhile, Anonymous member Dmitriy Guzner, then 18, pleaed guilty to a DDoS attack on the Church's website, eventually facing a year and a day in US federal prison and two years probation. Since Ireland has a wonderful blasphemy law, we at JOE will refrain from making any opinion on the group's target. Sigh...
3. Some Anonymous members crushed the dreams of Jonas Brothers fans everywhere
YouTube - preserve of so many entertaining and workplace productivity-lowering cat videos is still a no-go area for anyone hoping to be entertainment by filmed coital unions. On 20 May 2009, members of Anonymous and the notorious image-based bulletin board 4Chan (more specifically it's /b/ sub-forum) implored its users to make anonymous accounts and splice porn into generic videos, thus sneaking as much graphic sex onto the site as possible, mostly using innocent and misleading tags such as 'Jonas Brothers'.
Before the Operation Porn Day plan was set in motion, a rallying cry was let out on the 4Chan website, ending with the rousing message: "Join with me, /b/retheren, for we shall ride to battle at dawn. Long live /b/!!! long live the internet!!! Long live Anonymous!!!"
Although YouTube successfully deleted the offending clips, the raid lives on in a memory of one innocent whose mind was forever tainted - they commented on one video spliced with porn, "I'm 12 years old and what is this?"
4. Anonymous members are fond of Guy Fawkes masks
If there's one group that has really benefited from the advent of Anonymous, it's sellers of Guy Fawkes masks. Perhaps the masks are in support of the notorious English revolutionary whose failed Gundpowder Plot was an attempt to blow up the House of Lords and assassinate King James I of England or perhaps in support of the fictional V of the graphic novel and film V For Vendetta, but either way, they're popular for any public Anonymous protests. Try not to ruin your outfit by sporting a tight yellow jumpsuit though.
5. Anonymous latest target is the government of Tunisia
The ongoing fatal demonstrations and public unrest in the North African country of Tunisia are principally due to unemployment and political repression, though little of the trouble has made it into the country's mainstream press coverage in recent weeks. In a public statement, Anonymous announced that it was beginning Operation Tunisia, an ongoing and co-ordinated attempt to attack a number of state-run Tunisian websites:
"The Tunisian government wants to control the present with falsehoods and misinformation in order to impose the future by keeping the truth hidden from its citizens. We will not remain silent while this happens. Anonymous has heard the claim for freedom of the Tunisian people. Anonymous is willing to help the Tunisian people in this fight against oppression."
Last Tuesday the Tunisian government appeared to have finally taken proper steps to protect its websites from attack by making them inaccessible from overseas users. The same sites were available within Tunisia, however, where far greater punishment could be meted to anyone found to have committed DDoS attacks within the state. A day later, Anonymous informed Al Jazeera that its own site was under DDoS attack, but that the group would likely move on to another target now that it had gathered momentum and helped focus the media's glare to the situation in Tunisia.
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