This week’s lecture explored the global network of hackers, whistleblowers and social activists.
Anonymous is an international activist/hactivist collective that is known for their cyber attacks on large corporations and government institutions. I’ve always known about Anonymous and could name you a handful of their operations, but this lecture invited me to investigate the group deeper.
The first thing I found was a documentary on their involvement in the Steubenville Rape Case. Anonymous rounded up information on the alleged gang rape and kidnapping of a 16-year-old female by two high-school football players. Being a big football focused town, there was a shady cover up of the situation and this attracted the eyes of Anonymous who hacked emails, recovered photos and videos, and essentially unravelled the entire attempted cover up.
This operation from Anonymous reminded me of their leaking of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. While a person or group claimed to be part of Anonymous, nothing has officially happened as a result. I’m interested to see if they will play a part as the case continues to unfold with the flight logs demanding to be made available to the public. I think Anonymous are an interesting look at hacking and hacktivism and while they help a lot of social issues, I also understand, to some extent, that it could be perceived as cyber terrorism.
What do you think of Anonymous’ work? What do you think they will hack next?
Frank Tremain.
Frank Tremain 
Hi Frank! Awesome blog post for this week’s topic, was really interesting to see your take on the subject and how you linked the different examples you researched. The issue you raised at the end about hactivism being perceived as cyber terrorism is definitely an interesting one to look at, I also focused on this in my blog post! Here’s one of the sources I looked at while researching for myself that you may find interesting!
Click to access 33-2-6.pdf
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Hi Frank!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post as I wasn’t really across Anonymous’ operations until this week – I’d heard of them before though (as I think most people would). You made a good point with hackers being perceived as cyber terrorists which prompted me to do some research into this perception. I found this article about how hackers are perceived in 2020, you should check it out! (https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/36013/how-does-society-perceive-the-hacker-in-2020). My blog post was comparing the similarities between hacker subculture and meme warfare swarms which was really interesting as sometimes I think they are similar as they want to uncover truths to the public and seek change. (https://chelswood.wordpress.com/2020/10/18/anonymous-resistance/)
P.s I really like the design of your blog!
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Hi! this was such an interesting read, I lightly touched on anonymous in my blog post and i feel like your insight has added to my understanding of the group. The video you included was really useful in exploring the topic further, i also watched some videos relating to hacktivism- here’s one of my favourites:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDpgxM6Dcww&t=1s Your post got me thinking and i have a question for you, do you think the work of anonymous is morally right even though a lot of their actions are illegal?
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Thanks for your feedback! Yeah it’s an interesting point of contention. I don’t think it’s morally right because it’s invasion of peoples privacy and things like that but the people and groups they target has revealed things far worse than ‘moral high ground’ so it gets a pass from me hahaha
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This is a great blog! I loved how you gave an example and went in depth about the case and how hacking can lead to serious crimes. I also have to add that I loved the aesthetics of your blog and the video you attached was very helpful and relevant to the topic. This blog really helped me understand this weeks lecture and cyber-attacks on the internet.
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hi frank! I actually realllyy like your remediation – sometimes gifs can have a low impact but I think you captured the essence of anonymouse well with super relevant targets. I definitely think a lot of anonymous work is extremely important with so much speculation and conspiracy floating around, the fact that they can put sources to that is incredible. However, I liked that you did include the negative of cyberterrorism – but using that amount of force on what they do in my opinion is truthfully deserved 🙂
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omg anonymous* haha mouse, mood
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Hey Frank, this was a super well done and interesting post. I honestly didn’t even know hactivism was a thing until i started researching it. I’d heard of Anonymous WikiLeaks & Edward Snowden but didnt know there was an actual name for it. I liked how you discussed anonymous from both points of you. Because it really is an interesting one. Cause when you think about it, anonymous and hactivism’s entire subculture is based on exposing truths. Which is quite ironic, and kind of refreshing considering we live in a ‘fake news epidemic’. But then again, technically what they are doing is illegal, and the way they go about getting their information can be unjustifiable. So it’s something with a lot of layers. Very interesting post, good job.
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