 |
| Anonymous Logo |
For those of you who don't know, Anonymous is a group of unknown activist who coordinate protest and attacks against anti-piracy campaigns, using the Internet as their main weapon. The group is most known for their attacks against the Megaupload and Pirate Bay controversies.
After the government had shut down Megaupload, Anonymous went ahead and struck back. Within hours of Megaupload going offline, multiple government and media related websites also went down. Some of these sites include the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Copyright office, the Recording Industry of America, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and Universal Music, just to name a few. Any attempt at logging into any of these sites proved to be difficult. None of them worked. Anonymous' main weapon of choice was a DDoS attack, or distributed denial of service. Basically what this means is that a bunch of people simultaneouly try to login into a site. This overloads the servers and causes that site to crash. Technically, this is not hacking, since Anonymous didn't do anything more than log into the website.
If you follow any of the Anonymous fan pages on Twitter, such as @anonops, you got to see every site that got taken down. I'll admit that it was very entertaining to watch as multiple sites were taken down. Anonymous mocked these sites with little quips like, "Tango Down! Tango Down!"
Although the sites were quickly fixed and put back up, a clear message was sent and received.
Anonymous let the government know that their actions will not be taken lightly and that they are not the only people that control the internet. In my opinion, this was a victory for Anonymous and for those who are against the SOPA and PIPA bills. Anonymous spoke for us all by saying that we will not take this lying down.
Since that night, Anonymous has continued to attack certain websites, showing the government that they are still here and they are watching. Since that night, no other websites have been shut down.
I think it is absolutely crazy that a group of hackers can, in a matter of a day, hack into and control government sites. It's a little scary. It almost reminds me of the movie "Catch Me if You Can." I think the government should in list these pro-hackers and put them to work!
ReplyDeleteI find anonymous very interesting, both in how they are structured and in what targets they pick. Now that censorship and regulation seem to be all the rage when you see companies and politicians discussing internet policy, its nice to see a group sticking up for the interests of the average user.
ReplyDeleteI was talking with a PR exec last night, and he said that headlines are one of the most important things in PR. I think you have a great headline because it draws the reader in and makes us wonder.
ReplyDeleteWell thank you!
DeleteI remember last year Westboro Baptist Church wanted Anonymous to hack them, and Anonymous answered that they weren't worth the effort. They're a classy group of hackers. WBC wanted attention and to feel powerful and Anonymous denied them that.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's amazing what they did, I feel like it may be a little childish. They did prove a good point, that they, just like the government, had no right to shut down any of those sites. But I feel like if they had actually hacked the sites (which would have been illegal) and taking control, and actually shutting the sites down, would be a better step than disrupting the servers that held the sites. It is great that they could get so many people to try and log in within such a short period of time in order to accomplish this though. It proves how powerful we can be together.
ReplyDeleteIt is really incredible what they were able to accomplish with shutting down websites. At the same time I do not know if I agree completely with it. I do feel like there are times that piracy is wrong because it is in fact taking things that other people worked hard to make money off of. I know that they make plenty of money even with the piracy going on but I feel it can still come off as stealing. It is really crazy that they were able to pull off such an amazing feat though.
ReplyDeleteI love this post! I had no idea what Anonymous even was, so good job at summarizing and explaining the main details in a not-so-lengthy way. What they did was awesome! The government might have taken it as a little fly that needed to be swatted, but to the people, it's a big deal. It shows that we do have power in numbers and we can make things happen and find a way around the rules to express ourselves. Great read!
ReplyDelete