This group is more dangerous.
It does not spill blood nor does it have a specified demand and it appears to be leaderless.
It seems to be the outcome of the frustration felt by the behavior of Politicians and as such its targets are wide-ranging.
What is at stake is National secrets and National Security.
Imagine what could happen if they hack power grids, Traffic Controls,Finance markets,Military Soft ware.
This has to be the most dangerous group around and as such needs urgent and concerted action by the Governments the world over.
It also means that the politicians must mend their ways to prevent a system collapse.
If they don’t, this group shall gain public sympathy as well.
A collection of 10,365 e-mails from the Iranian government were leaked by digital activist group Anonymous Operations on June 2. According to members of Anonymous, the files were taken after the hacker accessed the Iranian Passport and Visa Office email center…
“I don’t know why the Islamic regime keeps providing money to their cyber army while they can’t secure their most important mail server,” Anonymous stated…
The growing phenomena of “hactivism,” whereby groups and individuals use hacking and cyberattacks as a form of dissent, is steadily growing. Anonymous Operations is among the main groups falling under the category of hactivists, and has garnered international attention through their operations, with targets ranging from Iran to Sony.
Following the White House release of an international cyberspace strategy, issues of cybersecurity and hacking are gaining heavy attention. The report even states in part that cyberattacks can be regarded as acts of war.
It states that countries “have an inherent right to self-defense that may be triggered by certain aggressive acts in cyberspace … When warranted, the United States will respond to hostile acts in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country.”..
A new NATO report on cybersecurity, “Information and National Security,” refers to Anonymous directly, stating “The longer these attacks persist the more likely countermeasures will be developed, implemented, the groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted.”
The report states NATO’s concern that “Observers note that Anonymous is becoming more and more sophisticated and could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files.”..
“As traditional means of protest … have slowly turned into nothing but an empty, ritualized gesture of discontent over the course of the last century, people have been anxiously searching for new ways to pressure politicians and give voice to public demands … Anonymous has, for now, found this new way of voicing civil protest in the form of the DDoS,” states the letter.
They add, “You can easily arrest individuals, but you cannot arrest an ideology. We are united by a common objective and we can and WILL cross any borders to achieve that.”.
Related:
NATO leaders have been warned that WikiLeaks-loving ‘hacktivist’ collective Anonymous could pose a threat to member states’ security, following recent attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce and defence contractor HBGary – and promise to ‘persecute’ its members.
In a toughly-worded draft report to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, General Rapporteur Lord Jopling claims that the loose-knit, leaderless group is „becoming more and more sophisticated“, and „could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files“.
The group demonstrated its capabilities in February, says the report, when it hacked into US-based defence contractor HBGary. Documents stolen in the attack lifted the lid on the US military’s plans to use social network surveillance software, code-named ‘Metal Gear’ by the online hive-mind, which could control an army of fake profiles, collecting data from disparate sites and piecing together an individual’s identity by analysing linguistic traits and other details.
Describing the rise of the group from its beginnings on internet picture message board 4chan, via campaigns against the Church of Scientology and, more recently, in support of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, the report continues: „Today, the ad hoc international group of hackers and activists is said to have thousands of operatives and has no set rules or membership.“
The report goes on to lay out a stark warning to the group’s nameless participants:
„It remains to be seen how much time Anonymous has for pursuing such paths. The longer these attacks persist the more likely countermeasures will be developed, implemented, the groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted.“.
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