Who are Anonymous? Hackers fighting for Wikileaks (Feature)

By Andy Goldberg Dec 9, 2010, 18:14 GMT

San Francisco - They call themselves Anonymous. But though their identities are shrouded behind an impenetrable digital veil, the havoc they have wreaked in cyberspace is anything but secret.

The group, which is made up of an uncertain number of anti-censorship hackers, has so far managed to temporarily disable the website of Mastercard and Visa after both those credit card companies decided to stop taking donations for WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks' release of its third tranche of leaked secret US government documents - US diplomatic cables from the US State Department - has provoked a type of cyber warfare as critics of the leaks also try to shut down the WikiLeaks website by overwhelming it with targetted log-ons.

The retaliation by WikiLeaks supporters however seems merely like the opening salvo in a much fiercer war, with the group already announcing over a Twitter account that its next target would be the web-retail giant Amazon. Last week, Amazon declared it would stop hosting the controversial whistle-blowing website on its servers.

'TARGET: WWW.AMAZON.COM LOCKED ON!!!' someone who claimed to be representing the group said over Twitter.

There's no way to tell for sure if the threat is even genuine since so little is known about the group. Anonymous appears to have close links with the mischief-making website 4chan.org and its previous targets were mainly restricted to launching denial of service attacks on Church of Scientology websites.

The same kinds of attacks were used to overwhelm the Mastercard and Visa website. They use computers hijacked by malicious viruses to bombard the website with millions of enquiries, effectively taking down the servers' ability to respond to genuine users.

The aim of this group, like that of WikiLeaks, is to take information from the government and make it available to the public, activists said in a blog posting at anons.blogspot.com.

The post began with quotes from Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, two of the most revered American leaders in history: 'Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves,' and 'He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.'

The post read: 'Hello World. We are Anonymous. What you do or do not know about us is irrelevant. We have decided to write to you, the media, and all citizens of the free world at large to inform you of the message, our intentions, potential targets, and our ongoing peaceful campaign for freedom.

'The message is simple: freedom of speech. Anonymous is peacefully campaigning for freedom of speech everywhere in all forms. Freedom of speech for: the internet, for journalism and journalists, and citizens of the world at large. Regardless of what you think or have to say; Anonymous is campaigning for you.'

'The Internet is the last bastion of freedom in this evolving technical world. The Internet is capable of connecting us all. When we are connected we are strong. When we are strong we have power. When we have power we are able to do the impossible.

'This is why the government is moving on WikiLeaks. This is what they fear. They fear our power when we unite. Do not forget this. The goal is simple: Win the right to keep the Internet free of any control from any entity, corporation, or government.'

Apart from waging a battle against companies that they believe to have bowed to government pressure against WikiLeaks, members of the Anonymous group also appear to have been involved in the establishment of hundreds of WikiLeaks mirror sites. These ensure that the whistle-blowing forum will remain available even if the official site is taken offline.

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