Spartan Daily

The Science of Anonymous

With the recent infiltration of websites, from organizations such as the FBI to media corporations such as CBS, nothing is safe in the presence of a group of hackers called Anonymous.

Described as “hackers on steroids” in a 2007 FOX 11 news broadcast, Anonymous is described as a “a decentralized network of individuals focused on promoting access to information, free speech, and transparency” as stated on the Anon Analytics website.

With all of the news about hackers, some believe that the word carries a negative connotation.

Larry Maloney, co-founder of Kiputers Inc in Mountain View, believes that the definition of the word “hacker” is misconstrued.

“There is a common misconception in the media about the term,” Maloney stated in an email. “Hacking entails people building and creating projects, typically with software or hardware computer designs."

Maloney also stated that in terms of Anonymous, they are defined more to be “Black Hats” or in technical terms, “network penetrators.”

The definition of a "Black Hat" is described to be a person who hacks into a system or network with malicious intent, as stated on the Search Security website.

According to the Merriam-Webster definition, the word “hacker” is described to be “an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer” and “a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system.”

Jerry Chao, a junior marketing major, said the members of Anonymous could be anyone a person may know.

“Everyone can be a part of Anonymous,” Chao said. “It could be your friend, your sibling or even your parents.”

Chao also commented that members of Anonymous can be identified in news broadcasts by the Guy Fawkes masks popularized in the 2006 movie, "V for Vendetta".

In the movie, the hero of the film “V” dons a Guy Fawkes mask to honor the man of the same name who tried to blow up the British Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605, to protest the unfair treatment of the Roman Catholics.

Even with Anonymous’ policy to keep their identities on the "down-low" online, the masks are one of the common features of an Anon member.

Preston Rudy, a sociology professor at SJSU, says the reason for the masks is to establish an identity within the group.

“Groups, like nations, want to be recognized such as people wearing the same shirt or carrying a flag,” Rudy said. “The difference with Anonymous is that they are trying to remain anonymous.”

Anonymous is primarily famous for infiltrating and shutting down websites such as the FBI homepage  on Jan. 19.

Similarly, Anonymous used "a distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, which involves numerous systems attacking a single server and denying access to its users. 

This type of procedure shut down the Department of Justice website, which occurred on the same date as the FBI infiltration.

One company who has experienced such attack on their servers is the San Francisco-based LiveJournal, Inc.

Created in 1999, LiveJournal is described as a “community publishing platform, willfully blurring the lines of blogging and social networking” as stated on the company's homepage.

According to the company’s statistics, LiveJournal has over 20 million active users to date with 5 million people using it in the United States, with Russia being the second-leading country with almost 3 million users.

For users in Russia, LiveJournal is used as a way to exercise political thought and in Dec. 2011, the site experienced one of the worst DDoS attacks in the past few years due to government oppression, as stated on the blog Oh No They Didn't!.

The attack caused server interruption on the site, according to a press release from the LiveJournal staff.

In a report created by the United Nations on May 2011, it stated “When a cyber-attack can be attributed to the State, it clearly constitutes a violation of its obligation to the right of freedom of opinion and expression.”

"They are a Robin Hood for the cyberworld,” Chao said. “Anonymous used to be a group of mischievous hackers but now they are feared by the government and media.”