Anonymous Hackers Top 10 Most Memorable Moments

Back in August 2011, Anonymous released a series of files allegedly proving corruption within the Brazilian Government.

Links to the data were posted alongside a statement on the pastebin website on Wednesday 10 Aug, 2010. In its accompanying statement Anonymous claimed to have released “evidence revealing government cover-up of a corruption investigation involving the CIA, the Brazilian telecom industry, and multiple US corporations.”

The files were reportedly taken from evidence collected during Operation Satiagraha -- an investigation aimed to expose corruption in the Brazilian Federal Police force carried out between 2004 to 2008.

Led by Protógenes Queiroz the original operation led to the arrest of numerous Brazilian bankers and financiers.

The attack and resulting data-dump was reportedly done in protest of Quiroz’s removal from the case and the alleged cover-up that subsequently occurred. Quiroz was reportedly removed from the case for failing to tell his superiors about the Secret Service’s involvement.

After his removal an investigation was mounted regarding his reported collaboration with the Secret Service and use of illegal wire taps; some of the data posted by Anonymous, claimed to have been taken from these, previously unreleased, wire tap files.

In its statement Anonymous clarified that it had taken exception to the government’s subsequent refusal to release the files to the public, arguing that it was a direct attempt to hide its own involvement.

“We do not stand for government or parties. We stand for freedom, of people and information. We are releasing them to spread information, to allow the people to be heard and to know the corruption in their government. We are releasing them to bring power to the voice of the people of Brazil.

“We are releasing them to end the corruption that exists, and truly make those who are being oppressed free,” read Anonymous’ statement.

As a part of its ongoing AntiSec campaign in July 2011 Anonymous hackers breached Nato’s cyber security, making-off with one gigabyte of stolen data.

Like its previous attacks, the hack was reported on the group’s Twitter page. Anonymous has since released two PDFs containing a portion of the data stolen, linking to them via two tweets:

“We think, actually we may not release emails from The Sun, simply because it may compromise the court case. But.. pdfcast.org/pdf/nato-1.

“Here is the next NATO Restricted PDF: pdfhost.net/index.php?Acti… | Outsourcing CIS in Kosovo (2008) | Enjyoing the war yet, NATO? #AntiSec”

The group later clarified that it would not be releasing a significant portion of the data due to its sensitive nature.

The first document released by the group came from 2007. The alleged Nato document was a funding request for communication systems from the Joint Communications Control Centre, which supported ISAF forces in Afganistan.

The second document, dating from a year later in 2008, is a proposal document outlining plans to outsource Nato forces communications systems in Kosovo.

As well as seeing an alleged 20K-plus users close their PayPal accounts, Anonymous’ OpPayPal reportedly led to a $1bn loss for PayPal’s parent company eBay.

The entirely legal campaign began in July 2011 when Anonymous called for "anyone using PayPal to immediately close their accounts and consider an alternative."

The campaign was reportedly motivated by the US FBI and PayPal’s treatment of alleged Anonymous hacker Mercedes Renee Haefer -- an American journalism student who was arrested by the FBI for alleged involvement in a number of Anonymous hacks.

With the Op’s primary goal being to affect eBay’s stock value, upon the opening of NASDAQ the stock had seen a marked decrease. Starting with a rough 1.7 per cent decrease before peaking at a sizable three percent plus drop, leaving it with a $33.47 value. The day before eBay stock had been selling for around $34.4.

As well as the drop in stock value, Anonymous also reported that the campaign had seen 20,000-plus users cancel their PayPal accounts.

Back in July after LulzSec’s initial attack on the Rupert Murdoch owned News International, famed Anonymous hacker Sabu promised to release a slew of emails allegedly taken during the cyber-raid.

The alleged emails were reportedly taken during LulzSec’s high-profile attack on the News International owned Sun newspaper. The initial attack saw the hackers post a fake story reporting that media tycoon Rupert Murdoch had died in his garden. After the story was removed LulzSec went on to re-direct all Sun website visitors to the group’s Twitter page.

LulzSec’s hack was later reported as a “smoke-screen” for the real attack, aimed at News International’s email databases. In a tweet posted during the attack the group boasted: “Don't be a #peon like the others. We are showing you a very small surface; the real damage is currently giving the admins heart attacks. ;)”

Later adding insult to injury tweeting a link to a picture of Rupert Murdoch performing undignified acts on the group’s mascot.

Anonymous later clarified that its attack was motivated by the company and Rupert Murdoch’s involvement and handling of the phone hacking scandal. The scandal occurred after it was revealed that the now discontinued News of the World newspaper had hacked the mobile phone of murdered school girl Milly Dowler.

Hacktivist group Anonymous posted the names of 2800 of the right-wing Colombian Black Eagles Special Police Unit’s members online in June 2011.

The data was revealed via Anonymous’ Twitter feed with a tweet reading, “#AntiSec Results: http://bit.ly/mw48D5 | List of ~2800 officers from the Peruvian Águilas Negras (Black Eagles Special Police Unit)”.

The Black Eagles, or Aguilas Negras as the group is known in its native Columbia, is a collection of fragmented right wing, counter-revolutionary, paramilitary cells, thought to have been born from the paramilitary Self-Defense Units of Colombia (AUC).

The AUC faction the group originated from was an umbrella organisation of death squads designed to combat the Columbian leftist guerrilla fighters and generate income through drug trafficking.

The group is commonly thought to have no centralised authority and is fragmented into different cells each with its own chain of command.

The Black Eagles group is infamous for its involvement in numerous massacres and mass displacements across Columbia. As well as drug trafficking, certain cells have been linked to kidnapping, extortion and racketeering.

An ongoing Anonymous campaign, the collective followed up its previous assault in Finland, disabling the websites and publishing the members’ names of several German neo-Nazi groups in January 2012.

News of the new attack broke when the collective posted the names of several hundred subscribers to a number of online stores selling clothing associated with a number of far-right groups and writers for the Junge Freiheit newspaper - a publication that carries right wing leanings - on the nazi-leaks.net web portal.

As well as the list, Frankfurter Rundschau reported that Anonymous hackers had also claimed responsibility for cyber-attacks on 15 sites believed to be associated with the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), crediting the assault as a part of Operation Blitzkrieg.

The collective later publicly acknowledge the campaign tweeting statements supporting the attack and linking to articles about it. “#Anonymous declares 'Blitzkrieg' on neo-Nazis … #WeInSpankinNaziGirlsBusiness,” read the AnonymousIRC Twitter post.

Though unconfirmed, the German Altermedia site was listed as being down just after news of the attack broke. Altermedia is a forum site which offers vocal support and an online meeting point for several far-right groups, including the British National Party.

The attack follows a similar campaign enacted by the Finnish branch of Anonymous late in 2011. The Finnish cell of the Anonymous hacktivist collective issued a similar statement claiming responsibility for "exposing" a parliamentary aid's affiliation to an active neo-Nazi group at the start of November 2011.

The hacker cell of the Anonymous collective attacked the child pornography industry in October 2011, releasing the usernames of individuals caught sharing “kiddie porn” on the Lolita City darknet website.

The collective’s subsequent statement confirmed Anonymous’ #OpDarknet attack had successfully identified the usernames of 1,589 individuals trading child pornography across the internet.

“Tuesday, after hacking into Lolita City, a darknet website used by pedophiles to trade in child pornography, Anonymous released usernames and other information of 1,589 pedophiles trading in kiddie porn,” read the AnonOps statement.

Prior to the attack on Lolita City, Anonymous had reported successfully taking down more than 40 pedophile websites swapping images through the Tor Anonymization Network.

Following the attack, Anonymous claimed to have successfully removed more than 100GB of child pornography from the internet. In its video message the group has since clarified that the hacks are simply the opening strikes in a new ongoing campaign against sites sharing and displaying child pornography.

Following the US government ordered shutdown of media-sharing site Megaupload.com, Anonymous launched its ongoing OpMegaupload campaign against US authorities.

The operation followed a US Justice Department indictment ordering file sharing site Megaupload’s shutdown and founders’ arrest on 5 January, 2012. The document accused the founders of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering and plotting to commit copyright infringement.

Following the US authorities’ international arrest warrants, seven people associated with the company were indited over the charges. This included Kim Dotcom, 38 and Kim Tim Jim Vestor, 37, who were arrested in New Zealand on 19 January. Other senior members of Megaupload’s staff were also detained in nine countries including the US, Germany and Hong Kong.

The collective has since mounted an ongoing assault, targeting multiple groups and governments supporting the controversial Sopa, Pipa and Acta acts. The collective’s initial distributed denial of service (DDoS) revenge attack on the FBI was later credited its largest to date.

The OpBlackOut protest launched earlier in January, seeing groups ranging from the hacktivist Anonymous collective all the way up to massive sites such as Wikipedia unite to protest the US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa).

Though now stalled, the Sopa bill was designed to combat online piracy. Afters being announced the Sopa bill came under wide-spread criticism, with numerous groups voicing concerns about the new powers the act could grant US law enforcement. A common concern is the suggestion that the act will allow police to arrest, fine and potentially jail individuals for seemingly minor offences, such as uploading a copyrighted video onto YouTube.

Following Sopa’s announcement, the Anonymous collective immediately voiced its discontent, announcing OpBlackOut in November, 2011. The campaign promised to see the collective mount a cyber vandalism campaign defacing the sites of companies supporting Sopa.

As well as the promised acts of defacement, the collective has also taken more direct action, publishing the the names and decisions of US Congressman participating in the vote on Pastebin. Following the operation’s launch, the collective also used its Twitter feeds to publicise the protest, tweeting and retweeting links to sites that have blacked out their front pages or posted anti-Sopa and Pipa statements.

Though Anonymous did not start the Occupy protests - it instead stemmed from a blog post in Adbusters magazine - the collective’s presence and hand in the movement’s evolution has been obvious and is without a doubt its biggest political campaign yet.

Inspired by the Arab Spring and Spain’s Democracia real YA platform, Adbusters’ called for all like-minded individuals unhappy with the current global political and economic system to march on Wall Street and mount an ongoing sit-in-protest.

“On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices,” read Adbusters’ initial blog post. Going on to demand the immediate “ending [of] the influence money has over our representatives [sic] in Washington.”

The post quickly captured the imagination of several groups, leading to the #occupywallstreet hashtag trending on Twitter. The movement gained significant mainstream attention outside of Adbusters’ native US base when the Anonymous collective took notice and publicly voiced its support.

Reiterating Adbusters’ post, Anonymous issued a video on its AnonOps website citing a series of undisclosed actions perpetrated by “corrupt” governments and corporations as its motivation for the sit-in.

“Anonymous will flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, put up peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices; we want freedom,” said the Anonymous video’s computerised voice.

Since Wall Street the movement has spread to numerous cities across the world, seeing citizens pitch tents in public squares and mount sit-in-protests against the world’s current political and economic systems. In all of the campaigns Anonymous has openly voiced its support for the movement, publicising its live video feeds and reporting any incidents of police violence against protesters.