After several years on the sidelines, Anonymous the world’s most popular hacktivist is back! They announced their return with a bang by releasing dirt on several global figures, entertainers, and popular families.
Over the weekend, Donald Trump would be wondering who he offended as just only days after Twitter fact-checked and labeled his tweets for glorifying violence, Anonymous came for him linking him with Jeffrey Epstein child trafficking network.
Who or what is Anonymous?
Wikipedia describes Anonymous as a decentralized international activist/hacktivist collective/movement that is widely known for its various cyber attacks against several governments, government institutions, and government agencies, corporations, and the Church of Scientology.
Wikipedia further added that Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain.
Anonymous has launched several deadly cyber attacks over the years. In 2010, Anonymous launched several Denial-of-Service attacks on the Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal companies for cutting off their services to WikiLeaks. It cost PayPal £3.5m to repair the damage caused by the DoS attack. In the same year websites of the government of Zimbabwe were targeted due to censorship of the WikiLeaks documents.
2012 and 2013 Clampdown
The height of the popularity of Anonymous was when the group was named among the World’s 100 Most Influential People: 2012.
Barton Gellman, a contributing editor-at-large for TIME as at 2012 wrote om: “United, if at all, by a taste for shock humor and disdain for authority, this leaderless Internet hive brain is plundering and playing in the electronic networks of an ever-shifting enemies list: Arab dictatorships, the Vatican, banking and entertainment firms, the FBI and CIA, the security firm Stratfor and even San Francisco’s BART transport system.
“Did Anonymous fix the TIME 100 poll? “Depends who you think is smarter, a global collective of highly skilled hackers or the TIME IT department,” says one fellow traveler, anonymously. Anonymous earned its place on the list, one way or the other.“
Arguably after this, it went on a downward spiral as dozens of people were arrested for involvement in Anonymous cyberattacks in countries including the U.S., U.K., Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, India, and Turkey.
The anonymity of Anonymous evaporated into thin air as several members were arrested and subsequently convicted. This appeared to have paid off, from the perspective of British police.
Across the world, DDoSers have been convicted of attacks throughout the year. In the UK, the most significant were those of Christopher Weatherhead, Peter Gibson, Ashley Rhodes, and Jake Birchall, who hit PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, and the British Recorded Music Industry, allegedly causing millions of pounds of damage.
2020: Anonymous is back and are ready to release dirt!
Undoubtedly, 2020 will down in history as one of the most eventful year we ever experienced. Amidst the world battling coronavirus, Anonymous decided to return because it felt government won’t prosecute the alleged killers of George Floyd. Remember, it is not only in the US police are killing citizens indiscriminately. In Lagos Nigeria, Tina Ezekwe, a 16-year old girl was shot dead at Iyana Oworo area of Lagos.
How Anonymous announced their return
Anonymous came back in full throttle! They went for the biggest fish in Ocean-Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America. Donald Trump has been linked with Jeffrey Epstein child trafficking network. Also named were Naomi Campbell, Ivanka Trump, Prince Andrew, Phil Collins, and Tony Blair.
Their names were contained in a file uploaded through their social networks under the name of “The Little Black Book of Jeffrey Epstein”, and in it they exposed all the people who attended parties organised by Jeffrey Epstein, where it is said that he “recruited the children.”
In a direct message to Donald Trump, Anonymous alleged that he had a record on organised crime, a reason given for why he is being blackmailed by Russia, a country that has all the necessary evidence against him.
For the British Royal Family, Anonymous claimed that they murdered Princess Diana.
To what end?
Anonymous is back and they have set the internet of fire and exposed some of the world’s best kept secret. They know what they want to achieve but to what end? Anyways, Anonymous is back and they would continue spilling like a river that has just bursts its banks. Hopefully, they won’t dissapear like they did in between 2012 and 2013.
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