tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/anonymous-1092/articlesAnonymous – The Conversation2023-04-26T16:10:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2041582023-04-26T16:10:36Z2023-04-26T16:10:36ZThe power of anonymity: as Twitter celebrity Dril reveals his identity, an Elena Ferrante expert explains what he’s lost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521896/original/file-20230419-28-mafgb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C22%2C2968%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elena Ferrante chooses to write under a pseudonym to conceal her identity. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/split-croatia-january-15-2023-stack-2253835925">Jelena990/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Scrolling through US comedian and social media phenomenon <a href="https://twitter.com/dril">Dril’s Twitter</a> account can be a confusing experience for those, like me, who don’t share the same references to “Weird Twitter”, videogaming, fast food, obsessive branding and 1990s popular culture.</p>
<p>“Jarring combinations of the stupefyingly mundane and the elaborately scatological” characterise some of Dril’s most liked tweets, according to the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-cracked-wisdom-of-dril">New Yorker</a>. The tweets display a fascination with dog poop, genitals and onanism. They also disregard basic rules of spelling, punctuation and grammar, and frequently use outrageously bad language.</p>
<p>Every so often, however, you find a little gem of caustic humour that gives you a hint of what caused Dril’s success. <a href="https://twitter.com/dril/status/1641102955402387456">For example</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sad to see people betraying their friends for no reason. couldnt be me. i only betray my friends when it gives me an Advantage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>After 15 years of posting anonymously, Dril recently revealed his identity. He is a 35-year-old man named Paul Dochney. In an <a href="https://www.theringer.com/tech/2023/4/12/23673003/dril-twitter-interview-profile-identity">interview</a> with The Ringer, he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People need to grow up. Just accept that I’m not like Santa Claus. I am not like a magic elf who posts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This reference to Santa and the fairytale realm alludes to the belief that humans are attracted to lies – that we would rather perpetuate the fabulous illusion of a magical world than search for the truth.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1646264681206632449"}"></div></p>
<h2>Anonymity and authorial power</h2>
<p>As an expert in the Italian novelist <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/elena-ferrante-20079">Elena Ferrante</a>, this reminds me of her 2019 novel <a href="https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609455910/the-lying-life-of-adults">The Lying Life of Adults</a>. Ferrante is another contemporary celebrity who hides her identity behind a pen name. Despite her anonymity, her Neapolitan novels have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.</p>
<p>In The Lying Life of Adults – recently adapted as a <a href="https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81252203">TV series for Netflix</a> – the protagonist Giovanna is a young teenager whose world is crushed by the discovery that her father has concealed substantial truths about his past.</p>
<p>The object Ferrante has chosen to symbolise the desirability of falsehood is a bracelet, a shiny heirloom whose original ownership is unclear but which encapsulates feelings of greed and hatred – much like Frodo’s ring in Lord of the Rings and Voldemort’s Horcruxes in the Harry Potter franchise, which cause many people harm. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="statue of Anonymous in a leafy autumn park. The statue is a hooded figure sat with a pen in their hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521898/original/file-20230419-28-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521898/original/file-20230419-28-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521898/original/file-20230419-28-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521898/original/file-20230419-28-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521898/original/file-20230419-28-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521898/original/file-20230419-28-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521898/original/file-20230419-28-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Statue of Anonymous in Budapest.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/budapest-hungary-october-2019-statue-anonymous-1604136883">Dmitrii Sakharov/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://lithub.com/have-italian-scholars-figured-out-the-identity-of-elena-ferrante/">the Italian journalist</a> Claudio Gatti used Ferrante’s financial records to ascertain and publish her true identity. But unlike Dril, <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/online/2016/10/02/elena-ferrante-an-answer/">when she was unmasked</a>, Ferrante invoked her right to remain anonymous and continued to publish her work under a pseudonym – to the huge relief of her fans.</p>
<p>In her latest collection of essays, <a href="https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2022/july/margins-pleasures-reading-and-writing-elena-ferrante">In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing</a>, Ferrante uses another precious object – this time an aquamarine ring rather than a bracelet – to explain how changeable reality is. As much as she tries to capture its essence, that shiny ring shifts and changes. </p>
<p>Each object, like all living things, is a tangle of stories, emotions, ideas. Once we attempt to catch its mutable shape in writing, it will seem “inevitably false” to us. That doesn’t matter, however, as long as the author keeps striving to find a written form for that “tangle”, in the knowledge that the narrator and writer are also “enmeshed” in it. </p>
<p>In choosing anonymity, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-39367-0_5">I believe</a> that Ferrante is alluding to a digital notion of authorship that is dispersed and collaborative – in which a disembodied author’s identity is shaped by dialogue with the world around them.</p>
<p>It is this “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/21/elena-ferrante-god-didnt-make-good-impression">absolute openness to the other</a>, to any living being, to everything endowed with the breath of life”, and ultimately to the more-than-human world, that explains Ferrante’s success on the global scene.</p>
<h2>Anonymous holds a mirror</h2>
<p>This is also the reason why readers and fans often prefer to remain in the dark. As long as the changeable identity of the author is not pinned down to an actual person, it will ring true. Their voice will contain the echoes of our own voice and their face will be a mirror in which we will see our own reflection.</p>
<p>To any artist, remaining anonymous may afford unprecedented creative freedom along with an ability to bear witness to the truth or broadcast a political message. Graffiti artist <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/banksy-7818">Banksy</a> is a case in point.</p>
<p>The Bristol muralist is one of the most valued contemporary artists, despite the accusations of vandalism sometimes levelled at him. Recently, <a href="https://theconversation.com/banksy-in-ukraine-how-his-defiant-new-works-offer-hope-194952">his powerful artwork in Kyiv</a> has brought attention to the trauma inflicted to the Ukrainian population during the Russian invasion. His art speaks for itself.</p>
<p>We don’t need to know whose hand guides the pen or the brush – or who delivers Santa’s gifts. As Ferrante writes in her 2003 collection of non-fiction texts, <a href="https://www.europaeditions.com/book/9781609452926/frantumaglia">Frantumaglia</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I woke up and the gifts were there … True miracles are the ones whose makers will never be known.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the mask is removed, Dril might gain a closer connection with his audience. But he will lose the magical aura that anonymity had crafted for him.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to restore paragraphs that were mistakenly lost during the final review stage.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Enrica Maria Ferrara does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fans often prefer to remain in the dark about the identity of their favourite authors and artistsEnrica Maria Ferrara, Teaching Fellow, Trinity College DublinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1866472022-07-14T04:25:36Z2022-07-14T04:25:36ZSendit, Yolo, NGL: anonymous social apps are taking over once more, but they aren’t without risks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473783/original/file-20220713-20-pkfvpq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=170%2C161%2C5820%2C3826&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever told a stranger a secret about yourself online? Did you feel a certain kind of freedom doing so, specifically because the context was removed from your everyday life? Personal disclosure and anonymity have long been a potent mix laced through our online interactions. </p>
<p>We’ve recently seen this through the resurgence of anonymous question apps targeting young people, including Sendit and NGL (which stands for “not gonna lie”). The latter has been installed 15 million times globally, according to recent <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/11/anonymous-social-ngl-tops-15m-installs-2-4m-in-revenue-as-users-complain-about-being-scammed/">reports</a>.</p>
<p>These apps can be linked to users’ Instagram and Snapchat accounts, allowing them to post questions and receive anonymous answers from followers.</p>
<p>Although they’re trending at the moment, it’s not the first time we’ve seen them. Early examples include ASKfm, launched in 2010, and Spring.me, launched in 2009 (as “Fromspring”).</p>
<p>These platforms have a troublesome history. As a sociologist of technology, I’ve studied human-technology encounters in contentious environments. Here’s my take on why anonymous question apps have once again taken the internet by storm, and what their impact might be.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A series of screens advertising various features of the 'NGL' app." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473782/original/file-20220713-14-7p7h1u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The app NGL is targeted at ‘teens’ on the Google app store.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nglreactnative&hl=en_US&gl=US">Screenshot/Google Play Store</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why are they so popular?</h2>
<p>We know teens are drawn to social platforms. These networks connect them with their peers, support their journeys towards forming identity, and provide them space for experimentation, creativity and bonding.</p>
<p>We also know they manage online disclosures of their identity and personal life through a technique sociologists call “audience segregation”, or “code switching”. This means they’re likely to <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780199381265.001.0001/oso-9780199381265-chapter-3">present themselves differently</a> online to their parents than they are to their peers. </p>
<p>Digital cultures have long used <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1093531">online anonymity</a> to separate real-world identities from online personas, both for privacy and in response to online surveillance. And research has shown online anonymity <a href="https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1540-4560.00247">enhances self-disclosure and honesty</a>.</p>
<p>For young people, having online spaces to express themselves away from the adult gaze is important. Anonymous question apps provide this space. They promise to offer the very things young people seek: opportunities for self-expression and authentic encounters.</p>
<h2>Risky by design</h2>
<p>We now have a generation of kids growing up with the internet. On one hand, young people are hailed as pioneers of the digital age – and on they other, we fear for them as its innocent victims. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/06/29/anonymous-social-apps-shift-their-attention-to-instagram-in-the-wake-of-snapchats-ban/%22%22">TechCrunch</a> article chronicled the rapid uptake of anonymous question apps by young users, and raised concerns about transparency and safety. </p>
<p>NGL <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ngl-anonymous-instagram-q-and-a-app-surging-in-popularity-2022-7">exploded in popularity</a> this year, but hasn’t solved the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/ngl-anonymous-message-app-instagram-tests-link-bullying-rcna36152">issue of</a> hate speech and bullying. Anonymous chat app <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/04/yik-yak-is-dead-long-live-yik-yak/">YikYak</a> was shut down in 2017 after becoming littered with hateful speech – but has <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/16/yik-yak-is-back/">since returned</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of a Tweet from @Mistaaaman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473781/original/file-20220713-26-tsnljj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anonymous question apps are just one example of anonymous online spaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/Mistaaaman/status/1126585149561421824">Screenshot/Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These apps are designed to hook users in. They leverage certain platform principles to provide a highly engaging experience, such as interactivity and gamification (wherein a form of “play” is introduced into non-gaming platforms).</p>
<p>Also, given their experimental nature, they’re a good example of how social media platforms have historically been developed with a “move fast and break things” attitude. This approach, first articulated by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has arguably reached its <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/01/the-era-of-move-fast-and-break-things-is-over">use-by date</a>.</p>
<p>Breaking things in real life is not without consequence. Similarly, breaking away from important safeguards online is not without social consequence. Rapidly developed social apps can have harmful <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/11/2471">consequences</a> for young people, including cyberbullying, cyber dating abuse, image-based abuse and even online grooming. </p>
<p>In May 2021, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/03/anonymous-snapchat-app-sendit-surges-with-3-5m-installs-after-snap-bans-yolo-and-lmk/">Snapchat suspended</a> integrated anonymous messaging apps Yolo and LMK, after <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/507515040/Snap-Lawsuit">being</a> <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/rodriguez-meta-snap-complaint.pdf">sued</a> by the distraught parents of teens who committed suicide after being bullied through the apps. </p>
<p>Yolo’s developers <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/05/snap-cuts-off-yolo-lmk-anonymous-messaging-apps-after-lawsuit-over-teens-death/">overestimated</a> the capacity of their automated content moderation to identify harmful messages. </p>
<p>In the wake of these suspensions, Sendit soared through <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/17/following-suicides-and-lawsuits-snapchat-restricts-apps-building-on-its-platform-with-new-policies/">the app store charts</a> as Snapchat users sought a replacement. </p>
<p>Snapchat then <a href="https://www.snap.com/en-US/safety-and-impact/post/announcing-new-policies-for-snaps-developer-platform">banned</a> anonymous messaging from third-party apps in March this year, in a bid to limit bullying and harassment. Yet it <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jW-IRuXj4g">appears</a> Sendit can still be linked to Snapchat as a third-party app, so the implementation conditions are variable.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1546246767695519762"}"></div></p>
<h2>Are kids being manipulated by chatbots?</h2>
<p>It also seems these apps may feature automated <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666827020300062">chatbots</a> parading as anonymous responders to prompt interactions – or at least that’s what staff at Tech Crunch found. </p>
<p>Although chatbots can be harmless (or even helpful), problems arise if users can’t tell whether they’re interacting with a bot or a person. At the very least it’s likely the apps are not effectively screening bots out of conversations. </p>
<p>Users can’t do much either. If responses are <a href="https://screenrant.com/ngl-link-qna-instagram-anonymous-explained/">anonymous</a> (and don’t even have a profile or post history linked to them), there’s no way to know if they’re communicating with a real person or not.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to confirm whether bots are widespread on anonymous question apps, but we’ve seen them cause huge problems on other platforms – opening avenues for deception and exploitation.</p>
<p>For example, in the case of <a href="https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/6426/5525">Ashley Madison</a>, a dating and hook-up platform that was hacked in 2015, bots were used to chat with human users to keep them engaged. These bots used fake profiles created by Ashley Madison employees. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anorexia-coach-sexual-predators-online-are-targeting-teens-wanting-to-lose-weight-platforms-are-looking-the-other-way-162938">'Anorexia coach': sexual predators online are targeting teens wanting to lose weight. Platforms are looking the other way</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can we do?</h2>
<p>Despite all of the above, <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3134711">some research</a> has found many of the risks teens experience online pose only brief negative effects, if any. This suggests we may be overemphasising the risks young people face online.</p>
<p>At the same time, implementing parental controls to mitigate online risk is often in tension with young people’s <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444816686318">digital rights</a>. </p>
<p>So the way forward isn’t simple. And just banning anonymous question apps isn’t the solution.</p>
<p>Rather than avoid anonymous online spaces, we’ll need to trudge through them together – all the while demanding as much accountability and transparency from tech companies as we can.</p>
<p>For parents, there are some <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/resources">useful resources</a> on how to help children and teens navigate tricky online environments in a sensible way.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ending-online-anonymity-wont-make-social-media-less-toxic-172228">Ending online anonymity won't make social media less toxic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexia Maddox does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Anyone who has trawled through an internet forum will have seen how anonymity can change people. What happens when young people are thrown into the mix?Alexia Maddox, Research Fellow, Blockchain Innovation Hub, RMIT, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1780342022-03-01T03:07:32Z2022-03-01T03:07:32ZThe hacker group Anonymous has waged a cyber war against Russia. How effective could they actually be?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449089/original/file-20220301-25-ckck4y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C953%2C625&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot/Twitter</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-russia-wages-cyber-war-against-ukraine-heres-how-australia-and-the-rest-of-the-world-could-suffer-collateral-damage-177909">spate of cyber attacks</a> has affected Ukraine’s digital systems since Russia’s invasion began. It soon became clear Russia’s “boots on the ground” approach would be supplemented by a parallel cyber offensive.</p>
<p>Last week Ukraine <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-ukraine-calls-hacker-underground-defend-against-russia-2022-02-24/">called on its citizens</a> to take to their keyboards and defend the country against Russia’s cyber threat. At the same time, a campaign was underway among the hacktivist collective Anonymous, calling on its global army of cyber warriors to target Russia. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1496965766435926039"}"></div></p>
<h2>Who is Anonymous?</h2>
<p>Anonymous is a global activist community that has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/sep/08/anonymous-behind-masks-cyber-insurgents">operating since at least 2008</a>. It brings a potential for significant cyber disruption in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>The group has previously claimed responsibility for acts of hacktivism against a wide range of targets, including against <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/nov/22/anonymous-cyber-attacks-paypal-court">big businesses</a> and governments. Anonymous’s activities are often <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52879000">aligned to major events</a>, and the group claims to have an “anti-oppression” agenda.</p>
<p>The collective has no defined structure or leadership. Acts are simply undertaken under the banner “Anonymous”, with some reports of limited <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ncGVPtoZPHcC">rules of engagement</a> being used to guide actions (although these are likely fluid). </p>
<p>As Anonymous is a movement, with no formal legal status or assets, responsibility for actions shifts to individuals. But there remains a <a href="https://www.digitalshadows.com/blog-and-research/cyber-attacks-the-challenge-of-attribution-and-response/">fundamental issue of attribution</a> in cyber security incidents, wherein it’s difficult to determine a specific source for any attack.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-decade-since-the-year-of-the-hacktivist-online-protests-look-set-to-return-163329">A decade since 'the year of the hacktivist', online protests look set to return</a>
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<h2>What are they threatening to do?</h2>
<p>On February 16, Anonymous TV posted a video message with a series of recommendations and threats. Leaning on the stereotypical “hacker” image, the masked speaker issues a serious warning to Russia:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If tensions continue to worsen in Ukraine, then we can take hostage […] industrial control systems. Sole party to be blamed if we escalate on that will be the same one who started it in the very first place with troop buildups, childish threats and waves of unreasonable ultimatums. </p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Several Russian <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-02-25/hacker-collective-anonymous-declares-cyber-war-against-russia/100861160">government websites and media outlets</a> have since been targeted, with Anonymous taking credit on its <a href="https://twitter.com/YourAnonTV">Twitter channel</a>. </p>
<p>The attacks have leveraged the same <a href="https://www.radware.com/security/ddos-knowledge-center/ddospedia/ddos-attack/">distributed denial of service</a> techniques used in many previous cyber attacks, including attacks on Ukrainian banking and government websites. In such attacks, the attacker knocks targeted websites offline by flooding them with bot traffic.</p>
<p>Further incidents have included the theft and publication of Russian Department of Defence <a href="https://cybernews.com/news/anonymous-leaks-database-of-the-russian-ministry-of-defence/">data</a>, which may contain sensitive information useful to fighters in Ukraine. Emails from <a href="https://cybernews.com/news/hero-hackers-claim-to-have-breached-belarusian-weapons-firm/">Belarusian weapons manufacturer Tetraedr</a> and data from the <a href="https://twitter.com/YourAnonNews/status/1498242200332906500">Russian Nuclear Institute</a> have also reportedly been accessed. </p>
<p>It’s too early to determine how useful these data may be. Most of the stolen information will be in Russian, <a href="https://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/128527/hacktivism/anonymous-hit-russian-nuclear-institute.html">which means translators</a> will be needed to help examine it.</p>
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<p>Russian TV channels <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/world/anonymous-hacker-group-russia-tv-channels-broadcast-ukrainian-songs-1486735">were also attacked</a> and made to play Ukrainian music and display uncensored news of the conflict from news sources outside Russia.</p>
<p>It’s hard to be certain that Anonymous did carry out the cyber attacks for which it has claimed responsibility. The movement is founded on anonymity, and there are no viable means of verification. But the tactics, targets and theatrics on show are consistent with previous attacks claimed by the group.</p>
<p>Also, even if some attacks are not a direct consequence of Anonymous’s actions, one could argue this doesn’t really matter. Anonymous is all about being perceived as having an impact. </p>
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<h2>Will it make a difference?</h2>
<p>It’s unlikely the cyber attacks claimed by Anonymous will have a significant impact on Russia’s intent or military tactics. That said, these actions could provide key intelligence about specific tactics Russia is using, which would be valuable to the Ukrainians and their allies. </p>
<p>A further benefit is that the impact of the invasion on Ukrainian people is getting more publicity – especially within Russia, where news is significantly censored. This could help counter Russia’s domestic <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-can-the-west-do-to-help-ukraine-it-can-start-by-countering-putins-information-strategy-177912">propaganda machine</a>, and present a more balanced view of events.</p>
<p>Cyber attacks will likely continue to escalate on both sides, involving both state and non-state actors. Russia’s National Computer Incident Response and Coordination Center has raised its <a href="https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/74176/">threat level to “critical”</a>, indicating concerns about Russian infrastructure being <a href="https://tass.com/defense/1410737">targeted through cyber attacks</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-russia-wages-cyber-war-against-ukraine-heres-how-australia-and-the-rest-of-the-world-could-suffer-collateral-damage-177909">As Russia wages cyber war against Ukraine, here's how Australia (and the rest of the world) could suffer collateral damage</a>
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<h2>Citizen hackers</h2>
<p>Alongside Anonymous, large numbers of Ukrainian cyber professionals have volunteered to assist with Ukraine’s cyber defence. The volunteers are being organised through <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-it-army-russia-war-cyberattacks-ddos/">Telegram channels and other encrypted apps</a>. </p>
<p>Their goals include defending Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, helping the government with cyber espionage, taking down Russian disinformation from the web, and targeting Russian infrastructure, banks and government websites.</p>
<p>But despite reports of some 175,000 joining the cyber army’s Telegram channel, its impact so far remains unclear.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s an alleged global network of cyber activists operating under the Anonymous name. Knowing who is responsible for what will become increasingly difficult as more cyber attacks happen.Jennifer Medbury, Lecturer in Intelligence and Security, Edith Cowan UniversityPaul Haskell-Dowland, Professor of Cyber Security Practice, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1633292021-06-29T15:18:43Z2021-06-29T15:18:43ZA decade since ‘the year of the hacktivist’, online protests look set to return<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408871/original/file-20210629-18-e1dmb4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3613%2C2400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mulhouse-france-17-january-2019-vendetta-1287142978">NeydtStock/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of us vaguely remember the word “<a href="https://www.techopedia.com/definition/2410/hacktivism">hacktivism</a>” from a decade ago. This was a time before serious <a href="https://theconversation.com/ransomware-gangs-are-running-riot-paying-them-off-doesnt-help-155254">ransomware attacks</a> dominated current cybersecurity concerns, when certain hacking techniques were being used to send political messages to governmental and corporate entities.</p>
<p>Hacktivism has since <a href="https://www.darkreading.com/the-state-of-hacktivism-in-2020-/d/d-id/1338382">retreated</a> as a form of protest, in part due to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/24/hacking-us-government-cyber-crackdown">prosecution</a> of prominent hacktivists, sometimes with what appear to be disproportionately <a href="https://theconversation.com/hactivists-arent-terrorists-but-us-prosecutors-make-little-distinction-45260">severe sentences</a>. But with the ongoing pandemic <a href="https://www.cityam.com/extinction-rebellion-cancels-london-protest-over-coronavirus/">restricting</a> physical protests <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01239-3/fulltext">globally</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/22/curbs-on-protests-in-policing-bill-breach-human-rights-laws-mps-and-peers-say">new bills</a> being drawn up to curb offline protest, it looks as if hacktivism may be set for a return.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-55841-3_4">My research</a> into hacktivism and cybercrime helps place hacktivism in its historical context – from which we can understand how, where and why hackers may soon resort once again to digital protest across the world.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-hashtags-how-a-new-wave-of-digital-activists-is-changing-society-57502">Beyond hashtags: how a new wave of digital activists is changing society</a>
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<p>Hacktivism may have reached its peak a decade ago, but it’s been a feature of online activism since the <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/29/hacktivism-a-short-history/">early popularisation</a> of the internet. Major hacktivist groups, such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Electronic-Disturbance-Theater">Electronic Disturbance Theater</a>, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080226121652/http://www.networkworld.com/research/2000/0529feat2.html">Electrohippies</a> and <a href="https://www.hacktivismo.com/">Hacktivismo</a>, were already active in the late 1990s. <a href="http://oro.open.ac.uk/5089/">At the time</a>, they supported the <a href="https://theconversation.com/mexicos-masked-marxists-meet-the-zapatistas-21726">Zapatista</a> movement in Mexico, protested global wealth inequality and flagged security issues in popular software.</p>
<p>Even traditional activist groups – such as <a href="https://wayback.archive-it.org/9650/20200403205550/http://p3-raw.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/bhopal-protests-move-online/">Greenpeace</a> and the German anti-racist collective <a href="http://www.kein-mensch-ist-illegal.org/">Kein Mensch ist illegal</a> – were known to use hacktivist protest tactics long before its rise to global prominence. </p>
<p>In fact, Kein Mensch ist illegal led a “collective blockade” of Lufthansa’s website in 2001 to <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1399685.stm">protest</a> the airline’s cooperation with the German government’s deportation policies. <a href="https://edri.org/our-work/edrigramnumber4-11demonstration/">A Frankfurt Appeals court</a> would eventually rule that this hacktivist activity amounted to freedom of expression – not criminal activity – but this legal precedent was not followed by courts <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319717579">elsewhere</a>.</p>
<h2>Hacktivism’s heyday</h2>
<p>Hacktivism began attracting global attention when <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/2027-hacker-hoaxer-whistleblower-spy">Anonymous</a> – a loose collective of hackers, politicised internet users, trolls and pranksters – decided to focus on political issues. The collective targeted the <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/anonymous-hackers-take-on-the-church-of-scientology/">Church of Scientology</a> for censoring online content in 2008, and mobilised to protect whistleblower websites such as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/deciphering-the-murky-world-of-hackers-supporting-wikileaks">WikiLeaks</a> in 2010, among <a href="https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/topic/a-history-of-anonymous/">various other</a> actions with national and international implications. The activities of Anonymous would eventually lead major cybersecurity companies to characterise 2011 as the “<a href="https://www.sophos.com/medialibrary/PDFs/other/SophosSecurityThreatReport2012.ashx">year of the hacktivist</a>”. </p>
<p>Soon, hacktivist groups were springing up across the world. Anonymous itself sported many national branches, and these groups contributed to common political struggles at the same time as weighing in during local uprisings. For instance, Anonymous took down dozens of the <a href="https://thehackernews.com/2012/12/anonymous-hit-egyptian-government.html">Egyptian government’s websites</a> in 2012 during the Arab Spring protests.</p>
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<p>This explosion in hacktivist activity did not go unpunished, despite the hacktivist claim that online protest is <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2010/12/pro-wikileaks-denial-of-service-attacks-just-another-form-of-civil-disobedience.html">as valid</a> as offline protest. Some hacktivists were found to violate cybercrime laws, such as the UK’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/contents">Computer Misuse Act 1990</a>, and various protesters were prosecuted and convicted in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/24/anonymous-hackers-jailed-cyber-attacks">the UK</a> and <a href="http://sip-trunking.tmcnet.com/news/2011/09/01/5747845.htm">the US</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps the most high-profile prosecution was that of the American internet wonder-kid <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vz06QO3UkQ">Aaron Swartz</a>, who’d bypassed university cybersecurity safeguards in an <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/112418/aaron-swartz-suicide-why-he-broke-jstor-and-mit">attempt to download</a> and make public an entire database of academic papers. Swartz <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/aaron-swartz-suicide_n_2462819?ri18n=true">died by suicide</a> in the lead up to his trial, bringing US cybercrime laws and their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/24/hacking-us-government-cyber-crackdown">aggressive enforcement</a> into question. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, cybercrime laws have only <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-55841-3_4">intensified</a> in the years since, forcing hacktivists into a retreat. But their tactics remain effective and, given that the pandemic has restricted our capability to conduct physical protests <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/year-covid-19-pandemic-s-impact-global-conflict-and-demonstration-trends">worldwide</a>, hacktivism could soon be redeployed as an alternative way of expressing dissent in the post-COVID era.</p>
<h2>Hacktivist tactics</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.alexandrasamuel.com/dissertation/pdfs/Samuel-Hacktivism-frontmatter.pdf">Traditionally</a>, hacktivists have tried to mimic offline forms of protest and civil disobedience, but in the online space. They’ve used website defacements, often called “<a href="https://www.sitepoint.com/graffiti-artists-internet/">internet graffiti</a>”, to scrawl political messages on targeted websites. And <a href="https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/denial-service-dos-guidance-collection">denial of service</a> (DoS) attacks, which are designed to overwhelm a website with traffic in order to make it crash, are also common. Hacktivists often call these virtual sit-ins.</p>
<p>In contrast to internet graffiti, which can be facilitated by a single skilled hacker, virtual sit-ins require mass participation. That makes these protests far more democratically legitimate and impactful – as well as sharing the criminal liability among the virtual protesters. </p>
<p>I’ve highlighted the <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319717579">positive aspects</a> of these tactics in my research, praising how they bring citizen dissent into the online environment while globalising important political causes. But virtual sit-ins also have financial implications for the attacked organisations and <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319717579">systems</a>. Meanwhile, some commentators have criticised hacktivism as a form of empty “<a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104302141&t=1624376009849">slacktivism</a>” which they say isn’t comparable to the political conscientiousness and resolution of street protests.</p>
<p>Although hacktivism in principle is all about promoting <a href="https://www.itpro.co.uk/hacking/30203/what-is-hacktivism">socially beneficial causes</a> while minimising harms, it can also become muddled with a less justifiable vigilantist rationale. For example, Anonymous members have in the past exposed the personal details of individuals such as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/09/anonymous-goes-after-pepper-spray-cops-personal-info/337447/">police officers</a>, which puts them and their families at risk. Meanwhile, the hacktivist group <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/may/16/lulzsec-hacking-fbi-jail">Lulzsec</a> has been known to target big organisations for the sake of the challenge, rather than for a political purpose. Finally, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/27/india-pakistan-online-war-includes-hacks-social-media.html">nationalist hacktivists</a> have historically been involved in cross-border hacker wars which has, in some cases, escalated into real-world violence.</p>
<h2>Hacktivism’s revival?</h2>
<p>Irrespective of these criticisms, one can’t help but think that in the new post-pandemic era, with all of us spending much <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55486157">more time online</a>, these political tactics could become popular again across the political spectrum. In fact, there have already been <a href="https://redrevolution.co.uk/2019/04/19/anonymous-declare-support-for-extinction-rebellion-in-italy-data-leaked-from-6-organizations/">activities</a> that indicate hacktivism may be becoming a side-tactic for groups such as <a href="https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2020/04/29/history-corner-how-murder-in-mexico-birthed-online-civil-disobedience/">Extinction Rebellion</a>, which has been reconsidering its future tactics in light of restrictions and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/26/12-arrested-raids-extinction-rebellion-london-protest">preemptive arrests</a>.</p>
<p>Hacktivism never went away entirely. Anonymous did in fact reemerge during the summer 2020 <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52879000">Black Lives Matter</a> protests, targeting police forces’ websites with hacks. But we’re still in a transitional period, with organised hacktivist efforts far less common than they were a decade ago.</p>
<p>Yet the stage seems set for a third wave of hacktivism. New protest movements are gradually gaining traction with the public, and hacktivist activity could make for a popular alternative to in-person civil disobedience in a period when many of us are still concerned about COVID-19 transmission. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.undp.org/press-releases/worlds-largest-survey-public-opinion-climate-change-majority-people-call-wide">environmental</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html">anti-discrimination</a> movements grow internationally, and their underlying goals <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/george-floyd-protests-us-climate-change-strike-green-movement-a9544566.html">unite citizens</a> on a global scale, it’ll be fascinating to see whether hacktivist tactics can seriously contribute to galvanising change in an increasingly politicised world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163329/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vasileios Karagiannopoulos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The hacktivist collective ‘Anonymous’ has become just that – but the hacktivism they espoused may be set to return.Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, Reader in Cybercrime and Cybersecurity, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/664362016-10-03T17:23:03Z2016-10-03T17:23:03ZElena Ferrante has her reasons for anonymity – we should respect them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140175/original/image-20161003-27269-ngwk5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The acclaimed Neapolitan series.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was always going to happen wasn’t it? After several abortive cracks at “identification” on the part of finicky scholarly detectives, the journalist Claudio Gatti says he’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/02/elena-ferrante-literary-storm-as-italian-reporter-identifies-author">finally put a finger on the real name behind Elena Ferrante</a>. Break out the bubbly? I certainly won’t be celebrating.</p>
<p>The dust from the media storm will take a while to settle. The history of anonymous authorship is also a history of triumphalist “unmasking” at the hands of self-appointed public servants who assume the right to trumpet the spoiler – and who also, if there is justice in the world, tend to suffer their own exposure as the parasitic charlatans they often are. </p>
<p>Gatti thinks he has unmasked the “real author” of Ferrante’s acclaimed books – something that has been the subject of much speculation in the past – but even were this latest round of revelation to turn out to be “true”, there are bigger fish to fry here. The violation of anonymity brings with it, kicking and screaming in Gatti’s face, a host of problems at the heart of power and identity. This is an ethical, political, but also a literary issue of the deepest concern to all of us.</p>
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<p>I work on the nameless literature of 2,000 years ago. You don’t have to tell me twice that there are a bunch of reasons why authors opt, sometimes need, to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. The range of these reasons usually meshes with the grids of historical context. There have been periods of history where the branding of an authorial name was abnormal and inauspicious, because authorship was not about claiming individual authority. Then there have been moments of danger where authors have had to abolish or toggle their names for fear of reprisal. </p>
<p>Ferrante – and we should continue calling her Ferrante – writes in several traditions of anonymity. All of them have radical political roots, ambitions, and effects. We could fit her into the <a href="http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/englishmenu.htm">tradition of Wu-Ming</a>, the (originally) anonymous group of broadly Marxist cultural guerrillas, who messed around bracingly with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/may/31/featuresreviews.guardianreview11">collective authorship</a>. Better, however, to think of Ferrante as one of the great warriors in the long line of women who have made active use of, or sometimes had no other choice than to employ, anonymous publication. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/roomofonesown/section3.rhtml">A Room of One’s Own</a>, Virginia Woolf observed that for most women writers up to her time – for example Currer Bell, George Eliot, George Sand – anonymity was a kind of dictate born of a patriarchal compunction to chastity and self-effacement. She goes on: </p>
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<p>Thus they [Currer Bell et al] did homage to the convention, which if not implanted by the other sex was liberally encouraged by them (the chief glory of a woman is not to be talked of, said Pericles, himself a much talked-of man) that publicity in women is detestable. Anonymity runs in their blood.</p>
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<h2>Manifesto for anonymity</h2>
<p>What’s changed since 1929 is that publicity in women is no longer detestable. What hasn’t changed is that it is overwhelmingly men who get to set the terms of that publicity, not to mention make capital from it. Ferrante’s experiment is a radical and urgent attempt to take charge of anonymity, in a history that has always made it non-negotiable. Gatti’s act of “exposure” and “unveiling” – no matter how much he protests that an author’s identity is in the public domain – is a reactionary bid for repossession. </p>
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<p>“Unveiling” is the traditional moment a man claims his bride by revealing her identity. Gatti could have looked no further than Ferrante’s fiction to find that it is all about this moment of revelation and repossession. It is full of the hostile threats and acts of male renaming. In the Neapolitan novels, Lina chafes under the story of her new name, her marriage to the oafish Stefano Carracci. </p>
<p>But there are so many other moments in the series where the narrator Elena claims her writing with her own name, only to have it blow up in her face. Her first signed article is sabotaged by her future lover Nino, chucked in the bin before it can get to press. Her first book, based on personal experience even though she changes all the character names, is inevitably read autobiographically, with social fallout for its author. Her final collaboration with Lina, a written denunciation of the Solara gang which doesn’t shrink from naming names, only puts her in danger – and doesn’t make any inroads into the male violence set to repeat itself with geological certainty. The books contain their own manifesto for anonymity.</p>
<h2>Off-the-record</h2>
<p>Gatti’s “unveiling” shows that respect for anonymity only counts in certain spheres – his whole edifice depends on the information of an “anonymous source” whose name we may not see anytime soon. But in the end, this is not so much a privacy issue as it is a political one. This is about who owns Elena Ferrante. It is about allowing or denying the author the space to complete her incredible work of invisibility beyond the paparazzi apparatus, beyond the frontline lenses of patriarchy and capitalism.</p>
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<p>The two protagonists of the series have very different approaches to authorship. Lenù prefers to sign her name to her own work; Lila prefers to destroy the products of her own hand. The series’ final scene plays with that power of self-destruction – a literary effect much more potent than self-commemoration (if you haven’t read it yet, I won’t spoil it for you). </p>
<p>We should not interfere with Ferrante’s right in life – or Lina’s in literature – to disappear without a trace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66436/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thanks to Professor Emily Greenwood for mentioning the Virginia Woolf passage in her St Andrews Classics Research Seminar, September 16, 2016.</span></em></p>The unmasking of the real author of the Neapolitan series was an act of vandalism.Tom Geue, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/567942016-03-30T14:27:37Z2016-03-30T14:27:37ZHow Anonymous hacked Donald Trump<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116522/original/image-20160328-17857-1rb56ii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anonymous takes on Trump.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/laurelrusswurm/16621307067/">Guy Fawkes mask: laurelrusswurm/flickr; Trump: gageskidmore/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Anonymous declared “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ciavyc6bE7A">total war</a>” on Donald Trump in early March, the hacktivist group set a countdown clock, calling on “everyone to target Trump websites” on April 1. But that may not have been its real objective.</p>
<p>Regardless of what, if anything, is planned for April 1, the actual attack may have already happened. That’s because the hack appears to be not of any website or technology but rather of Trump himself. </p>
<p>By exploiting Trump’s quick-trigger tendencies to attack and destroy his rivals – including by threatening police action – Anonymous is seeking to tear down not his personal privacy, but something much more sacred to him: his brand. </p>
<p>On March 17, the group <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UXQpfm_Ytw">published Trump’s Social Security and cellphone numbers</a>. Trump’s response was swift and sharp: his campaign issued a statement <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/anonymous-claims-hack-donald-trump/story?id=37730049">demanding the immediate arrest</a> of those behind the release. The Secret Service – which has been protecting Trump <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-and-ben-carson-receive-secret-service-code-names-392582">since November 2015</a> – and the FBI <a href="http://time.com/4264029/donald-trump-anonymous-hacker-social-security-number/">both announced</a> they were investigating.</p>
<p>My research into Anonymous, its goals and its tactics, suggests that provoking just such an aggressive response, including the involvement of multiple law enforcement agencies, may have been the actual goal of the Anonymous effort. </p>
<p>As a spokesman in an ever-grinning mask would soon reveal, those “private” details of the billionaire-turned-presidential-candidate were already public – they had been available online since 2013. “<a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anonymous-hacker-group-dupes-trump-secret-service-fbi-latest-leak-1550942">Trump want[s] to turn America into a fascist dictatorship</a> where anyone can be arrested for just posting old information online,” the hacktivists contended.</p>
<h2>Understanding hacktivism</h2>
<p>This bait-and-switch tactic of issuing a technological threat and then playing a non-technical trick on Trump may seem like a departure from traditional hacktivist methods. After all, Anonymous is best known for digital actions, including <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078559/Anonymous-hacks-thousands-credit-card-numbers-security-firm--gives-money-charity.html">actually stealing private information</a>, <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/7/9476259/matthew-keys-guilty-anonymous-deface-la-times">defacing websites</a> and, most destructively, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2052360/us-indicts-13-anonymous-members-for-ddos-attacks.html">distributed denial of service</a> (DDoS) attacks, in which a deluge of well-coordinated web traffic forces a website to shut down. </p>
<p>Some see a contradiction in this group that champions free speech while effectively silencing that of their enemies. However, a close look at Anonymous reveals that its overall aim is not technological in nature, but rather societal: to pull the curtain back on their adversaries and force the public to look. Most hacktivist “#operations” are backed by a clear mission statement, protesting issues as diverse as <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iceland-hackers-idUSKBN0TH0GJ20151128">whale-hunting</a> and <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/id/48742970/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/anonymous-hacks-russian-website-over-pussy-riot-sentences/">unlawful incarcerations</a> around the globe.</p>
<p>Their tactics reflect this drive for social change. Journalist Andres Jauregui likened one Anonymous method, DDoS, to a civil disobedience strategy employed by student activists in the 1960s: “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/12/anonymous-ddos-petition-white-house_n_2463009.html">Clog the hallway of a government office</a> with enough people, and it effectively ceases to function; direct enough traffic to a website, and the same thing happens.” But that is not how the media portray the group.</p>
<p>My 2015 <a href="http://www.pace.edu/mypace/research-vigilante-media">news analysis</a> found that most journalists frame Anonymous as “malicious pranksters” whose missions are broadly tantamount to tying the enemy’s shoelaces together and running away. The next most frequent characterization used more ominous terms, painting Anonymous as a global threat much like the movie character in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-impersonal-politics-of-the-guy-fawkes-mask-51091">Guy Fawkes</a> mask who gleefully plotted the demise of world order.</p>
<p>By eliciting such a forceful and police-centric response, Anonymous is highlighting its basis in protest. The group is making the political suggestion that rather than being viewed as <em>the</em> <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425949/how-trump-got-top-spot-rich-lowry">political outsider</a> of this election season, Trump represents a brand of totalitarianism that will aim establishment power at whatever target he directs. Like his personal information, Anonymous seems to say, Trump’s true nature is already visible to the public.</p>
<h2>Attacking Trump’s brand</h2>
<p>My research also found that 78 percent of Anonymous’ targets belonged to one of the following categories: government agencies, corporations and media empires – a tripartite of corrupted establishments, according to hacktivists. To Trump supporters, the rogue Republican candidate would seem an odd choice to add to that list. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/189773/trump-support-built-outsider-status-business-experience.aspx">poll</a> after <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/269821-poll-trump-maintains-national-lead">poll</a> has shown that Trump supporters choose him <em>because</em> he is the antiestablishment candidate who answers to no corporate sponsor, media outlet or political party agenda. </p>
<p>But Anonymous’ declaration of “war” on Donald Trump may not really be the establishment-threatening assault suggested by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/">“V for Vendetta</a>.” Rather, it appears to be an attack in the spirit of conning a con man, as in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070735/">“The Sting</a>.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ciavyc6bE7A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Anonymous declares “total war” on Trump.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on the group’s previous actions, we can then speculate that Anonymous’ goal is to show that Trump is the quintessential autocrat in the making. When he promises a “<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/11/politics/donald-trump-deportation-force-debate-immigration/index.html">deportation force</a>” to round up illegal immigrants, or threatens to expose sensitive information on his political enemies or their <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/22/politics/ted-cruz-melania-trump-twitter-donald-trump-heidi/">wives</a>, and even when he calls on everyone to “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-boycott-starbucks-christmas_us_5641e074e4b0b24aee4bb234">boycott Starbucks</a>” for allegedly removing Christmas from their cups, he is directly raising the specter of Anonymous’ Orwellian nightmare. </p>
<p>Whether or not Anonymous succeeds in dismantling – or even tries to attack – Donald Trump’s websites on April Fools’ Day is probably irrelevant. By cleverly goading Trump into calling for a law enforcement response against people who have only distributed already-public information, Anonymous has already begun to undermine his antiestablishment brand. That’s a pretty good trick.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam G. Klein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Anonymous is not seeking to tear down Trump’s personal privacy, but something much more sacred to him: his brand.Adam G. Klein, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Pace University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/528712016-01-11T06:21:06Z2016-01-11T06:21:06ZHard Evidence: this is the Age of Dissent – and there’s much more to come<p>The year 2011 is widely viewed as the peak of protest and dissent in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the austerity agenda that followed it. It was the year of the Arab Spring, Occupy, UK Uncut, <em>indignados</em>, urban riots and anti-austerity and tuition fee protests – and in which Time magazine famously named “The Protester” <a href="http://content.time.com/time/person-of-the-year/2011/">as its person of the year</a>. </p>
<p>Yet in the UK, protests continue to occur at a rate rarely seen prior to the global economic crisis in 2008. Indeed, 2015 seems to have confirmed the suggestion, made at the beginning of the year, that 2011 was “<a href="https://roarmag.org/essays/protests-2014-global-uprisings/">really only just the beginning</a>”. </p>
<p>In fact, we appear to be facing a longer-term age of contestation, perhaps prompted by the experience of low growth, and the <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08935696.2013.843250">hardening of attitudes</a> by mainstream politicians despite growing popular demands.</p>
<h2>Raising the protest banner</h2>
<p>As part of a <a href="http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bp/journal/v9/n1/abs/bp201326a.html">research project looking at protest events in the post-2008 context</a>, I have recorded a catalogue of UK-based protest events reported in major British national newspapers, spanning back to the late 1970s. And it suggests that 2015 actually had the highest level of visible dissent in the UK since before the 1980s.</p>
<p>In updating the dataset of protest events, and building on <a href="http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bp/journal/v9/n1/abs/bp201326a.html">earlier estimates made on the basis of data covering the period up until 2012</a>, we can see that the frequency of protests peaked in 2010-2011 and subsided slightly in 2012 – perhaps as a result of despondency after some of the big anti-austerity movements, such as the tuition fee protests, were ignored and/or <a href="http://www.defendtherighttoprotest.org/files/pdf/dtrtp_victory_for_alfie_and_zak.pdf">heavily repressed</a>. But from 2013 onwards dissent has returned to levels witnessed during earlier stages of the anti-austerity movement, and continued to rise through to a new high in 2015.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107533/original/image-20160107-14020-mrfc2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average number of protest events per year, 1980s-2015.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can also use this dataset to assess changes to the types of protester involved. As the figure below shows, dissent in the 1980s was overwhelmingly conducted by workers and organised labour. In contrast, the protests during the heyday of the anti-austerity protests in 2010-11 were conducted predominantly by three main groups: workers, students, and those anti-cuts activists identifying explicitly with the anti-austerity movement, such as <a href="https://twitter.com/UKuncut">UK Uncut</a>.</p>
<p>What was noteworthy about the dissent and protest which took place in 2015, however, was its considerably more pluralist nature which involved seven key groups of protesters dominating protest politics. While workers and environmentalists conducted around one-third of all protest events in 2015, another five groups – housing activists, students, pro-minority groups (including those supporting refugees and asylum seekers), anti-cuts activists and right-wing groups – each contributed between 6% and 10% of the total protest activity for the year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107532/original/image-20160107-14027-10i7zai.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Share of protest events, by protester type.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We can also use the catalogue of protest events to identify changing patterns of protest. Thus, the figure below shows trends for the seven most popular forms of dissent between the 1980s and 2015. In the 1980s, strikes and wildcat strikes made up 50 per cent of protest events, a figure which shrank to 17.5 per cent in 2010-11 and remained at around that level in 2015 (22%). </p>
<p>The big change in 2015, however, was the rise in the “other” category – that is, protest events that did not fit within the most common forms of protest. This was largely explained by the relatively large number of “stunts” carried out by protesters in 2015 – reflecting growing innovation among contemporary protesters (itself possibly explained by the increased need to stand out in order to attract media and public attention). </p>
<p>This includes the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/01/seven-activists-arrested-during-protests-against-fossil-fuels-across-the-uk">baring of the bottoms</a> of the 12 Reclaim the Power protesters outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change, adopting the slogan, “wind not gas!” at the beginning of June. It also included <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/sep/11/vivienne-westwood-tank-protest-fracking-david-cameron-chadlington">Vivienne Westwood’s driving a tank</a> to David Cameron’s home to protest against fracking in September and the public <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/08/forces-veterans-protest-downing-street-against-british-airstrikes-syria">discarding of medals by veteran soldiers</a> protesting against the government’s decision to begin the bombing of Syria in December. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107509/original/image-20160107-13986-1s244vf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Share of protest events, by form of protest.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what’s the gripe?</h2>
<p>Given that 2015 had the highest frequency of reported protest events in the UK since the 1970s, we might also identify what these protests were about. </p>
<p>In terms of strike actions, the transport sector witnessed some of the biggest strikes, with Unite overseeing <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-31139088">strike action by bus drivers</a> in a dispute with London bus companies over the standardisation of pay, and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2015/jul/09/tube-strike-london-underground-live-updates">RMT tube workers taking strike action</a> over the introduction of all-night tube services. </p>
<p>2015 also saw the beginning of a novel form of quasi-strike action by solicitors and barristers in their move to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jul/15/barristers-vote-to-join-solicitors-legal-aid-protest">cease taking on new cases</a> in protest at the government’s cuts to legal aid. There was also an escalation of the dispute led by PCS union members at the National Gallery over privatisation, leading to an <a href="http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/pcs_comment.cfm/first-day-of-national-gallery-all-out-strike-stronger-than-ever">all-out strike</a> which began in August and which was only <a href="http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/national-gallery/latest-news.cfm#thanks">resolved in October</a> after negotiations led to a deal on pay and conditions, as well as the reinstatement of one of the sacked trade union reps involved in the dispute. </p>
<p>The housing crisis also prompted a large increase in 2015 of housing-related protests, including the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/19/sleepover-protest-led-by-russell-brand-draws-150-to-sweets-way-estate">occupation of Sweets Way Estate in March</a>, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/14/focus-e15-housing-activist-arrested-on-suspicion-of-squatting">occupation in April</a> by members of the Focus E15 housing campaign group of a flat from which resident Jasmin Stone had earlier been evicted and the occupation of empty properties by groups such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/oct/18/former-manchester-united-star-occupiers-of-hotel-winter-ryan-giggs-gary-neville">Manchester Angels</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12073854/Squatters-occupy-Royal-Mint-site-to-protest-against-homelessness.html">Camden Mothership</a> protesting against homelessness (as well as trying to find opportunities for housing). </p>
<p>Some of the biggest demonstrations of the year continued to focus on the government’s austerity measures, including the 100,000 attendees at the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2015/jun/20/anti-austerity-demonstrations-live">People’s Assembly Against Austerity</a> in June and 50,000 people protesting <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/04/anti-austerity-protestors-march-manchester-demonstration-conservative-party-conference">outside the Conservative Party Conference in October</a>. September also saw <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/12/london-rally-solidarity-with-refugees">30,000 demonstrators calling for the government to do more to help refugees</a>, and in November <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/29/protesters-gather-around-the-world-for-a-strong-climate-change-deal">50,000 environmentalists demonstrated</a> in support of stronger government action to be agreed at the Paris summit.</p>
<h2>But did it change the world?</h2>
<p>Finally, while some commentators have begun (again) to <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4614615.ece">proclaim the futility of protest</a>, some important concessions were also won as a result of the 2015 protests, <a href="http://ser.oxfordjournals.org/content/13/1/5">confirming recent research</a> which suggests that only direct action protest consistently produces desired results in times of stagnant economic growth. </p>
<p>Sports Direct <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6a2f74f6-af96-11e5-b955-1a1d298b6250.html">recently agreed</a> to pay all staff above the national minimum wage, following protests which included <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/09/sports-direct-investors-revolt-against-chairman-and-pay-policy">Unite members dressing up as Dickensian workers</a> to protest the pay and conditions suffered by employees of the company outside its AGM. </p>
<p>The tube workers’ strike resulted in the <a href="http://www.cityam.com/226602/transport-for-london-to-cut-out-unions-and-go-direct-to-workers-over-night-tube">apparently indefinite delay</a> of the implementation of all-night opening.</p>
<p>After more than 60,000 people signed a <a href="https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_protest_loc/?pv=76&rc=fb">petition</a> in February against what was perceived to be an attempt to charge for the right to protest, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/26/met-backs-down-on-refusal-to-police-climate-and-womens-marches">Metropolitan police backed down</a> in its attempt to make two organisations – Campaign Against Climate Change and the Million Women Rise campaign – pay the policing costs necessary for them to be able to hold demonstrations. </p>
<p>Direct action protests by milk farmers also resulted in a number of concessions from supermarkets, including Asda agreeing to a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33915371">minimum payment per litre for milk</a>. And the <a href="http://anticuts.com/2015/10/16/victory-for-the-ucl-rent-strike-students-win-nearly-100k-compensation/">students staging a rent strike at UCL won nearly £100,000 in compensation</a> – or £1,368 per head – following a successful campaign against the university which also led to it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/11/university-college-london-students-withhold-rent-over-building-works">backing down over its threat</a> to prevent students from graduating unless they ended the strike.</p>
<p>While the frequency of reported protest events in the UK rose in 2015 to its highest level since the end of the 1970s, 2016 looks set to bring still more discord. The ongoing <a href="http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns_/why_we_campaign/the_housing_crisis/what_is_the_housing_crisis">housing crisis</a>, the <a href="http://oneprofession.bma.org.uk/">industrial dispute over junior doctor’s contracts</a>, and the apparent willingness of Jeremy Corbyn to use his position as Labour Party leader to fuel further mobilisation and dissent (for instance, by <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-urges-dft-to-stop-rail-fare-rises-as-he-highlights-the-absurdity-of-foreign-a6795406.html">recently attending the passenger protest against rising rail prices</a>), suggest that 2016 will be a year in which protests, in the ongoing context of prolonged economic stagnation, continue to gather pace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David J. Bailey receives funding from the ESRC as part of a seminar series on the post-crisis landscape, including on democracy and political participation since 2008.</span></em></p>There were more protests in Britain last year than at any time since the 1970s.David J. Bailey, Lecturer in Politics, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510912015-12-23T16:07:33Z2015-12-23T16:07:33ZThe impersonal politics of the Guy Fawkes mask<p>Just days after the Paris terrorist attacks on November 13, the iconic mask of Guy Fawkes appeared – again – in two videos released in French by the hacktivist techno-social collective Anonymous. This time, they declared a total war on the Islamic State, or ISIS, continuing <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11335676/Hacktivists-Anonymous-says-it-will-avenge-Charlie-Hebdo-attacks-by-shutting-down-jihadist-websites.html">a campaign</a> sparked by the Charlie Hebdo attacks. </p>
<p>Anonymous was quick to distance this work from surveillance measures targeting Arab and Muslim populations. One month later, an operation against presidential candidate Donald Trump was launched featuring a masked figure in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL5b2RMJw58">video</a> voicing outrage against Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. </p>
<p>Then on December 13, at the Twitter handle @YourAnonNews, Anonymous issued a message <a href="http://pastebin.com/CnSdAtD1">distancing themselves</a> from a splinter group of secret hackers aligned with US security interests, the counterterrorism group GhostSec. </p>
<p>This sequence of events is less indicative of an “identity crisis,” as tweeted by an Anonymous member and reported in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/12/anonymouss-wars-on-trump-and-isis-are-part-of-an-identity-crisis/,">Washington Post</a> than of the jettisoning of any one “identity” for Anonymous. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"675360275730681856"}"></div></p>
<p>Anonymous’ collective actions are not identity-driven but faceless. The mask of Anonymous refuses identity. </p>
<p>The question that interests me, as a literary scholar and critical theorist, is: how did Guy Fawkes become transformed from a 17th-century Catholic conspirator to a tool of social protest? </p>
<h2>The mask of grassroots social protest</h2>
<p>In recent years, Anons have donned the Fawkes mask in media performances and street protests in a dizzying array of political contexts. </p>
<p>In early November, scores of masks grinned inscrutably at the police and public from the <a href="http://anonhq.com/highlights-the-million-mask-march-2015/">Million Mask March</a> in London on the actual Guy Fawkes Day (of which more later). </p>
<p>A week later, a Palestinian protester wearing the mask was photographed in a skirmish with Israeli security forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. </p>
<p>Since the Arab and African Spring in early 2011, Anonymous has worn the mask of Guy Fawkes in protests and solidarity struggles across the globe. </p>
<p>Masks were seen at Operation Tunisia, in Tahrir Square, in Zuccotti Park renamed “Liberty Square,” and during #OpSaveGaza. The mask appeared at operations on behalf of WikiLeaks, Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, and at Day of Rage Black Lives Matter protests for Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Sandra Bland. </p>
<p>Anonymous has proven its heterogeneity in springing into action to redress a vast repertoire of perceived injustice.</p>
<p>Anons’ media and street performances convert the mask from the context of the theater to the street. The revolution, the Arab and African Spring reminded us, will not be televised nor tweeted but made real by the mobilization of bodies occupying space.</p>
<p>So what does it mean for Anonymous to adopt the person of Guy Fawkes as the voice of global dissent? </p>
<p>Perhaps it is more significant than just taking a symbol popularized by the Hollywood movie V for Vendetta and making it “revolutionary,” as the anthropologist of Anonymous <a href="http://www.versobooks.com/books/2027-hacker-hoaxer-whistleblower-spy">Gabriella Coleman </a> puts it. </p>
<h2>The real Guy Fawkes</h2>
<p>Guy Fawkes was an English arch-Catholic conspirator accused in 1605 of a plot to blow up the king and Parliament with 13 co-conspirators and 36 barrels of gunpowder stored in a cellar beneath the House of Lords. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106907/original/image-20151222-27897-131dgug.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guy Fawkes by Cruikshank.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guy_Fawkes_by_Cruikshank.jpg">William Harrison Ainsworth, Guy Fawkes, or The Gunpowder Treason. 1840.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On Bonfire Day, every year on November 5, Britons “steal” Fawkes’ bonfire by burning his effigy, ritualistically torching him in an expression of triumphant Whig sovereignty, against a 400-year-old popish threat. </p>
<p>For the French historian Pierre Nora, memory is crystallized and embodied in sites he calls <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sIfTTndMbk0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false"><em>lieux de mémoire</em></a>, or realms of memory, which are “fundamentally vestiges…of a commemorative consciousness that survives in a history which, having renounced memory, cries out for it.”</p>
<p>The mask of Guy Fawkes is one such memory space within the flow of history, which in Nora’s words is “no longer quite alive but not yet entirely dead.” </p>
<p>As the British recite on Guy Fawkes Night the rhyme, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Remember, remember, the 5th of November,</p>
<p>The Gunpowder Treason and plot</p>
<p>I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason,</p>
<p>Should ever be forgot, </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Anonymous answers by remembering and resurrecting not the law that sentenced him to hang, but the person declared dead by the law, Fawkes himself. Fawkes is transformed from an enemy combatant to the voice of the people. </p>
<p>“Remember, remember,” Anons delivered in an <a href="http://www.zone-h.org/mirror/id/12845890?zh=1">electronic manifesto</a> during OpTunisia, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the tighter you squeeze the more your citizens shall rebel against your rule. We will use this brief span of attention we’ve captured to deliver a clear and present message which we hope shall never be forgot.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Along with its mantra “expect us,” Anons make a counterappeal to collective memory not on behalf of the nation-state but of its dispossessed multitudes.</p>
<p>As Guy Fawkes Day <a href="http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-guy-fawkes">memorializes and celebrates</a> Fawkes’ failure to blow up the king and Parliament, Anonymous transforms this <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/epic-fail-guy">“epic fail”</a> from the finiteness of failure to the promise of justice. </p>
<h2>A long afterlife in British caricature</h2>
<p>Poking fun at Fawkes as arch-Catholic conspirator has a long afterlife in British caricature. </p>
<p>The English caricaturist James Gillray captures this sentiment perfectly in his 1791 illustration “Guy-Vaux, discovered in his attempt to destroy the King and House of Lords.” </p>
<p>In Gillray’s satire, philosopher and politician Edmund Burke discovers “Fawkes” remade as “Fox” along with the playwright Richard Sheridan, both supporters of the French Revolution, about to light casks of gunpowder with a lit copy of Thomas Paine’s <em>Rights of Man</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106655/original/image-20151218-27863-1tsac9z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Guy-Vaux discovered in his attempt to destroy the king and the House of Lords.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://hdl.handle.net/10079/digcoll/553691">Yale Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One century later, in 1867, Irish terrorism inspired cartoonist John Tenniel to draw the <a href="http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Cartoon_The_Fenian_Guy_Fawkes">“The Fenian Guy Fawkes,”</a> for Punch magazine. The cartoon was republished in the British paper, the Sunday Telegraph, in November 1974 after <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/17/newsid_2514000/2514827.stm">IRA bombings</a> in Westminster, Guildford and Birmingham. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106759/original/image-20151221-27854-yktau7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Fenian Guy Fawkes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://multitext.ucc.ie/d/Cartoon_The_Fenian_Guy_Fawkes">Multitext Project in Irish History</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1982, the English comic-book writer <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/movies/12itzk.html?_r=2&">Alan Moore</a> and the artist David Lloyd jointly collaborated on the creation of a character that bears a smirking likeness to Guy Fawkes.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/106132/original/image-20151215-23179-1602x3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">V for Vendetta graphic novel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:V_for_vendettax.jpg">http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/11/18/v-for-vendetta-gets-new-director</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Moore’s graphic novel series, V for Vendetta, made into a Hollywood film in 2006, the masked character V wages violent resistance against an authoritarian regime in a dystopian United Kingdom.</p>
<p>V’s crusade against the state is successful in large part because he is able to hack the massive computer network upon which the state relies. In the closing chapter of the 38-part series, the title uses V for “Vox populi,” or the voice of the people. </p>
<p>In Moore’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/27/alan-moore-v-vendetta-mask-protest">account</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>if the mask stands for anything, in the current context, that [vox populi] is what it stands for. This is the people. That mysterious entity that is evoked so often – this is the people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Moore points to the mask’s operatic quality. Its dramatic performance creates a sense of romance and drama. </p>
<p>The mask does not represent something as solemn as a political oath; rather, it is disruptive humor. Anonymous laughs with satirical deprecation behind the mask.</p>
<h2>An impersonal politics</h2>
<p>In antiquity, “person,” the Greek <em>prosopon</em> and the Latin <em>persona</em>, referred to the mask worn over the face by an actor on stage. </p>
<p>Anonymous adopts the person of Guy Fawkes by using an operatic mask reimagined to symbolize antistate dissent in the rejection of neoliberal corporatization, racialized and colonial violence, and global empire.</p>
<p>A mask is more than an object to speak through. It must be worn by an actor – a person – but, at the same time, it is impersonal. It is mass reproduced in an assembly line, and worn by many. The Fawkes mask sheds the subjective identity of the 17th-century Catholic conspirator and becomes the face of a collective. </p>
<p>Calling themselves “Anonymous” while invoking the person of Fawkes, Anonymous locates within the legal person the power of the impersonal. The juridical “person” is turned inside out like a glove. </p>
<p>As philosopher Roberto Esposito argues in his book <a href="http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745643984#description,">Third Person</a> the legal “person” exists in contrast to the negative category of the “nonperson,” the slave who is always in danger of becoming a thing. On Guy Fawkes Day, Guy is thing-ified: made into an effigy and burned.</p>
<p>On spectacular display, then, on Bonfire Night with the burning of Fawkes’ effigy, is the state’s long preoccupation with sheltering the body politic and its exposure to risk. What better way to inoculate against risk than to immunize using the very same tactics of violence and terror? Every November 5, in other words, the “gunpowder” to be remembered will always be the state’s rather than Fawkes’, remade through the centuries into an arch-Catholic “terrorist.” </p>
<p>Anonymous – themselves accused of being cyberterrorists – turns this narrative on its head with their ubiquitous use of the Guy Fawkes mask. </p>
<p>The state cannot “read” or “infer” anything from the mask. The mask hides the identity of all its many wearers from the law. But it does more than that. The mask creates a place where the law is suspended so that a community can voice their demands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alysia Garrison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why did a hacktivist collective like Anonymous repurpose the image of Guy Fawkes for its ubiquitous masks? A scholar looks at how a 17th-century English villain became the face of resistance.Alysia Garrison, Assistant Professor of English, Dartmouth CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/510032015-11-24T10:08:22Z2015-11-24T10:08:22ZAnonymous can’t defeat Islamic State, but here’s what it could achieve<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102848/original/image-20151123-18264-j336wc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your laptop needs you!</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">gualtiero boffi/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The announcement that hacktivist collective Anonymous <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/11/16/us-france-shooting-anonymous-idUKKCN0T519Z20151116">has declared war</a> on the Islamic State has been received positively by the public. After the Paris attack some may think governments are not doing enough to protect civilians, so at least it seems someone is doing something about the terrorist threat.</p>
<p>So far the group <a href="https://twitter.com/opparisofficial/status/666553008541552640">claims</a> its #OpParis has taken down more than 5,500 IS-related Twitter accounts – an impressive claim the press has <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3323597/Activist-hackers-battle-Islamic-State-cyberspace.html">gleefully and unquestioningly repeated</a>. Anonymous certainly can shut down social media accounts, having done so following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, during what it called <a href="http://thehackernews.com/2015/02/anonymous-isis-cyber-attack.html">#OpIsis</a>. In the aftermath, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/10/anonymous-claims-victory-over-jihadi-twitter-accounts-in-opisis">similar claims were made</a> then, yet less than a year later, there still exist thousands of Twitter accounts to be taken down.</p>
<p>Many have opined, including on this site, that this is a positive development, even going so far as to suggest governments could <a href="https://theconversation.com/anonymous-hackers-could-be-islamic-states-online-nemesis-50876">cooperate with Anonymous</a> in a cyberwar against IS. As <a href="http://www.technollama.co.uk/tag/anonymous">a long-time observer</a> of Anonymous, however, I am considerably more sceptical. Not a single Anonymous action could have avoided the Paris atrocities.</p>
<p>In her <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hacker-Hoaxer-Whistleblower-Spy-Anonymous/dp/1781685835">excellent book on Anonymous</a>, anthropologist Gabriella Coleman describes in detail the planning and organisation behind many of the most successful Anonymous operations: against Scientology, or against controversial copyright law firm <a href="http://www.technollama.co.uk/acslaw-this-is-what-regulatory-failure-looks-like">ACS:Law</a>. Anonymous is an idea, a collective loosely organised using online communication tools, which anyone with even a small amount of technical knowledge can join. The distributed organisation means there is no central voice, although a sort of hierarchy seems to emerge from the chaos. This structure is not unlike IS. </p>
<p>The distributed nature of the collective makes it a very resilient network mostly organised around a common set of ideals. It would be almost impossible to shut Anonymous down. Again, not unlike IS. </p>
<p>Having said that, it’s clear that Anonymous could have some effect against the jihadist propaganda machine. IS has a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/23/who-behind-isis-propaganda-operation-iraq">very sophisticated PR apparatus</a> that makes use of internet outlets including Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp and their own proprietary apps. There’s even evidence that they may have <a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/11/16/1757247/after-paris-isis-moves-propaganda-machine-to-darknet">moved communications to the dark net</a>, so anything that could affect their capabilities must be welcome.</p>
<p>However, IS also share many of the distributed characteristics that makes Anonymous so difficult to destroy. They constantly shift from <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/paris-terror-attacks/are-isis-geeks-using-phone-apps-encryption-spread-terror-n464131">one online communications tool</a> to <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/isis-to-followers-download-telegram-2015-11">another</a> depending on how law enforcement approach them. So while Anonymous may be successful in bringing down jihadist Twitter accounts and even websites, they face a game of whack-a-mole. This is precisely what makes internet regulation so difficult to enforce as the internet was designed to work around systematic attacks.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102850/original/image-20151123-18227-1fjq41z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102850/original/image-20151123-18227-1fjq41z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102850/original/image-20151123-18227-1fjq41z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102850/original/image-20151123-18227-1fjq41z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102850/original/image-20151123-18227-1fjq41z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102850/original/image-20151123-18227-1fjq41z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102850/original/image-20151123-18227-1fjq41z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Keyboards alone cannot bring down the Islamic State.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ventura/shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A cyberwar is not enough</h2>
<p>In any case, I seriously doubt Anonymous can wage the kind of cyberwarfare that would cripple the Islamic State in the real world. The idea that a group such as Anonymous can hack into bank accounts and empty them is far-fetched, and there’s nothing to indicate that IS has a complex online infrastructure that could be affected by cyber-attacks. It’s also very unlikely that the type of financial operations IS conducts would have any exposure to online attacks: most <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/paris-attacks-where-does-isis-get-its-money-and-arms-a6736716.html">reputable reports</a> suggest that its funds come through “oil sales, kidnap ransoms, smuggling, extortion, taxes, looting, bank robberies”.</p>
<p>There is enough complexity to how the jihadist recruiters operate that the removal of some Twitter accounts will not have any long-lasting effect. Those who attacked Paris this year are homegrown terrorists, French citizens radicalised by marginalisation, deprivation, ideology, and racism. Many in the Paris and Brussels terrorist cells were related, which suggests the online element is only secondary. </p>
<p>Finally, it’s possible that we’re just expecting too much from Anonymous. I am rather fond of a trope known as the <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodHacking">Hollywood Hacker</a>, where super-users and <a href="https://vine.co/v/hPXTA6l9AqQ">impossibly-fast</a> computer nerds can hack into anything in seconds, access any system at any time, guess any password, and bring entire cities or militaries to their knees. When we hear about Anonymous “taking on IS”, it’s difficult not to smile at the thought of photogenic hackers accessing the “IS mainframe” located in a hidden fortress in Syria. The reality is far more mundane, however, a combination of social engineering, discovering and exploiting software vulnerabilities, brute-force attacks on poorly implemented security such as encryption, or subverting systems with malware. The Hollywood Hacker is a myth; Anonymous is partly mythological, too. </p>
<p>Anonymous may have a role to play, and even proving a nuisance to IS is no bad thing. But we shouldn’t pin our hopes to magical solutions from shadowy hacktivist groups. As ET Brooking has <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/11/13/anonymous-hackers-islamic-state-isis-chan-online-war/">written</a>, “cast against seismic events like the fall of Palmyra or fight for Ramadi, this internet war looks small”. IS will not be defeated by keyboards and internet connections alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andres Guadamuz has often visited (but never participated) in Anonymous chat channels. </span></em></p>Cyberwarfare may be of growing importance, but some foes must be tackled with more low-tech weapons.Andres Guadamuz, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/508992015-11-20T07:30:50Z2015-11-20T07:30:50ZAnonymous takes on Islamic State and that’s not a good thing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102610/original/image-20151120-10424-ahab2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anonymous can do more harm than good in its war on Islamic State.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/equinoxefr/6857151311/">Flickr/Pierre Rennes </a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been a week since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/paris-attacks-2015">terrorist attacks in Paris</a> and the hacktivist group <a href="http://anonhq.com/">Anonymous</a> has further expanded its online confrontation with the Islamic State (IS). Its campaign was originally captured under the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/opisis">#OpISIS</a> banner, but is now titled <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/opparis">#OpParis</a>.</p>
<p>The initial operation was launched in response to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/charlie-hebdo-attack">attacks on Charlie Hebdo</a>, and since then, <a href="http://anonhq.com/anonymous-vs-isis-anon-takes-5500-isis-accounts/">Anonymous claims</a> to have taken down some 149 IS related websites and 5,900 IS videos.</p>
<p>While on the surface this seems like an overall positive outcome against IS, given its highly regarded and consequential <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-social-media-was-key-to-islamic-states-attacks-on-paris-50743">online presence</a>, the reality is much more complex and nuanced. It demonstrates the risks of vigilante style action being undertaken in areas of sensitive national security matters.</p>
<h2>When not to take down IS content</h2>
<p>Action in this domain, regardless of its quality and the implications, can be seen as inherently beneficial. But an absence of context, proper understanding and incongruent purposes can make the counter efforts of the state more difficult.</p>
<p>When a government is looking at IS content online, the context varies depending on the outcome it seeks to achieve and for the department or agency involved. In a law enforcement context, IS content can be used to form the basis of a search warrant or a control order, or as evidence in a prosecution.</p>
<p>For an intelligence agency, an IS website may prove to be a vital element in ongoing surveillance, or form part of a broader assessment of an individual or a cell’s behaviour. </p>
<p>Beyond this, even the military may make use of IS online content as part of offensive information warfare targeting. </p>
<p>The distinction here is that the mere presence of IS content, while negative in the discreet sense, is part of the broader apparatus that is IS. It is multifaceted and complex, as is the response to it by the agencies of national security.</p>
<p>It is simplistic to think that merely removing IS content from cyberspace is sufficient, or even necessarily positive in the overall sense. There can often be a greater good achieved by leaving certain pieces of content in play.</p>
<p>This greater good is not supported by the interdiction of people unaware of the broader operations of government agencies, flawed and less than perfect as they may be.</p>
<h2>For the public’s safety</h2>
<p>The purpose for which Anonymous removes IS content is relatively narrow when contrasted with the public protection purposes of the state.</p>
<p>When a government, in collaboration with those companies responsible, removes online content, it is because it has been deemed both detrimental to public safety and security. It’s also because it’s considered that the content does not serve any other additional purposes, such as those mentioned above.</p>
<p>But Anonymous removes IS videos because IS disagrees with, and acts against, free speech. This presents both an ironic contradiction and also a much more self-interested motivation for Anonymous’ actions.</p>
<p>Tolerating vigilante style action by people affiliated with Anonymous would be an easier exercise if they were in some way representative, rather than a self-appointed vanguard, acting in the name of a public good they have determined to be overwhelmingly important.</p>
<h2>When things goes wrong</h2>
<p>The actions of Anonymous are also undertaken in a publicity-seeking manner. As further details are revealed in relation to #OpParis, it has been demonstrated that some of the personal details hacked and publicised by Anonymous <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/anonymous-operation-isis-accused-of-wrongly-naming-innocent-people-after-paris-attacks-a6739291.html">were inaccurate</a>.</p>
<p>While the state is not free of these types of errors, democratic states are at least accountable to some form of electoral and rule-of-law consequences.</p>
<p>In this heightened political and societal environment in the aftermath of a terrorist attacks, when a group such as Anonymous errs in identifying an individual as an IS recruiter or financier, it places those individuals in substantial danger while remaining largely free of consequences.</p>
<p>This is separate from the fact that much of the process of obtaining the data in the first instance is likely criminal.</p>
<p>While the actions of Anonymous in a range of domains, and in relation to many issues, can be seen as an overall positive, there are some very sensible reasons as to why its followers perhaps ought not to play in the national security space. </p>
<p>The takedown of IS content is generally viewed as being of fairly low impact when governments are involved, let alone when a vigilante style organisation adds additional risks of exposing innocent people, and undermining broader efforts to counter IS.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, it does nothing for the people of Syria or Iraq, or those suffering within the controlled territory of IS.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Levi J West does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Anonymous hacktivist group engaged in an online war against Islamic State may be doing more harm than good.Levi J West, Lecturer, Terrorism and Security Studies; Program Manager, Masters of Terrorism and Security Studies, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/509962015-11-20T05:18:31Z2015-11-20T05:18:31ZThe forgotten Scottish radical to rival William Wallace and Keir Hardie<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102673/original/image-20151120-420-12tbt2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ken Currie, The Trials of Thomas Muir, 2015, Oil on Canvas</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(c) Ken Currie; Collection of East Dunbartonshire Culture and Leisure Trust</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>He was public enemy number one for his attempts to stand up for injustice. He was the subversive lawyer and political reformer that for many years was in danger of being forgotten. Yet in the 250th year since his birth, Thomas Muir has made quite a comeback. He is now being touted as the father of Scottish democracy, and could yet become an icon to rival the likes of William Wallace and Keir Hardie. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=808&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102508/original/image-20151119-18434-7jmstw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dangerous ideas: Thomas Paine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.paimages.co.uk/search-results/fluid/?q=anonymous">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Muir ended up living the kind of boy’s-own story that could inspire a Hollywood movie. He was exiled to Botany Bay for 14 years in an <a href="http://www.journalonline.co.uk/News/1020674.aspx#.Vk27uLyoKgQ">outrageously rigged</a> trial in 1793. He had been prosecuted for encouraging people to read <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/paine/">Thomas Paine</a>, who so far as the British were concerned helped to spark both the American and French revolutions. Muir had also been instrumental in the meetings of the radicalist Society of the Friends of the People in Edinburgh, and had personally sent messages of fraternal greetings to the United Irishmen on their way to becoming a revolutionary movement. </p>
<h2>Radicalism on the high seas</h2>
<p>Before reaching Botany Bay, Muir escaped aboard an American commercial ship; had adventures in modern-day Canada and South America; was subject to fierce diplomatic negotiations on his status between Spain and France; and was finally deported to Spain. En route, in an action where the British Royal Navy confronted the vessel on which Muir was being held, he had his face badly damaged by canon shot and, apparently, played dead under a pile of corpses to evade becoming a British prisoner, making his way eventually to post-revolutionary France.</p>
<p>Muir had been notorious in the years before his trial, though not always in ways you might expect. He represented the conservative part of the Church of Scotland in its attempt to have Robert Burns’ friend, the Rev William McGill, arraigned for heresy over a pamphlet the minister had written that was somewhat ambiguous over the divinity of Christ. Muir had also voluntarily excluded himself from the University of Glasgow after having questioned the financial management. </p>
<p>He instead entered Edinburgh University to study law, and provided free legal advice to the poor of the city. He was driven by his Calvinist as well as his political beliefs and these coalesced following the French Revolution, when the word “democracy” was mouthed by those in authority with a similar distaste to the way in which “radicalisation” is employed today. By the end of his life in 1799 at the age of just 33, Muir wanted Britain invaded by France, and to be divided into three republics: England, Ireland and Scotland. Unable to return home, he died alone in the French village of Chantilly in the last days of that January. </p>
<h2>The Muir memory</h2>
<p>For many years, he was not well remembered. He was one of the political “martyrs” of the 1790s <a href="http://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst10381.html">commemorated</a> on an obelisk on Calton Hill in Edinburgh in 1844, but his notoriety did not live on in folklore. Unlike other popular heroes, surprisingly few songs were written about him – an exception being “Thomas Muir of Huntershill” by folk singer Adam MacNaughton a couple of decades back (as sung by Dick Gaughan in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeXew47nCPU">this excerpt</a>). </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=697&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102674/original/image-20151120-397-1xlh1es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=876&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Flowers Gallery</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>But Muir’s star has been rising lately, partly thanks to a growing organisation called <a href="http://www.thomasmuir.co.uk/friendsofthomasmuir.html">The Friends of Thomas Muir</a>. To mark the 250th anniversary of his birth, this year has seen a <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/alex-salmond-pardon-call-for-independence-pioneer-1-3867726">speech by</a> former first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond; a <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13523790.Epic_trial_of_Thomas_Muir___father_of_Scottish_democracy___to_be_restaged/">“retrial” of Muir</a>, featuring the historian Sir Tom Devine and the advocate Donald Findlay; a <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/visual/13634322.Ken_Currie_remembers_Thomas_Muir_of_Huntershill/">new painting</a> by Ken Currie; and even a <a href="http://www.calton-books.co.uk/thomas-muir-scottish-republican-t-shirt/">T-shirt</a> that sees Muir placed in a canon of similar T-shirts alongside Scotland’s national bard and Che Guevara. </p>
<p>These developments have received cross-party political support, but it increasingly looks as though the political ownership of Muir is being contested by the far left and the Scottish National Party. This is slightly strange to anyone of historical sensitivity since Muir had no access really to socialism or nationalism in their modern senses.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/11/19/paris-attacks-timeline-massacre-police-raid">Paris attacks</a> help shed light on Muir for what he was not as much as what he was. He was not a revolutionary in the mould of the Islamic State, even if he was partly driven by his religious beliefs. The fact that he could support the United Irishmen, whose ranks included Catholics and Presbyterians, show that he was no theological fanatic. Instead Muir would have admired the hacker group <a href="https://news.vice.com/article/anonymous-launches-new-operation-against-islamic-state-supporters-after-paris-attacks">Anonymous</a>’ promotion of the power of the people, unsubverted and unafraid to disagree among themselves. “This is how we do things, so this is the right way” is a common sense attitude, but not much of a prospect for progress. Like Jeremy Corbyn, Muir was always unafraid to speak out against the consensus, even when at a time like these Paris attacks, the pressure is greatest to fall into line. </p>
<p>In essence, Muir stands for a very positive version of humanity in our enduringly selfish culture. There is an uneasy divide between this year’s celebration of his contribution to democracy and the squabble to appropriate his legacy. Democracy, after all, is about how different people can be rather than how much they form part of a tribe. In these tense times, both in Scotland and further afield, we would do well to keep that in mind. </p>
<p><em>A commemorative concert to Thomas Muir featuring Dick Gaughan is being held at the University of Glasgow on November 20.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gerard Carruthers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>He was public enemy number one in his day, but Thomas Muir is now being hailed as the father of Scottish democracy.Gerard Carruthers, Francis Hutcheson Professor of Scottish Literature, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/508762015-11-18T12:44:34Z2015-11-18T12:44:34ZAnonymous hackers could be Islamic State’s online nemesis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102368/original/image-20151118-14186-ebc523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blocking IS one click at a time?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/equinoxefr/6857174987/in/photolist-brWPdX-cqLzso-7NudQf-dxcGUE-eCVH1E-dyihdv-4EYZXs-aN3GMZ-eE5xne-bz6BrP-4J8LSx-brVqC2-brWx6P-brWNvc-bEBWj3-4rjs3B-93imBU-av2XwR-4F4Ea7-4ruVgC-pSg8TL-4ykBmc-brWrfZ-5KWKgt-5irzWS-aBiPip-daQVHX-7SupDw-eRvLsU-4WHtzA-9THU6K-brWN4a-4zr2Yo-4rpdkS-5qU8ev-brWD2g-dJ6Lgi-4rkCXK-bzYGRm-brWuak-brWsqZ-awYJMJ-5jc9LB-brWtst-mupXdA-brWUpx-brWTZ2-brWVMx-brWPBK-bmUQJw">Pierre (Rennes)/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the key issues the West has had to face in countering Islamic State (IS) is the jihadi group’s mastery of online propaganda, seen in hundreds of thousands of messages celebrating the atrocities against civilians and spreading the message of radicalisation. It seems clear that efforts to counter IS online are missing the mark.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/world/middleeast/isis-is-winning-message-war-us-concludes.html">US internal State Department assessment</a> noted in June 2015 how the violent narrative of IS had “trumped” the efforts of the world’s richest and most technologically advanced nations. Meanwhile in Europe, Interpol was to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/21/europol-internet-unit-track-down-extremists-isis-social-media-propaganda">track and take down social media accounts</a> linked to IS, as if that would solve the problem – when in fact doing so meant potentially missing out on intelligence gathering opportunities.</p>
<p>Into this vacuum has stepped Anonymous, a fragmented loose network of hacktivists that has for years launched occasional cyberattacks against government, corporate and civil society organisations. The group <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/paris-attacks-anonymous-operation-isis-activists-begin-leaking-details-of-suspected-extremist-a6737291.html">announced its intention to take on IS</a> and its propaganda online, using its networks to crowd-source the identity of IS-linked accounts. Under the banner of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/opisis">#OpIsis</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/opparis">#OpParis</a>, Anonymous published lists of thousands of Twitter accounts claimed to belong to IS members or sympathisers, claiming <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/opparisofficial/status/666553008541552640">more than 5,500</a> had been removed. </p>
<p>The group pursued a similar approach following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015, with <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/opcharliehebdo">@OpCharlieHebdo</a> taking down <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anonymous-opcharliehebdo-campaign-takes-down-200-suspected-jihadist-twitter-accounts-1483372">more than 200 jihadist Twitter acounts</a>, bringing down the website Ansar-Alhaqq.net and publishing a list of 25,000 accounts alongside a guide on how to locate pro-IS material online.</p>
<h2>Duking it out online</h2>
<p>It is fitting that Anonymous has become the antidote to counter IS propaganda and online activity. The two organisations are ideological opposites, but with a common form of organisation: loose networks stacked up against hierarchical structures. Anonymous adopts an open, fluid and horizontal approach most of the time, incorporating activists and sympathisers in many guises across many digital platforms. It can only really be pinned down through the nature of the activities claimed by groups and individuals going under the Anonymous name.</p>
<p>In contrast, IS is a network that relies superficially on religion to create an imagined community of believers. Its ideology differentiates – not by nationality or ethnicity – but by religious affiliation and zeal, relying largely on Wahabbist tenets to fill out all the missing political and existential gaps. </p>
<p>Anonymous has been prosecuted for cyber attacks in many countries under cybercrime laws, as their activities are not seen as legitimate protest. It is worth mentioning the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hactivists-arent-terrorists-but-us-prosecutors-make-little-distinction-45260">ethical debate around hacktivism</a>, as some see cyber attacks that take down accounts or websites as infringing on others’ freedom of expression, while others argue that <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/firebrand-waves-of-digital-activism-19942014-athina-karatzogianni/?isb=9780230242463">hacktivism</a> should instead create technologies to circumvent censorship, enable digital equality and open access to information. </p>
<p>In striving to tackle networks such as IS, Anonymous takes the position that it is fighting against those who coordinate or commit crimes against humanity (“We will unite humanity” the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74rZxOj5D_8&feature=youtu.be">Anonymous video following the Paris attacks</a> promises viewers). Its ideology therefore seeks to be inclusive and reflect a common humanity, which embraces open, fluid identities that are not restricted to nationality, religion or ethnicity. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ybz59LbbACQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A war of ideologies</h2>
<p>It is this collective stand against hierarchies of race, gender, class, nationality and religion which allows Anonymous to inspire others. The group has been accused of having roots in misogynistic internet culture and of <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/truth-about-anonymouss-activism/">naive techno-utopianism</a>. Nevertheless, through its fragmented and multifaceted actions the collective seems to aspire to so much more: striving on behalf of humanity against what it sees as oppressive neoliberal ideologies, repressive authoritarian regimes – and any attempts to stifle open debate and freedom of information.</p>
<p>So Anonymous is the opposite side of the coin to IS, where it is not just the network that is decentralised, but the ideology too. For IS, the narrative is tied exclusively to one view of life, one ethical standpoint based on reactive emotions with a desire to bring that world violently, or die trying.</p>
<p>In some respects, Anonymous is the perfect online vigilante nemesis to IS because of the failure of established states to organise any effective counter. Nevertheless, reports that the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/paris-attacks-anonymous-operation-isis-activists-begin-leaking-details-of-suspected-extremist-a6737291.html">addresses of IS recruiters were posted online</a> in the aftermath of the Paris attacks pose significant ethical and human rights questions. Is it reasonable to expect that any online counter-propaganda coalition against IS could collaborate with Anonymous as a legitimate part of civil society, despite persistent persecution of Anonymous by governments in the past? </p>
<p>While cooperation between controversial non-state groups and governments is not unprecedented, in the case of Anonymous it would be hard to achieve. Hierarchical organisations struggle to work with decentralised networks such as Anonymous. Yet it is Anonymous – and not those nation states – that has managed to capture and channel the fight against IS in the digital realm – and looks set to continue to do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50876/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Athina Karatzogianni acknowledges funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. Grant Ref: ES/L013177/1.</span></em></p>Anonymous strives to bring down IS propaganda before it reaches the masses.Athina Karatzogianni, Senior Lecturer Media and Communication, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/508262015-11-18T11:02:47Z2015-11-18T11:02:47ZWith #OpISIS, Anonymous hacktivists contribute virtual boots on the ground<p>The Islamic State, or ISIS, as well as other terrorist groups, use the internet – and more specifically, social media – as a public relations outlet. They release their public campaigns through services like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to provide propaganda designed for mass consumption to gain or maintain support. For instance, after the attacks in Paris, ISIS sympathizers were using the hashtag باريس_تشتعل# (parisonfire) to express support. In other cases, ISIS members participate in online chats about Islamist beliefs and practices or post video of military-style training and assaults or even executions.</p>
<p>For ISIS, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/00396338.2014.985436">social media is a marketing plan</a>, a way to release information to supporters. One analysis found <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2014.974948">Twitter to be the service most often used</a>, not only during actual combat through photos, but also off the battlefield to send messages and gain followers when internet access is not available. Additionally, ISIS members use Twitter to send traffic to blogs, videos, Instagram and other sites.</p>
<p>While world governments debate how best to deal with the ISIS threat, the diffuse global community of internet hacktivists is using its talents to help neutralize the Islamic militant organization. <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/230575-anonymous-attack-isis-propaganda/">Since at least June 2014</a>, and ramping up efforts after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo, the activist hacker group Anonymous has focused one of its “operations” on taking down ISIS. Hashtags #OpISIS, #OpParis and #OpIceISIS have all been in use at various times by the group. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"666553008541552640"}"></div></p>
<p>Working for the most part independently, Anonymous members’ #OpISIS is having some success. Since the November 13 attacks, Anonymous claims to have taken down thousands of Twitter accounts. But while the goals are noble, the techniques do raise some legal and safety questions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102248/original/image-20151117-4983-a44ix.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anonymous announced its anti-ISIS option in French on YouTube.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hacktivists fighting terrorism online</h2>
<p>Anonymous works as a leaderless organization of hackers. Anyone who’d like to can join up. Generally once an “operation” is publicly listed by any anon (a self-identified member of Anonymous), it’s a rallying call for any hacktivist who wishes to take part. In another context, the lack of command personnel and leadership would be an issue, but for anons, having one person lead an “op” would slow progress toward the end goal. Anonymous is difficult to pin down in terms of membership, too, which can expand and contract depending on active operations and their objectives.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUwxz8ALQM0">Goals of an Anonymous op</a> include bringing attention to the issue, taking or destroying targeted data, denial of service and public identification of their targets. Given the nature of the internet, Anonymous members are located globally and have round-the-clock access to their targets. If one goes to sleep in Italy, another is waking up to continue the attack from the Americas. </p>
<p>Anonymous has several types of attacks in its toolkit. “<a href="http://www.gohacking.com/what-is-doxing-and-how-it-is-done/">Doxing</a>” relies on releasing private information to the public. An example of this kind of attack (not carried out by Anonymous) was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-tale-of-vigilante-justice-adulterers-hackers-and-the-ashley-madison-affair-46511">release of names</a> of people signed up on the Ashley Madison dating site for married people.</p>
<p>A denial-of-service attack simply overloads the target services so that the page, site or server cannot respond. As an example, in 2012 <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/anonymous-barrettbrown-sopa-megaupload-241/">#OpMegaupload</a> included denial of service to websites of the MPAA, RIAA, BMI, US Department of Justice, US Copyright Office and the FBI as a protest against the <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/justice-department-charges-leaders-of-megaupload-with-widespread-online-copyright-infringement">takedown of the Megaupload sharing site</a>. Although these services were eventually restored, the sites were unavailable for some period of time.</p>
<p>An account breach means the hacktivists have gained access to a target account, usually email, social media or the server hosting a website. They can then take it over, shut it down or release all the information to the public. Anonymous took this course in <a href="http://gawker.com/5979203/anonymous-hacks-department-of-justice-website-threatens-to-launch-multiple-warheads">an attack on the US Department of Justice</a> in 2013.</p>
<p>In the case of #OpISIS, they appear to be <a href="http://nymag.com/following/2015/11/i-spent-a-day-watching-anonymouss-war-on-isis.html#">using existing abuse-flagging tools</a> to work with Twitter to just <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/10/world/middleeast/twitter-says-it-suspended-10000-isis-linked-accounts-in-one-day.html">take accounts down</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"665109376684961792"}"></div></p>
<h2>Does ISIS care?</h2>
<p>Since ISIS has a <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/%7E/media/research/files/papers/2015/03/isis-twitter-census-berger-morgan/isis_twitter_census_berger_morgan.pdf">major propaganda campaign using social media</a> and the internet to enlist fighters and raise support, it stands to reason that Anonymous hacktivists can disrupt their <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/world/meast/syria-defector-recruits-westerners/">recruitment</a> and outgoing news pipelines by messing with their accounts on popular services like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.</p>
<p>Various sites that Anonymous uses have already started posting target email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, web and other accounts, sites and services of ISIS members.</p>
<p>ISIS is not a newcomer to this kind of internet conflict, but it doesn’t have the sheer volume of people with technical skills that Anonymous does. In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-anonymous-response-paris-attacks-2015-11">ISIS called Anonymous hackers “idiots”</a> – but proceeded to provide English and Arabic instructions to followers on how to avoid hacks. </p>
<p>ISIS isn’t known to hold back from targeting any perceived enemies. But Anonymous members are somewhat sheltered in terms of direct danger from terror groups by their anonymity and lack of close physical proximity to the primary conflicts in Iraq and Syria. A terrorist group like ISIS will seek higher-profile and higher-impact targets – pilots, troops, random civilians, important local leaders. They’re looking to grab attention and headlines and increase web traffic – the most impact for the fewest resources. Targeting hackers, although possible, would have a much smaller effect for their propaganda since Anonymous members are already so difficult to track and not widely known.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/102244/original/image-20151117-22201-s8hvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anons may have their hearts in the right place, but their actions can be problematic too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/anonymous9000/4281777022">Anonymous9000</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Anonymous are outlaws too</h2>
<p>Anonymous typically operates its attacks outside the scope of legality. Members are usually up-to-date on the latest vulnerabilities in software. In contrast, law enforcement must pull together specialized teams or a task force to gather the same technical ability. Anonymous doesn’t follow any rules when it comes to taking on ISIS. Most agencies of various Western governments have some legal process to follow, whether taking on ISIS on the battlefield or in cyberspace. In the United States, this is typically a warrant.</p>
<p>Anonymous does not wait for the justice system to act. If Anonymous feels that a specific server needs to be taken down, they simply launch the attack. It allows them to work quickly – but this lack of legal process is also a point of concern. In at least one case, <a href="http://www.dailydot.com/politics/anonymous-dox-wrong-history/">Anonymous members outed the wrong person</a>.</p>
<p>Anonymous could interrupt a legitimate law enforcement or security agency investigation or intelligence gathering. Of course the FBI, CIA, MI5 and other agencies <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=c65777356334dab8685984fa74bfd636&tab=core&_cview=1">monitor social media accounts</a> for intelligence purposes. They collect and mine social media data, searching for intel on terrorist planning and activities. Anonymous can short-circuit this process.</p>
<p>And remember, the legal process used by most Western countries centers on prosecution. Prosecutors need evidence to build a legal case; when a server has been crippled or evidence has not been seized correctly, conviction becomes more difficult. In fact, the largest threat to Anonymous members comes from law enforcement since they consistently break national and international laws in their hacks.</p>
<p>Anonymous has attempted to take on ISIS before this latest flurry of activity. The real question is what effect, if any, will actions by Anonymous have on ISIS operations. While it’s possible that ISIS communications and propaganda efforts can be disrupted, there is little method for determining the extent of any disruption. Without being able to easily and accurately measure that impact, it will be difficult for Anonymous to claim any sort of victory beyond closed social media accounts. And it’s all too easy for an ISIS sympathizer to just move on and open a new one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50826/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Copeland does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>ISIS uses the internet, especially social media, to propagandize and recruit. Members of hacker group Anonymous have turned their sights on these accounts.Chris Copeland, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Director of Institute for Homeland Security, Cyber Crime and International Criminal Justice Studies, Tarleton State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/397252015-04-04T09:58:32Z2015-04-04T09:58:32ZDangerous talk can only muddy waters as crisis between West and Russia deepens<p>We can be certain of two aspects of the current crisis between Russia and the West: it is as dangerous as it is unnecessary – and the way the crisis has drifted has been a shameful reflection on the incompetence and errors of all the major players. That we can have reached a stage where a newspaper such as The Times <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/europe/article4399758.ece">can talk of the prospect of nuclear weapons being used</a> shows just how the situation has been allowed to drift in a fog of mutual misunderstanding and suspicion. </p>
<p>If we don’t pay serious attention to this and quickly the “incineration of Birmingham” – though used as a quip by the Times’ writers – might be a step nearer. </p>
<p>There have been many analyses of how things have come to this but we need to comment on exactly where we are and what can be done to get relations back to normal. </p>
<p>First, Russia has not changed. It is the same Russia, the same Vladimir Putin, the same foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the same interests that have been dominant for a decade and a half. What has changed is the political collapse of Ukraine – which is likely to be followed soon by economic collapse unless there is a will towards settlement. In the present climate this seems as far off as ever, though the ceasefire and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/11408266/Minsk-agreement-on-Ukraine-crisis-text-in-full.html">Minsk 2</a> have been a great step in the right direction. </p>
<h2>Bating the Russian bear</h2>
<p>Secondly, why has Ukraine become such a dangerous issue and why is there a risk of destabilising East-West relations? Perceptive observers such as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bFQ6VO1sFGsC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq=Geoffrey+Hosking+danger+of+big+russian+communities+in+baltic&source=bl&ots=WY1BuiC5hS&sig=CjyHdykBK-Q343KyjQIsne4OKPc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=WnUeVfirCsT3UKLmgqgM&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Geoffrey%20Hosking%20danger%20of%20big%20russian%20communities%20in%20baltic&f=false">Geoffrey Hosking</a> long ago pointed out the dangers inherent in the unprecedented emergence of large Russian communities beyond the borders of the Russian state, in the Baltic States, Ukraine and Central Asia. </p>
<p>He reminded us of the problems <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYXC9jeAN4">in a lecture last month</a>. The existence of these exile communities complicates already difficult relations between the states of the former USSR. Places like Estonia, especially, have been very wary of their Russian population and, by a series of methods, have tried to keep them out of full citizenship and participation in the life of the Estonian state. </p>
<p>One can understand Estonian and others fears of being overrun and having their national life diluted by such significant minorities, but is this the way to regulate the problem? The resentment their measures breed in the Russian populations of Estonia and other places which have taken similar steps is dangerous because their resentments make it almost impossible for Russia itself to stand by and see its citizens discriminated against and even attacked. </p>
<p>This is a large part of what happened in Ukraine. A brief but insane and, worse, revealing commitment by the immediate post-coup authorities to ban official use of the Russian language inflamed and helped internationalise the crisis in its early stages. Similarly, telling Russia to leave its base of Sebastopol by 2017, in violation of a recently signed treaty to maintain it until 2047, was near-suicidal.</p>
<p>The risk now is that similar anti-Russian acts may tempt the smaller states who calculate that the US and Europe will have to support them in the current climate. A good example of exactly how that “climate” is being manipulated in the West comes in The Times article which gives a significance beyond all reason to a shadowy meeting of retired intelligence chiefs from both sides which, it implies, has been the unlikely vehicle for Russia to threaten nuclear war in the Baltic states. </p>
<h2>Cool heads needed</h2>
<p>True, the well-defined lines of the Cold War are dangerously blurred at present so any attempt to set up new rules of engagement which let each side know what the other considers to be its tripwires are to be welcomed. However, to consider an informal exchange of views on exactly what those tripwires are does not translate into immediate policy objectives nor the official position of the Russian government. </p>
<p>Perhaps the true purpose of the story comes in the assertion in the accompanying editorial that NATO needs to be stronger and defence budgets in the West need to be at least maintained against cuts, at best to rise. Certainly such articles create a climate in which such proposals sound reasonable. However, the real solution to the impasse lies elsewhere. </p>
<p>What is needed is negotiation, re-activation of NATO-Russia contacts and a halt to a pointless but provocative deployment of further NATO forces in places like Estonia (whose border is 90 miles from St Petersburg and less than 500 miles from Moscow) where they are likely to provoke the interventions they are supposedly meant to deter. </p>
<p>In fact, that is what the source seems to have said – further Russian action would only follow increased NATO encroachment. Perhaps the most telling phrase in The Times article is the statement that when Russia talks about using nuclear weapons it is time to sit up and take notice. That is precisely the problem. Only when Russia is confrontational does anyone listen. Actually, the time to take notice was five years ago when a conciliatory Putin was talking about a <a href="http://www.politicalforum.com/political-opinions-beliefs/161352-lisbon-vladivostok-putin-envisions-eu-russian-free-trade-zone.html">Europe from Dublin to Vladivostok</a>, but no one did. Today’s rhetoric in Moscow is of a Eurasia stretching from St Petersburg to Shanghai. Is that what the West wants?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Read does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reports that Russia would use nuclear weapons if NATO continues to push into the Baltic states are misleading.and mischievous.Christopher Read, Professor in Twentieth-Century European History, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/284152014-06-24T15:24:48Z2014-06-24T15:24:48ZSyrian Electronic Army’s attack on Reuters makes a mockery of cyber-security (again)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52080/original/tz9t4kw4-1403617074.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vive la e-resistance!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-54298717/stock-photo-computer-virus-cyberterrorism-hand-grenade-with-usb-connector.html?src=hfX6EUeivgZJXwpM5YnXDw-1-16">Richard Peterson</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One big security issue that has arisen lately concerns control of news media. National boundaries have become blurred on the internet, and the control any nation can have over information dissemination has been eroded – on news websites but especially on open platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. </p>
<p>Witness the activities of the <a href="http://sea.sy/index/en">Syrian Electronic Army (SEA)</a>, a pro-Assad group of “hacktivists”, which despite limited resources managed to compromise one of the leading news agencies in the world. It wasn’t even the first time – it has already attacked the agency several times before, not to mention its other attacks on the Financial Times, Washington Post, New York Times and Associated Press. </p>
<p>At midday on Sunday, people reading Reuters content found themselves redirected to a page which stated: </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=343&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52058/original/hdv48trs-1403605883.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hacktivist group SEA’s message for Reuters users on Sunday.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SEA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Where last year, for example, the SEA attack involved <a href="http://mashable.com/2013/07/29/thomson-reuters-twitter-account-hacked-by-syrian-electronic-army/">tweeting links to pro-Assad propaganda</a> from the Reuters Twitter account, this time it targeted Reuters content directly. But instead of targeting the agency’s site, the hack attacked the news content that it hosts on the sites of a large number of media outlets. </p>
<p>This is not the first time the SEA had attacked in a way that compromised the trusted partners of the major media outlets. It did something similar to the New York Times <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/how-the-syrian-electronic-army-took-out-the-new-york-times-and-twitter-sites-7000019989/">last August</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52081/original/ctxqksg9-1403617221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52081/original/ctxqksg9-1403617221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52081/original/ctxqksg9-1403617221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52081/original/ctxqksg9-1403617221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52081/original/ctxqksg9-1403617221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52081/original/ctxqksg9-1403617221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52081/original/ctxqksg9-1403617221.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">SEA logo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SEA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this most recent case, the SEA <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/reuters-hacked-by-syrian-electronic-army-via-taboola-ad-1453717">appears to have redirected viewers</a> to the bogus pages by compromising advertising hosted by a Reuters partner site called Taboola. This could have serious consequences for Taboola’s other clients, who include Yahoo!, BBC Worldwide and Fox News; and will generally be great worry to many sites. </p>
<h2>Look what the spear phishing dragged in …</h2>
<p>Another possibility for what lay behind the latest Reuters attack was one of the most common methods of compromise – a spear phishing email, similar to the one that <a href="http://theonion.github.io/blog/2013/05/08/how-the-syrian-electronic-army-hacked-the-onion/">the SEA used</a> to attack satirical site The Onion last year. </p>
<p>This involved a person in the company clicking on what seemed to be a link to a lead story from the Washington Post but turned out to be malicious. It re-directed the user to another site and then asked for Google Apps credentials. Once these had been keyed in, the SEA gained access to The Onion’s web infrastructure and managed to post a story.</p>
<p>While it took a while for The Onion to understand what had happened, Reuters quickly detected the compromise and had fixed the content within 20 minutes. But in classic form, when The Onion had got on top of the problem, it posted an article whose headline read, <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/syrian-electronic-army-has-a-little-fun-before-ine,32324/">Syrian Electronic Army Has A Little Fun Before Inevitable Upcoming Death At Hands of Rebels</a>.</p>
<p>These examples illustrate that organisations need to understand that there are new risks within the information age and there are new ways to distribute messages, especially from hackers skillful enough to be able to disrupt traditional forms for dissemination. </p>
<p>The nature of the cause is likely to vary widely. In 2011, for example, Tunisian government websites <a href="http://gawker.com/5723104/anonymous-attacks-tunisian-government-over-wikileaks-censorship">were attacked by dissident group Anonymous</a> because of Wikileaks censorship. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/226128/Sony_Makes_it_Official_PlayStation_Network_Hacked.html">The same year</a>, the Sony Playstation Network was hacked after Sony said it would name and shame the person responsible for hacking its consoles. This showed that just because you are small on the internet doesn’t mean you cannot have a massive impact. Sony ended up losing billions on its share price and lost a great deal of customer confidence.</p>
<h2>HBGary Federal vs Anonymous</h2>
<p>The attack on security firm HBGary Federal is perhaps the best one in terms of how organisations need to understand their threat landscape. It started when Aaron Barr, the security firm’s chief executive, announced it would unmask some of the key people involved in Anonymous, and contacted a host of agencies, including the the US National Security Agency and Interpol. </p>
<p>Anonymous bounced a message back saying HBGary shouldn’t do this, as it would retaliate. As a leading security organisation, HBGary thought it could cope and went ahead with its threat.</p>
<p>Anonymous then searched the HBGary content management system and found it could get access to a complete database of usernames and hashed passwords by inserting a simple <a href="http://www.php.net//manual/en/intro-whatis.php">PHP</a> embed. </p>
<p>As the passwords were not encrypted, it was an easy task to reverse engineer the hashes back to the original password. Their target, though, was Aaron Barr and his chief operating officer, Ted Vera, each of which used weak passwords of six characters and two numbers, which are easily broken.</p>
<p>Having obtained their login details, Anonymous moved on to other targets. Surely they wouldn’t have used the same password for their other accounts? Sure enough they had, including the likes of Twitter and Gmail, which allowed access to gigabytes of research information. Then the hackers noticed that the system administrator for their Gmail email account was called Aaron. As a result they managed to gain complete control of the company email system, which included the email system for the Dutch police.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/52082/original/gxx6js9t-1403617401.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Your friendly neighbourhood hacktivist association.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/raincoaster/6934233521/in/photolist-4iRJKw-bt5yno-4HKeDg-9id7Gd-dC51H8-byKL3n-bGvBDD-4NmPLE-96dijq-9w9DKe-hXqSF8-4yoPU8-gQiV5t-adCr3J-dJnNFq-4HTF6a-mphU1N-9hX4y4-4J9VWk-9NZM7n-4roHqC-9ZjVTq-bBWK7Z-4yPGCi-bjQaMn-4K3SDE-eMyiba-4ysns7-aiqsNi-fgQ7hP-4yJRUG-fCrssn-fxhGt5-grMLph-nch645-gx964k-e4QTGi-5dkc6h-99FemD-c9p6FE-ahBLPa-4PQ4yh-4rqn6B-4rurHo-fiGngo-4K45fG-na6p5s-byKY4T-kvyLR8-hihLwj">Lorraine Murphy</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Latterly they went after top security expert Greg Hoglund, who owned HBGary. This involved sending him an email from within the Gmail account, from the system administrator, asking for him to confirm a key system password. After Hoglund replied back with it, Anonymous then went on to compromise his accounts. </p>
<p>HBGary Federal ended up being closed down due to the adverse publicity around the hack. Having said that, its partner company, HBGary, has gone from strength to strength. Hoglund is well known for making visionary presentations on computer security around the world. The word in the industry is that HBGary still did pass the Anonymous names to the American authorities, but no one knows for sure. </p>
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
<p>One lesson from all of this is that a focus of any attempted hack will be a spear phishing email. Tricking users into entering their details may be simple, but it can be very serious. For example the Reuters site integrates more than 30 third-party/advertising network agencies into its content. A breach on any of these could compromise the agency’s whole infrastructure.</p>
<p>I’ll end with a few straightforward pieces of advice that anyone who cares about security ought to follow:</p>
<ul>
<li>Use strong passwords</li>
<li>Never re-use passwords</li>
<li>Patch systems</li>
<li>Watch out for internal emails from bogus sources</li>
<li>Beware external websites that integrate with your organisation’s site.</li>
<li>Get a service level agreement (SLA) from your cloud provider. This should state how quickly the provider will react to requests for a lockdown of sensitive information, along with providing auditing information to trace the compromise</li>
<li>Don’t store emails in the cloud</li>
<li>Test your web software for scripting attacks</li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Buchanan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One big security issue that has arisen lately concerns control of news media. National boundaries have become blurred on the internet, and the control any nation can have over information dissemination…Bill Buchanan, Head, Centre for Distributed Computing, Networks and Security, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224652014-01-28T14:34:40Z2014-01-28T14:34:40ZOutdated laws put your health data in jeopardy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40023/original/mf7bwvsg-1390914490.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NHS systems are groaning under the weight of big data and that's bad for patients.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trevor Pritchard</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Given the heightened sense of concern about our personal data following the Edward Snowden revelations, it probably isn’t the best time for the NHS to ask us for more. So it simply hasn’t bothered asking.</p>
<p>The information contained in your health records has the potential to help researchers gain insight into disease and to allow authorities to make better decisions about healthcare provision so it’s easy to see why the NHS wants to make it more available to them.</p>
<p>Rather than being asked for explicit consent, we are merely being informed by an unaddressed leaflet through the front door. The leaflet tells us that if we do not explicitly <a href="http://medconfidential.org/">opt out</a> of a new scheme, our GPs will pass our data to <a href="http://www.hscic.gov.uk/">the Health and Social Care Information Centre</a>. This so-called <a href="http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/cd-gp-faqs.pdf">“care.data” extraction programme</a> has been made compulsory for GP practices as a result of the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/7/contents/enacted">2012 Health and Social Care Act</a>.</p>
<p>The act ensures the forthcoming NHS data extraction is exempt from most of the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents">1998 Data Protection Act</a>. For the last two years, the EU has been negotiating a revision of the Data Protection Directive that underlies this act. It has become a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/aug/12/europe-data-protection-directive-eu">drawn-out and intensely fought battle</a> that shows both how badly revision is needed, and the strength of the interests at stake.</p>
<p>From the start, the 1998 act gave special status to medical data, because of its highly personal and confidential nature. This is unlikely to change. <a href="http://ico.org.uk/news/blog/2014/NHS-patient-information-and-the-Data-Protection-Act">The latest explanation from the Information Commisioner’s Office</a> is that once the data has reached HSCIC, patients need to be told whenever their data is shared, with whom, and why. Asking instead of telling, though impractical, would clearly have been better.</p>
<p>HSCIC knows very well what it will need to do to protect the data. Its <a href="http://www.hscic.gov.uk/media/12931/Privacy-Impact-Assessment/pdf/privacy_impact_assessment_2013.pdf">Privacy Impact Assessment</a> and the supporting <a href="http://www.isb.nhs.uk/documents/isb-1523/amd-20-2010/1523202010guid.pdf">NHS anonymisation standard</a> indicate as much. When data is to be shared with research institutes, insurance companies or think tanks, for example, certain rules apply. A risk assessment must be done first to decide on whether access should be granted and the appropriate level of anonymisation that will be needed to do it safely. A contract then stipulates how the data can be used and this can be audited by HSCIC. Geraint Lewis, the NHS Chief Data Officer, is putting up a <a href="http://www.england.nhs.uk/2014/01/15/geraint-lewis">valiant defence of the scheme</a> on this basis.</p>
<p>HSCIC takes careful decisions on the level of anonymisation needed when data is handled by other parties. “Red” data contains highly personal information such as <a href="http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/cd-gp-faqs.pdf">date of birth, postcode, NHS number and gender</a>, although not your name, and is shared only in clearly delimited cases. “Green” data consists of summarised data about larger groups of patients and is published openly. But a third category, “orange” data, is the main area of concern, as it can be sold to any organisation which is found suitable.</p>
<h2>Anonymity matters</h2>
<p>The decision on how much personal information is left in orange data is based on what other information the organisation using the data has access to. HSCIC is acutely aware of the risk of de-anonymisation, and particularly the so-called “jigsaw” variant. This describes the ability of organisations to use other information to piece together who is who in an anonymised database.</p>
<p>An example of this problem came to the fore recently when it was revealed that the NSA collects metadata on phone calls. Even though it claimed <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-riley-nsa-metadata-20140126,0,5561469.story">it is “not recording names and locations”</a>, it still has access to information that would allow it to join the dots – much of it is readily available in the phone book. An extreme form of anonymisation is pseudonymisation: medical records have only a meaningless tag left to separate the different patients. However, even in that case, combining GP appointment times with mobile location data would mostly de-anonymise the information.</p>
<p>Medical information may well be the last of our personal data that isn’t compromised, given reports that intelligence services have all our text messages, mobile location data and communications metadata. It has been claimed that these services keep all data for “insurance” purposes, and that they have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/nsa-porn-muslims_n_4346128.html">already used porn browsing data for reputation attacks</a>. Controlled release of some kinds of medical data would be just as effective.</p>
<p>From a computer security perspective, one needs to worry about even creating such a huge medical database in the first place. The NSA and GCHQ have been able to gather such a vast amount of data partially because technology companies such as Facebook and Google hold so much information on users. They have essentially become honeypots that are too much of a temptation for intelligence hungry agencies to resist. How can we believe a medical database to be safe, if even the tech giants (and in turn the intelligence services) have been shown to be so incapable of adequately protecting their own sensitive material? </p>
<p>In all this, it is clear that the Data Protection Act is outdated. No matter how well the use of our data is policed, the highest penalty available is half a million pounds, and no jail sentence applies. It’s “pocket money”, as EU commissioner Viviane Reding said in relation to a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25825690">Google conviction in France</a>.</p>
<p>Health data can be extremely valuable for research but it has also been suggested that insurance companies should be allowed access to HSCIC information in order to make <a href="http://medconfidential.org/2014/refuting-nhs-englands-response-to-guardian-story-nhs-patient-data-to-be-made-available-for-sale/">more reliable actuarial estimates</a>, presumably based on summarised medical information. The gains from that would indeed be many millions, but nothing compared to the gains these companies could make from using and even abusing full medical data to push up premiums for individual customers or reject customers based on their medical history. </p>
<p>HSCIC provides data at <a href="http://www.hscic.gov.uk/media/12443/data-linkage-service-charges-2013-2014-updated/pdf/dles_service_charges__2013_14_V10_050913.pdf">cost price</a>, but at that price it could never provide enough policing and auditing to prevent abuse. Insurance companies and public service providers may well get in through the back door anyway, through increased and <a href="http://nhap.org/privatisation-will-be-irreversible-unless-the-nhs-is-exempted-from-the-eu-us-trade-deal/">potentially irreversible</a> NHS privatisation. Even if our data ends up inside NHS divisions now, can we even prevent those divisions turning into Bupa, G4S or Atos in the future?</p>
<p>It has been coming for some time and now we have reached the point at which big data has simply outgrown the Data Protection Act. In terms of the volume of data, in terms of the sheer possibilities, and most importantly in terms of the financial stakes. Hopefully the Data Protection Directive revision will improve the legal aspects but as we learn how to store and use big data, we also need to come up with secure methods to provide consent and access for big confidential data.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eerke Boiten is a senior lecturer in the School of Computing at the University of Kent, and Director of the University's interdisciplinary Centre for Cyber Security Research. He receives funding from EPSRC for the CryptoForma Network of Excellence on Cryptography and Formal Methods. </span></em></p>Given the heightened sense of concern about our personal data following the Edward Snowden revelations, it probably isn’t the best time for the NHS to ask us for more. So it simply hasn’t bothered asking…Eerke Boiten, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Director of Interdisciplinary Cyber Security Centre, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/87782012-08-10T04:52:30Z2012-08-10T04:52:30ZAnonymous’ Operation Australia – can the federal police stop them?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/14134/original/wjhyhy6x-1344572646.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C169%2C4889%2C3073&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What's being done about the latest spate of Anonymous attacks?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">zigazou76</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>About 10am this morning, Anonymous used Twitter to announce an attack on the <a href="http://www.asio.gov.au/">Australian Security Intelligence Organisation</a> (ASIO) website. Anonymous claimed the ASIO website would be unavailable for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>The ASIO website was down for about 30 minutes after the attack and is now operating slowly or not at all. It appears the attack may be ongoing, but ASIO’s technical staff are recovering the situation.</p>
<p>Anonymous has been claiming attacks would occur on ASIO and on the <a href="http://www.dsd.gov.au/">Defence Signals Directorate</a> (DSD) website via the Anonymous Operation Australia <a href="https://twitter.com/Op_Australia/status/233718148367536128">Twitter account</a>.</p>
<p>The Anonymous attacks are part of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-anonymous-hacking-australia-8480">ongoing campaign</a> against the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=pjcis/nsl2012/index.htm">government proposal</a> to introduce a data retention scheme that would require carriers and ISPs to store the web history of every Australian for one to two years.</p>
<p>Anonymous has been using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack">distributed denial of service</a> (DDoS) attacks for some time now as part of this campaign. Late last month Anonymous used DDoS or website defacing attacks on <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/anonymous-hackers-cripples-aussie-government-websites/story-e6frfro0-1226433788501">ten goverment websites</a>.</p>
<p>The question that every Australian should be asking the government and the <a href="http://www.afp.gov.au/">Australian Federal Police</a> (AFP) is what are they doing about the Anonymous attacks?</p>
<p>Anonymous has now launched attacks on a range of government websites, broken into an AAPT server and stolen customer data which was <a href="http://www.cio.com.au/article/432044/anonymous_releases_some_aapt_data_/">recently partially released on the web</a>.</p>
<p>When is the AFP going to declare the Anonymous attacks a major crime and dedicate resources to finding the perpetrators? Can the AFP stop the Anonymous attacks?</p>
<p>The answer is “no” if today’s events are any indicator. What makes the situation even worse is that Anonymous gave the AFP and ASIO plenty of warning – yet the attack succeeded.</p>
<p>Is Anonymous correct in its assertion the government proposal to implement a two-year data retention scheme will put all Australians at risk of far worse outcomes than the current Anonymous campaign?</p>
<p>It is time for the AFP to demonstrate to all Australian’s that their internet history can be protected by government authorities.</p>
<p>What hope have the companies that would be forced to implement the data retention scheme got of combating internet criminals if the government and AFP are powerless to stop Anonymous?</p>
<p>A good way for the AFP to demonstrate their capability to stop internet crime would be to identify and arrest the members of Anonymous who are participating in Operation Australia.</p>
<p>Another possible approach similar, to that <a href="http://americanfreepress.net/?p=4863">employed by US authorities</a>, would be for the AFP to offer the Anonymous members jobs? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.efa.org.au/">Electronic Frontiers Australia</a> (EFA) stated on July 13 that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>EFA is deeply concerned about the proposed changes to National Security legislation foreshadowed in the discussion paper issued this week by the Attorney-General’s Department.</p>
<p>These proposed changes, if implemented in their entirety, would appear to amount to a massive expansion of surveillance activity across the entire community, accompanied by a corresponding reduction in accountability for that surveillance activity, and are therefore a potentially significant threat to the civil liberties and privacy of all Australians.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the USA earlier this month a bill that would establish security standards to prevent cyberattacks on the US critical infrastructure <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cybersecurity-bill-fails-in-senate/2012/08/02/gJQADNOOSX_story.html">failed to pass the Senate</a>. Clearly, the US government is struggling to regulate the internet and to protect their vital infrastructure.</p>
<p>Key reasons for the failure of the US bill were the financial burden that would be placed on private companies, a view that government intervention was not necessary, and the provision for sharing cyberthreat data between government and industry. The data retention and sharing worried many people about potential privacy and security breaches.</p>
<p>A recommended first step for the Australian government is to invest in research that would enhanced privacy and security and provide real outcomes that can be implemented here.</p>
<p>For me a litmus test of the government’s intentions is whether or not it will mandate the use of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer">Secure Socket Layer</a> (SSL) certificates for email. In my view SSL should be mandatory from the customer’s device to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol">Simple Mail Transfer Protocol</a> (SMTP) server and between SMTP servers. This simple step would greatly improve privacy and security.</p>
<p>The internet is a critical piece of infrastructure that is being used in ways beyond its original design. Authorities should not try to use the internet in ways that will jeopardise the security and privacy of Australians. </p>
<p>They should be able to provide people with a guarantee their security and privacy will be protected.</p>
<h2>Further reading</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-anonymous-hacking-australia-8480">Why is Anonymous hacking Australia?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/anonymous-child-porn-and-the-wild-wild-web-4005">Anonymous, child porn and the wild, wild web</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-internet-is-insecure-lets-build-a-better-one-fast-3977">The internet is insecure - let’s build a better one, fast</a></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/8778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark A Gregory does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>About 10am this morning, Anonymous used Twitter to announce an attack on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) website. Anonymous claimed the ASIO website would be unavailable for the…Mark A Gregory, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84802012-07-30T20:40:17Z2012-07-30T20:40:17ZWhy is Anonymous hacking Australia?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/13584/original/8g7fhsbb-1343608169.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C51%2C848%2C548&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hacktivists are campaigning against the Australian government's proposed changes to privacy laws.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tina Mailhot-Roberge</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A few days ago, <a href="http://anonnews.org/">Anonymous</a> activists hacked into <a href="http://www.aapt.com.au/">AAPT</a>, <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/hacked-anonymous-steals-user-data-from-aussie-isp/story-e6frfro0-1226435629217">stole 40GB of data</a> including customer information and forced offline <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/anonymous-hackers-cripples-aussie-government-websites/story-e6frfro0-1226433788501">ten Australian government websites</a>.</p>
<p>Anonymous members stated in an online <a href="http://www.irc.org/">internet relay chat</a> (IRC) <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2012/07/26/3554598.htm">interview</a> with the ABC that the hacking attacks were part of an ongoing campaign against the government’s proposed <a href="http://www.news.com.au/technology/govt-defends-need-to-keep-internet-data/story-e6frfro0-1226424390925">changes to privacy laws</a>.</p>
<h2>Privacy changes</h2>
<p>One of the proposed changes being discussed by the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=pjcis/index.htm">Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security</a> (PJCIS) in an <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=pjcis/nsl2012/index.htm">inquiry into potential reforms of national security legislation</a> is a requirement for internet service providers (ISPs) to store user online activity for two years.</p>
<p>This means that everything you do, from social networking, emails, web browsing, chat sessions, <a href="http://www.skype.com/">Skype</a> sessions and so on would be monitored, stored and made available to government intelligence agencies as and when needed.</p>
<p>Last week, it was reported on the website <a href="http://www.slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a> that Microsoft had made Skype <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/07/26/2243206/microsoft-makes-skype-easier-to-monitor">easier to monitor</a>. Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of <a href="http://www.pfir.org/">People for Internet Responsibility</a>, a privacy advocacy group, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/skype-makes-chats-and-user-data-more-available-to-police/2012/07/25/gJQAobI39W_story.html?hpid=z1">was quoted</a> in The Washington Post as saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The issue is, to what extent are our communications being purpose-built to make surveillance easy?</p>
<p>When you make it easy to do, law enforcement is going to want to use it more and more. If you build it, they will come.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>During the ABC IRQ interview, Anonymous representatives made the following statement against increased government surveillance of the online world: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Whilst our own rights to privacy dwindle, corporate rights to commercial confidentiality and intellectual property skyrocket. Whilst we no longer know about many of the activities of our governments, our governments have the means to accumulate unprecedented vast banks of data about us […]</p>
<p>The attacks are a way to draw attention to the msg we wish to deliver to the ppl of au.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The hacking attacks by Anonymous on government websites and AAPT were designed to highlight to the Australian public the difficulty of keeping stored data private. By carrying out hacking attacks and then making public pronouncements Anonymous hopes to convince Australians not to support changes to the current privacy laws.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/13587/original/m2djvqhv-1343608993.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/13587/original/m2djvqhv-1343608993.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13587/original/m2djvqhv-1343608993.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13587/original/m2djvqhv-1343608993.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13587/original/m2djvqhv-1343608993.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13587/original/m2djvqhv-1343608993.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/13587/original/m2djvqhv-1343608993.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">the[G]™</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_data_retention">Data retention</a> policies vary around the world. The European Union has had a <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:105:0054:0063:EN:PDF">data retention directive</a> since 2006 that specifies types of data that are to be retained for periods of between six months and two years. </p>
<p>In recent weeks, the United Kingdom government has begun debating a draft <a href="http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm83/8359/8359.pdf">Communications Data Bill</a> that includes compulsory data retention for a wide range of information, such as websites visited, for a period of one year.</p>
<h2>Spy games</h2>
<p>So why are governments around the world increasing internet surveillance? Four reasons spring to mind:</p>
<p>1) Terrorism. The threat of terrorists using the internet to plan, support and carry out terrorist acts has prompted the <a href="http://www.ag.gov.au/">Attorney-General’s Department</a> to discuss the need to increase the powers of organisations such as the <a href="http://www.asio.gov.au/">Australian Security Intelligence Organisation</a> (ASIO), the <a href="http://www.asis.gov.au/">Australian Secret Intelligence Service</a> (ASIS) and the <a href="http://www.dsd.gov.au/">Defence Signals Directorate</a> (DSD).</p>
<p>2) <a href="https://theconversation.com/last-online-of-defence-why-is-anzus-prepping-for-a-cyber-war-3418">Cyber warfare</a>. On July 19, in the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-19/spy-service-reaches-pivotal-point/4141622">first public address</a> by a head of ASIS, Nick Warner, identified cyber warfare as a major threat: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The field of cyber operations is one of the most rapidly evolving and potentially serious threats to our national security in the coming decade.</p>
<p>Government departments and agencies, together with corporate Australia, have been subject to concerted efforts by external actors seeking to infiltrate sensitive computer networks.</p>
<p>Developments in cyber are a two-edged sword for an agency like ASIS.</p>
<p>They offer new ways of collecting information, but the digital fingerprints and footprints which we all now leave behind complicate the task of operating covertly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>3) <a>Cybercrime</a>. Criminals use the internet for their everyday activities much as any modern business does. In 2011 <a href="http://www.symantec.com.au/">Symantec</a>, a provider of internet security software, estimated the cost of cybercrime to Australians had reached about A$4.6 billion annually.</p>
<p>4) Hacking. Copyright and intellectual property theft over the internet has become endemic. Much of the hacking remains unreported and business has become decidedly worried about the effects of competitors <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-14/inside-the-chinese-boom-in-corporate-espionage">gaining access to intellectual property</a>.</p>
<h2>Control</h2>
<p>Governments around the world are slowly regulating the internet. Failure to do so will come at an unbearable cost to the nation, business and to individuals.</p>
<p>There is nothing Anonymous can do to stop this inevitable process – so why can’t they get on board? The group could highlight weaknesses in the internet, websites and business systems so that appropriate action can be taken.</p>
<p>To put it simply, there’s no need for Anonymous to steal data from a company and then post this data on a public website. This action is counterproductive and strengthens the government’s argument for greater regulation.</p>
<p>But the point Anonymous is trying to make, that Australian companies and the government cannot be trusted to securely implement a data retention scheme, is probably very true. </p>
<p>In the past two years, many large Australian companies have been hacked and customer information stolen including credit card details. The penalties to companies for a data breach are minor and therefore very little effort is expended by business to adequately protect customer information.</p>
<p>Governments around the world are stumbling forward with data retention policies without adequate plans for how the data is to be secured, how the data retention process is to be audited and by whom, and what the penalties will be for failure to ensure the data remains secure.</p>
<p>We are in a new phase online where the blind are leading the blind, trying to find a path towards a more secure and regulated internet that enshrines our right to privacy.</p>
<p><strong>Further Reading:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/scamwatch-a-helping-hand-against-online-scammers-6842">SCAMwatch – a helping hand against online scammers</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-internet-is-insecure-lets-build-a-better-one-fast-3977">The internet is insecure – Let’s build a better one, fast</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/zombie-computers-cyber-security-phishing-what-you-need-to-know-1671">Zombie computers, cyber security, phishing … what you need to know</a></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/8480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark A Gregory does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A few days ago, Anonymous activists hacked into AAPT, stole 40GB of data including customer information and forced offline ten Australian government websites. Anonymous members stated in an online internet…Mark A Gregory, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/58152012-03-13T04:06:28Z2012-03-13T04:06:28ZA tale of ‘betrayal’ – what Anonymous can teach us about online relationships<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8545/original/sg54rjxp-1331607243.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Reckon you know a lot about your online friends? Are you sure?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stian Eikeland</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whenever the press covers a story about hackers, a great deal of the discussion concerns the nature of online identity, the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/anonymous-hackers-arrested-across-world/story-e6frg6so-1226285008481">cohesiveness of hacking groups</a>, and the individuals that identify with these groups. This is particularly the case with discussion of hackers that consider themselves part of the hacktivist group <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/anonymous">Anonymous</a>.</p>
<p>This is due, in part, to the apparently co-operative manner in which Anonymous operates, and the oft-quoted Anonymous mantra <a href="http://www.yalelawtech.org/anonymity-online-identity/we-are-anonymous-we-are-legion/">(“we are Anonymous, we are legion”)</a> that de-emphasises the individual and promotes the idea of the “group”.</p>
<p>This lack of emphasis on the individual is slightly ironic given most of the news about Anonymous in the past year – including the most notable hacks of 2011 – centred on individual hackers whose identities are known.</p>
<p>But issues of identity and group dynamics have been brought to a head by recent stories about the <a href="http://informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/232602103">unmasking by US authorities</a> of FBI informant Hector Xavier Monsegur. Monsegur is also known online as Sabu, and is purportedly the leader of <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/lulzsec">LulzSec</a> (an offshoot of Anonymous).</p>
<p>According to court reports unsealed last week, Monsegur had been <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/232602334">helping the FBI build cases</a> against fellow hackers soon after he was <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/06/exclusive-unmasking-worlds-most-wanted-hacker/?intcmp=related">arrested and released on bail</a> back in June 2011.</p>
<p>Sabu’s story says a lot about what we actually know about people with whom we only interact online. In the case of Sabu, it turns out, we didn’t know very much. His online persona was very different from his real-life self. </p>
<p>This perhaps shouldn’t be very surprising given people generally have multiple and varied personas online – which often, if not always, differ from their real-life personas.</p>
<p>The psychiatrist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung">Carl Jung</a> described <a href="http://directory.leadmaverick.com/Helping-Psychology/DallasFort-WorthArlington/TX/10/11154/index.aspx">the persona</a> as the mask that people wear to hide their true selves from society. On the internet, the effect of a persona is more pronounced because we lose other cues – such as how people talk, where they work and how they interact with others – that could potentially reveal how close the persona is to someone’s “true self”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8544/original/qcpq4wp7-1331606521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8544/original/qcpq4wp7-1331606521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8544/original/qcpq4wp7-1331606521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8544/original/qcpq4wp7-1331606521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8544/original/qcpq4wp7-1331606521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8544/original/qcpq4wp7-1331606521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/8544/original/qcpq4wp7-1331606521.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">raincoaster</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Much of the coverage of Sabu’s unmasking focused on the nature of his online persona. The discussion ranged from his role within Anonymous and LulzSec, to his dominating and opinionated presence <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/search/anonymousabu">on Twitter</a>. Other commentators have even <a href="https://theconversation.com/lulzsec-arrests-will-do-limited-damage-to-hacktivist-movement-5753">claimed</a> he was just a second- or third-tier hacker within Anonymous, even though he was <a href="http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2157516/court-documents-shed-light-extent-anonymous-lulzsec-activity">involved with</a> most of the prominent hacking activity that took place under the Anonymous name last year. </p>
<p>Sabu himself gave interviews with private <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat">internet relay chat (IRC)</a> sessions and more detailed question-and-answer sessions on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/kpfsp/ama_request_sabu_from_lulsec_this_would_be_amazing/">Reddit</a>.</p>
<p>It took the unmasking of Sabu to reveal something approaching the truth about Monsegur as a person. The New York Times featured <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/technology/hacker-informant-and-party-boy-of-the-projects.html">a story</a> describing 28-year-old Hector Monsegur as a Puerto Rican “party boy of the projects”, who cared for his sister’s two children. Monsegur was also revealed as a petty criminal and general neighbourhood nuisance, but someone who actually did care about the <a href="http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2006/Oct/253">social issues he believed he was fighting for</a>.</p>
<p>As mentioned, the unmasking of Sabu makes it clear that it’s very difficult to know the truth about someone from the persona they present online. This is especially true when that persona is being pieced together from fragments of tweets or even chat logs.</p>
<p>Commentary on individuals, relationships and organisational structures within Anonymous is also almost impossible. One should ultimately be wary of anyone making claims on these subjects without appropriate disclaimers.</p>
<p>But it’s the reactions to <a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/lulzsec-snitch/">Sabu’s “betrayal”</a> of his fellow hackers that’s potentially the most interesting aspect of this whole story. Other members of Anonymous were apparently left “<a href="http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/anonymous-sabu-reaction/">emotionally devastated</a>” and “shocked” by the news Monsegur was an FBI informant. </p>
<p>It seems strange anyone would be surprised that Sabu’s first loyalty was to himself and his family. It speaks volumes about the unrealistic view that people have of online relationships.</p>
<p>Our online ties are influenced by how well we know people in real life. If we don’t know the person in real life, or have met them only casually, it can be argued that our ties with them online could only ever be weak.</p>
<p>This is, in part, because of the principle discussed earlier – it is difficult to really know anything about people online because their personas will differ from their real-life selves. You can never be sure who you are interacting with.</p>
<p>This means loyalty between members of a group who only associate with each other online is, by necessity, going to be fragile. Or to put it another way, most, if not all, online social ties are weak.</p>
<p>The responses to Sabu’s “betrayal” are even more curious given the turning of hackers into informants is actually quite common. This phenomenon is described well in Kevin Poulsen’s book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kingpin-Hacker-Billion-Dollar-Cybercrime-Underground/dp/0307588688">Kingpin</a> about credit card fraudsters who regularly turned on each other to save themselves.</p>
<p>The story of Sabu is probably not over yet. He has gone into hiding but it seems unlikely we’ve heard the last from him. Perhaps the most prescient comment on this whole saga to date was made by Sabu himself during <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/kpfsp/ama_request_sabu_from_lulsec_this_would_be_amazing/">his Reddit Q&A</a>:</p>
<p>“Stick to yourselves. If you are in a crew – keep your <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPSEC">opsec</a> up 24/7. Friends will try to take you down if they have to.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5815/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Glance does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Whenever the press covers a story about hackers, a great deal of the discussion concerns the nature of online identity, the cohesiveness of hacking groups, and the individuals that identify with these…David Glance, Director, Centre for Software Practice, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/55732012-03-01T19:30:43Z2012-03-01T19:30:43ZCould Anonymous really shut down the internet?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/8249/original/djd79cwn-1330569986.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stopping the internet isn't impossible, but it's unlikely any time soon.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">iNKMan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a statement <a href="http://pastebin.com/NKbnh8q8">posted online last month</a>, hacker collective <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/anonymous">Anonymous</a> announced plans to shut down the internet. Yes, you read that right.</p>
<p>Operation Global Blackout, planned for March 31, is apparently a protest against “<a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/sopa">SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act]</a>, Wallstreet (sic), our irresponsible leaders and the beloved bankers who are starving the world for their own selfish needs”.</p>
<p>So how serious are these threats?</p>
<p>Well, for a start, it’s worth pointing out that the date of the take-down could be an indication of an <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/02/16/anonymous-plans-to-take-down-the-internet-were-being-trolled/">April Fools joke</a> – albeit one day early. And then there are the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z5CgczDqlA">suggestions</a> that whoever published the announcement does not really represent Anonymous. Instead, they appear just to be using Anonymous’ name and reputation to give their anti-SOPA campaign some publicity.</p>
<p>(Of course, in an organisation as decentralised as Anonymous, it’s difficult to say whether <em>anyone</em> really speaks for it.)</p>
<p>But even if the plans of “Anonymous” don’t come to fruition, would their take-down methods actually work? Is it possible to shut down the internet?</p>
<p>There is no mystery about what Anonymous (or the people claiming to be Anonymous) is planning to do. Anonymous specialises in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which they’ve <a href="https://theconversation.com/anonymous-launches-largest-ever-attack-in-defence-of-megaupload-4989">used to great effect in the past</a>.</p>
<p>In a DDoS attack, computers across the internet either wittingly or unwittingly send so many requests to a target server that the target becomes overwhelmed. In attempting to service all the requests it receives, the target server “loses” legitimate requests, causing genuine users to experience unacceptable delays or <a href="http://www.checkupdown.com/status/E408.html">time-outs</a>.</p>
<p>Anonymous is supposedly planning to attack the root servers of the internet’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System">Domain Name System (DNS)</a>. Traffic through the internet is transmitted based on <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-the-internet-ipv4-versus-ipv6-145">IP addresses</a> (72.21.214.128) but we humans are much more comfortable remembering the corresponding domain names (amazon.com).</p>
<p>When you enter a server name such as www.amazon.com into your browser, your browser uses the DNS to “resolve it” to an IP address, before attempting to connect you to the relevant site.</p>
<p>The DNS is a <a href="http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/internet/dns/operation/hierarchy.shtml">hierarchical system</a>. Your local ISP will have a DNS service but if it can’t resolve a domain name to an IP address, it will refer it to another DNS service higher up the chain.</p>
<p>At the top of the hierarchy are the 13 root servers that Anonymous is apparently going to target. The idea is that if you take down all 13 root DNS servers, domain name resolution for the internet would eventually fail.</p>
<p>(I say “eventually” because results from the root servers are usually cached by servers at lower levels in the hierarchy for several hours. But more on that in a moment.)</p>
<p>So how feasible is it that a DDoS on the root servers would succeed? The answer: very unlikely. The internet’s root servers are such an obvious target that DDoS attacks <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_denial_of_service_attacks_on_root_nameservers">have been carried out on them before</a>, but with limited success.</p>
<p>In fact, there are <a href="http://erratasec.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/no-anonymous-cant-ddos-root-dns-servers.html">a number of factors</a> that make this kind of attack very difficult.</p>
<p>The biggest is that, while each root server has one IP address and appears to be one machine, these servers actually consist of many geographically distributed servers. Many more than 13 servers would need to be brought down to take down the internet’s DNS.</p>
<p>Of course, we shouldn’t discount Anonymous’ ability to <a href="https://theconversation.com/zombie-computers-cyber-security-phishing-what-you-need-to-know-1671">marshall many hosts to an attack</a>, but for this particular attack to succeed, an enormous number of hosts would be needed.</p>
<p>The second difficulty is that the root servers typically just act as a conduit to another server lower in the hierarchy. For instance, domain names that end in .au are forwarded on to the the DNS run by <a href="http://www.ausregistry.com.au/">AusRegistry</a>. In other words, not every domain name resolution request needs the root server to be successful.</p>
<p>Finally, even if the root servers could be brought down, most ISPs cache queries from these root servers for substantial amounts of time. For Anonymous to “take down” the internet, they would need to maintain a sustained attack. Only after the cached entries have timed out would the attack start to be noticed by users. This would likely take several hours; much longer than the minutes claimed by Anonymous.</p>
<p>So, all things considered, it’s very unlikely a DDoS attack on the internet’s root DNS servers would succeed. But that’s not to say there aren’t other weaknesses that could be exploited to shut the internet down.</p>
<p>The core of the net consists of devices called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router_(computing)">routers</a> which decide where to transmit data. In 2010 a software fault in these devices briefly caused approximately <a href="http://news.techworld.com/security/3237463/cisco-bug-crashes-1-of-internet/">1% of the internet to go offline</a>.</p>
<p>There are also vulnerabilities in the protocol at the core of the internet – the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bgp">Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)</a> – that have led to some failures. In 2010 a Chinese ISP caused a brief outage of a substantial part of the internet through what is thought to be <a href="http://bgpmon.net/blog/?p=282">a BGP configuration error</a>.</p>
<p>Such vulnerabilities would be very difficult to exploit in the form of an attack – and I’m certainly not suggesting anyone should try.</p>
<p>Regardless, if the internet <em>is</em> ever brought down, I suspect it will be through something more sophisticated and more arcane than a DDoS of the net’s DNS root servers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Branch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a statement posted online last month, hacker collective Anonymous announced plans to shut down the internet. Yes, you read that right. Operation Global Blackout, planned for March 31, is apparently…Philip Branch, Senior Lecturer in Telecommunications, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/53502012-02-14T19:14:54Z2012-02-14T19:14:54ZAnonymous, WikiLeaks and email dumps – the ultimate weapon?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/7628/original/mkg8sp3s-1329179699.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Have the corporate exposés by Anonymous already backfired?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> mr.smashy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of all the tactics used by hacker collective [Anonymous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) in any of its “operations”, the release of their victims’ emails has been one that potentially could cause the most damage. </p>
<p>Previous releases have claimed the job of Aaron Barr – <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/anonymous-speaks-the-inside-story-of-the-hbgary-hack.ars">former CEO of security firm HBGary</a> – and unveiled the <a href="http://occupythe99percent.com/2012/02/stratfor-intelligence-leaked-by-anonymous-reveals-spying-on-occupy-movement-and-deep-green-resistance/">covert operations</a> of intelligence analysis firm Strategic Forecasting Inc. (STRATFOR). </p>
<p>Most recently, media sites have claimed the <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/anonymous-may-have-completely-destroyed-military-law-firm/#more-512210">hacking and release of emails</a> of military law firm Puckett & Faraj by Anonymous would effectively destroy the company.</p>
<p>By comparison, other hacktivist tactics (such as the release of usernames, passwords or credit card information) are annoying and inconvenient, but essentially transient in their impact. Passwords can be changed, credit cards can be replaced and money refunded.</p>
<p>Intuitively, you would expect the release of internal communications of a company to be potentially devastating. There is the likelihood of revealing unknown secrets to the public and interested parties. At the very least, the truth of what lies behind the corporate image portrayed to the public is laid bare. </p>
<h2>What WikiLeaks taught us</h2>
<p>In recent times, the world has witnessed the impact of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning">release</a> of about 250,000 US diplomatic cables on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikileaks">WikiLeaks</a>. </p>
<p>But despite the potential and the perception, does the release of this sort of communication really do that much damage? Commentators have long been dismissing the actual impact of the release of the cables on WikiLeaks. </p>
<p>As Anatol Lieven, professor in the War Studies Department of King’s College London <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11918573">commented at the time</a>: “it was hardly news that US officials privately despise Hamid Karzai and believe that his family are deeply involved in the heroin trade”.</p>
<p><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2012/01/18/wikileaks-16th-minute/">Others</a> have also questioned the impact, if any, of the cables’ release. <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/61f8fab0-06f3-11e0-8c29-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1m8IDUqqC">Some</a> have even argued that the cables’ release actually helped the US by debunking conspiracy theories about its foreign policy. </p>
<p>Would-be leakers face several challenges when trying to capitalise on the information they have obtained. The biggest is actually sifting through millions of emails or internal documents for significant and interesting content. </p>
<p>It is a massive task and one that takes time, resources and money. The other problem is to get anyone to actually act on the information. This is made all the harder if you are attacking organisations that have close links to the agencies that would normally prosecute any perceived wrongdoing. </p>
<p>In the case of the high-profile hacks by Anonymous, were the outcomes as damaging as the victims and the media claimed? </p>
<h2>Aaron Barr: death of a CEO</h2>
<p>Anonymous’s initial success with the release of corporate emails was in February 2011 with <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/anonymous-speaks-the-inside-story-of-the-hbgary-hack.ars">the hack and making-public</a> of emails from security firm HBGary Federal and HBGary Inc. </p>
<p>The hack was prompted by a <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/87dc140e-3099-11e0-9de3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1m8IDUqqC">report</a> in the Financial Times in which Aaron Barr, CEO of HBGary Federal, claimed he was about to identify leaders of Anonymous. </p>
<p>After the publication of the emails and the highlighting of its varied revelations, <a href="http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/hbgary-federal-ceo-aaron-barr-steps-down-022811">Barr resigned</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hb_gary">full revelations</a> of the HBGary emails brought to light a “dirty tricks campaign” aimed at WikiLeaks involving not only HBGary Federal but other firms, potentially at the behest of the Bank of America. </p>
<p>HBGary Inc <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/120911-hbgary-anonymous-253924.html">appears</a> to have come out of the episode largely unscathed. The company <a href="http://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/13062-HBGarys-Open-Letter-to-Customers-and-the-Defense-Marketplace.html">quickly distanced</a> itself from HBGary Federal and claimed the actions were entirely the doings of Aaron Barr. </p>
<p>Rather than losing customers, <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/120911-hbgary-anonymous-253924.html">HBGary claimed</a> to have “ended up getting additional business”. </p>
<p>In fact, Anonymous may have also ended up doing HBGary an additional favour in helping the company divest itself of Aaron Barr, who was increasingly being described as <a href="http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/hbgary-federal-ceo-aaron-barr-steps-down-022811">“embattled”</a>.</p>
<h2>STRATFOR: uncovering an intelligence conspiracy?</h2>
<p>Christmas definitely did not arrive for STRATFOR. The company’s <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/">site</a> was hacked by Anonymous on Christmas Eve, its website defaced, more than 2GB of emails removed, and the STRATFOR private subscriber list and details of 90,000 credit cards from subscribers taken. The stolen credit card details were allegedly used to make donations to various <a href="http://imgur.com/QalSt">charities</a>.</p>
<p>There have <a href="http://pastebin.com/WPE73rhy">been claims</a> the STRATFOR emails would reveal the company was carrying out more specific and possibly covert intelligence-gathering than it had publicly admitted. </p>
<p>This was <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45963111/ns/technology_and_science-security/t/hackers-will-be-disappointed-stolen-emails-says-stratfor-ceo/#.TzkBOVH0Wec">denied by</a> George Friedman, STRATFOR’s founder and CEO who said: “as they search our emails for signs of a vast conspiracy, they will be disappointed”. </p>
<p>STRATFOR is now <a href="http://news.softpedia.com/news/Stratfor-Faces-Lawsuit-for-Failing-to-Secure-Customer-Data-251459.shtml">facing a class-action lawsuit</a> demanding US$50m in damages for failing to secure its computer systems and encrypt credit card information. </p>
<p>As for the impact on the company, there has been the cost of <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/12/30/stratfor-offers-customers-identity-theft-protection-after-hack/">offering all of its subscribers</a> identity theft protection.</p>
<p>Apart from that, interestingly, the firm has earned some respect for the way in which it dealt with the hack, and actually <a href="https://www.facebook.com/stratfor">sympathy</a> from the public for its victim status. </p>
<h2>Puckett & Faraj: Semper Fidelis (always faithful)</h2>
<p>Puckett & Faraj is the law firm <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/anonymous-leaks-us-marine-corps-massacre-case/">that defended</a> Frank Wuterich for his role in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_killings">Haditha massacre</a> in which 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women and children were killed by US Marines.</p>
<p>Wuterich, accused of negligent homicide in the deaths of two women and five children, escaped with a demotion to private and was only charged with dereliction of duty.</p>
<p>Anonymous <a href="http://rt.com/usa/news/anonymous-time-wuterich-attorneys-463/">became incensed</a> by the iniquity of a justice system that failed to prosecute a US marine who admitted his role in killing civilians while <a href="http://www.bradleymanning.org/learn-more/bradley-manning">Bradley Manning</a>, the soldier at the heart of the WikiLeaks prosecution, faced life imprisonment. Anonymous <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/anonymous-leaks-us-marine-corps-massacre-case/">hacked the website</a> of Puckett & Faraj and released 2.6GB of emails and documents.</p>
<p>Some of the <a href="http://cryptome.org/2012/01/wuterich/wuterich-politics.pdf">emails</a> have shown the extent to which the firm, run by former marines, lobbied influential military personnel and congressmen to assist in “making this whole case go away”.</p>
<p>Although there were <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/anonymous-may-have-completely-destroyed-military-law-firm/#more-512210">initial suggestions</a> the hack and release of emails could destroy the firm, the <a href="http://www.puckettfaraj.com/">website at least</a> is back up, albeit showing content that is out-of-date. </p>
<p>As with the view that WikiLeaks may have actually helped the US with the release of diplomatic cables, the exposure by Anonymous of underhand dealings of a law firm may have also perversely served to promote the company. </p>
<p>In the system of US military justice that appears to have already foregone an ethical basis and is already comfortable with backroom deals, the revelations will come as no surprise and certainly would not put off potential customers seeking to escape prosecution. In fact, it would likely do quite the reverse. </p>
<h2>Did it make a difference?</h2>
<p>In all three of the Anonymous hacks, the companies not only survived but actually seemed to benefit from the potentially catastrophic events. That’s not to say they all came out of the process with their integrity intact.</p>
<p>HBGary Federal was uncovered for attempting to run a dirty tricks campaign against WikiLeaks. STRATFOR was shown up for its cavalier handling of customers’ credit cards. The hack of Puckett & Faraj highlighted the case of Haditha and the US Marines’ involvement in the deaths of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians. </p>
<p>Another highlighted aspect is that, in a world where the personal is increasingly public, the impact of revealing another’s private life is rapidly diminishing. </p>
<p>In the same way we remember little of what WikiLeaks released, the targets of Anonymous will continue to thrive, possibly having implemented more secure systems and, of course, thinking twice about what they put in writing. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/5350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Glance does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Of all the tactics used by hacker collective [Anonymous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) in any of its “operations”, the release of their victims’ emails has been one that potentially could…David Glance, Director, Centre for Software Practice, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/41832011-11-07T19:42:49Z2011-11-07T19:42:49ZAnonymous versus Los Zetas drug cartel … a merry Mexican dance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/5228/original/6248853842_bb00d2c4aa_o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Threats of exposure have been met with threats of murder – or so it seems.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eneas.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent weeks, the fractured nature of <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/212846/anonymous-the-secret-groups-5-biggest-hacks">Anonymous</a>, the hacktivist collective, has come to the fore after it declared war on <a href="http://insightcrime.org/criminal-groups/mexico/zetas">Los Zetas</a>, a Mexican drug cartel. </p>
<p>Dubbed “Operation Cartel”, it was <a href="http://youtu.be/bJORGO1Q2VY">announced</a> by Anonymous Veracruz, ostensibly in response to an Anonymous member being “kidnapped” while handing out leaflets during <a href="http://oppaperstorm.wordpress.com/">Operation Paperstorm</a>.</p>
<p>Nobody doubts the desperate situation in Mexico, with a drug war that has <a href="http://www.mexicoreporter.com/2011/11/02/afp-mexicans-honor-drug-war-victims-on-day-of-the-dead/">claimed the lives of</a>(at least) 40,000 people in the past five years. Border towns such as Juarez have played host to <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/2011/06/201161493451742709.html">8,000 deaths</a> in the past three years alone and the violence has spread to previously safe cities such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15372946">Veracruz</a>. </p>
<p>The pervasiveness of death has been accompanied by a vicious cycle of ambiguous, unreliable information and fear. </p>
<p>Commenting on the Anonymous announcement, Deborah Bonello, a Mexican reporter <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/01/anonymity-mexico-drug-wars?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487">wrote in The Guardian</a>:</p>
<p>“The ability to distribute information that is unvetted, unverified and often from unnamed sources across a plethora of platforms is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because information is harder to suppress and control, but a curse because of the opportunity it creates for propaganda and misinformation that is then reported by the media and acted upon by the public as fact.”</p>
<p>She was talking about the drug cartels, but the quote could have been applied equally to Anonymous. After the announcement, <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20111101-dispatch-implications-online-tactics-against-mexican-cartels">Stratfor analyst Ben West</a> released a video report stating any attempts by Anonymous to expose the Zetas could be met with a “risk of abduction, injury and death”.</p>
<p>The rather tenuous link West made between evidence of the use of “computer scientists” by the cartels to engage in cybercrime, to track Anonymous attackers, and then to follow up with assassinations was ignored by all <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/31/world/americas/mexico-anonymous-threat/?hpt=wo_c2">later reports</a>.</p>
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<p>The Anonymous story then became even more confused as the operation – scheduled for November 5 – was <a href="http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/10/31/mexico-fear-uncertainty-and-doubt-over-anonymous-opcartel/">called off</a>. The kidnapped Anonymous member <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/anonymous-calls-off-outing-of-narco-cartel-after-release-of-kidnapped-member.ars">was apparently returned</a> along with a threat that the Zetas would kill ten people for every name of a Zeta associate released by Anonymous. </p>
<p>There has been no evidence produced that there was a kidnap in the first place, nor of the subsequent release of names or the threat of follow-up deaths.</p>
<p>But this is not the end. Barrett Brown, a former member of Anonymous, declared last week that <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/seanlawson/2011/11/05/opcartel-a-name-emerges/">OpCartel was still on</a>. Brown further claimed to be in possession of emails linking US officials and others with the Zetas. Barrett Brown is <a href="http://gawker.com/5856604/it-pays-to-be-the-face-of-anonymous">writing a book</a> about Anonymous, but is viewed with scepticism by <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23OpCartel">others in Anonymous and on Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Other than releasing names (Dox) of individuals likely to be involved with the Zetas, it was never clear what Anonymous would be able to do. But, like all other businesses, drug cartels are increasingly using technology as the basis for their operations. </p>
<p>It is this dependence on computers and networks that makes them potentially vulnerable to groups such as Anonymous (and of course governments that are fighting them legitimately).</p>
<p>The Stratfor analysis claimed the drug cartels were using hackers of their own to engage in cybercrime. They are using <a href="http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2011/09/marines-dismantle-los-zeta.html">sophisticated electronics and communications networks</a>, and using <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/09/23/140745739/mexican-drug-cartels-now-menace-social-media">social media to track victims</a>. </p>
<p>The use of social media especially has escalated recently with cartel members misdirecting the police by reporting a shootout on Twitter and then carrying out an operation elsewhere. </p>
<p>The rapidity of news spreading on Twitter also caused panic when two Veracruz residents tweeted that gunmen were kidnapping children from schools. It later turned out to be a false alarm and the two residents were arrested and charged with terrorism and sabotage. </p>
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<p>They were later released after protests from internet-freedom and human-rights activists. </p>
<p>Given moves by the drug cartels to control media, including social media, it’s possible the Zetas and other drug cartels would be concerned about possible attention paid by groups such as Anonymous. </p>
<p>The “Anonymous brand” brings with it media and public attention. The web defacements and <a href="http://theconversation.com/zombie-computers-cyber-security-phishing-what-you-need-to-know-1671">DDoS attacks</a> are little more than inconvenience for the targets but serve to publicise significant societal issues. This is something Anonymous itself recognises. </p>
<p>Another campaign that never materialised was <a href="http://pastebin.com/nzaNLWfF">#OpFacebook</a>. The initial suggestion was that Facebook would be brought down or attacked on November 5. Anonymous <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390805,00.asp">denied this later</a>, saying on Twitter that the group would not “kill” the messenger. </p>
<p>Anonymous thrives on pushing its message over whatever media it can, including, as in the case of <a href="http://www.operationprotest.com/operation-paperstorm-starting-dec-18-2010">Operation Paperstorm</a>, paper.</p>
<p>The difficulty with all Anonymous campaigns is sustainability. Having brought the Mexican situation to the public’s attention, the meme just as rapidly dissipates as newer events take centre stage. But there are plenty of reasons why the Americans should care about this. </p>
<p>If you <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/25/report-230000-displaced-mexico-drug-war-1121351146/">believe Fox News</a>, it would appear the human misery brought about by drug cartels is causing tens of thousands of Mexicans to flee across the border. </p>
<p>More importantly, the drugs that are being fought over in Mexico are largely destined for the USA and will continue to bring untold ruin in their wake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/4183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Glance does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In recent weeks, the fractured nature of Anonymous, the hacktivist collective, has come to the fore after it declared war on Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel. Dubbed “Operation Cartel”, it was announced…David Glance, Director, Centre for Software Practice, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/40052011-10-27T19:50:35Z2011-10-27T19:50:35ZAnonymous, child porn and the wild, wild web<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4901/original/2713375733_f4b134433b_o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is it right for hackers, regardless of public support, to take the law into their own hands?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">JacobDavis</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>High-profile hacktivist group [Anonymous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) has turned its attention to fighting child pornography.</p>
<p>As a sign of what it pledges will become more widespread, the group this month <a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/220708/hacker-group-anonymousnew-target-child-pornography-websites">launched an attack on</a> a server by the name of Freedom Hosting. In doing so, the group claimed to have temporarily disabled more than 40 child pornography sites on a hidden network while publishing a list of more than 1,500 of those sites’ usernames online.</p>
<p>Similar <a href="http://theconversation.com/zombie-computers-cyber-security-phishing-what-you-need-to-know-1671">denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks</a>, we can assume, will follow in what anonymous is calling Operation Darknet, or #OpDarknet.</p>
<p>The move on Freedom Hosting forced the company to switch to back-up systems, although this was not effective – Anonymous attacked again and forced Freedom Hosting offline.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://pastebin.com/T1LHnzEW">statement posted online</a>, Anonymous claims to have evidence of Freedom Hosting’s guilt: “For this,” the statement reads, “Freedom Hosting has been declared #OpDarknet Enemy Number One”.</p>
<p>The group claims: “The owners and operators at Freedom Hosting are openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles (sic) to view innocent children, fuelling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape, and death.”</p>
<p>Anonymous claims its investigation into the “darknet”, including websites that permit the operators and users to hide their identities, led to the discovery that many of the child pornography links led to Freedom Hosting systems.</p>
<p>At a time when police and governments around the world are struggling to combat cyber crime, it’s interesting to see the continuing development of vigilante activism. The Wild West has been re-born on the internet.</p>
<p>Anonymous <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/anonymous">is well-known</a> for hacking into corporate and government websites. The ever-evolving group has been associated with civil disobedience and hacktivism – targeting attacks on organisations across a spectrum of entertainment, religious organisations and businesses.</p>
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<p>Of course, as is apparent in the name, one of the key goals of Anonymous is for its members to remain hidden from sight.</p>
<p>Society may applaud Anonymous in the first instance for attacking child pornographers, but concern must surely be raised that Freedom Hosting has been attacked in this manner without charge, trial and conviction.</p>
<p>In the YouTube video above, an eerie blend of voices representing Anonymous state: “Many of us have lingering traumatic images of the material that these pedophiles (sic) were hiding on the darknet. </p>
<p>"Anonymous took a pledge to defend the defenseless (sic) and fight for the fallen […] The darknet is a vast sea of many providers. However, we fully intend to make it uninhabitable for these disgusting degenerates to exist.”</p>
<p>The group’s online statement regarding the DDoS attack reads: “By taking down Freedom Hosting, we are eliminating 40+ child pornography websites, among these is <em>Lolita City</em>, one of the largest child pornography websites to date containing more than 100GB of child pornography.” </p>
<p>Clearly the guns are out of their holsters. Anonymous has vowed to continue to act, possibly because its members believe government is not doing enough to halt the transmission of child pornography over the internet.</p>
<p>And yet if the group had actual evidence of a criminal offence being committed by organisations utilising Freedom Hosting, most people might expect them to hand this information to the police and be prepared to support the investigation.</p>
<p>This matter should be followed closely to see what response there is from Freedom Hosting – not least by the authorities, who should investigate whether the Anonymous claims are correct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/4005/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark A Gregory does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>High-profile hacktivist group [Anonymous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) has turned its attention to fighting child pornography. As a sign of what it pledges will become more widespread…Mark A Gregory, Senior Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/36612011-10-04T19:38:02Z2011-10-04T19:38:02ZBetrayed? LulzSec arrest over Sony hack reveals trust issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4073/original/Screen_shot_2011-10-04_at_2.36.41_PM.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keep your friends close and your enemies, wherever possible, at bay. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karat</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On September 22, 23-year-old college student Cody Kretsinger was <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2011/member-of-hacking-group-lulzsec-arrested-for-june-2011-intrusion-of-sony-pictures-computer-systems">arrested by the FBI</a> for his part in the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment by the high-profile hacking group <a href="http://theconversation.com/lulzsec-takes-down-cia-website-in-the-name-of-fun-fun-fun-1858">LulzSec</a>.</p>
<p>The hack resulted in the exposed information of more than <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/cody-kretsinger-arizona-c_n_977490.html">37,500 people who had registered for online promotions</a>. The hack itself and the reasons behind it have become secondary, but it was part of a <a href="http://www.anonnews.org/?p=press&a=item&i=787">campaign against Sony</a> by the hacking groups <a href="http://theconversation.com/are-anonymous-hackers-really-on-trial-or-is-fbi-payback-misdirected-3205">Anonymous</a> and LulzSec after the company pursued Sony PlayStation 3 games hackers and in particular George Holt, or “GeoHot”. </p>
<h2>Betrayal</h2>
<p>What made this arrest notable is that the FBI tracked Kretsinger, or “recursion” as he was also known, by obtaining logs of his activity from a proxy service provider called <a href="http://hidemyass.com">Hide My Ass (HMA)</a>. </p>
<p>HMA was aware LulzSec members had been using their services from chat logs <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/24/lulzsec-irc-leak-the-full-record">publicised by The Guardian newspaper</a> but had chosen not to do anything about it. This changed when they were allegedly served with a <a href="http://blog.hidemyass.com/2011/09/23/lulzsec-fiasco/">court order in the UK</a>.</p>
<p>There is now some expectation that a second LulzSec hacker, “Neuron”, who had also admitted to using the HMA service, might be <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/sep/26/lulzsec-second-hacker?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487">tracked down</a>.</p>
<h2>Just business, right?</h2>
<p>The actions of HMA in handing over logs to the FBI has been a rude awakening for many and has sparked condemnation from <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/%23hidemyass">commentators on Twitter</a>. </p>
<p>It illustrates that many in the hacker community have strong principles that they expect others of like mind to hold – it’s just who happens to be in the group of “like minds” at any one time that’s the issue. </p>
<p>HMA is a commercial company that markets its services by exploiting the idea it’s supportive of the hacker’s cause – even somewhat cynically exploiting <a href="http://blog.hidemyass.com/2011/09/23/lulzsec-fiasco/">its role</a> in aiding Egyptian protesters in circumventing government censorship to access Twitter. </p>
<p>To many in the West, including in government and security circles, there’s nothing wrong with helping an Egyptian resident to break a law in a country whose government had effectively lost support. The issue is not a moral one, but simply a practical one, given it’s less likely the Egyptian Government would be able to obtain a UK court order to persuade a service such as HMA to hand over logs. </p>
<p>Representatives of other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Private_Network">virtual private network</a> (VPL) service providers such as <a href="https://airvpn.org/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=55&func=view&catid=2&id=891#891">AirVPN</a> (which allow users to appear as if they are on a different network)
have come out to condemn HMA’s actions and question statements issued by the company that “all VPN providers keep logs”. </p>
<p>AirVPN does not keep logs and accepts anonymous payment by online currency provider <a href="http://theconversation.com/bitcoin-a-pirates-booty-or-the-new-global-currency-3130">Bitcoin</a>. <a href="https://www.privacyinternational.org/blog/enjoy-internet-freedom-and-anonymity-terms-and-conditions-apply">Privacy International</a> has also questioned the actions of a provider that sells itself on the ability to keep your online activity anonymous and untraceable. </p>
<h2>Staying hidden on the internet</h2>
<p>In the <a href="http://pastebin.com/QZXBCBYt">chatroom logs</a> of several LulzSec hackers there’s some discussion about how to stay secure and, in particular, how to use VPN technology to remain unidentified. </p>
<p>VPN service providers establish servers in multiple countries and allow users to connect to these. </p>
<p>The most common use for this would be to appear as if you are a user in the US, for example, to bypass any restrictions imposed by your local internet service provider or government. </p>
<p>The uses of this technology range from Chinese residents wanting to access blocked sites such as Facebook to residents outside the US wanting to watch streaming video that is only available to US residents. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4069/original/5917107845_0e9aaa278d_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4069/original/5917107845_0e9aaa278d_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4069/original/5917107845_0e9aaa278d_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4069/original/5917107845_0e9aaa278d_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4069/original/5917107845_0e9aaa278d_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4069/original/5917107845_0e9aaa278d_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/4069/original/5917107845_0e9aaa278d_b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">goblinbox (queen of the ad hoc bento).</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The issue with VPN services is that, as the HMA/LulzSec episode has highlighted, the HMA has no obligation to keep private the details of the communication through their services. </p>
<p>Although HMA representatives claimed in this case they were served a court order, there’s no evidence the company received anything other than a request from the FBI. </p>
<p>As the company is UK-based, it seems unlikely the FBI would have been able to obtain a UK court order for an activity that occurred in the US. </p>
<p>Rather, people at HMA may have been concerned their business would have been affected and servers in the US shut down. </p>
<p>There is also another possibility: services such as HMA are sometimes (whether rightly or wrongly) referred to as “Honeypots” – sites set up by authorities to masquerade as independent commercial operations. </p>
<h2>Tor: a better path to anonymity?</h2>
<p>Given HMA is a commercial organisation, it was curious that the LulzSec hackers would have used it and others like it. An alternative to the commercial services is a service called <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>. </p>
<p>Tor was originally developed as a project of the <a href="http://www.nrl.navy.mil/">US Naval Research Laboratory</a> and received further support from the Electronic Frontier Foundation <a href="http://www.eff.org">EFF</a> and other donors. </p>
<p>It works by encrypting traffic from a user’s computer and sending it through a number of Tor Servers that are run by volunteers. </p>
<p>The message is encrypted and re-encrypted: each time it passes through a server, a layer of encryption is removed. Eventually, the message exits but, when combined with secure communication, it’s not possible for an external observer to tell which path the communication took and where it originated.</p>
<p>Tor suffers from some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_%28anonymity_network%29">weaknesses</a> but, combined with special browser software, it can allow users to remain largely anonymous. </p>
<p>Normal download speeds can be 10 times slower whilst using Tor – so it’s conceivable LulzSec hackers didn’t use it for this reason.</p>
<p>In the <a href="http://pastebin.com/QZXBCBYt">chatroom logs</a>, a user by the name of “lol” (also known as “kayla” and who has possibly also been <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/kayla-taken-down-in-latest-lulzsec-arrests.ars%5D">subsequently arrested</a> comments on how slow Tor is. In hindsight, the extra time would have been worth the effort. </p>
<p>The VPN providers AirVPN <a href="https://airvpn.org/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=55&func=view&catid=2&id=891#891">advise</a> users to always use their VPN services over Tor.</p>
<h2>Who can you trust?</h2>
<p>The arrest of Cody Kretsinger has served as an object lesson to the hacker community about the difficulties iof remaining anonymous and untraceable online. </p>
<p>More to the point is the fact a considerable amount of background information was actually leaked to the press in the first place by former LulzSec group member “m_nerva”, later identified as <a href="http://pastebin.com/MBEsm5XQ">Marshal Webb from Ohio</a>.</p>
<p>The lesson the hackers learned the hard way is also a salutary one for all dissidents, whistle-blowers and activists: in situations where much is at stake, no precaution is too great. </p>
<p>General awareness of tools such as Tor and others such as <a href="http://freenetproject.org">Freenet</a> will become as fundamental as knowing how to use a browser. In all of this, commercial companies and networks will always act in their own interests.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it comes down to one simple fact: it’s hard to trust anyone when your life depends on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Glance does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On September 22, 23-year-old college student Cody Kretsinger was arrested by the FBI for his part in the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment by the high-profile hacking group LulzSec. The hack resulted…David Glance, Director, Centre for Software Practice, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32052011-09-05T07:10:31Z2011-09-05T07:10:31ZAre Anonymous hackers really on trial, or is FBI payback misdirected?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/3316/original/2493692058_c703915f14_o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are reactions against the infamous hacking group a sign of generational conflict?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">JacobDavis</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a scene reminiscent of a thousand police dramas: the <a href="http://gawker.com/5757995/an-interview-with-a-target-of-the-fbis-anonymous-probe">FBI arrived</a> at the door of 20-year-old journalism student <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/internet/fbi-exposes-terrifying-face-anonymous-748293">Mercedes Haefer</a>, guns drawn, at 6am one morning last July.</p>
<p>She was still in her pyjamas, getting ready for work. </p>
<p>Haefer is one of 14 individuals who last week pleaded not-guilty in San Jose for waging cyber attacks against e-commerce giant <a href="http://www.paypal.com.au/au">PayPal</a>.</p>
<p>The warrant for Haefer stated federal officers were looking for anything associated with hacking, infiltrating or <a href="http://theconversation.com/zombie-computers-cyber-security-phishing-what-you-need-to-know-1671">Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks</a>. </p>
<p>Oh, and they were looking for a Guy Fawkes mask – evidence that would link Mercedes with the hacker group Anonymous (who have claimed such masks as their own) and, specifically, <a href="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/212701/operation_payback_wikileaks_avenged_by_hacktivists.html">Operation Payback</a>. </p>
<h2>Payback</h2>
<p>Operation Payback saw DDoS attacks on a number of companies, in particular Paypal. Anonymous claimed the attacks were retribution for decisions by executives at these companies to withdraw payment facilities from <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374090,00.asp">Wikileaks</a>.</p>
<p>The FBI knew Haefer was associated with Anonymous because of her involvement on the group’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat">IRC</a> channels, where she was known as “NO”. </p>
<p>But she <a href="http://gawker.com/5757995/an-interview-with-a-target-of-the-fbis-anonymous-probe">denied</a> having taken part directly in any of the DDoS attacks on PayPal. </p>
<p>Haefer was <a href="http://freemercedes.org/">indicted</a> along with 13 others on two charges of causing damage against PayPal’s computers. They carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in jail and a fine of $500,000. Two other people were charged separately.</p>
<p>Haefer is enrolled in a journalism and media pre-major course at the <a href="http://unlvrebelyell.com/2011/07/25/unlv-student-arrested-by-fbi-for-hacking-in-support-of-wikileaks/">University of Nevada and Las Vegas</a>. </p>
<p>Commenting on the charges against Haefer, the director of the <a href="http://journalism.unlv.edu/">Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media</a>, Professor Daniel Stout said, “We don’t condone unethical behavior that results in the harm of the audience.”</p>
<p>He also said that if Haefer had continued her studies she would have taken courses that ultimately produce journalists with a strong sense of ethics (Haefer is still enrolled at UNLV and Professor Stout has since moderated his <a href="http://unlvrebelyell.com/2011/08/08/haefer-asserts-innocence/">comments</a>).</p>
<p>Despite a superficial understanding of what a DDoS attack comprises (and despite the fact Haefer had not been tried when he made his statement), he was ready to brand both the act and Haefer as criminal and unethical. </p>
<p>In an examination of the <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/20118308455825769.html">ethics of DDoS attacks</a> <a href="http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Gabriella_Coleman">Gabriella Coleman</a>, a socio-cultural anthropologist at New York University, makes a distinction between criminal acts such as hacking and non-violent political acts such as sit-ins.</p>
<p>In doing so, she raises the possibility of regarding DDoS as the digital equivalent of an occupation. </p>
<p>That said, in the case of a sit-in, the aim may include being arrested to draw more attention to a cause – and it’s not clear that any of the alleged members of Anonymous were anticipating being arrested.</p>
<p>The indictment used for the so-called Anonymous 16 includes the charge of intentional damage to a computer. </p>
<h2>DDoS</h2>
<p>A DDoS works by sending repeated requests to a website very quickly, exhausting resources and blocking access to regular users. </p>
<p>In the grand scheme of hacks, DDoS is a nuisance but not a major threat to a company, unlike, say, losing the details of user accounts and passwords. </p>
<p>This was a view shared by Deputy Assistant FBI Director <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers">Steven Chabinski</a>.</p>
<p>“There has not been a large-scale trend toward using hacking to actually destroy websites, [but] that could be appealing to both criminals or terrorists,” Chabinsky <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers">told radio station NPR</a> in July.</p>
<p>“That’s where the ‘hacktivism,’ even if currently viewed by some as a nuisance, shows the potential to be destabilizing.”</p>
<h2>Ethics</h2>
<p>Leaving aside considerations as to whether DDoS attacks are themselves ethical, the charge that the Anons lack a sense of ethics, as suggested by Professor Stout and others, seems even less certain. </p>
<p>If anything, it’s the Anons’ sense of righting the wrongs of corporations and governments that underpins most of their activities.</p>
<p>Haefer <a href="http://m.gawker.com/5757995/an-interview-with-a-target-of-the-fbis-anonymous-probe">said</a> she became interested in the activities of Anonymous in part because of a sense of injustice at the inappropriate punishment for a woman accused of distributing 24 songs.</p>
<p>She was referring to the US$2 million fine imposed on <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/music/2m-penalty-gets-reduced-in-minnesota-song-sharing-case/">Jammie Thomas-Rasset</a> for sharing music, a fine which was later reduced to a US$54,000.</p>
<p>Haefer’s case can be contrasted by that of a 16-year-old woman from France who claimed the <a href="http://techleech.com/lamaline_5mg/85450/">hack</a> of San Fransisco’s <a href="http://www.bart.gov/about/police/">Bay Area Rapid Transport Police Officers Association</a> last month. </p>
<p>The young hacker had released the personal details of 100 officers. Going by the handle “Lamaline_5mg”, she claimed this was her first hack, and that she had little experience and had picked up enough information to hack the site in less than four hours. </p>
<p>Whereas Haefer claimed no previous technical knowledge, Lamaline was technically savvy enough to use techniques to cover her tracks, making her protestations of technical naivety slightly suspect. </p>
<p>Interestingly, Lamaline had not associated herself with Anonymous – in fact, some people on an Anonymous chat room condemned the attack as irresponsible.</p>
<h2>Kicking an open door</h2>
<p>One confounding factor in the actions of Anons is the relatively low barrier to entry for participation. </p>
<p>A simple search online will provide links to downloadable software to enable the participation in a DDoS. </p>
<p>Software such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOIC,%20Low%20Orbit%20Ion%20Cannon">LOIC</a> is simple to use and requires no technical expertise. There are <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQRu-J3f_Kw">readily accessible videos</a> that demonstrate their use. </p>
<p>Anyone can go on to the <a href="http://anonnet.org/">Anonymous IRC channel</a> and listen in. You can follow the activities of Anonymous and others on <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/YourAnonNews">Twitter</a>. </p>
<p>Accompanying this ease of access is the separation of actions and consequence – a separation encapsulated by using DDoS software. </p>
<p>Unsophisticated users would potentially struggle to understand how traceable their actions are. </p>
<p>The fact the FBI had little trouble in rounding up the 14 suspects being tried together in the DDoS attacks is more a testament to the ease of tracing individuals than a reflection of the technical abilities of the FBI.</p>
<p>Their single unifying feature of <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/paypal-service-attack?page=0">those</a> arrested in connection with Operation Payback is their young age, given most of those charged are in their twenties. </p>
<p>The reaction against Anonymous from the general public, lawmakers and security specialists comes across almost as a generational conflict. </p>
<p>This is epitomised by Haefer having to leave her father’s home because he supposedly viewed his daughter (in Haefer’s words) as “a terrorist”.</p>
<p>And Haefer? She <a href="http://unlvrebelyell.com/2011/08/08/haefer-asserts-innocence/">still believes</a> in the positive things Anonymous is doing and is looking forward to making that known, without a mask, at her day in court.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Glance does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s a scene reminiscent of a thousand police dramas: the FBI arrived at the door of 20-year-old journalism student Mercedes Haefer, guns drawn, at 6am one morning last July. She was still in her pyjamas…David Glance, Director, Centre for Software Practice, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.