Anonymous ("Anonymous", "Anonymous") is the self-name of imageboard visitors - non-identifiable Internet users without membership and membership. This movement often carries out various protests against various political, commercial and religious organizations that attempt to restrict freedom of speech on the Internet or are perceived negatively by the Anonymous subculture.
Project "Chanology" 2008
The movement of "anonymous" gained worldwide fame as a result of the "Chanology" project, which was directed against the activities of the Church of Scientology. The project responded to the Church of Scientology's efforts to remove from the Internet in January 2008 an interview with Tom Cruise, its most famous parishioner. On January 21, Anonymous members posted on YouTube a video "Message to Scientology", in which the actions of the Church of Scientology were called Internet censorship and the intention to "expel the church from the Internet" was announced. After that, DDoS attacks began, hooligan calls with threats to the Church of Scientology and black faxes. In addition, sites were created by "anonymous" that criticized the activities of the Church of Scientology. For the first time in the history of the Anonymous movement, its members took to the streets, hiding their faces under the masks of Guy Fawkes.
Operation Payback / Revenge for Julian Assange 2010
The Anonymous movement also gained prominence for its successful Operation Payback, a series of DDOS and other attacks on the websites of individuals and organizations promoting restriction of freedom on the Internet and copyright laws, as well as seeking and prosecuting pirates. Operation Reckoning was continued after the arrest of the founder of the Wikileaks website, Julian Assange. As a result of the ensuing anonymous attacks, Mastercard, PayPal, Visa payment systems, the Amazon.com online store portal, PostFinance bank and many sites, including the site of the Swedish government, were hacked. The logo for Operation Payback was based on the emblem of the Pirate Bay, where the cannonball and the cannons were added.
Other major stocks of the Anonymous movement in 2012:
- MegaUpload campaign: in response to the government's closure of the MegaUpload website, the largest DDoS attack was carried out using the LOIC network attack program;
- DDoS attack on the website of the European Parliament on January 26, 2012, which was carried out after the signing of the Trade Agreement on Combating Counterfeiting by Poland;
- Operation Russia: hacking and disclosing the correspondence of high-ranking officials of the Nashi and Rosmolodezh movement at the end of January 2012, hacking of the website of the Kaluga regional branch of the United Russia party and posting an Anonymous video message on it - February 2012;
- Operation Free Hamza: a demonstration in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy on February 24, 2012 in Berlin in defense of the Saudi blogger Hamza Kashgari;
- attacks on the Vatican website in March 2012: disabling the official Vatican website, attacking the Vatican Radio website in protest against the politics and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as “outdated and absurd” concepts of the Catholic Church;
- Operation SaveTheArctic on June 26 and July 13, 2012: over 1000 passwords and email addresses have been released from BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil, Rosneft and Gazprom to protect the Arctic shelf from oil exploration, which it claims activists of the Anonymous movement harm the environment.
