Monday, May 9, 2011

Anonymous vs. Anonymous: Self-Destruction Engaged

It must have seemed like a great idea at the time: create a smack-talking, headless entity composed of hundreds of people, and have them all wear Guy Fawkes masks. Regardless of the lack of leadership, hierarchy, or even an official political or ethical platform, Anonymous would defy logic, functioning as a focused and collective force of justice; a real hivemind! Right?

Nope.

Anonymous is now under siege by a splinter group of its own members, who disagree with the attacks launched against Sony. Remember when AnonOps.net went down? The splinter group has claimed responsibility, adding that they intentionally leaked identifying information (IP addresses and passwords) of Anons who'd been operating through AnonOps.net and its IRC chat rooms.

The splinter group also remarked, in an exclusive interview with Thinq, that certain members of Anonymous had been "abusing their power by setting themselves up in a leadership role," using AnonOps "to feed their own egos."

Additionally, two veteran members of Anonymous have spoken out, stating that Anonymous is responsible for the PSN intrusion:
One Anonymous member told the FT that he saw technical details of a vulnerability in Sony’s network that enabled the break-in discussed on an Anonymous chat room, shortly before the intrusion.
The second member to speak up was "Kayla," a well-established Anonymous persona who played a vital role in the attacks against HBGary:
If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it,” said the hacker, who uses the online nickname Kayla. “Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn’t mean Anonymous didn’t do it."
As a side note, if you didn't already know, Anonymous had already confessed their plans to breach the PSN, with full knowledge that credit card information could be compromised--as early as April 6th.

We can only hope that the FBI is on top of this, knows about the leaked info from AnonOps.net, and uses it to their advantage. Anonymous would be wise to disband their ridiculous imitation of V for Vendetta and put the Guy Fawkes masks away for good.