Anonymous Update II

 

In addition to the Epik hack that was attributed to the hacktivist collective, Anonymous (that we reported on, in our September 17th post)... It appears that those rascally Anonymi are at it once again. At the end of September, the Taiwan News reported that Anonymous had uploaded a pro-Taiwan Independence banner on a Chinese tourism promotion site. To wit...

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The decentralized international hacktivist group Anonymous has hacked into a Chinese government tourism promotion website, where it uploaded Taiwan's national anthem, flag, and pro-Taiwan independence banner, among other items.

The hack apparently incorporated multiple links to various Anony-related files. The first link displayed the telltale emblem for Anonymous, a black suit and a question mark. The second link launched an audio file that plays Taiwan's national anthem.

A quick recap of the Guy Fawkes masked marauders that we all know and love...  Anonymous originated in 2003 on 4chan and gained notoriety for hacking the Church of Scientology, the Westboro Baptist Church and a number of large corporations including PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and Sony. If you're familiar with Sam Esmail's Mr. Robot, the hacking group fsociety in the show was inspired by Anonymous.

So Anonymous are back in the news... which begs the question... why now? In my upcoming interview with the ever-astute Recluse, on his The Farm podcast, we get into the Anonymous question (no pun intended) in regard to their recent revival... as well as the "anonymous" nature of Anonymous. Such an unidentified entity or entities are ripe for nefarious impersonation of the persona.

Full disclosure: I am a fan of the idea of an internationally active, autonomous collective of digital pranksters. Since it's/their inception, Anonymous have demonstrated a take-from-the-rich and give-to-the-poor aesthetic that is appealing to my sensibilities.

However, the very nature of anonymity lends itself to bad actors who might seek to further their own agenda, while impersonating or blaming the original Anonymous. It is not hard to imagine some CIA black-op that utilizes the anonymous moniker to disrupt or destabilize a foreign (or for that matter, domestic) entity.

This topic is but one example of the parapolitical potpourri that Recluse and I explore, in the upcoming episode of The Farm. Watch this space for the publication date... 

Part One