What is Anonymous? What are its best-known actions?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Anonymous is a group of hacktivists that seem primarily interested in freedom of speech. Even this characterization, however, is in dispute. WikiLeaks is easy to describe because it has a known public spokesman (Julian Assange), and a board of directors. WikiLeaks is part of an officially registered Icelandic corporation. Anonymous has no such official organizing body, or leader. In fact, its semiofficial logo is a suit with a question mark instead of a head, and members wear masks (all of them identical) when appearing in public. As a result, any hacker or activist can claim to be part of Anonymous, and there is no official spokesman to refute these claims. Among the best-known actions of Anonymous are:• A December 2010 attack in retribution for financial sanctions against WikiLeaks. Several companies, including PayPal and MasterCard, have blacklisted WikiLeaks, preventing donors from using those systems to donate to WikiLeaks. Anonymous used denial-of-service attacks to disrupt the sites.• Attacks throughout the summer of 2011 that disrupted the government websites of Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. These attacks were in retaliation for government censorship of the Internet, and meant to help support pro-democracy revolutions in those countries.• Publication of e-mails stolen from Bank of America, security company HBGary Federal, and others.