A while back I wrote a post about the well-known hacker organization “Anonymous” and they’re widespread attacks on Chinese government websites in April of this year. While I strongly noted their activities in other countries, it may have seemed at the time that the organization had focused itself entirely on the Communist Party of China for their immense censorship and control of the internet, compliments of the Great Firewall.
As an update to my previous post, I would like to fully dismiss the idea that the organization known as “Anonymous” is specifically, or entirely focused on China. While the government behind the Great Firewall is an obvious target for an organization claiming to want to bring “freedom of information” to the people, recent events (and quite frankly even past events) have proven that the focus of “Anonymous” activities is not centered around any one nation, party, or organization.
After hacking a U.S. Department of Justice website last week (more information below), the organization released the following statement: “We do not stand for any government or parties, we stand for freedom of people, freedom of speech and freedom of information. We are releasing data to spread information, to allow the people to be heard and to know the corruption in their government. We are releasing it to end the corruption that exists, and truly make those who are being oppressed free.”
“Anonymous” released 1.7GB of stolen data from the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday, May 22nd. “Today we are releasing 1.7GB of data that used to belong to the United States Bureau of Justice, until now,” the group wrote in a statement on its website.
In a statement given to ZDNet the Department of Justice confirmed the recent breach. “The department is looking into the unauthorized access of a website server operated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics that contained data from their public website.” The exact content of the stolen information has yet to be confirmed.
In addition to the recent hacking of the Department of Justice, and last month’s attacks on China, on their website “Anonymous” claims responsibility for even more major international activities including “exposing The Church of Scientology, supporting anti-corruption movements in Zimbabwe and India, and providing secure platforms for Iranian citizens to criticize their government.”
While “Anonymous” seemingly has no motive but to act on behalf of the oppressed (and this certainly seems to be the image they hope to develop and maintain), their actions in China, unveiling corruption in some of the nations’ largest corporations, undoubtedly served to benefit certain interest groups – interest groups “Anonymous” is likely playing a hand in.
The 1.7GB file “Anonymous” claims to have obtained during the Department of Justice breach has been made available to the public as a torrent, but good luck finding it. My previous post regarding “Anonymous” activities China is given below.
This post brought to you by Tom Grines, Content Developer for JMX International (specializes in furniture from the Amish) & student of International Relations.
Hey that pic is my wallpapeR!