Anonymous (group)

Anonymous are a group that originally formed on 4chan.

Their Operation Payback was first a series of denial of service (DoS) attacks against companies which had been conducting DoS attacks on BitTorrent sites. Later it broadened to include attacks on a number of film and music companies who were attacking "piracy". In December 2010, they "declared war" on the enemies of WikiLeaks; see the WikiLeaks article.

Their main weapon is software called LOIC, Low Orbit Ion Cannon; the image is an armed satellite that reduces buildings below to smoking heaps of rubble. The reality is more prosaic; LOIC creates a voluntary ]]botnet]] which conducts denial of service attacks. Targets are announced via IRC discussions or other channels. Anyone who has downloaded LOIC (estimated 40,000) can join an attack just by typing the target name into the software.

LOIC has been analysed by researchers. Anonymous players are not so anonymous; the attacks are easily traced.