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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Anonymous is not so anonymous
anymore.
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The computer hackers, chat room denizens and young people who
comprise the loosely affiliated Internet collective have
increasingly turned to questionable tactics, drawing the attention
of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal
investigators.
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What was once a small group of pranksters has become a potential
national security threat, federal officials say.
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The FBI has carried out more than 75 raids and arrested 16 people
this year in connection with illegal hacking jobs claimed by
Anonymous.
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Since June, the Department of Homeland Security has issued three
“bulletins” warning cyber-security professionals of hacking
successes and future threats by Anonymous and related groups,
including a call to physically occupy Manhattan’s Wall Street on
Sept. 17 in protest of various U.S. government policies.
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San Francisco police arrested more than 40 protesters last month
during a rowdy demonstration organized by Anonymous that disrupted
the evening commute. The group called for the demonstration after
the Bay Area Rapid Transit system shut off it cell service in San
Francisco stations to quell a planned protest over police shooting
on a subway platform.
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“Anonymous’ activities increased throughout 2011 with a number of
high-profile attacks targeting both public and private sector
entities,” one of the bulletins issued last month said.
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Some members of the group have also called for shutting down
Facebook in November over privacy issues, although other Anonymous
followers are disavowing such an attack – underscoring just how
loosely organized the group is and how problematic it is to
police.
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“Anonymous insist they have no centralized operational leadership,
which has been a significant hurdle for government and law
enforcement entities attempting to curb their actions,” an Aug. 1
Homeland Security bulletin noted. “With that being said, we assess
with high confidence that Anonymous and associated groups will
continue to exploit vulnerable publicly available Web servers,
websites, computer networks, and other digital information mediums
for the foreseeable future.”
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Followers posting to Twitter and chatting in Internet Relay
Channels insist there are no defined leaders of Anonymous and that
it’s more of a philosophy than a formal club, though a small group
of members do the most organizing online.
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“Anonymous is not a group, it does not have leaders, people can do
ANYTHING under the flag of their country,” wrote one of the more
vocal members who asked not to be identified.
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“Anything can be a threat to National Security, really,” the member
said in an email interview. “Any hacker group can be.”
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The member said that the group as a whole wasn’t a national
security threat, but conceded some individuals acting as Anonynous
may be considered dangerous.
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DHS’ latest bulletin, issued Sept. 3, warned the group has been
using social media networks to urge followers working in the
financial industry to sabotage their employers’ computer
systems.
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The DHS warning comes on the heels of several Anonymous-led
protests of the Bay Area’s transit agency that led to FBI raids of
35 homes and dozens of arrests, as well as to the indictment of 14
followers in July on felony computer hacking charges in connection
with a coordinated “denial of service attack” against Paypal’s
website last year.
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Security officials said the “DDoS” attacks occur when a website is
overwhelmed by malicious messages carried out by thousands of
followers, usually with easily downloadable software.
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“Anonymous has shown through recently reported incidents that it
has members who have relatively more advanced technical
capabilities who can also marshal large numbers of willing, but
less technical, participants for DDoS activities,” the August DHS
bulletin said.
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Anonymous orchestrated the crashing of Paypal late last year after
the online financial service suspended Wikileaks’ account after the
website published confidential diplomatic cables and other
sensitive U.S. government intelligence. The group also targeted
Visa, Mastercard and others for the same reason and has carried out
several other hacks during the year. Last month, for example, the
group claimed responsibility for hacking a website belonging to the
Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and releasing personal information of
2,000 passengers.
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“Anonymous is incredibly active,” said Josh Shaul, chief technology
officer of Application Security, Inc., a New York-based provider of
database security software. It’s rare to have a hacking group
willing to work outside of the shadows. These guys are quite
brazen.”
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Anonymous emerged in 2003 from an Internet chat channel where
members organized random Web incidents for their own amusement. By
2008, the prankster nature of Anonymous morphed into “hacktivism,”
where members sabotaged websites and leaked confidential
information for political purposes.
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Investigators suspect a splinter Anonymous group known as LulzSec
was responsible for a June 15 denial of service attack on the CIA’s
public website.
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This summer, Anonymous claimed credit for hacking into a Booz Allen
Hamilton website and leaking email addresses of 90,000 U.S.
military personnel and hacking a Monsanto Co. website and releasing
personal data of 2,500 employees.
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Until July, law enforcement officials around the world had arrested
just a handful of suspected hackers thought to be affiliated with
Anonymous. But on July 19, the FBI fanned out across the United
States and raided more than 35 homes, seizing dozens of computers
and arrested 16 on charges that they participated in the Paypal
attack.
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In response, Anonymous said it hacked a website on Sept. 1
belonging to police chiefs in Texas. The group posted personal
information such as emails about internal investigations before the
site was shut down.
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FBI investigators in court filings said that the raids and arrests
were made from a list of 1,000 computer users that Paypal
cyber-security workers identified as the most active attackers. The
fourteen appearing in San Jose federal court have pleaded not
guilty and were released on bail after promising not to access
Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.
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Most of the defendants were younger than 30. Security experts and
the Department of Homeland Security say most of Anonymous followers
are so-called “script kiddies,” young people who carry out the
attacks and who are “less skilled hackers” than the vocal group
members who call for the protests and attacks.
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The DHS defines script kiddies as: “Unskilled individuals who use
scripts or programs developed by others to attack computer systems
and networks and deface websites.”
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