Anonymoushacker group subculture
Anonymousis the term that is used to refer to the uncountable members of theinternet subcultures that wish not to reveal their identities to theworld. The values of the group are mainly to protect their identityso that they can conduct their activities using the internet withoutbeing noticed. Their main interest is to put to test the securitylimits of the computer systems. The study of subcultures is verysignificant in our businesses, social interactions and also in thepolitical arena. As it gives an understanding of what that particulargroup of people value most and what they despair. This knowledge isof significance in economy, social and political fields, as it can beused to determine the most effective strategy that can be used toreach out to those groups and be able to win their love andacceptance. The study of subcultures involves the study of theirstyle of clothing, their property, behaviors and rituals. The paperwill include some of the people who had been interviewed to providesubstantial information about the anonymous hackers’ subculture andthe general opinion of the public towards the subculture.
Themost feared group of hackers are the anonymous, simply because theyhave been misunderstood by people, due to constant cyber-attacks thatlead to organizations and even organs of the government loosingvaluable data. The anonymous hacker group operates both in the insideand outside of the confinement of the internet (Gragido 21). Thegroup is always under constant attacks by the media due to their“hacking” activities.
Itried to find out what the society thinks about the hacker groups andget to know their views. Ben Woodruff, who was one of the people thatwe succeeded to interview, was in the process of caring out hisgroup’s network space (Coleman and Gabriella, 514).
Woodruffwas very important in this interview since he was one of the membersof the Interlock Rochester Hacker space and was an I.T student at theRochester Institute of Technology. According to him, the hackingsubculture as it applies in the field of computer science has beendivided into two the white hackers and the other group is the blackhackers who are also known as the crackers (Gragido, Will, Daniel,John and Nick, 21).
Themajority of the hacking community is made up of the white hackers.The white hackers mainly share ideas and generate fun on theinternet. The black hackers on the other side are the fringe of thecommunity, they engage in illegal activities that are always heard inthe news. They are also referred to as the cyber terrorist.
Theaims and goals of the white hackers are to the cyber security oforganizations, companies, and even government agencies across theglobe. White hackers discover any existing vulnerability and disclosethe information to the relevant authorities to prevent damages thatcan result if the black hackers manipulated those systems.
Thecommunity thinks that anonymous is mostly made of teenagers who tryto be rebellious and edgy by the use of the internet. Some peoplealso think that anonymous are not as risky as people think they are.Anonymous could still be a social movement that is peripherallyrelated to the hacker’s subculture. The main limitation in gettingfull information about the anonymous subculture group is that theindividual members of the group are very hard to be identified.Therefore, there is no adequate information that gives full detailsof the subculture.
TheAnonymous hackers group has been known for taking down websites andconducting other malpractices. What the members of anonymous mostlyengage themselves is making posts on the image boards, such as thoseof 4chan.org.these websites led to the name anonymous.
Mostof the posters done by this group did not use a handle or a name whenbeing posted. Thus, the websites automatically assigned them the nameAnonymous on those posts. The anonymous hackers are also responsiblefor the infamous attack on the websites such as that of the Church ofScientology and also that of the online advertiser sharecash.org.
Redrum,one of the people who shared his views with us, indicated that theanonymous hackers have the full potential to be dangerous to businessand community at large. According to Redrum, raiding is mostly doneby the youngsters who are misguided and are out there with theintentions of just creating havoc and nothing else.
Anonymoushas not been a collective of like-minded hackers, rather, they usethis banner which has created a good platform for many otherdifferent hacktivist groups to be able to rally behind as theyattempt to gather adequate support to take down those who oppose them(ithacaactionnews.wordpress.com).The major opponents of the anonymous hacker group include governmentbureaucracies. Wall Street banks, cyber security firms,Scientologists among many others.
Theanonymous subculture became a magnet that pulled a good number ofyoung men most of them with a decent but inadequate knowledge ofhacking. Their main intention is to wage war against the governmentand corporate actions which seem to limit speech and expression(Phillips 497). Greg Hoglund who is the CEO of the security firm thatis known as the HBGary, says that anonymous acts not only as a brandbut also as an open source brand, where anyone has the ability toco-opt, use it is convenient to them and later discard it when theyare done with whatever they were doing with it. Anonymous is anorganization that lacks proper leadership since it is not one staticgroup.
Thereis a lot of power in numbers. Under the protection of the currentadvanced modern technology, it seems that the associates of Anonymoushave found it fit to consider themselves as the masked anti-heroes.These are among the numerous examples of how anonymous has achievedto bring together its members with the aims of causing some real harmto the community.
Lastyear anonymous was credited with the raid on the Yahoo email accountof the vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Someone was able todiscover her password, and a user posted it along with somescreenshots of her personal photos together with the emails to4chan.they were posted and reposted and were available on theinternet. The culprit, David Kernel, who also had the name Rubicon,was discovered easily as a result of some mistakes that he made whenhe was bragging to posters on 4chan.
Interferingwith the privacy of other people is a big offense this is because itcreates a lot of inconveniences and lack of access by the owners.Most people do not prefer their issues to be put to the public andthose who Violet those rights risk being put behind bars and evenserving long terms in prison.
Theanonymous hackers have made the society live in fear of their raidand even questioning the eligibility of technology in safeguardinghighly confidential information and data. These groups of hackersmanipulate the weaknesses that exist in the systems and use them totheir advantage, in most cases they are ill minded with maliciousintentions rather than use their knowledge and skills to save thecommunity (Phillips 506). Life could be better if all that energythey spend hacking could be riveted into something constructive.
Luckily,anonymous has made it clear that the power that comes as a result ofnumbers does not necessarily lead to a digital Ku Klux Klan (Coleman511). Besides terrorizing Sarah Palin, anonymous has received d someaccolades due to its efforts in bringing awareness to the people inthe community, indicating that they still have some good intentionstowards the community and they do not only focus on causing harm andraids to them. They created awareness on some topics that the mediahad just decided to glance over them and did not do much towardsinforming the public. Project Chaology, which was led by the membersof anonymous, was a group that had been set out to enlighten thecommunity of the dangers that The Church of Scientology posed to thecommunity, and the media had not been able to gather any informationthat thy could have used to warn the general public against thatchurch.
Afterconducting an interview with Tom Cruise, who is an avidScientologist, it came to leak onto the YouTube in late 2008. Thechurch tried all ways and means to remove the interview claiming thatthe person who uploaded it had malicious intentions and that it hadbeen edited with the aims of mispresenting the religion to the peopleand that the interview had only been intended to those who weremembers of that church.
Themoment the 4chen came to discover the video they immediatelyreported it and made it available to the general public giving them achance to have firsthand information about the church and theactivities that these people used to conduct. The most interestingthing about the video was that anonymous was able to send words tothe public that they are not an elite group of hackers, but ratherassume the nature of the everyday man and woman who decide to takeaction by the force of a faceless army (Phillips 494).
Theunfortunate thing is that some members of Anonymous have taken itupon them to engage in some criminal actions which are in the form ofdenial of the service attacks on the sites that are fully owned byScientology. After investigating the case some identities came to beuncovered, Dmitry Guzner, who was 18yrs, pled guilty to have engagedhimself in computer hacking for the role that he played in theattacks that took place in January 2008. He claimed that heparticipated since he considered himself a member of Anonymous, whichwas an underground group of hackers.
Theanonymous hackers can achieve great and a lot of glories if theydecide to make their activities beneficial to the community at large.This might be something hard to achieve since the members have variedintentions but it could help create a positive image of thesubculture. The media cannot cover everything, and the communityneeds to be educated and informed of anything that might affect themnegatively thus creating the need to have the subculture to step infor the benefit of the community.
Thegovernment should also come up with a more advanced counter system tocurb the cyber terrorism menace to ensure that people do notinterfere with the privacy of others. Thus, those who engage in suchactivities are held accountable for their actions.
Workcited
Coleman,Gabriella. "Hackerpolitics and publics." Public Culture23.3 65 (2011): 511-516.
Gragido,Will, Daniel Molina, John Pirc, and Nick Selby. Blackhatonomics:An Inside Look at
theEconomics of Cybercrime.Burlington: Elsevier Science, 2012. Internet resource.pg 21
Phillips,Whitney. "TheHouse That Fox Built Anonymous, Spectacle, and Cycles of
Amplification."Television & New Media 14.6 (2013): 494-509.