We are anonymous inside the hacker world of lulzse

unemployed, who mostly just talk together in Internet chat rooms, have finally managed to grab hold of the public consciousness. They are
still holding on, and they will not let go.
Acknowledgments
This book would never have happened were it not for the contributions of several key individuals. First and foremost is Jake Davis, who has
given unceasingly helpful and clear insights into the bewildering world of Anonymous, LulzSec, and Internet culture generally. There is
more from Davis than I could fit in this book, and I maintain that he should, at some point, write a book of his own. I would not have first
started talking to Davis back in December of 2010 were it not for a crucial e-mail introduction from Gregg Housh, whose own role in the
history of Anonymous is detailed in chapter 5. At that time I had just started covering Anonymous for Forbes on its new blogging platform,
but, being based in London, I was interested in speaking to a U.K. representative. I asked Gregg if he could recommend anyone, and he gave
me a general e-mail address for AnonOps. It turned out that one of the people manning that address was Jake “Topiary” Davis. As I
exchanged e-mails with this address, I became even more intrigued. This representative spoke confidently as “we” when referring to
Anonymous, yet maintained that theirs was a fluid system, allowing jobs to be carried out by “anyone and everyone.” I asked how he had
found Anonymous and I was told about image boards. I’d never heard of them. “I know it sounds a bit silly,” he added, “but it really is a
whole different world once you’re refined to it. You start seeing things differently in life.” I found this fascinating. When this person then
revealed that his nickname was Topiary, I Googled the word and found references to gardening. Who were these people?
After covering the HBGary attack, I struggled to figure out where to take the story next and called Forbes managing editor Tom Post
seeking answers. After listening to me ramble on about social media vulnerabilities, he gave me what was probably the most valuable advice
I received all year: “Marshal everything you have on Anonymous that has not been reported, then let’s find a focus there.” He told me to find
out more about the people behind Anonymous, like Topiary. I took his advice and ran with it. The idea for a book came to me after some
initial encouragement from staffers at Forbes in February of 2011, including the magazine’s cyber security writer, Andy Greenberg. Andy
would later become a brother in arms as we both grappled with the book-writing process—he has written a book about WikiLeaks, and
hacktivism, published in 2012. From there I went on to gain invaluable advice and mentoring from Eric Lupfer at William Morris, whom I
cannot thank enough for having helped me write and then rewrite a decent book proposal.
By now I had met (via e-mail) the extraordinary young man referred to in this book as William. That started when he first tried to friend me
on Facebook, then sent a cryptic, direct message: “Hello. What would you like to know? In return for answering what you ask, may I ask
some questions of you? I’d really appreciate a response, negative or otherwise. Thank you, Chelsea.” Not knowing who or what this
“Chelsea” was, I ignored the message. A week later another message came: “Please don’t ignore me, it’s rude.” And then: “Is it really too
much to ask to get a simple dialogue going?” Today I am grateful that I did, not only because I might have otherwise ended up on the
receiving end of one of his “life ruins,” but because I eventually discovered someone far more articulate, helpful, and forthcoming than
William’s original message suggested. Though he will come across to many as a somewhat vindictive individual, William has answered
almost every question I have ever asked him about 4chan, Anonymous, his life, and even the darker corners of his own mind. For that, and
for helping to give this book an important insight into 4chan culture, he deserves enormous thanks.
Among the other key people who deserve acknowledgment: Forbes’s chief product officer, Lewis D’Vorkin. He met some skepticism
when he first established the Forbes contributor platform in the summer of 2010, which completely changed the way journalists at the
publication posted online stories. But this book would never have happened if D’Vorkin had not made that bold and rather brilliant move. It
gave journalists like me the freedom to pursue the stories that truly intrigue us, and then the ability to measure how much our readers are
intrigued by them, too. Thanks to D’Vorkin’s complete revamping of the architecture of Forbes, I could see there was a healthy appetite for
stories about the world of Anonymous, and now had an unprecedented opportunity to chase those stories down. The Forbes technology
editor, Eric Savitz, who is also my boss, has given me a wealth of helpful encouragement on this book. Coates Bateman, Forbes’s executive
producer of product development, has been an invaluable collaborator with this book’s publisher, Little, Brown, while Forbes’s legal counsel
Kai Falkenberg has also offered me sound advice on legal matters.
I am grateful to all the other people associated with Anonymous that I spoke to for this book, including LulzSec’s core members Hector
“Sabu” Monsegur, Kayla, Tflow, AVunit, and Pwnsauce, along with Barrett Brown, Laurelai Bailey, Jennifer Emick, and a number of
others who have asked to remain, fittingly enough, anonymous. Though some of these people, particularly hackers, were not always
completely forthcoming, or honest, when speaking to me, I was fortunate, as a journalist, that they would speak to me at all. Many have
asked how I was able to get access to people who frequented such hard-to-reach corners of the Web, and the answer is that I had enormous
help from sources who made introductions and vouched for me. I also believe that people, no matter how sociopathic, narcissistic, or
duplicitous they may seem to be, have a genuine urge to tell their stories and carve out some sort of legacy. I believe that is why it helped that,
when I first started speaking in March 2011 to the hackers who hit HBGary and then formed LulzSec, I told them their interviews would be
contributing to a book I was writing about Anonymous.
In addition, Gabriella Coleman, now Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University in Montreal, Canada,
regularly provided me with a refreshing dose of clarity on who Anonymous was as a collective and how it worked. Coleman has shown
extraordinary dedication to studying the Anonymous phenomenon. She has spent more time speaking to a broader base of regular Anons on
IRCs than I likely did for this book, and she is rightly seen as the expert on Anonymous and its evolution. Be sure to keep an eye out for her
forthcoming book on Anonymous in the next year or so.
Sincere thanks goes to my former colleagues at Forbes Anita Raghavan, who offered some smart advice on my book proposal, and
Stephane Fitch, who also introduced me to David Fugate of Launch Books. David has proved himself to be a brilliant and continually