We are anonymous inside the hacker world of lulzse

network collapsed, they would move back to image boards. If someone was arrested, more would join. Almost nothing had happened with
Anonymous for two years until #savethepiratebay suddenly snowballed into WikiLeaks and thousands of newcomers started seeing a solid
infrastructure to Anonymous. Then the buzz on AnonOps IRC had nearly died until HBGary magically came along. It was often just a matter
of circumstances—major news events like WikiLeaks or a single clarion call on /b/ to fight Scientology.
Topiary marked his split from Anonymous with an elaborate getaway. He typed up a fake IRC chat log between two friends discussing
how Topiary had been arrested and then made sure it was passed around until several people bought the story.
i need to talk to…someone…are you Q?
lol. depends. who are you?
i was told to get on anonops and find either a Q or Tflow. someone you know once gave me an emergency
contact. you should know that guy as topiary
top? haven’t seen him in around the last days
i know him in real life. i live close by. there was major action near his house. some people and cars gathering
around there. since then i havent seen him
it wasn’t police was it?
i dont know but i dont think so.
The complete fake log was long and full of typos, inept questions from “contact” about AnonOps to suggest he was new to the network,
along with healthy skepticism from Marduk. The idea was to make the “friend” sound scared but never push the idea that Topiary had
actually been arrested. If he left enough gaps, others would come up with the rumor themselves.
Topiary leaked the log to five trusted individuals, making sure each version was slightly different—an extra punctuation mark or a tiny
difference in spelling. If the log ever leaked to a group like Backtrace, he would be able to pinpoint who had done it. Topiary changed his
nickname to Slevin and, with a slightly heavy heart, whittled his contacts on Skype down to three unnamed people.
There was the sound of clattering as Jake put dishes in the sink, including a plate covered with crumbs from a fish pie he had just eaten. Still a
frequent visitor to 4chan’s “cooking” board, he enjoyed making his own meals, particularly fish or meat pies. Turning on the water, he
glanced out his kitchen window and noticed a police van parked on the road a few houses down. His heart raced. Quickly he went back to
his laptop to let his small group know what was up.
“Back in 15,” he told AVunit under his new nickname, Slevin. He would not manage to keep the name for long; it just wasn’t how people
knew him.
“Good luck and stay safe, Top.”
By the time Jake had signed out of his IRC channels and put his coat on, the police van was gone. It was a sunny day, cold and brisk, with
the usual wind carrying scented undertones of the salty sea. Jake put on his earphones and took the twenty-minute walk into town, his head
lowered as usual, his shoulders slightly hunched. He glanced around for any sign of the police van. There was none.
He went to a café near a hill. Resplendent with leather chairs, wooden tables, and soft lighting, it was probably the most modern eatery in
town. He ordered a latte to go and hiked to the top of the hill to sit in his usual thinking spot on finely cut grass, a place where he could drink
and look out at the view. Next to him were a handful of iron-black cannons, used generations ago to blast holes into the ships of marauders
trying to invade Shetland. Now they were quiet relics, their shells varnished with protective paint. He could have sat on one, but it felt
somehow disrespectful.
He walked back. The police van was still nowhere to be seen. Most likely they had been there to check on the local druggies. Jake lived in
a poor neighborhood, and the several heroin users next door often played loud music. One male resident had once been so high he had hung
a heavy rug outside on the clothesline to dry even though it was raining. The next morning he wrestled it off the line and swung it around in
an attempt to dry it even though it was now waterlogged beyond repair. When the druggies were being loutish or annoying, Topiary would
redirect their wireless connection so every click would go to the Goatse shock site and then rename their WiFi connection heroin-hiddenunder-the-house.
In the past year, they hadn’t so much as thrown a beer can on his front lawn.
Jake stepped back into his house and went to his laptop. He got online and caught site of a news headline about Anonymous. It appeared
that Anonymous had just declared war on Sony, an enormous target. This time he had no idea who was driving the attack, and he was
completely fine with that, even happier to have stepped away from it all.
It was April 1 and a few Anons had just published a new digital flyer. “Congratulations, Sony,” it read. “You have now received the
undivided attention of Anonymous.” This time, while Topiary was AWOL, 4chan vigilante William had jumped into the attack with gusto,
his main role being to help dox Sony executives and their families as part of a side operation called SonyRecon. All of this was happening
because earlier that spring, Sony had sued a hacker named George “Geohotz” Hotz after he had figured out how to jailbreak the until-then
unhackable PlayStation 2 game console and then announced on his blog how people could download games onto their own systems for free.
Age twenty-one at the time, Geohotz was already well known for jailbreaking Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Now Sony was accusing him of
breaking the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by hacking their console.
Over the next few days, Anons who had downloaded LOIC launched a DDoS attack on several Sony websites and its PlayStation
Network (PSN) for gamers. The PlayStation Network then went offline, angering millions of gamers around the world.
William, who was usually skeptical of larger Anonymous raids, was inspired by this particular attack and the side operation he was
working with. Already his team had dug up personal information on several Sony executives and their families, including Sony CEO
Howard Stringer and his grown children.
“This is the most focused attack yet,” he enthused at the time in an interview. “The social engineers know their place and so do the
hackers. This is one of the first times I’ll be working as part of a team, and knowing EXACTLY my role within that team.” He reasoned that
Sony had treated Geohotz (“one of our own”) in a way that was anti-freedom, anti-expression, anti-individualism, and, thus, “anti-
Anonymous.”