Introduction to Cyber-Warfare - Proiect SEMPER FIDELIS

74 6. CYBER ATTACKS BY NONSTATE HACKING GROUPS: THE CASE OF ANONYMOUS AND ITS AFFILIATESANONYMOUS—ON IMAGE, STRUCTURE, AND MOTIVATIONAnyone can get on 4chan/7chan/someintegerchan/IRC and propose a raid or operation[...] it’s hard to say how many people on those sites truly agree on what issues are important. AdrianCrenshaw 47The meme “Anonymous” refers to a collective of image board users who seek to remainnameless. Postings marked as “Anonymous” on image boards like 4chan (7chan, 711chan,PartyVan.net, Anonops.net) are inclusive and unlimited (everybody can use this identificationas often as desired). On message boards posters sometimes jokingly pretend “Anonymous”was a real person. Eventually, the concept of “Anonymous” signifies the term as a placeholderfor any and all people to represent an unnamed collective, a shared online identity for everybodyposting without giving specific names (logos commonly used to represent the Anonymouscollective or parts thereof today can be seen in Figures 6.2 and 6.3). In various publicstatements, the collective claimed to represent the real-world socioeconomical “99%”. 48Another 4chan/b viral meme was substantiated by the first posting of the b/- internal characterof the Epic Fail Guy in 2006, who—well—fails at everything he sets out to do. The EpicFIGURE 6.2 The Guy Fawkes mask became a prominent symbolof Anonymous. Source: Anon News Netherlands Blogspot, May 8, 2012.FIGURE 6.3 The headless suit also became a symbol ofAnonymous. Source: sott.net, March 7, 2012.