Anonymous in online “infowar” against companies
11 Dec 2010
In what is being described as the first great cyber war a little-known, poorly understood group of ''hacktivists'' is trying to bring down companies in an online confrontation.
The hacker group, Anonymous which is coordinating the attacks has declared its goal to be "infowar" and said: "In war, there are bystanders that get hit."
As the group's name suggests, it does not have any high-profile members though its composition is multinational.
A 16-year-old Dutch boy was arrested this week on suspicion of involvement in the MasterCard and Visa website attacks, in support of WikiLeaks and the family computer, which he is suspected to have used, has been seized.
It is not yet clear, though who is leading the group, neither do its members seem to have a clear idea about its goals. The group's most audacious effort in which it sought to target Amazon was thwarted due to disagreement between members on which site to attack next.
The group was born on the influential internet messageboard 4chan, a popular forum for hackers and gamers in 2003 and the group's name derives from 4chan's early days when individuals who posted to its forums and chose not to identify themselves were automatically dubbed "Anonymous".
