There are some extremely talented and dangerous hackers in Anonymous, but there are also a lot of angry teenagers, and they tend to “protest” in stupid ways, like hitting government websites with DDoS attacks. Angry teenagers aren’t noted for their skepticism, as demonstrated by the fallout from their recent hissy fit.
Apparently someone inserted a Trojan into the Slowloris attack tool Anonymous uses to shut down website temporarily, and while they were merrily stopping people from accessing websites nobody actually wants to go to in the first place, this Trojan was stealing their banking details. Yes, shockingly, people who want to give you the online equivalent of a can of spraypaint may not actually be doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.
Anon, for its part, is mostly saying “no u” at Symantec, because it is kind of embarrassing to have a major corporation you pantsed turn around and return the favor. And we’re sure those cheeky Guy Fawkes monkeys will get over it. Still, learning you’re not bulletproof is a good lesson for anyone.
(Image courtesy OperationPaperStorm on Flickr)