Love and/or hate them, you can not deny their presence. The abstract hacker-collectivity identifying itself as Anonymous has increased its stature and daring over the past several years and shows no signs of disappearing from the national consciousness any time soon. As a worldwide action it is borderless; as a leaderless movement it is fluid and adapted for many means. Evolving ideologically from the trolling and meme-generating /b/ board thread on the website 4chan, the faceless face of Anonymous affiliation is open to anyone who says they are part of it. This is both its power and its weakness: it becomes responsible for any and all actions attributed to it. The group has been involved in cyber-actions against a wide-range of targets for both righteous and unrighteous reasons. However, recent years have seen the group move away from gay porn bombs and juvenile antics in online forums - instead working in a more defined, politically motivated direction. Not to ignore the more irresponsible and unfortunate acts that have occurred under the Anonymous moniker, but to focus on the possibility of large-scale sociopolitical action in such a post-modern manner, we compiled this list of the ten most epic and ballsy hacks claimed by Anonymous, and why they matter.
David Wagner is an author/musician who splits his time between Oakland, CA and Istanbul, Turkey.
David has published two novels, both available on his website, and as a fan of movies, comics, and genre television, he is happy to be working with WhatCulture as a regular contributor.
