Trend: the rise of the hacker culture
Title: Anonymous is legion, leaderless, and better than you think
Comment: I am legion.. ;)
Link: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2117225/anonymous-legion-leaderless?WT.rss_a=Anonymous%2Bis%2Blegion%2C%2Bleaderless%2C%2Band%2Bbetter%2Bthan%2Byou%2Bthink&WT.rss_f=News
Anonymous is legion, leaderless, and better than you think
Security pros weigh in on the hactivists
By Dave Neal
Fri Oct 14 2011, 10:12
THE HACKTIVIST GROUP Anonymous is only showing a small sample of its security and hacking skills, according to a panel of security experts including ex-HBGary Federal president Aaron Barr.
Barr, who was once a red flag to Anonymous' bull, spoke at the RSA Security Conference in London about his experience with the group and his perceptions of it. Although some of the hacks are mischevious or simple in nature, they do not tell the full story, he said, and hide bigger and better strengths.
The man who saw his personal and work accounts eviscerated by the hackers is a regular commentator on the group, and despite spending less time in its IRC channels, he still likes to keep his hand in.
Barr was at day one of the Occupy Wall Street protests - no one recognised him - and like the rest of the panel, he explained that Anonymous is a loose linked, anarchic group of personalities and people that could include your mum.
"They are chaotic," he said. "Anonymous is a very complex organisation. Anyone can join and anyone can co-opt the movement. There is some order, but there is also a lot of flexibility with the group."
"I spent some time at Occupy Wall Street," he added. "it's quite a mix... From the young to the old, affluent to the poor. They all had anger, animosity or a moral code they were trying to justify. It is impossible to put them into demographic buckets."
There are, or were key leaders, though and Barr and the rest of the panel said that it was likely that some of those people that have been arrested, Topiary and the two Kaylas for example, were, as far as the police and panel were concerned, significant movers in the organisation.
Those key members share access to the communications systems used by the group, according to Barr, and he said that Topiary, Jake Davis, had already admitted that he had sold access to his Twitter account. Other Twitter accounts, he added, would also be controlled by multiple users, making it hard to track down the authors or profile them.
However, these members are the real muscle behind the operation, according to Barr. "The people with real skill are a much smaller number than the majority," he said.
Barr, of course, had his own taste of the hackers and he said that the experience was almost unreal. He called it "that whole mess". Although he refused to comment on the impact on the hack on the company that he worked for, HBGary Federal, he said that for him personally it felt, "unreal" and "almost like a dream". We presume he meant nightmare. ยต
