Anonymous Speaks About Australian Gov't. Attacks 235
daria42 writes "The loose-knit collective of individuals known as 'Anonymous' has broken its silence about the distributed denial of service attacks on the Australian government. An individual (who insisted he or she is not a spokesperson for the group) said the attacks were more effective at stopping the government's Internet filtering project than signing a petition, and that the attacks could go on for months." The site where some members of Anonymous are said to hang out, 4chan, got a visibility boost yesterday when its founder moot spoke at the TED conference.
good reporting (Score:1, Informative)
Good Gravy (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, let me know when you see Anonymous on there. They're totally a bunch of black shadowy figures hanging out in /b/. Also, last time I checked, this was 4chan rule #4 [4chan.org]:
4chan has a reputation for being a launchpad for this sort of thing, but it's not, at least, not any more. Go blame IRC, go blame any of the dozen clone boards, but it's not 4chan now.
--- Mr. DOS
Re:Impossible! (Score:4, Informative)
Except "Anonymous" is the bastard hybrid of a punch of bored 14 year old script kiddies, an unholy horde of angry-at-the-world genuinely decent at coding 20 somethings, and a frightning legion of bored in-it-for-the-lulz near or middle aged men.
Inconsistency. (Score:4, Informative)
Summary says:
"An individual (who insisted he or she is not a spokesperson for the group) said..."
TFA says exactly the opposite:
"...received a reply from an individual claiming to be a spokesperson."
Authenticity of said spokesperson: YMMV.
Re:We Are Anonymous (Score:3, Informative)
Pop culture, thanks for asking I learned a few things too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_in_popular_culture
Re:We Are Anonymous (Score:1, Informative)
It means "we are very many". See #5 here. [reference.com]
And you are correct - the word legion is often associated with the Roman legion, or the French legionnaires. So the phrase also implies that Anonymous is a vast army of soldiers. Which is part of their motif. If one "soldier" winds up in the party van, [urbandictionary.com] there are uncounted hordes of other anons that will take his place and continue the work, whatever that may be.
Re:We Are Anonymous (Score:5, Informative)
You're both right. It is the same meaning. The biblical story was written around 20-30 AD, during the time of the Roman (You know, the guys who nailed Jesus to a tree) Empire.
Here's (one of the variations) on the Biblical story of Legion [biblegateway.com]:
Loosely translated from KJVspeak to modern English: Once upon a time, there was a guy who was apeshit crazy because he was posessed. Jesus said "Yo, Demon! Who the hell are you?" The demon said "My name is Legion: for we are many." Sorta like a Borg collective. Jesus said "GTFO". The /b/tards said "Like, where?" Jesus said "There's so many of you, how 'bout that herd of 2000 pigs over there?" Legion said "good enough for me", and 2000 pigs ran into the sea like a bunch of crazed /b/tards. LOL!
2000 units. Right about the size of "a division of the Roman army, usually comprising 3000 to 6000 soldiers", or, a Legion.
They're an army, but they're nobody's personal army. They're a Roman legion's worth of individuals doing crazy shit, in unison, and it doesn't take much to set them running off in an unpredictable (even self-destructive) direction. Call them Legion, for they are many.
The argument about whether the reference is to the Roman military or the Biblical fable is (heh) moot; it's the same concept.