2003: Origins on 4chan
Before the online collective of Hacktivists came to be known as Anonymous, their beginnings could be traced to a group of internet trolls on the once popular imageboard website, 4chan. It was here that users would conglomerate and share images alongside the infamous “Green Text”, comments saying any number of vicious or humourous things. The culture developed into something that most would call a cesspool of memes, jokes, and internet trolling, with some users adding labels to their text to better formulate their concepts. This eventually led to the start of the Anonymous label, that would then be a calling card for more and more trolling known as raids, the act of 4chan members targeting specific chat spaces and games online to create chaos for its users. These early actions could be seen mostly as annoying, disruptive, and a general nuisance as these raids were intended for shock value or humour at others’ expense. These collected, and spontaneous movements with no figurehead or leadership, would be the groundwork for the later decentralized, and dangerous, nature of Anonymous today. The powder keg is packed.
2004–2006: Early Trolling and Pranks
With the powder keg primed these raids continued, gaining notoriety, the Anonymous label grew. The most active raiders sought another means to communicate, outside of 4chan for more coordination of their attacks. With the use of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), they would work to better coordinate their efforts. Some notable examples of this would be the pranks of flooding the virtual world of Habbo Hotel, where their online avatars would have an identical look, and then block and harass other members of the virtual world. This would continue and expand further as other users of 4chan found the event hilarious, generating “lulz”, then exposing themselves further to Anonymous’ influence and ultimately surging their activity and members. Forums would be created, and the Encyclopedia Dramatica was founded to document their activities to further gloat and ultimately widen their influence. As their actions were mostly to disrupt, and harass others on the internet at the time, they had targeted a claimed far-right radio host, Hal Turner. This unknowingly marked the beginning of Anonymous’ shift to politically based activities, as at first Turner was simply an easy target, but conversations and posts on Turner’s rhetoric within the group began fostering ideals in the group to continue targeting based on ideology. The powder keg’s fuse is lit.
2007: First Mainstream Attention
With the flames of the fuse burning down, Anonymous earned its first significant media attention in July 2007. With Fox News airing a report on the group, naming them the “Internet hate machine”, and claiming that their activities are of “hackers on steroids”. Fox News was spurred to capitalize on the attention of Hal Turner’s lawsuit against 4chan for the disruptive activity he gained on his website by the more motivated Anonymous members. Dissuasively, Fox news utilized images of violence and dangerous crimes, exaggerating Anonymous’ presence from online trolls to something similar to coordinated domestic terrorism, with videos of a van exploding in giant fireballs. Being that the group originated from the concepts of sharing shocking imagery on 4chan, the report by Fox was lauded by Anonymous, and adopted to further embody and identify the group as misunderstood and villainized. This mentality was the spark to explode the embedded politically based members, who believed their actions against Hal Turner were moral due to his political stance. The powder keg explodes.
2008: Project Chanology – The Shift to Hacktivism
Galvanized with the “sponsorship” from Fox News’ report, the Church of Scientology became the next target. At the time, the Church was pressuring YouTube to remove a video of Tom Cruise talking about his beliefs and the inner workings of Scientology. In response, the group launched an extensive campaign against the Church, employing tactics such as prank calls, black faxing, real-world protests, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Released on SourceForge and then Github, the coined Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) cyber weapon developed by Praetox Technologies in C#, was distributed to members in Anonymous in order to increase the severity of their attacks and was seen on forums to “ensure lulz”. With a more established foothold in the group, the politically motivated members adopted the use of the “Guy Foxes Mask”, popularized by V For Vendetta, to deepen the ties between Anonymous, and standing against perceived corruption or moral outliers. It is here we see the turn from a formless internet trolling group to hacktivists in being.
2009–2010: Decline of Chanology and Infighting
The Church of Scientology had worked to improve its security online and in establishments to further mitigate the attempts from Anonymous, causing a slow to the attacks and the “lulz”. In this pause, the less politically motivated members were able to notice the developments of the group and began to speak out against the politically motivated members, infighting ensued within Anonymous. Despite the arguments on the direction of Anonymous, the attacks continued with YouTube Porn Day May 2009, and smaller bouts of hacktivism, likely from members still entirely new to the threat actor world and riding off the distributed tools in the group.
2010–2011: Operation Payback and WikiLeaks Support
With organizations like RIAA and MPAA, the efforts in anti-piracy online caused Anonymous to develop and launch what they dubbed “Operation Payback” in 2010. This saw a continuation of DDoS attacks aimed at organizations affiliated with the anti-piracy movement, as well; some members allegedly were able to hack Gawker in December of the same year. Later, the operation expanded to support WikiLeaks, for the blocking of financial transactions to the whistleblower platform by major corporations like PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard. These attacks did lead to a series of arrests against the organization for their cybercrimes.
2012-2015: Peak Activity and Crackdowns
Anonymous began taking more and more serious actions, going so far as to hack the CIA website in February, and leaking sensitive data from the private intelligence firm Stratfor. The group targeted a range of organizations, focusing on government entities, corporations, and alleged/confirmed far-right groups. Time Magazine had added to their notoriety, naming Anonymous as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World”. Although law enforcement was increasingly successful in persecuting members associated with the group. In February 2012, Interpol arrested 25 suspected members, and detained journalist Barrett Brown in September the same year. For members of the organization, these arrests affected their operations, limiting their more capable members. From 2012 – 2013 the arrests continued, further diminishing their activities and fragmenting the inner groups of anonymous. This seemingly brought a cap onto Anonymous’ head as their momentum was lost, with only small activities throughout 2014 – 2015.
2016–2020: Political Resurgence and Controversy
With the growing unrest, and political movements, Anonymous re-awakened their cyber activities en masse, targeting police departments and government institutions. Specifically in 2021, Anonymous targeted far-right groups such as QAnon and the Proud Boys, hacking their communication platforms and revealing private data of members. Although the group was not able to regain its previous momentum with this resurgence, the loss of original members, messaging platforms, and concerns over authenticity had fostered inconsistent reports and debates within the organization.
2022–Present: The Cyberwar Against Russia and Beyond
In February 2022, as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, a Twitter account claiming to represent Anonymous made a bold declaration of a “cyber war” against the Russian government. Almost overnight, Russian government websites, state-controlled media, and even a yacht allegedly linked to Vladimir Putin became high-profile targets. By early 2025, reports estimated that more than 2,500 entities had been hit. But while Anonymous positioned itself as a digital resistance force, the question remained of who exactly was behind these attacks? The decentralized nature of the group meant that anyone could claim the Anonymous banner, confusing the actions of true hacktivists, and eager cybercriminals.
Then came “Operation Dreadnought.”
In early 2025, Anonymous escalated its activities, shifting focus from foreign adversaries to the heart of the U.S. political system. Announcements on platforms like opdreadnaught.com and anonymoushackers.net framed this operation as a crusade against corruption and the erosion of democracy. The group set its sights on high-profile political figures, government agencies, and institutions they accused of perpetuating inequality and authoritarianism. The message? The “ruling elite” would be held accountable.
Perhaps the most aggressive claim was that Anonymous had breached government servers, leaking documents that allegedly exposed misconduct by U.S. officials. As of March 2025, experts and journalists are still analyzing these alleged leaks, to validate their authenticity.
Anonymous remains as unpredictable as ever. Once a band of internet pranksters, it has morphed into a global force—part resistance movement, part digital enigma. Whether it is a true force for justice, or a chaotic force of destruction depends on who you ask. But one thing is clear: in the ever-evolving world of cyber warfare, Anonymous isn’t going anywhere.
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