Surprise Over Anonymous Attacks In Britain and China Surprising

While the Anonymous China Twitter account appears to be relatively new, with fewer than 100 tweets at the time of this writing, the Anonymous UK account has been open for more than two years and has more than 4,000 tweets. This begs the question: How are government entities and businesses continuously caught off guard by these attacks – or are they just unable to stop them? After hacking in to Chinese government websites last week and posting screen shots on its Anonymous China Twitter feed, Anonymous has shared plans "to launch further attacks on Chinese government websites in a bid to uncover corruption and lobby for human rights." Guess the Chinese government will be ratcheting up its defenses in preparation . . . or will it? For some reason, although the infamous hacker group is often entirely transparent, and often cocky, about its plans to attack businesses or government entities, these establishments are continuously caught off guard. The attacks on Britian's Home Office this weekend provide a ready example. The DDoS attacks were posted right in the open on the group's well-established Twitter feed two days before they occurred - and likely earlier: As noted, the attacks were protesting the extradition of "three British citizens to the United States. The Home Office is responsible for domestic security in Britain." And if their intentions weren't clear enough, they even posted the exact website and IP address that they planned to attack: According to its Anonymous UK account, they plan DDoS attacks every Saturday. Note to the UK: When Anonymous says “expect us,” it’s probably a good idea to expect them! Organizations and others wanting to keep tabs on the worldwide hacker group don't need to look very hard - a quick Twitter search for Anonymous accounts brings up a ready list and its easy to see which are active (and respected) and which are not. Following them just to stay up on privacy issues is recommended actually, as they often share great info. Oh and FYI: This same AnonUK account is calling for folks to protest Scientology next. While there's no mention of a DDoS attack (yet), someone should probably give those folks a heads up to be on the look out (if that will even help. Pretty sure Anonymous can take down anything at this point!) What do you think? Are government entities and businesses dropping the ball when it comes to keeping tabs on this group - or are they powerless to stop them? (Anonymous photo from Shutterstock)

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Surprise Over Anonymous Attacks In Britain and China Surprising

Mary C. Long

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Mary C. Long