This Machine Kills Secrets by Andy Greenberg

Author:Andy Greenberg
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

Hello, Scientology. We are Anonymous.

Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind—for the laughs—we shall expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form.

. . .

Knowledge is free.

We are Anonymous. We are Legion.

We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.

The video received 4.5 million views on YouTube, and was followed by close to two hundred cyberattacks on Scientology websites around the world, in-person protests at Scientology buildings attended by thousands wearing Guy Fawkes masks, and even envelopes of white powder—it turned out to be harmless wheat germ and cornstarch—mailed to dozens of the church’s addresses.

When WikiLeaks began posting Scientology documents in record numbers a few months after Anonymous’ Scientology campaign, Anonymous’ and WikiLeaks’ supporters began to blend. And when the attacks on WikiLeaks began in December 2010, it was Anonymous that attacked back.

The requisite manifesto broadcast through the Internet’s message board and blogs called for an action titled “Operation Avenge Assange.” It appeared shortly after PayPal cut off transfers to the group and quoted John Perry Barlow, a founder of the cypherpunk-affiliated Electronic Frontier Foundation: “The first serious infowar is now engaged. The field of battle is WikiLeaks. You are the troops.”

The poster went on to call for boycotts and cyberattacks, mass distribution of the cables online and off, and even a letter-writing campaign to government officials in support of Assange. A wave of digital broadsides followed as Anonymous trained its stream of crowd-sourced junk data, powered by a software weapon called Low Orbit Ion Cannon, at one target after another. PayPal’s corporate blog was temporarily blown off the Web, followed by the websites of Visa and MasterCard as well as the Swedish prosecutor’s office that was attempting to extradite Assange.

The hackers followed up with another direct action called “Operation Bradical” that focused instead on Bradley Manning, by then languishing in a Quantico, Virginia, brig, kept on suicide watch and forced to strip naked nightly by commanding officers. An Anonymous missive posted online called on Anons to “dox” the brig’s officers, digging up their personal information and using it to harass them and their families. They demanded that Manning be given “sheets, blankets, any religious texts he desires, adequate reading material, clothes, and a ball. One week. Otherwise, we continue to dox and ruin those responsible for keeping him naked, without bedding, without any of the basic amenities that were provided even to captured Nazis in WWII.”

As Anonymous began to share the media spotlight surrounding Cablegate, Aaron Barr became increasingly preoccupied with the group. It represented a tempting case study

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