When you think of the internet hacker group Anonymous you think of the anonymous people wearing the Guy Fawkes mask and using mysterious methods to hack sites and steal information. But how exactly do they work? Their most recent attacks were against the websites of the MPAA, RIAA, DoJ, and Universal Music, which shut them down temporarily. This recent attack was in retaliation of the shutting down of Megaupload as well as the potential passing of SOPA, which, for now, looks to be dead. Although shutting down such prominent websites may give you the impression that they got access to some secret information, they used a simple tool that was available to anyone with an internet connection, which attacked the servers of the targeted websites.
What is a Server?
You are reading this article with the help of a web server, which gives you the information that you’re reading now. The url that you see at the top of your internet browser consists of three things: the protocol (HTTP), the server name (inventhelp.com), and the file name (anonymous). Your browser communicated with InventHelp.com by translating it into an IP address, which established a connection with the server. The browser then sent a request to the InventHelp server, asking for the url that is now in your browser. The server responded by sending an html code to the browser, which your web browser translated to a readable file.
What Tool Is Used?
Anonymous makes use of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), an application which you can easily download yourself and which is used by the decentralized community to launch DDOS attacks. The application allows you to send a fake request to a server, which, in and of itself, won’t do anything. However, if thousands of users are using the LOIC, the number of requests can overwhelm the site’s server, forcing it to shut down. Server overload makes sure that normal attempts to access the server are slowed down or impossible.
Although DDOS attacks are one of Anonymous’s main tools, they’re also able to obtain private information and make it public knowledge. In Operation DarkNet, Anonymous attacked 40 child pornography sites and published the names of those visiting those illegal sites.
