Anonymous was praised for its recent cyberattacks on North Korea, however the hacking collective has shown that it is a friend to no one. The group late last month declared its latest target and this time it isn’t a communist regime or oppressive government, but rather the United States. The group stated that on May 7th, Anonymous will start phase 1 of Operation USA, which is a response to acts of “multiple war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan” and “in your own country.” The group is protesting the Obama Administration’s uses of targeted drone attacks that have resulted in the deaths of “hundreds of innocent children and families.”
“Anonymous is speaking it’s mind, don’t try to blind the worlds eyes,” the group wrote in a message on PasteBin. “We have a voice that we will use, you tried to take from us with the power you abused. You will lose that power by the time Anonymous is done with your nation. Your intentions are ill in aim. The Internet hate machine has came [sic] from our shadows shining light on corruption and having Lulz, and now United States of America, you are in the cross hairs of Anonymous.”
Operation USA, or OpUSA, threatens to take America “off the cyber map” with several “doxes, DNS attacks, defaces, redirects, DDOS attacks, database leaks and admin take overs.” The group hints that its first targets will be major banks, suggesting people switch “from a big bank to a local union.” Individuals associated with Anonymous even claim to have accessed Michelle Obama’s social security number, although no proof of the incident was provided.
The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that a group of mostly Middle Eastern and North African-based criminal hackers were preparing to attack several high-profile U.S. websites, although such attacks may be no more than a public nuisance.
Anonymous has threatened various government agencies including the FBI, NSA and NATO, along with banking websites belonging to Bank of America, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo and Capital One.
