Saturday, 11 April 2009

In Passing

Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for “Anonymous”!


After all, who knows what he might do?

A “loose coalition of Internet denizens,” Anonymous consists largely of users from multiple internet sites such as 4chan, 711chan, 420chan, Something Awful, Fark, Encyclopedia Dramatica, Slashdot, IRC channels, and YouTube. Other social networking sites are also utilized to mobilize physical protests. ... Anonymous is of interest not only because of the sentiments expressed by affiliates and their potential for physical protest, but because they have innovated the use of e-protests and mobilization. Given the lack of a unifying creed, this movement has the potential to inspire lone wolf behavior in the cyber realms.
The quote, extracted by Slashdot, is from a 215-page “Terrorism Threat Assessment” prepared for the state of Virginia by a State Police subdivision called the Virginia Fusion center.  (Ace of Spades, Little Green Footballs, Daily Pundit, Tim Blair, and Protein Wisdom will be disappointed.)

Now I admit that I’ve not bothered to download and read the whole thing, but if this is typical of its contents, I wonder how much Virginia paid for it.

Needless to say, the Slashdot commenters have offered a whole host of additional suspects:
Re:A.C. • (Score:5, Funny)
by apostrophesemicolon (816454) on Friday April 10, @10:54AM (#27531705)

in related news,
a coalition of persons of interest is growing at an exponential rate on the Internets. Members of the group, posting in various websites under the handle, Guest, often post provocative and sometimes unlawful comments. By using the handle name "Guest", they were afforded anonymity.

Several related groups are Anonymous, Anonymous Coward, Public, Guest, and Unregistered.
Re:A.C. • (Score:5, Funny)
by cayenne8 (626475) on Friday April 10, @01:23PM (#27533777)

Not only that...but, I hear there are people who actually register accounts with FALSE or misleading information as to their true identity. Pseudonyms and the like.

What the hell is this country coming to?
Re:A.C. • (Score:5, Insightful)
by Assmasher (456699) on Friday April 10, @10:30AM (#27531317)

Genius. How great would it be if Slashdot changed 'Anonymous Coward' to "Lone Wolf" for a few weeks?
Message to Virginia Fusion Center, from Anonymous • (Score:4, Funny)
by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 10, @09:23AM (#27530323)

All your base are belong to us.

Oh yes... “Anonymous” also communicates through “Unaccredited Grassroots Web Sites.”

Elsewhere:

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