• @ArgentRaven
    link
    2163 months ago

    A lot of the actual, serious ones that knew what they were doing got caught. Some went to lulsec to be jerks with no agenda and were caught by the Feds. All that was left were script kiddies that downloaded the Low Orbit Ion Cannon and used scripts they find online. Then they left or were overtaken by alt right idiots.

    The original Anonymous are in their 30s and 40s by now. Everyone ages out.

    • @seaQueue
      link
      2103 months ago

      90s script kiddie here - a bunch of the shit you can do as a minor with low/no consequences becomes SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS as an adult with assets. It’s just not worth the risk to keep dicking around with things that might land you in prison or cost you everything you have.

      • @Supervisor194
        link
        133 months ago

        The delicious irony is that they now get to live in the world they helped create.

          • @irreticent
            link
            13 months ago

            As long as they’re able to punch down I don’t think they care

            Interesting take.

    • Bobby Turkalino
      link
      fedilink
      373 months ago

      I think the serious ones that didn’t get caught are now working in red team penetration testing, which is an industry that’s been growing exponentially since the years Anonymous did a lot of their big stuff

    • @A_Union_of_Kobolds
      link
      273 months ago

      Omg LOIC… I was trying to think of that name a few weeks ago and just couldn’t remember. That was fun.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        16
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        IIRC it spammed websites with traffic, didn’t conceal your IP at all, and some people got arrested for using it to make some websites go down for a very brief period. Basically a way to use people who didn’t know what they were doing as cannon fodder

        • @ArgentRaven
          link
          53 months ago

          Yep, that’s exactly what it did. Maybe there was a way to do it, say if you had a VPN, but people picked up pretty quick to ban a single IP.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            8
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            lol your VPN company is going to kick you the instant you turn on LOIC through them. Your packets wont even get to the target site because you are basically attacking your own VPN.

      • @seaQueue
        link
        43 months ago

        It pioneered DDoS attacks so, uh, yeah

    • Elude
      link
      fedilink
      English
      63 months ago

      Where did they get the name LOIC from in the first place?

      The only place I am aware of, that uses this name, was the Unreal Tournament 2004.

      • Skeezix
        link
        183 months ago

        They shrunk their breakfast sausage product line and focus on grass fed meats.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1083 months ago

    Angry and nihilistic teenagers used to have tech skills and laptops. Now they have iPads and TikTok.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        403 months ago

        I actually teach teenagers programming and 3D modelling. The past 5 years has been the first decline in tech literacy I’ve ever experienced between generations. My personal theory is that only the gamers actually have computers at home now. Everyone else only use their smartphones, and that only gives a negligible increase in tech literacy compared to using a computer.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          18
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Yes, computers in their various forms are now so user friendly (and often locked down, because fuck you) that you don’t learn much using them. The golden age for learning tech on the fly seems to have been 1990-2010 or so, because computers were both accessible and still had exposed inner logic.

        • /home/pineapplelover
          link
          fedilink
          33 months ago

          Yeah but this also has to deal with how many pc gamers there are per generation. So what you’re saying is gen z and alpha has less pc gsmers.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            63 months ago

            In my experience it has more to do with how much less frequently issues happen and/or how often you need to go manually move files/folders around. Just not nearly as much need imo.

            Similar situation with mobile devices, I remember rooting/roming/jailbreaking being much more common in the past.

            • /home/pineapplelover
              link
              fedilink
              33 months ago

              Yeah devices are really easy so they just work out of the box. Unless you seek out challenges and issues, you’ll probably be computer illiterate.

      • @seaQueue
        link
        93 months ago

        We’ve drastically simplified and made tech accessible to everyone with a smartphone, you no longer need computer skills to get on the internet to shop or participate in social activities. Kids use apps’ platforms for the things we had to build and host ourselves 20y ago.

        • /home/pineapplelover
          link
          fedilink
          23 months ago

          I wish I was alive back then where you guys had to build everything yourself. Go on irc and stuff. Sounds cool

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            43 months ago

            I’ve recently switched to Linux (I use arch btw) and it feels like I’m living the early days of the ever expanding internet again.

            Probably helps that I had to join IRC again for support, instead of Discord.

            • /home/pineapplelover
              link
              fedilink
              13 months ago

              Yeah same I also use Arch (btw) and even though I’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing the Internet renaissance, the community feels something like that with all its nerdiness and geekiness.

      • Übercomplicated
        link
        fedilink
        53 months ago

        As a angry, nihilistic teenager: very fucking true. I am literally the only techy guy in my posh bullshit private international school (in Europe so affordable). The only other dude who uses Linux (I’m using that as a bare minimum for “techy”) isn’t into programming or reverse engineering shit even remotely. I’m all alone (apart from all my non-technical friends). I suppose that’s where the nihilism comes from…

  • @Sanctus
    link
    English
    663 months ago

    They fizzled out, members probably moved on to various other groups and projects, while the rest simply went on with their lives. A danger of being decentralized is losing all of your momentum.

    • @Lost_My_Mind
      link
      623 months ago

      A danger of being decentralized is losing all of your momentum.

      fediverse growth nervously sweats

      • @Sanctus
        link
        English
        5
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        The other commenter is more right, anyway. A lot of the dudes got arrested. I think the chances of that are low here, for now.

  • @Kcap
    link
    593 months ago

    Not gonna dig through their Twitter feed, but I saw someone a couple months ago ask them this exact question on one of their posts, and they wrote a pretty interesting response. They basically said, we’re still here, trying to fuck the system up, but, with all the information we’ve provided and ported out there to the world, y’all haven’t done dick with it. Laws haven’t been passed, politicians haven’t been ousted, corporations are still abusing the systems. So they were basically saying, what good is them leaking and hacking if the public doesn’t take a more activist approach towards change themselves and hold the people they expose accountable.

    • Don_DickleOP
      link
      83 months ago

      Well if I knew how to take down sites and child porn site I totally would. Just don’t know what to study and probably don’t want to be another computer cracker using programs found online.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        11
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        If you’re serious, study cyber security to start.

        Then move towards devops.

        Worse case scenario, you’ll end up in a 6-figure job making complaints into the void as you write bash scripts to speed up a pipeline by 0.1 second.

        Best case scenario, you take down a massive criminal ring that sprouts back up like a weed a few days later.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    58
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Hacking got harder, and the enforced penalties for getting caught became a lot more severe (in the west at least). This meant that most hackers aren’t doing it for luls but for serious business.

  • EleventhHour
    link
    40
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    “They” got over it, as most people do, and moved on. Remnants still remain, but they were unified due to a critical mass of dissent.

    Don’t expect to see anything like it again until another critical inflection point. Just know that, if you do, shit’s prolly in a bad place…so…

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    32
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    A meme that comes quickly, goes quickly.

    It’s not an actual organised group, if you didn’t know. Anyone can hack something and then say “Done by Anonymous”.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    213 months ago

    Shutting down porn sites? Is that a thing they wanted to achieve? Like free video sites like PH or production companies like Brazzers?

    • Don_DickleOP
      link
      93 months ago

      I ment to type child porn sites.-

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      23 months ago

      I think that’s a book I have been searching for a long time since I first read it in a library a good time ago

      • @xylogx
        link
        English
        13 months ago

        It is a good Cyber-thriller.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          13 months ago

          Then it must be the book. I remember it as a sort of documentary narrative about events that happened at lulzsec that could be more or less adapted to film

  • @nutsack
    link
    143 months ago

    they basically got put out of business by cloudflare

    • @SkyezOpen
      link
      13 months ago

      The loic nerds yeah. There’s still a few anons who can actually do shit, probably.

      • @nutsack
        link
        1
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        doxing work is very boring. much of it is thousands of hours sifting through the lamest social media content you can imagine.

  • tisktisk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    143 months ago

    Curious to know what answers you were looking for here OP. What makes you think they aren’t doing these things but stopped identifying themselves as such? Also some dialogue is required about the myriad of things ‘Anonymous’ took responsibility for but were never adequately confirmed as objectively true–and more importantly, what is accomplished with this last feat? I believe the answer you seek lies in these depths

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    133 months ago

    it’s also important to keep in mind that the cybersecurity field has adbanced tremendously, with cloidfare, EDRs, and in general it is now way harder to do anything anonymously without getting caught, quickly. This also males the field of hacking way more difficult to get in, which combined with reduced attention span of younger generations probably means there’s not that many bored teens willing to put the time in, and as an adult you have way much more to loose, so for hose who had the skills it would be a lot greater risk.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    8
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    They (I use that term to mean the average 4channer) were co-opted by alt right propaganda.

    Most neckbeard, incel, Andrew Tate followers are what Anon originally was. We just lied to ourselves that it wasn’t really racist and that we were fighting a good fight.

    Now, its a bunch of sad lonely people that found acceptance in intolerance and hatred.

    • Don_DickleOP
      link
      123 months ago

      Well that is kind of depressing.

      • @Oisteink
        link
        43 months ago

        But its backed by real hard facts and sourced from one of the smallest neckbeards ever.

      • magnetosphere
        link
        fedilink
        13 months ago

        If you only look at it from that angle, yeah. I bet the next generation of Anonymous is growing right now, though.

      • @SirDerpy
        link
        -13 months ago

        The chaff can’t perceive the wheat.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      73 months ago

      I don’t think people who refer to “Anonymous” are referring to “the average 4channer”.