Anonymous (ancient Greek for “unnamed”, “without a name”) is a collective of activists raising awareness of freedom of speech and the independence of the Internet, and copyright law through protest actions since 2008. In the process, certain writers, various organizations, state authorities and global corporations became targets. Their means of action are primarily cyberattacks and public demonstrations, and in both cases, the activistsremain anonymous. Consequently, the specific individuals behind the collective are unknown, both to the public and to the criminal authorities, who are investigating their predominantly illegal actions.
Only individual arrests have given a face to Anonymous in recent years. The best-known revelation of members can be traced back to the hacker group LulzSec, which was busted in 2012. Its co-founder Hector Monsegur and members Jeremy Hammond and Mustafa Al-Bassam belonged to Anonymous.