Λεγιὼν ὄνομά μοι, ὅτι πολλοί ἐσμεν (My name is Legion, for we are many.)”
– Mark 5:9
Yes, the plain and straightforward language of the Bible still has a suggestive power in itself that rarely fails to deliver a shiver on your spine, even if you are a non-believer like myself. What plethora of images does this evoke: the one that is many, the many that are one – and each one of them an unfathomable, incalculable and most of all: un-combatable danger for anybody less resourceful than indeed Jesus himself.
Why do we evoke such a picture? Of course, we are many, and we are getting more by the hour … but are we a “Legion” in the sense that people in the time of the apostle Mark would have understood the word – as a battalion led by a general? Surely not.
In the past, Anonymous has proven that it is quite able to bring about the daemons of hell over its enemies (a lesson HBGary had to learn the hard way), but of course, we are also children of enlightenment, and none of us would ever see anything but figurative speech in an expression like this.
Having said this, many of us indeed sometimes seem to feel like the revenging angels that come to bring fear and repentance to those who have sinned. Others know that there is but little hope for them, and the best we can do is to bring public attention to what is wrong in our society.
But while Anonymous has neither leaders nor any kind of hierarchy or structure, we do have a “common mind” (some call it “hive mind”) – we have common goals, zeals, ideas and most of all, we have shared communication structures.
In the end, Anonymous is all about communication. What we do and who we are would be impossible without modern means of digital real-time communication. This is why we react so sensitively to anybody who tries to muddle in “our” Internet: we strictly oppose any kind of censorship. And we will fight against any real or supposed censorship attempts, and we will fight with all means that we have available.
And the combined power of the legions of Anonymous means we have quite a lot of means at our disposal. You would be surprised. In fact, even we are surprised again and again when we see that somebody has found yet another ingenious way to kick some bully’s arse.
It is in the nature of the Internet that any information, knowledge, secret, procedure, tool, etc. that is available to any one person becomes immediately available to all participants. This is its strength, and this is our strength, as we are the ones are able to exploit this advantage better than anyone else out there.
Our power, if you want, is a product of the number of people times the knowledge the most knowledgeable of them is ready to share. According to this formula Anonymous is very powerful indeed!
But there is one more aspect to it: To the innocent observer, Anonymous may be all about DDoS attacks to web servers, and all you need to do to become “Anonymous” is to download the LOIC and point it to today’s favorite target. In fact, many beginners seem to think this. They couldn’t be more wrong.
A lot of Anons – the vast majority in fact – have never touched the LOIC and would never use it for various reasons. So what are they doing?
Many more people are programming, researching, doing all kind of background work – for the common good, and to stay ahead.
If we were a company, one could say: R&D is our biggest advantage. We are ahead of our competitors by finding new, inventive ways to annoy them.
In the past, I am sure there was more than one organization where people “did not expect us” to do what we did to them. Bad mistake. We will never do what you think we would. We may not even do what we think you’d think we do instead. But we may well do it if you expect us to do something else. Unless of course we have a different idea. OK, I stop it now before that little brain of yours explodes.
Here is what you should expect: We will play the game according to our own rules. And this is why we will win. You better expect us!
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