After a decade of flourishing unseen in the shadows of the Internet, Anonymous, LulzSec and other like-minded groups expanded their activities from obscure attacks and protests to full fledged hacking and DDoS campaigns against governments, The Church of Scientology, Visa, Paypal, Sony and a wide range of other private and public organizations perceived as hostile to the hackers’ ever shifting list of pet causes. Among the defining events of 2001’s hacker evolution came when Aaron Barr, CEO of security consulting firm and government contractor HBGary Federal was forced to step down after his public taunting of Anonymous led to an embarrassing data breach. Hackers broke into HBGary’s computer network and published tens of thousands of company email messages on the Internet. The attack even caused HBGary to bail out of February’s RSA conference in an effort to limit the PR damage.
Hackers Take Center Stage
After a decade of flourishing unseen in the shadows of the Internet, Anonymous, LulzSec and other like-minded groups expanded their activities from obscure attacks and protests to full fledged hacking and DDoS campaigns against governments, The Church of Scientology, Visa, Paypal, Sony and a wide range of other private and public organizations perceived as hostile to the hackers’ ever shifting li
