Called “Operation Fox Hunt”, Anonymous recently announced plans on YouTube (video below) to digitally attack the Fox News website on the anniversary of Guy Fawkes Day. Similar to previous assaults on other Web properties, the planned attack is likely another denial-of-service attack which will make the site unavailable for visitors for an extended period of time on November 5th. Anonymous is also planning to target former Fox News personality Glenn Beck as well as current Fox News representative Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly during “Operation Fox Hunt”. According to Anonymous, reasons for the attack include ” right wing conservative propaganda” and “belittling the occupiers” of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
Previous to this announcement, Anonymous released personal details of NYPD officers after a video was released of a male officer pepper spraying a group of female protesters enclosed behind a barrier. More recently, hackers with Anonymous launched a distributed denial-of-service attack against the Oakland police department’s website after a 24-year-old wounded Marine home from serving two tours in Iraq was critically injured in the Occupy Oakland protest. Police allegedly threw an object that fractured the marine’s skull landing him in the hospital, but he is expected to make a full recovery. Anonymous also started posting personal information of Oakland police officers including email addresses, on-duty schedules, phone numbers and badge numbers. A representative of Anonymous is also offering a $1,000 reward to information leading to the officer that threw the projectile.
Inspiration for Anonymous members, Guy Fawkes is most commonly known to attempting to blow up the House of Lords on November 5 in the year 1605. This story was adapted by Warner Brothers into the popular movie V For Vendetta starring Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman. Anonymous activists have since used the white mask wore by Weaving during the film, both in YouTube videos and during public demonstrations.
