Skip to main content

So, did Anonymous cause any mischief on November 5th?

anonymous end anything november 5th eh turns its attention to the u s  senate over controversial bill
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Anonymous has a history of hacking and engaging in other shenanigans on November 5. Why? Because November 5 is an important date for the mysterious hacker-activist collective, mostly due to the graphic novel and film “V for Vendetta.” (That’s also where their iconic masks come from.) 

The date has a deeper level of historical significance, however, which is also the basis for the “V for Vendetta” plot: November 5 first became a day of infamy back in 1605, when a group of English Catholics attempted to assassinate King James of England, who was a Protestant. Though the plot was unsuccessful, the next year, November 5 was deemed an official day of commemoration, over time earning the name Guy Fawkes Day. While Fawkes was not the mastermind of the plot, he was holding the explosives.

Back to the present day. Anonymous recently threatened to attack the Singapore government on November 5 in the event that they failed to roll back regulations imposed on media publications earlier this year. Starting June 1, Singapore’s government “required websites that regularly publish news on the city state to be licensed and pay a S$50,000 (U.S.$40,200) bond, to be forfeited on the publication of ‘prohibited content’ that ‘undermines racial or religious harmony,’” according to Bloomberg.

The November 5 threat was made in the video below.

 So what did Anonymous end up doing yesterday? In the end, not much in the way of hacking. They did launch worldwide protests in multiple cities, including Bangkok, Washington, Amsterdam, London, and Chicago, according to a well-known Anonymous Twitter account.

For a moment yesterday, it looked as if Anonymous might have been behind the weirdness that occurred on Foxnews.com, which at one point displayed outdated news headlines, as well as odd alerts, including a reference to “World Zombie Day.” However, the issue was blamed on an internal glitch, not an external attack. Anonymous didn’t take credit for the Foxnews.com homepage glitches either, leading us to believe that Anonymous was not responsible.

For those of you who hoped for a widespread and devastating cyber attack on Fox News, the NSA, or others: we hope you didn’t raise your expectations for November 5. Maybe next year.

Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
Lenovo Legion Pro 5 gaming laptop with an RTX 4070 is $400 off
Cyberpunk 2077 on the Lenovo Legion Pro 5.

If you're planning to buy a new gaming laptop, we highly recommend looking for offers involving the Lenovo Legion Pro 5. There's one right now from Lenovo itself -- a $400 discount that pulls the machine's price down from $1,900 to $1,500. It's still not cheap, but we assure you that every penny spent on this gaming laptop will be worth it. You're going to have to hurry with your purchase if you don't want to miss out on getting the device at 21% off though, as its price may return to normal at any moment.

Why you should buy the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 gaming laptop
The Lenovo Legion Pro 5 is our top choice in our roundup of the best gaming laptops because of the fantastic value that it provides as a reasonably priced and well-built machine. It's powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, plus 32GB of RAM that's enough to run multiple applications like streaming software and web browsers while playing the best PC games at their highest settings, according to our guide on how much RAM do you need. With these specifications, the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 is also prepared to play the best upcoming PC games without any need for further upgrades.

Read more
Best 17-inch laptop deals: Big savings on big screen laptops
Alienware m17 R5 laptop sitting next to a headset.

17-inch laptops sit right at the top of the line for big screens on laptops. Far from being oddballs, however, they are made by the best laptop brands and many are included amongst our lists of the best laptops. Still though, this is not just a list of the best laptop deals, but bigger. Instead, we've found 17-inch laptop deals that show that you can go bigger (and possibly better) without going broke. Here are our favorite 17-inch laptop deals of the season.
ASUS 17.3-Inch Chromebook — $199, was $299

This is probably the cheapest 17-inch laptop (that you'll actually enjoy using) of the moment. It's also one of our lowest price favorites when it comes to Best Buy laptop deals. It's got 4GB of memory and 64GB of eMMC flash storage so it'll be perfect for browsing the net, watching YouTube on (it has a 1080p resolution), and getting a bit of work done without distractions. Bonuses include super-fast Wi-Fi 6 capabilities, an HD webcam with mic, and even a headphone/microphone combo jack.

Read more
Surface Laptop Go 3 vs. Surface Pro 7+: is it an upgrade?
Microsoft Surface Pro 7

The Surface Laptop Go 3 is Microsoft's new affordable Surface laptop, with upgraded hardware and long battery life making it a compelling option for budget laptop buyers in 2023. But for anyone considering an upgrade to a Surface device at around that $800 price, the Surface Pro 7+ still presents an attractive purchase, and it can flip into a tablet when you need it.

That brings to mind the age-old question, of whether newer is automatically better. In this case, it might not be. Let's take a look at the Surface Laptop Go 3 versus Surface Pro 7+, to find out.

Read more