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McAfee Labs Predicts Decline of Anonymous
Every years, McAfee Labs produces a list of predictions relating to computer security for the next 12 months. Last year (PDF) they said Anonymous would have to reinvent itself, and that there would be an overall increase in online hacktivism. This year's report (PDF) is not as optimistic for the hacking collective. "Too many uncoordinated and unclear operations have been detrimental to its reputation. Added to this, the disinformation, false claims, and pure hacking actions will lead to the movement’s being less politically visible than in the past. Because Anonymous’ level of
technical sophistication has stagnated and its tactics are better understood by its potential victims, the group’s level of success will decline." That's not to say they think hacktivism itself is on the decline, though: "Meanwhile, patriot groups self-organized into cyberarmies and spreading their extremist views will flourish. Up to now their efforts have had little impact (generally defacement of websites or DDoS for a very short period), but their actions will improve in sophistication and aggressiveness." The report also predicts that malware kits will lead to an "explosion in malware" for OS X and mobile, but that Windows 8 will be the next big target.
McAfee the person hasn't been associated with McAfee labs for a long time now.
It will be a target, but nowhere near the biggest.
Hell, Android is a bigger target to attack.
And since they're always right, this is almost a certainty!
...Anonymous....
How many of these claims Mcaffee corporation's professional prognosticators have actually been remotely true? Tabloid psychics run the same routine every year too.
All it's going to take to kill McAfee is Microsoft Security Essentials, to be honest.
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
So many times I've seen McAfee try to sneak its way into my system, and once they get in, your system runs like SHIT!
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Love the juxtaposition of "patriot" and "extremist".
Because clearly, not wanting to live in a corporate dystopia is an "extremist" viewpoint.
It's great that McAfee Labs has published this report on Anonymous, but isn't this only a distraction from the search for better bath salts and pills to seduce young women?
They've been saying this since the beginning. How long can this last, don't they have jobs, skills fade, they'll get bored etc... etc...
What they still really don't seem to get is that this is just a bunch of people who commit an act and claim to be Anonymous. Anyone can do anything and say they're Anonymous, therefore, Anonymous did it. The few people who may have access to the public outlets like Twitter and such will likely be contacted by someone who's interested in doing something or is in the process of doing something and they'll get yea or nay on whether the mouthpieces will broadcast the activities, thereby being an "officially sanctioned" (if there is such a thing) activity. Or visa versa, the mouthpieces contact the actors.
If some activity is popular, then more people will participate and some level of coordination will take place, likely over IRC.
The lack of coherence existed well before the hactivism phase and will still be there well into the future. That's the nature of a collective which has no leader and many different personalities, personas, skills and backgrounds and will only flock to whatever has the greater interest to those with charisma currently in the group (or feel like participating). In fact, even calling it a "group" is a bit of a mis-label since their constituents and motivations change. It's all very fluid to begin with.
What herds them is a cause; not a person... like McAfee saying they're in decline maybe. Don't they know it's bad to poke a beehive with a stick?
If computers were people, I'd be a misanthrope.
And yet, he's worried about the government of British Honduras coming after him instead. Talk about out of touch!
Thats kinda the point of Anon. It has never been this is the leader and here is what we are gonna do. It was more of a bunch of angry people, or stupid, or bored, or someone just looking to hide behind the mask of anon, trying to do something. Good? Bad? Logical? Every time its something different. Its not a collective as much as a revolving door to a community room.
I'm surprised McAfee's argument for its decline has no mention of five of the anonymous core group being busted by the feds after one turned informant.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
McAfee the person hasn't been associated with McAfee labs for a long time now.
No, but that doesn't mean that his actions can't tarnish the brand. It is, after all, named after him, even if he isn't there any more.
His body double is also named after him as well. In itself having a body double indicates a significant level of paranoia, arguable whether or not it's justified paranoia.
Unfortunately "patriot" has come to be associated with the ignorant conservatives and all their destructive, delusion-based, extremism. I'm speaking of Teabaggers, Freepers, and other ignorant people who blame others for their own shortcomings. You know the type. These people are obviously not really patriots, and just people with nothing to contribute who want to be part of the conservative cult and pretend that their ignorance is better than other people's knowledge.
The groups McAfee is referring to here are politically-aligned "cyberarmies" that specifically support "extremist governments", they are one of several different types of "hacktivist" groups that are referred to as growing threats that are specifically being contrasted with Anonymous, which has the kind of broad anti-corporate-and-government power motivation you describe, and which is described as a threat that has peaked.
So, no, they aren't (in the passage you quote) suggesting that "not wanting to live in a corporate dystopia is an 'extremist' viewpoint."
When your primary weapons are lame DDOS attacks and repetitive, predictable poor quality "we are anonymous" youtube videos spoken by dr sbaitso it is hard to see much of a future.
What is really sad is any agreeable lawful or vigilante activities are often trivially derailed and delegitimized by correlating "anonymous" with some asshat who once upon a time claimed to be anonymous defaced a web site dedicated to helping poor children.
The design of the current Anon is structurally and organizationally flawed. There aren't any Anon ethics think tanks to actually guide Anon philosophically. There aren't any professionals to advise or consult Anon on the potential global consequences of their actions. As a result they are a blind politically oriented umbrella organization. This is fine if you're a teenager or young adult in the early 20s range but by the time you reach your 30s and 40s you'll see that Anon isn't the way to go and wont really lead to the results they desire due to how they go about it.
Anon has a function and a reason to exist if it were used intelligently but as it is now it's not used intelligently, it's not a self aware collective. An unaware collective is worse than no collective.
"all your bath salts are belong to us."
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.