this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 214 points 2 months ago (5 children)

A lot of the actual, serious ones that knew what they were doing got caught. Some went to lulsec to be jerks with no agenda and were caught by the Feds. All that was left were script kiddies that downloaded the Low Orbit Ion Cannon and used scripts they find online. Then they left or were overtaken by alt right idiots.

The original Anonymous are in their 30s and 40s by now. Everyone ages out.

[–] [email protected] 206 points 2 months ago (2 children)

90s script kiddie here - a bunch of the shit you can do as a minor with low/no consequences becomes SERIOUS FUCKING BUSINESS as an adult with assets. It's just not worth the risk to keep dicking around with things that might land you in prison or cost you everything you have.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago

This is the truest answer thus far.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The delicious irony is that they now get to live in the world they helped create.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago

I think the serious ones that didn’t get caught are now working in red team penetration testing, which is an industry that’s been growing exponentially since the years Anonymous did a lot of their big stuff

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Omg LOIC... I was trying to think of that name a few weeks ago and just couldn't remember. That was fun.

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[–] otp 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago

They shrunk their breakfast sausage product line and focus on grass fed meats.

[–] [email protected] 107 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Angry and nihilistic teenagers used to have tech skills and laptops. Now they have iPads and TikTok.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I wonder how true that is. Curious to know

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I actually teach teenagers programming and 3D modelling. The past 5 years has been the first decline in tech literacy I've ever experienced between generations. My personal theory is that only the gamers actually have computers at home now. Everyone else only use their smartphones, and that only gives a negligible increase in tech literacy compared to using a computer.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yes, computers in their various forms are now so user friendly (and often locked down, because fuck you) that you don't learn much using them. The golden age for learning tech on the fly seems to have been 1990-2010 or so, because computers were both accessible and still had exposed inner logic.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

We've drastically simplified and made tech accessible to everyone with a smartphone, you no longer need computer skills to get on the internet to shop or participate in social activities. Kids use apps' platforms for the things we had to build and host ourselves 20y ago.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

As a angry, nihilistic teenager: very fucking true. I am literally the only techy guy in my posh bullshit private international school (in Europe so affordable). The only other dude who uses Linux (I'm using that as a bare minimum for "techy") isn't into programming or reverse engineering shit even remotely. I'm all alone (apart from all my non-technical friends). I suppose that's where the nihilism comes from...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

how is this so true lol

[–] [email protected] 64 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They fizzled out, members probably moved on to various other groups and projects, while the rest simply went on with their lives. A danger of being decentralized is losing all of your momentum.

[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 months ago (2 children)

A danger of being decentralized is losing all of your momentum.

fediverse growth nervously sweats

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The other commenter is more right, anyway. A lot of the dudes got arrested. I think the chances of that are low here, for now.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not gonna dig through their Twitter feed, but I saw someone a couple months ago ask them this exact question on one of their posts, and they wrote a pretty interesting response. They basically said, we're still here, trying to fuck the system up, but, with all the information we've provided and ported out there to the world, y'all haven't done dick with it. Laws haven't been passed, politicians haven't been ousted, corporations are still abusing the systems. So they were basically saying, what good is them leaking and hacking if the public doesn't take a more activist approach towards change themselves and hold the people they expose accountable.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well if I knew how to take down sites and child porn site I totally would. Just don't know what to study and probably don't want to be another computer cracker using programs found online.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

If you're serious, study cyber security to start.

Then move towards devops.

Worse case scenario, you'll end up in a 6-figure job making complaints into the void as you write bash scripts to speed up a pipeline by 0.1 second.

Best case scenario, you take down a massive criminal ring that sprouts back up like a weed a few days later.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Hacking got harder, and the enforced penalties for getting caught became a lot more severe (in the west at least). This meant that most hackers aren't doing it for luls but for serious business.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

β€œThey” got over it, as most people do, and moved on. Remnants still remain, but they were unified due to a critical mass of dissent.

Don’t expect to see anything like it again until another critical inflection point. Just know that, if you do, shit’s prolly in a bad place…so…

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yes, things are pretty peachy in the world right now.

[–] Noel_Skum 12 points 2 months ago

That’s the spirit.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

A meme that comes quickly, goes quickly.

It's not an actual organised group, if you didn't know. Anyone can hack something and then say "Done by Anonymous".

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Anonymous basically became a US intelligence front around the Arab Spring.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Shutting down porn sites? Is that a thing they wanted to achieve? Like free video sites like PH or production companies like Brazzers?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

I ment to type child porn sites.-

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Curious to know what answers you were looking for here OP. What makes you think they aren't doing these things but stopped identifying themselves as such? Also some dialogue is required about the myriad of things 'Anonymous' took responsibility for but were never adequately confirmed as objectively true--and more importantly, what is accomplished with this last feat? I believe the answer you seek lies in these depths

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

they basically got put out of business by cloudflare

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

it's also important to keep in mind that the cybersecurity field has adbanced tremendously, with cloidfare, EDRs, and in general it is now way harder to do anything anonymously without getting caught, quickly. This also males the field of hacking way more difficult to get in, which combined with reduced attention span of younger generations probably means there's not that many bored teens willing to put the time in, and as an adult you have way much more to loose, so for hose who had the skills it would be a lot greater risk.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] vulgarcynic 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

They (I use that term to mean the average 4channer) were co-opted by alt right propaganda.

Most neckbeard, incel, Andrew Tate followers are what Anon originally was. We just lied to ourselves that it wasn't really racist and that we were fighting a good fight.

Now, its a bunch of sad lonely people that found acceptance in intolerance and hatred.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Well that is kind of depressing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

But its backed by real hard facts and sourced from one of the smallest neckbeards ever.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

I don't think people who refer to "Anonymous" are referring to "the average 4channer".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I remember when the owner left and it was all bots overnight

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Kinda figured they got caught and either went to prison or got recruited.

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