Anonymous is our Legion

Actions attributed to Anonymous are undertaken by unidentified individuals who apply the Anonymous label to themselves. Incidents which are said to be associated with Anonymous are rarely connected to an organized group. The name Anonymous itself is inspired by the perceived anonymity under which users post images and comments on the Internet. Usage of the term Anonymous in the sense of a shared identity began on imageboards. A tag of Anonymous is assigned to visitors who leave comments without identifying the originator of the posted content. Users of imageboards sometimes jokingly acted as if Anonymous were a REAL PERSON. As the popularity of imageboards increased, the idea of Anonymous as a collective of unnamed individuals became an internet meme. On July 26, 2007, KTTV Fox 11 News based in Los Angeles, California aired a report on Anonymous, calling them a group of "hackers on steroids", "domestic terrorists", and collectively an "Internet hate machine". The report covered an attack on a MySpace user, who claimed to have had his MySpace account "hacked" into seven times by Anonymous, and plastered with images of gay pornography. The MySpace user also claimed a virus written by Anonymous hackers was sent to him and to ninety friends on his MySpace contact list, crashing thirty-two of his friends' computers. The report featured an unnamed former "hacker" who had fallen out with Anonymous and explained his view of the Anonymous culture.