The Actions of Anonymous (part 2 of 3)

Operation Payback, started out as an Anonymous initiative to get back at companies like the RIAA, over piracy and information sharing issues. Operation Payback involved heavy DDoS attacks against many reputable websites using a modified version of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) with a "Hive Mind" extension, that allowed participants to join an IRC chat room, and receive commands directly to their LOIC, creating a voluntary botnet (which ironically was in no way anonymous, revealing the IP addresses of all who took part in the DDoS attacks). Although, Operation Payback really took off when it adopted Operation Avenge Assange, and started DDoSing companies that withdrew WikiLeaks support. Anonymous blasted companies like MasterCard, Visa, and Paypal (Paypal was probably the most effected by this, as their services are based entirely 'online'). These actions, started a miniature cyber war across The Internet, resulting in DDoS attacks on Anonymous's base of action, AnonOps, and flooding their IRC chat rooms with spam bots. A major player in defending governments and the corporations in the fight against Anonymous has been Th3 J35st3r as well as some sort of underground government initiative, as supposed by PandaSecurity, "So, what makes me think that there is some sort of underground patriot response? Well, let’s take a look at the statistics…. The Operation Payback website has sustained a series of DDoS attacks despite being hosted on a “bulletproof” server specializing in anti-ddos and hosted in Russia." So much for that specialized server. Therefore, Anonymous changed their whole strategy, this time more directly targeting freedom of information, wikiLeaks, and the US Government.