[cwp]

The article doesn't seem to address the obvious question: If Anonymous can spy on the people investigating them, why the heck are they making that fact public? Ok, taunting the FBI is probably worth something, but surely continuing to spy on them is worth more.

[srl]

Anonymous's strategy for "defeating" the FBI etc. is to publicly humiliate them and expose them to be harmful and largely worthless[1] - that goal is better served by showing off the FBI's incompetence than by guarding their own rear ends.

[1] That's not to be interpreted as a claim on my part that they are. This sentence, however, may freely be interpreted as such.

(Firefox's spellcheck isn't working for me atm (nightly, so no surprise) - please accept my apologies for any embarrassing typos above.)

[toyg]

That will be their eventual downfall, unfortunately. Life is not a comic book; FBI and friends can withstand humiliation after humiliation, they'll still have their guns, dogs and PATRIOT acts to come after you.

Strategically speaking, it would have been much better to just keep listening. Now involved parties will do their best to lock down, and it will be harder for Anons to eavesdrop... but hey, we got some LULz, right?

[srl]

I disagree.

The FBI, DHS, TSA and so on /can/ be defeated through humiliation - you just have to keep at it until enough voters get the message for a few politicians to use "regulate XYZ" and "abolish the ABC" as mechanisms for political gain.

[zipdog]

I wouldn't expect so much. There is ample evidence for the ineffectualness of, say, the CIA. As a simple example, at the time of the fall of the USSR (pretty much their major goal) they had admitted they had no effective agents in Russia

[InclinedPlane]

Anonymous is existentially committed to "lols". They have the power to commit cyberwarfare on an amazing scale (think about China's intrusions into google, data breaches at RSA and ssl certificate authorities, as well as things like stuxnet). But that doesn't fit their goals and culture.

[xp84]

Psh. They have no goals other than basically, getting back at the bullies who made fun of them back in high school (or in some cases, are still making fun of them in high school).

Having other people be scared of and by them is very obviously their goal based on their rhetoric. They pick random "missions" and make demands, but it's about obtaining compliance based on fear, not about a "philosophy" or "culture."

This is typical because since they were abused and made fun of, and constantly in fear as children, they think that's how you "win"--to be bigger and badder and stronger. Now they have found a way to be seen as big and scary without having to be attractive, strong, and popular like their former enemies--all this takes is...fingers, very rudimentary knowledge of technology (or at least the ability to read and follow directions). They also exploit the fact that so many people are clueless about technology--even the ones entrusted with securing access to systems.