Capterra Glossary
Anonymous
Anonymous is an international collective of hackers (also referred to as cyber vigilantes) that launch politically-motivated attacks against government-affiliated institutions, corporations, and other types of organizations. This group of cyberhackers assembled on an anonymous internet chatboard called 4chan.
Most of their cyberattacks are in the form of distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that use multiple botnets (compromised computer systems) to clog network traffic and prevent users from accessing online services. Anonymous' trademark is to wear Guy Fawkes masks and use voice changers when communicating virtually with the public.
This group typically launches their cyberattacks on organizations that, in their opinion, either censor the public, promote inequality, or attempt to get away with injustice.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About Anonymous
In most cases, small businesses don't have to worry about being targeted by Anonymous. This collective of cyberhackers tend to go after large corporations or government institutions that have participated in activities they deem unethical.
This being said, it's important to keep in mind that Anonymous is a decentralized collective, meaning that it has no real hierarchy or structure and is subject to morph/change in the future.
Related Terms
- Synchronous
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Intranet
- Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Haptics
- WAN (Wide-Area Network)
- Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
- Scalability
- Data Center
- Authorization
- Multitenancy