Perhaps, this has been asked time and again. The hacktivist group whose members hide behind Guy Fawkes masks have always been shrouded in mystery. Nobody knows who they are, they have no names, they are usually hidden behind proxy IPs, their location — everywhere! They can be in Jersey City and the next thing you know, they can suddenly pop out in Brooklyn, or in Europe or in Asia, thanks to their IP being bounced around by proxy servers. Note that I used the word “they”, that is because anonymous is comprised of a legion of people. They can be anybody, they can even be your own friend.
The group was founded in 2003-2004, but do they have a leader? Who is the one running anonymous? While there is certainly that one person who started the idea, no one really knows who? However, as told by an Anon spokesperson, who identified himself as “Coldblood”, Anonymous has no central command structure. According to Coldblood, the group consists of teenagers, as well as some parents and technology workers, who are “trying to make an impact on what happens with the limited knowledge they have”. Simply put, Anonymous doesn’t have a leader. This is further confirmed by former Anonymous key member, Gregg Housh, when he said in one of his interviews that “there is no leadership. There can’t be. That is the point of it all”.
The thing about Anonymous, is that it is not an organization. In fact, it is an amorphous group. A collective. You can’t join it, there is no sign up. It is not a club, a party or even a movement. There is no charter, no manifest, and no membership fees. However, anybody can be anonymous or can be a part of it. All it really requires is that you share a common goal.
While Anonymous doesn’t have a leader, there are certainly front runners. One of the most prominent of them is Hector Xavier Monsegur aka Sabu, the co-founder of LulzSec (a black hat computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for several high profile attacks, including hacking Sony Pictures’ user accounts, and taking down CIA’s website). Sabu is an American computer hacker of Puerto Rican origin. He happens to be LulzSec’s most expert hacker. For quiet some time, he was Anonymous. However, with the help of Backtrace Security, another hacker group made of individuals who formerly counted themselves as part of Anonymous, Sabu was identified and caught. Hector would later become an FBI informant as part of a plea deal, and helped in identifying some of the core members of his group. Sabu was unemployed at the time of his arrest. He later became a cybersecurity researcher, this time, using his hacking skills to test the network security of companies so he could help patch them up. Unsurprisingly, he manages to penetrate them most of the time. A testament to his incredible hacking skills.
