In what Tom Hespos calls “modern cyberwarfare” and “a significant social event … people are going to be studying it for years to come,” a group called Anonymous has targeted the Church of Scientology with, apparently, denial of service attacks, the downloading and publicizing of internal Scientology documents and a creepy video accusing the church of spreading misinformation, suppressing dissent and suing all who say negative things about Scientology. And we thought that Tom Cruise video was freaky.
Hespos characterizes Anonymous’ as a new form of distributed online warfare which may involve illegal tactics but is near impossible to stop. He expands, writing, “if you think about this situation in the context of political systems, it’s obvious that we’re heading toward a world where tyranny of the majority is reality. In other words, organizational or individual rights won’t matter as much as pleasing the masses such that they don’t openly attack your assets in illegal ways. Call it hacker rule if you will.”
Social warfare. Very interesting indeed. Though not exactly in keeping with this country’s “we accept and love everyone” foundation.
