anonymous

For all its influence, Anonymous is little understood, often even by other Anon. Its nature changes with each group of Anon and few perceptions agree. Many explain the Anonymous they see in pictures that illustrate what they do, why and who they see behind those masks.

Hector 'Sabu" Monsegur, 28, the LulzSec leader who spent months collecting evidence to help the FBI arrest LulzSec and Anonymous contacts said he was too afraid of threats on his life to appear at court to answer charge of impersonating a federal agent.

Operation Global Blackout, ostensibly a plan by hacktivist group Anonymous to take down the Internet March 31, didn't happen and was likely never real at all. It still satisfied someone's need to generate fear and chaos online, without having to do anything but make a video.

Anonymous announced March 31 as the date of the attack, along with the method they intend to use -- disabling the Domain Name Service through DDoS attacks.

It would probably be more in sync with Anonymous nomenclature to refer to it as economic engineering, but there is already an old-fashioned name for a technique that forces followers to break no laws but erodes the financial foundation of its target: the economic boycott.

A day after the revelation that a leader of Anonymous' most-aggressive, most obnoxious spinoff had been working with the FBI to build cases against trusted companions, anger among the faceless horde was great enough to make a second attack on the Vatican succeed.

The FBI told FoxNews it arrested five leaders of the LulzSec hacktivist group this morning after eight months of investigations during which LulzSec leader Sabu worked actively with the FBI to gather evidence, wave off attacks on CIA.gov and lead followers not to victory but prison.

The National Security Agency director warns the hacker group Anonymous could shut down parts of the national power grid.

Anonymous doesn't want to bring down the power grid that powers everything it loves, Anonymi tells the NSA. Anonymous hackers want to keep doing what they do: making every aspect of life more difficult by hiding your keys and moving furniture so you stub your toe in the dark.

Since early January someone wearing Anonymous drag on Twitter and Pastebin has been threatening to take down big parts of the Internet: first Facebook, then the root DNS servers that would 404 the whole 'net. Is it a realistic threat? An overreach? Or a complete fake from either radical factions of Anonymous, or opponents trying to make it look foolish?

Members of Anonymous are claiming credit for a DDOS attack that took down CIA.gov about 3:10 p.m. ,Eastern time. Few other details are available, but it's likely the attack is related to the massive retaliatory strike Anonymous launched in the wake of the MegaUpload raids.