All language subtitles for S01E01 - Who is Anonymous

BEN: They hacked corporations.

None of these targets were
particularly difficult to hack.

A 3-year-old could do it.

They challenged governments.

Any method of disruption at
any cost, any means necessary.

They wanted to change the world.

But after a series of arrests

and an informant
on the inside...

I was arrested when
I was 16 years old.

Police broke down
the front door,

handcuffed me in my bed.

...who is Anonymous now?

♪

I'm calling Jeremy Hammond,
a legendary Anonymous hacker.

Hammond is serving a
10-year prison sentence

for hacking a private
intelligence firm.

Jeremy, how you doing?
It's Ben.

You can't finish this call?

You gotta go?

Okay, are you gonna call back?

Okay, alright.
Thanks, man.

Good luck.

(Beeping)

Well, that was bullshit.

VOICE: Greetings,
citizens of the world.

VOICE: Hello, Congress
of the United States.

VOICE: Hello,
leaders of Scientology.

BEN: Anonymous.

It's a brand, a meme,
and a movement.

VOICE: We are Anonymous.

We are legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

BEN: For almost a decade they've
hacked into corporations,

stolen private information,
and shut down websites.

Their signature is
instantly recognizable,

the Guy Fawkes mask from
the movie V For Vendetta,

which was based on the graphic
novel series of the same name.

The real Guy Fawkes was
executed in 1606 for conspiring

to kill the king and blow up
the British Parliament.

I went to talk with
Gabriella Coleman,

an anthropologist who wrote the
definitive book on Anonymous.

Full disclosure: she's also
a consultant on this show.

GABRIELLA: They're ghostly,
they're spectral,

they're mysterious, they're
controversial, they're radical.

It's a protest movement.

It's not about long-term
structural change.

It's about getting people
excited for activism,

which is incredibly important,

and then I think their most kind
of constructive contribution

has to do with the leaking of
information, whistleblowing.

But that's not how
Anonymous started out.

Back in the early 2000s, a group
of trolls banded together

on a web forum called
4Chan, taking their name

from the default ID many
used to post: Anonymous.

Anonymous was never meant to
become an activist phenomena.

Today it's identified with
politics, with activism,

but its roots are
in the offensive,

sometimes terrifying,
sometimes humourous world

of internet trolling.

Trolling is the time-honoured
practice of online baiting.

And in 2008, Anonymous
found an easy target.

It started with a video
featuring the world's

most famous Scientologist,
a very enthusiastic Tom Cruise.

(Maniacal laughing)

The Church of Scientology
was trying to get this video,

apparently leaked by a church
insider, off the internet.

And the Church of
Scientology threatened

all sorts of publishers
like Gawker with lawsuits

if they didn't
take down the video.

And it was at this moment that
Anonymous decides to target the

Church of Scientology with one
of these trolling campaigns.

And in this case, it was...
I like to refer to it as

the Mothership Trolling Campaign
that Anonymous engaged in.

They prank-called a
Scientology Dianetics hotline.

They sent hundreds of pizzas to
churches across North America.

They sent black faxes
to all the churches.

Then, Anonymous hit Scientology
websites with what's called

a Distributed Denial
of Service, or DDoS.

A DDoS attack floods a website

with so much traffic
that it crashes.

When the attack stops,
the site can come back up

without any permanent damage.

And it was during the course
of that campaign that they also

then started to debate whether
they should kind of earnestly

protest the Church of
Scientology not for the sake of

trolling, but for the kind of
sake of, you know, activism.

For the first time,
Anonymous was considering

real political action.

And then came a fateful step.

The collective called for
a worldwide street protest

against Scientology, and
thousands actually showed up.

Anonymous' next big op
was just as political.

It morphed from an
anti-copyright movement

into a massive campaign
to defend WikiLeaks

and its founder, Julian Assange.

In November 2010, WikiLeaks
began publishing a trove

of leaked diplomatic cables,
classified dispatches between

American embassies and
the State Department.

Visa, MasterCard and PayPal

stopped processing
donations to WikiLeaks.

Anonymous struck back with
what they called Op Payback.

That operation was,
and I still think is,

the largest protest DDoS that
the internet has ever seen.

You had over 7,000 people that
showed up on the chat channel

where activity was organized.

It was monumental DDoS.

Multi-day against
Visa, PayPal, MasterCard.

Op Payback put Anonymous
on the world stage,

and put them on the FBI's radar.

As the bureau's top
official in cyber crime,

Shawn Henry watched
Anonymous rise.

He retired in 2012.

What was it like when you
first encountered Anonymous?

Anonymous, I mean,
just the very name, right?

Who is it that we're
trying to investigate?

Where do they reside?

Who do they associate with?

This is a group that's
been widely dispersed

around the country, and
has been pretty good about

keeping themselves off
the grid as individuals.

What about what
they actually do?

'Cause a lot of it's
just like a DDoS attack.

Is that really all that bad?

We're seeing a new form of
social protest, and that is

people taking advantage
of their technical skills

to object in a loud
sort of way to social

and political practices
that they deem objectionable.

I mean, a lot of that activity
is illegal under our existing

law, and there are authorized
ways that people can protest.

Using the network to disrupt
organizations or to breach data

and to steal it is
not one of those ways.

By 2011, Anonymous had gone
from a fringe group of trolls

to a global political force.

The collective
attacked the websites

of repressive governments
to support the Arab Spring,

took to the streets as part of
the Occupy Wall Street movement,

and hacked corporations and
law enforcement along the way.

But to understand
who Anonymous is now,

I had to meet some
of them... in person.

BEN: Anonymous is basically
a network of online trolls

that became a global force
to be reckoned with.

They usually organize on a
network of online chat channels

called IRC using aliases.

But that doesn't mean
they never meet in person.

And Chaos Communication Camp,

a hacker gathering that only
happens once every 4 years,

turned out to be a bit
of a reunion party.

Some of the people I met

have never been interviewed
on camera before.

My name is Mercedes "N0" Haefer,

and I have two State National
Bowling Championships.

I'm Keith.

I'm the prettiest
PayPal 14 defendant.

And I'm Panda, and
I'm the King of Sweden.

(Giggling)

N0, Keth and Anon Panda
took part in Anonymous'

legendary attack against
PayPal, Visa and MasterCard

in support of WikiLeaks and
its founder, Julian Assange.

I mean, I don't like
him as a person, but...

that doesn't mean he
doesn't have rights,

and that doesn't mean I
won't fight for his rights.

Because if he
doesn't have rights,

then I don't have rights.

Everybody has them, or
they're just privileges.

So if I want to be able to
publish secret government data

that everyone should know, then
I also have to defend Assange.

But some within Anonymous
weren't as interested

in politics as
they were in "lulz",

internet slang for hilarity,
and LulzSec was a small

breakaway group of
Anonymous members

who just wanted some lulz
at the system's expense.

Quite frankly, hackers get
bored, and there's nothing...

there's nothing more dangerous
than a bored hacker, because

they'll make themselves not
bored very... ing quickly.

Darren Martyn took part in
both Anonymous and LulzSec,

going by the name pwnsauce.

"Pwning" something can mean that
you've hacked it completely.

When it all really
started kicking off,

the LulzSec thing was
just when I was turning 19.

So pretty much the same as
most of the people involved.

We were all kids basically.

So we just kinda split off
and did our own thing.

And then...

well, you know, it just kinda
took on a life of its own.

Who were some of
LulzSec's targets,

and why'd you guys
decide on them?

tflow was a respected Anonymous
member and a talented hacker.

He was also part of LulzSec,
all at the age of 16.

In the summer of 2011,
LulzSec went on a hacking spree.

They DDoSed the websites
of the CIA and the Senate,

hacked an FBI association
called InfraGard,

and published a fake story
on PBS NewsHour's site.

They also redirected
the UK newspaper The Sun

to a fake obituary...
for its owner.

None of these targets were
particularly difficult to hack.

A 3-year-old could do it.

I mean, senate.gov was
one of the simplest hacks

ever pulled off.

It was like the '90s called;

it wants its... ing
security vulnerabilities back.

Well, it just seems like
justice, like you said.

If they're hacking, then
why not let us hack them?

Both LulzSec and Anonymous

needed servers
to organize online.

And since corporate servers
would just shut them down

or turn them over to the police,

the collective built
its own network.

That's where Chris
Weatherhead came in.

He helped establish AnonOps,

the collective's main
network of chatrooms.

So you ran the servers
that Anonymous used

for their operations?

Yes, so I ran... yeah,
servers that they used

for a few of their operations.

Probably most notably the ones
relating to Operation Payback,

the Operation Avenge Assange,
stuff in the Arab Spring

like the Operation Tunisia,
helping the Tunisian people,

Operation Egypt, helping
people get back online

when Mubarak cut them off.

Did you develop pretty close
friendships with certain people?

None of us knew who
anyone else really was.

So there's sort of a crossover
between friendship and trust.

You reach a point where you're
implicitly trusting people with

information, and therefore you
are essentially befriending them

because you only
trust your friends.

Trust was important, since
all of this was illegal

and the heat was on.

In 2011, law enforcement around
the world located and arrested

several members of
LulzSec and Anonymous,

laying dozens of charges
for their high-profile hacks.

So when the police
turned up at my house,

it was a highly
unpleasant experience.

They kind of gave it
the whole TV treatment,

I guess you could call it.

They sent in the
whole, you know...

lots of people
shouting really loudly

with, you know,
firearms and shit.

I guess they were afraid that
laptops were wired to explode

or some crazy shit like that.

Or that, you know, I'd have
a delete button which would

make all of the evidence
disappear or something.

Police broke down the
front door, came in,

arrested me in my bed,
handcuffed me in my bed.

They all seemed
so surprised that

my computer and everything
around it was off.

Of course it's off!

It's 7:00 in the f... morning!

(Laughing)

What would you expect?

And me personally, I was
just arrested because...

'Cause you're so pretty!

It's 'cause you're so pretty.

N0 and Keth were arrested,

but narrowly avoided
doing major time.

tflow was too young
to go to prison,

pwnsauce got off with a fine,

and Chris spent 4-and-a-half
months behind bars.

But there were much
harsher sentences to come.

BEN: Anonymous was on a roll.

That is, until a series of
arrests in 2011 and 2012.

But for members
of the collective,

there was more
shocking news to come;

many of these arrests were
made possible by an informant.

Hector Xavier Monsegur,
otherwise known as Sabu,

was a vocal member of
Anonymous and LulzSec.

Many considered him a friend.

You met Sabu.

What was that like,
and what was he like?

Sabu is such an
interesting character.

He was really
involved in Anonymous.

He was very charismatic.

His personality online
was larger than life.

It was why he was so
effective as an informant.

Some of his peers and
colleagues, you know,

described him as "legend".

Why do you think he ratted
out his friends and his peers?

Sabu was put in a
difficult situation.

When the FBI showed up at his
house, they basically said,

"Look, work for us or we
will take your foster kids

away from you, and away
from your family entirely."

And he took the deal that
was given to him, and started

almost immediately
to work for the FBI.

Sabu not only led
the FBI to LulzSec,

but to one of Anonymous'
most brilliant hackers,

a 27-year-old
named Jeremy Hammond.

Hammond was the real deal:

a radical anarchist as active
in the streets as he was online;

a hacktivist way before
Anonymous was even a thing.

And we believe that the internet
is a powerful new medium

where just a handful of
people in small groups,

just by shifting data around
in the right directions,

can make big changes
and big damage.

Any method of disruption at
any cost, any means necessary.

Hammond helped
launch Op AntiSec,

which targeted police
departments and what he calls

the national security complex.

Sabu was also a
major player in AntiSec,

all while working for the FBI.

With the feds
watching his every move,

Sabu introduced Hammond to
a hacker who had found a way

into Stratfor, a massive
global intelligence firm.

Hammond then hacked Stratfor,
stealing thousands of

credit card numbers
and millions of emails.

He was arrested for the hack,

and is now serving a 10-year
sentence in federal prison.

VOICE: Dial 5 now.

Yo, what's going on?
You okay?

So just... I'll get right to it.

Why'd you hack Stratfor?

Why don't you
tell me about Sabu.

What was his role in all this?

How'd that make you feel?

BEN: I asked Sabu to tell
his side of the story,

but he declined to
talk to me on the record.

After Hammond hacked Stratfor,

he leaked the company's
emails to WikiLeaks.

The emails revealed Stratfor had
monitored activists worldwide.

WikiLeaks begins its release
of 5,000 emails documenting

the private lives and
private lies of private spies.

But one question still remains:

This whole time, the
FBI had an informant,

so why did it let
Stratfor get hacked?

The FBI could've done
something about that,

they could've prevented all
this damage from happening.

But no, they were more
interested in entrapping people,

and you know, ensnaring
people in doing things.

While they could've
stopped things

and done crime prevention,
instead they thought,

"... it, we're
gonna entrap everyone."

I mean, that... they
completely burned Stratfor.

And you know, the FBI need to
have a good look at themselves

and go, you know, "What... ing
moral high horse do we have

to stand on when we're using
other people as bait?"

After the high-profile arrests
of some of its core members,

Anonymous was at a crossroads.

But that made
some of its hackers

more determined than ever.

BEN: Sabu's betrayal
broke trust within Anonymous.

Anyone can be an informant.

And security expert
Robert Hansen believes

the group has been infiltrated.

I know that there are
certain governments who have

a keen interest at not
only infiltrating them,

but flipping people
inside Anonymous

and turning them
against one another.

And you're saying that
signals intelligence agencies

around the world will try
to compromise Anonymous?

Yes.

Which ones in particular?

At this point, most of them.

(Laughing)

Yeah, I've actually
sat in meetings

where people have actively
talked about doing that.

And not as a "we could",
as in "we are".

So Anonymous is essentially as
clean as a public swimming pool?

(Laughing)

I don't know if
I'd put it that way.

(Laughing)

But what I do know is that
it would be too dangerous

for a guy like me to ever
consider being involved with

at this point.

If I were apart of
Anonymous right now,

I would burn everything
and walk away,

and I would never look back.

But for some, walking
away isn't an option.

Despite the risks, Anonymous
DDoS actions and hacks

continue across the globe.

What do you say to people that
say Anonymous is flaming out?

Why not?

(Laughing)

Bio could go to jail if
his identity is revealed.

He took part in DDoS attacks on
Canadian government websites,

protesting an anti-terrorism
bill known as C-51.

The legislation gives
the government broader

surveillance powers, sparking
concerns about privacy abuse.

Are you gonna escalate
your attacks on Canada?

Are you gonna go
after more stuff?

As a terrorist?

(Laughing)

Right.

If you put your chances of
going to jail in a percentage,

what would it be?

(Laughing)

If you could go back and
do it all again, would you?

Would I have had those ideas?

Probably.

Would I have gotten
involved with Anonymous?

Probably.

Would I have ended
up running servers?

Highly likely.

Therefore, would I still be
in the situation I'm in now?

Very likely.

How does this end
personally for you?

At its best, Anonymous has
embarrassed those in power,

taunting them, paralyzing them,

and spilling their
secrets online.

As much an idea as a collective,

concerted campaigns
by law enforcement

could weaken and demoralize,
but not destroy it.

And so Anonymous lives on.

Thanks a lot, and I really
appreciate you taking the time

to talk to us.

Take it easy.