Short Bytes: Here is an account of the operation against banks and financial institutes, named “OpIcarus”, by Anonymous. It reveals the purpose of the cyber attacks, their targets, and the future of OpIcarus operation as told by one of the Anonymous hacktivists with an online name of “The Voice” .
The latest series of attacks launched by the Anonymous have been termed as the OpIcarus which stands for Operation I Care. These cyber attacks have left the targets going for the security audit. But there is still a question on people’s mind — what is the purpose behind these cyber attacks?
An Anonymous hacker, who goes by the online name of “The Voice”, while talking with the IBTimes UK, talked about the origin, purpose and the future of this collective operation named as OpIcarus.
What is OpIcarus?
OpIcarus is basically a collective input operation from different Anonymous hackers which has been going on for last five years.
OpIcarus, according to “The Voice”, is not targeted to cause damage or attacking the innocent people. Their main intention is putting some light on the ongoing problems with the banking industry and they want to bring everything forward to people, in public.
Motivation behind the OpIcarus movement:
The main motivation behind this campaign was to go hand-in-hand with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Occupy Wall Street movement started in New York in September 2011. People who were part of this movement came to the street protesting against the socio-economic inequalities.
The force behind this movement was so strong that it saw people coming on the streets in more than 900 cities across the world.
To support the physical movement which was going on the streets, Anonymous was working on the back-end through online cyber activities. After the arrest of many hacktivists, this movement lost the momentum.
Now with the OpIcarus, Anonymous again wants to revive this movement. “The Voice” talks about it and says:
Anonymous hacktivists think that elite banking sectors are responsible for the inequalities in the socio-economic condition of the people and they term it as financial terrorism.
This form of terrorism supports corporate terrorism, murder, tax fraud, money laundering, arms dealing and much more.
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So how Anonymous choose its targets?
As far as targeting is concerned, Anonymous targets institutions more than individuals. There are some benefits of that such as:
- Targeting and crippling down an institution float in digital media for longer than individual targets. It helps Anonymous in retaining media attention
- To create a credible online threat, targeting institutions pays back better than targeting an individual.
Why Targeting banks over individuals?
The main reason behind targeting a bank is that many elite individuals own shares in each other’s companies; they lobby each other to war, and they all profit together.
To target institutions, Anonymous has been reaching out to other hacking groups as well and asking them to unite with them.
It was also claimed by “The Voice” that another hacker who goes by the name of ‘S1ege’ has also reached out to other hacking groups and join in for OpIcarus.
To support his claims, “The Voice” has also provided several screenshots as evidence of having attacked and shut down various international banks, including the Reserve Bank of India, the State Bank of Hamburg, the Central Bank of UAE, the Vatican City Financial Services, the Rothschild Foundation and the World Bank.
Here is the screenshot of the hacked online banking websites.
What’s next for OpIcarus?
OpIcarus will be shutting down in May. However, Anonymous will be planning other collective hacks in the future as long as there are corrupt and greedy banks out there. They also expect to see many other hacktivist groups coming up in the near future.
Also Read: Anonymous Top 10 Achievements: Hacking Group Releases New Video
