Hacker Group Anonymous Promises To 'Kill' Facebook Over Privacy (UPDATE)
UPDATE: Some Anonymous participants are distancing themselves from "Operation Facebook."
"#OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it," read a tweet posted by @AnonOps on Wednesday.
Gizmodo spoke with Anonymous IRC sources and concluded that the group's "prominent operators" don't seem to be behind the purported Facebook offensive. "#OPFacebook is not endorsed by Anonops at this time," an Anonymous member told Gizmodo.
PREVIOUSLY: The hacker group known as Anonymous reportedly has a new target: Facebook.
This announcement comes in the form of a YouTube video titled "Message from Anonymous: Operation Facebook, Nov 5 2011" uploaded to the site on July 16th under the username "FacebookOps." As of this writing, the user has no other videos under its account.
"If you are hactivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy," the video's narrator says in an eerie, modulator-disguised voice, which ends the video with the sign off "we are Anonymous. We are legion. Expect us." "Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your privacy settings, and deleting your account is impossible."
According to the video, November 5, 2011 is the day Anonymous will allegedly launch its operation against Facebook.
"Think for a while, and prepare for a day that will go down in history," the voice in the video says (You can read the full statement on ZDNet here). "This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves."
Whether the message is a real threat from Anonymous remains to be seen. Security expert Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, tweeted that he doubts the veracity of the message. "The news around #Anonymous to attack #Facebook on Nov 5 most probably is fake," he wrote.
Facebook declined to comment on the video and threat. The social networking site offers information on how to deactivate and delete accounts on its help center, where users can also find more information about its privacy settings.
Facebook has been hacked before, but attacks by Anonymous are known for causing victims more than just a headache.
Prior attacks carried out by Anonymous have targeted security company HBGary Federal, which had thousands of emails stolen, according to Ars Technica, Booz Allen Hamilton, which had 90,000 email addresses belonging to military officials, among others, revealed, as well as PayPal, U.S. police forces, and others.
Anonymous allegedly told the FBI earlier this year, ""Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea. [...] [T]here is nothing - absolutely nothing - you can possibly to do make us stop."
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The Huffington Post Cooper Smith First Posted: 08/10/11 08:30 AM ET Updated: 10/10/11 06:12 AM ET