Anonymous Launches ‘AnonPlus’ Social Network

Anonymous is working on its own social networking platform, called AnonPlus, after the hacker group was ousted from Google’s new social network, Google+. Anonymous has also published data it stole from agricultural company Monsanto.

Anonymous said in a blog post that AnonPlus, which currently has a static landing page with a link to a public online forum, “will not tolerate being shut down, censored, or oppressed – even in the face of blackout”. It will allow users to network socially, but anonymously – a concept we at eWEEK Europe are a little baffled by.

“This lil info dump of a site is here simply to dispence info, soon the actual site will go up and you can begin to interact with it,” reads a message on the AnonPlus home page. “One thing i would like to point out that this project is for ALL people not just anonymous, this idea is a presstorm idea and only takes the name anon because of the Anonymity of the social network.”

The AnonPlus home page also lists members of the site’s Java development team (using code names of course), but warns that the list will expand and change daily, or possibly hourly.

Google+ rejection

The social network has been proposed in response to Anonymous’ removal from Google+ on Saturday. Admins attempting to access several Google+ accounts were met with a message explaining that the accounts had been suspended because they violated Google’s community standards.

“This is the sad fact of what happens across the internet when you walk to a different beat of the drum,” stated the Anonymous blog.

Meanwhile, the attack on Monsanto appears to be motivated by disapproval of Monsanto’s business ethics, and took two months to execute, Anonymous has said.

Last week, in an event dubbed “Military Meltdown Monday”, Anonymous leaked log-in details for around 90,000 military employees, which it claims were stolen from government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton as part of the group’s anti-government AntiSec campaign.

The group also recently absorbed hackers from Lulz Security, after the hacktivist group apparently disbanded. LulzSec stole data from Sony, Nintendo and American law enforcement agencies, as well as disrupting websites belonging to, among others, the CIA, US Senate and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

Authorities have desperately been trying to rein in the number of cyber attacks in the past few months. In January the British police arrested five Anonymous suspects, having investigated the group for some time. The FBI has also issued forty arrest warrants.

Last month saw the arrest of 32 suspects in Turkey believed to be linked to Anonymous, following an online protest against the country’s proposal for Internet filters, and police in Italy and Switzerland apparently conducted raids at the start of July.

British police have also arrested 19-year-old Ryan Cleary from Essex, who was allegedly connected with the Lulzsec hacktivist group. The man has been released on bail on the condition that he wear a tag and observe a curfew. LulzSec has repeatedly denied that he was a member of the group.