The term you are looking for is “hacktivist.”
A storied past
Over the years, Anonymous has cultivated a Robinhood-esque appeal. They started on 4chan, and they have no leader.
One of their early high-profile activities included a coordinated assault on Scientology websites through denial-of-service attacks. This was reportedly in response to claims of censorship against the Gawker tabloid.
They stymied government websites in several countries including Tunisia and Egypt in response to the Arab Spring pro-democracy movements in 2011.
They hacked PayPal when it stopped allowing donations to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
They targeted ISIS after the 2015 Paris terrorist attack.
More recently
In June 2021, Anonymous posted a video accusing Elon Musk of recklessly manipulating the crypto markets with his “temper tantrums.” It’s difficult to deny the impact of Musk’s tweets.
They end their Musk video with a cocky-but-catchy, “You may think you are the smartest person in the room, but now you have met your match. We are Anonymous! We are legion. Expect us.”
It is unclear if Anonymous actually “did” anything as they claimed. However, it does seem that Musk has self-regulated his tweets somewhat since then… though perhaps that had something to do with the SEC?
In February 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Anonymous twitter handle announced that they were declaring a cyberwar again Russia, and specifically Putin.
They did indeed carry through with their declarations – causing havoc among intelligence agencies and accessing a variety of systems inside the Russian government and it’s news outlets.
There is more sensational information available online regarding these enduring hacktivists.
