Monthly Archives: May 2011

In the last few months, ‘headless’ hacker collective Anonymous has further increased its public profile and raised even more hackles by hacking larger targets.

Recently, infighting broke out when a rogue Anonymous member known as “Ryan” – took control of some of the servers that host the IRC channels used for DDoS attacks, prompting a core group of hackers – which is as close to a “leadership” that Anonymous has – to attempt to regain control.

Now, one prominent member of Anonymous has since announced he’s tired of the childish drama:

Barrett Brown, sometimes called a “spokesman” for Anonymous, publicly stated that he is no longer a part of the group and that he is forming a splinter group to continue work on exposing “criminality and corruption” within U.S. government and institutions. The feud between “Ryan” and the rest of Anonymous was a big reason for Brown’s departure.

“I’m tired of the drama,” Brown said. “You’ve got kids fighting for control of an IRC channel. I’m a researcher. I’m into revolutionary stuff. But there are other people for whom its about exerting power.”

Anonymous Spokesman Quits Former Splinter Group (Escapist Magazine)

Leinster House this afternoon

There is a poignant image of [Garret] FitzGerald a year or so after the signing of the agreement when he visited Northern Ireland amid tight security. He made it his business to break away from his entourage and shake the hand of a Royal Ulster Constabulary officer who had been guarding him.

At the time, the RUC was facing the enmity of not only the Provisional IRA but also extreme loyalists, who were burning police officers out of their homes because the force had been asked to physically defend the new Anglo-Irish Secretariat building on the outskirts of east Belfast.

The handshake was probably the first since Seán Lemass went to Northern Ireland to meet his prime ministerial counterpart, Sir Terence O’Neill, in the 1960s.

Garret FitzGerald’s Death Casts Shadow Over Royal Visit (Henry McDonald, Guardian)