Often embroiled in campaigns that are contentious, at best, members of the hacker group Anonymous have targeted a cause most would agree with: pedophilia. The loose collective has targeted the websites promoting child porn, while at the same time exposing the names and identifying information of more than 1500 alleged pedophiles that had been trolling the sites, in what they have dubbed OpDarkNet.
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OpDarkNet is dubbed thus because the targets of Anonymous' campaign live on a darknet, which Wikipedia defines as "a closed private network of computers used for file sharing." Inaccessible to most, it's also term the "Deep Web." Much of the darknet uses TOR, which is primarily aimed at protecting activists from oppressive governments, and ensuring privacy for normal Internet users.
However, TOR has also become a favorite tool for pedophiles, but also for cybercriminals, hackers, and drug dealers, as well.
Anonymous has posted an ongoing timeline at one of their "press release" sites of choice, Pastebin, where they detail their actions and mission statement. They say:
The owners and operators at Freedom Hosting are openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles to view innocent children, fueling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape, and death.
For this, Freedom Hosting has been declared #OpDarknet Enemy Number One.
By taking down Freedom Hosting, we are eliminating 40+ child pornography websites, among these is Lolita City, one of the largest child pornography websites to date containing more than 100GB of child pornography.
We will continue to not only crash Freedom Hosting's server, but any other server we find to contain, promote, or support child pornography.
In addition, Anonymous released a pair of dumps, including doxed (identified) users (1, 2) from the Lolita City site.
In one of those posts, Anonymous says, "If the FBI, Interpol, or other law enforcement agency should happen to come across this list, please use it to investigate and bring justice to the people listed here."
Anonymous also posted a YouTube video (in the sidebar) in which it promised to make the darknet "uninhabitable for these disgusting degenerates to exist without the fear of prosecution or death." They added, "We do not forgive. We do not forget."
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