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To help a lone individual, the hackers found it all right to deprive 77 million people of a recreational service. For a group concerned about the rights of the people, it seems like "Anonymous" didn't care much about the average Joe.
Sometime in the latter part of 2010, a man named Julian Assange, and his website WikiLeaks came under scrutiny from governments around the world. The man had a knack for revealing embarrassing information about governments around the world.
Naturally, a huge uproar ensued when he was arrested for sex crime allegations. Many people said it was a baseless arrest, and one which was fiction turned into reality by a western government conspiracy.
Soon after this, "Anonymous" entered the fray, vowing to defend the man whom they called a "free-speech martyr."
Staying true to their promise, the group began to attack companies or groups who had severed ties to WikiLeaks, including Visa, Mastercard and the Swiss Post Office bank.
"Operation Payback stands for free speech and no censorship, which is also what Assange is going for," the Anonymous organizers said. "Whether we see him as a crusader or martyr, his goals are ultimately ours.
"When we think we made our point (e.g. WikiLeaks accepted as whistleblower, without fear that they will be prosecuted), we will return to fighting 'copywrong,'" they said.
Well, it seems like this was only the beginning of a highly publicized number of hacker attacks that have plagued the web since that fateful day.
"Anonymous" would then move onto breaking into HBGary Federal, stealing countless email messages and temporarily routing traffic to another page.
