

Anonymous Hacks U.S. State Department  - adampopescu
http://readwrite.com/2013/02/20/anonymous-hacks-us-state-department

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lutusp
When you read reports like this, it's easy to guess the age of typical
Anonymous hackers -- they're very young, too young to realize their strategy
plays into their adversaries' hands.

The worst strategy would be one in which a large number of weak attacks
results in progressive adaptation by the victims, creating a gradual evolution
and improvement in cyber-defense.

The best strategy would be a long process of method development but no overt
or detectable attacks, in order to strengthen the offensive methods, followed
by an all-out attack with mature methods that completely overwhelm the
adversary.

The worst strategy is almost as childish as the Anonymous hackers are
themselves. The best strategy is the one the 9/11 attackers used -- quietly
observe the adversary, detect weak points but don't betray your intentions,
then launch a major attack all at once that causes a defensive reaction that
is perfectly suited to the threat, but that arrives too late to contain the
damage.

In this sense, Anonymous, by setting off many small alarms about unacceptable
security practices, is only serving the needs of its adversaries in ways it
doesn't understand.

