The most famous hacker organizations. Anonymous (hackers): programs, hacks and reviews. Anonymous hacker group Famous hacker group

On October 13, it was announced that hackers had hacked into the Twitter account of Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, calling on him to vote for Republican rival Donald Trump. The Clinton headquarters has been attacked before. It is assumed that behind the hacking of computer systems this summer are Russian hackers.

On June 27, 2016, the OurMine hacker group hacked into the account of the CEO of Google Inc. Sundara Pichai on Quora. It is also assumed that on September 13, it was Russian hackers who hacked into the computer systems of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). From the information received, the world learned that American athletes were doping with the permission of doctors. To date, the last famous attack connected with the hacking of the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation on October 23. The hacker who hacked the site wrote: "Tie it up."

There are a huge number of hackers who use their deep knowledge of computer systems for completely different purposes. For example, in 2014, hackers from the Lizard Squad attacked Microsoft and Sony, which prevented millions of players from playing their games online.

Other hackers steal user account databases, as happened in September 2014 when scammers stole the data of 500 million users from Internet company Yahoo. Some hackers sit in their garages with laptops stealing data. bank cards for easy money, while others get paid and help employers protect themselves from other hackers.

One of the most famous hackers of our time, Edward Snowden, worked for the US National Security Agency and was involved in a program to spy on millions of Americans. However, the sense of justice prevailed, and Snowden told about all the crimes of the NSA to the world. Age hackers, tired of such a life, are engaged in advising companies and ordinary people on computer security issues.

In 2010, it became known that alleged American or Israeli hackers launched computer network Iranian nuclear power plants and uranium enrichment plants Staxnet virus. The virus sabotaged the operation of centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium ore, so that later it would be possible to create fuel for nuclear power plants. Today, Iran is improving relations with the outside world and is going through the process of lifting economic sanctions. Last but not least, this is the merit of anonymous hackers on the state payroll. Your attention -top of the world's most active hacker groups.

Bureau 121

There is catastrophically little information about the North Korean hacker group Bureau 121. It is known that these people are part of the North Korean army and perform tasks for the state related to the theft and search for information, as well as protecting the country's computer systems from foreign hackers. North Korean hackers also attack other countries, in particular, South Korea. South Korean gaming services, websites of government agencies, leading companies, and banks are being attacked.

It is assumed that specialists from Bureau 121 took part in attacks on the servers of the Japanese company Sony in November 2014.

The North Korean state is known to recruit young hackers at North Korea's Automation University. The group consists of about 1,800 young people who operate around the world, including outside of North Korea. The need to operate outside the country is explained by the extremely weak information infrastructure of North Korea.

Chaos Computer Club (CCC)

Chaos Computer Club is a very old hacker group. It was founded back in 1981 by German hackers. Today it is a very large network that brings together mainly German-speaking hackers.

This group first consulted with legal experts before their attacks to make sure their actions were legal.

This suggests that these people have their own specific code of conduct. In part, their strategy of legitimacy ensured the group's survival for such a long period of time. However, not everyone in this huge group acted exclusively within the law, because the CCC is for the most part a disorganized group.CCC hackers became known in the 1980s when they notified the Deutsche Bundespost (former German postal company) that their computer systems weren't reliable enough, making them easy targets for early self-serving hackers. The Deutsche Bundespost provider arrogantly stated that everything was in order. CCC activists proved the ISP wrong when they stole DM 134,000 from mailers' accounts. The money was returned the day after the attack.

morpho

Morpho or "Wild Neutron" is a well-sponsored group of high-profile hackers who have been taking orders for pharmaceutical, investment and technology companies since 2011.

However, this is not a government group because their activities usually involve stealing insider information for money.

The Morpho structure is very interesting. Morpho includes many small groups that use high-end software and technology. Their networks are dispersed, they use bitcoin to pay for the hosting provider, and they also use many complex virtual machines.

Syrian Electronic Army

The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) is a hacker group that sympathizes with the Syrian government and is also linked to Iran and the terrorist group Hezbollah. Often their attacks are aimed at sabotaging Western media. SEA hackers also use their knowledge to search for rebels and opposition forces.

SEA specialists are very resourceful. For example, in one tweet they sent from President Obama's Twitter account, they briefly crashed the Dow Jones index on the New York Stock Exchange.

Hackers wrote that President Barack Obama was injured in a bombing at the White House. The SEA also tweeted on behalf of the BBC account that Saudi weather stations were hit by a camel collision. Computer security specialists suggest that the SEA hackers may be from Iran, as they are well versed in spoken English and humor. Probably all Iranians understand these issues, since experts draw such conclusions.

Anonymous

Anonymous is the most famous group of hackers on the Internet. Mostly made up of Americans. The organization was born on the 4chan forum in 2003 and has since grown into a fairly serious force on the Internet. As a universal symbol, they use the conditional image of the hero of English history Guy Fawkes, which was created by the fantasy of the creators of the comic book “V for Vendetta”. The structure of Anonymous is decentralized - the organization did not stop its work and attacks even when many participants were arrested. Many of Anonymous' actions were liberal or anti-state. Activists advocate the abolition of state control of the Internet and censorship.

The most famous actions of Anonymous are connected with the fight against child pornography and the Church of Scientology.

Anonymous has no leader, it is a collective mind. This is due to the fact that one single person is a weak link in any system, and it is especially dangerous if this person gives up. Because of his ego, vanity and self-interest, many can suffer. Anonymous is first and foremost an idea. This idea has allowed this organization to exist for so long.

Tarkh Andishan

Tarh Andishan is the Iranian government's response to the Staxnet virus attack. After this incident, the Iranian state realized the real danger of cyber threats. In this regard, it was decided to modernize the Iranian network shield. Modernization went two ways: a network struggle unit called Tah Andishan was created, as well as Ajax, which was formed from the already existing hacker activists in the country.The most famous action of the Ajax group was called "Operation Saffron", in which hackers tried to gain access to secret US defense industry data through a phishing attack.

Tarh Andishan, in the minds of ordinary people, are extremely dangerous terrorists, as they, like action movie heroes, gained access to airport terminal gate control systems in South Korea, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

This attack allowed them to trick airport security systems into spoofing people's identities. Tarkh Andishan hackers also hacked industrial facilities of oil and gas companies and telecommunications infrastructure of various organizations.

Dragonfly

Dragonfly is a state-sponsored group of hackers based in Russia and Eastern Europe. Their main targets are electrical grids, the energy industry, and command systems states of Europe and the USA. Dragonfly is listed as a constantly active threat.Dragonfly activists have introduced trojans into legally distributed software for industrial control systems, which is very similar to the Staxnet virus. This malware can disrupt the operation of many industrial and infrastructure facilities, which makes the Dragonfly grouping an extremely dangerous adversary.

APT28/ Fancy Bear / Sofacy / Pawn storm / Sednit

A group of hackers that, according to experts, operates primarily from the Russian time zone at the suggestion of the Russian government. The goals of the organization are of interest to Russia, and in their work, the hackers of this organization use very modern and high-quality methods, which was proved by the recent WADA hack.At one time, hackers hacked into NATO systems, the Polish government, various Georgian ministries, and OSCE computer systems. It is noteworthy that hackers are active in the territory where the treaty on the extradition of criminals to the United States does not apply.

Hackers from the Cobalt group, who forced ATMs in Taiwan and Thailand to throw money away in the summer of 2016, attacked more than 250 organizations around the world in the first half of 2017, sending letters on behalf of Visa and MasterCard

Photo: Markku Ulander / Lehtikuva / TASS

The hacker group Cobalt, known for large-scale attacks on financial institutions, as a result of which ATMs began to dispense money, and allegedly having Russian roots, significantly expanded its scope in 2017. According to the report of the specialist in the field information security Positive Technologies company (owned by RBC), in the first half of 2017, Cobalt sent phishing emails containing infected files to more than 3,000 recipients from 250 companies in 12 countries around the world. Companies located in North America, Western Europe and South America, in particular in Argentina, have been added to the list of traditional Cobalt targets located in the CIS, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. The group is now interested not only in banks, but also in stock exchanges, insurance companies, investment funds and other organizations.

According to experts, the methods of hackers are evolving. Now, before attacking banks, Cobalt first hacks into the infrastructure of their partners - a quarter of all attacks are against government organizations, industrial companies, telecommunications operators and medical enterprises. “Attacks on non-financial organizations are carried out in order to prepare a springboard for subsequent attacks on banks. For example, attackers can send phishing emails on behalf of a regulator or a partner of a bank for which it provides services,” Alexey Novikov, deputy director of the Positive Technologies Competence Center for Expert Services, explained to RBC. He notes that financial institutions are much better protected from cyber threats than government agencies and companies in the industrial sector. “They are constantly improving their defense mechanisms due to frequent attacks on their infrastructure, so it is easier for attackers to hack into the infrastructure of a bank counterparty or a government organization to carry out a direct attack on the bank,” says Novikov.

Attacks on the credit and financial sphere, which account for 75% of all the efforts of hackers from this team, have become more sophisticated. The group sends massive phishing emails from fake domains imitating messages from Visa, MasterCard, the Central Bank of Russia’s Financial Cyber ​​Attack Response Center (FinCERT) and the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Positive Technologies said. For these purposes, Cobalt used at least 22 fake domains imitating the websites of large financial institutions and their counterparties.

Who is who

Experts consider several groups to be the most dangerous for the banking community - Lurk, Buhtrap, Carbanak, Lazarus.

The hackers from the Lurk team, who created the banking Trojan of the same name, were able to steal more than 1.7 billion rubles from the accounts of Russian banks before being detained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB in June 2016. Law enforcement agencies arrested about 50 people associated with this group and blocked fictitious payment orders for another 2.3 billion rubles.

The Buhtrap group was noticed by information security experts in 2014. According to Group-IB, which specializes in preventing cyberthreats, from August 2015 to February 2016, its hackers stole 1.8 billion rubles from the accounts of Russian banks, making 13 successful attacks. Among the victims were Metallinvestbank and the Russian International Bank. The criminals sent fake messages containing infected files to victims on behalf of the Central Bank. It is with the activities of this group that Group-IB and Positive Technologies experts associate hackers from Cobalt. “Probably part of the Buhtrap group or even its main backbone moved to Cobalt. On the this moment Cobalt, of course, is the leader in terms of the degree of danger for the domestic financial environment as the most professional and technically savvy,” Positive Technologies experts say.

Kaspersky Lab is of the opinion that Cobalt members come from another dangerous group, Carbanak, whose first attacks were recorded in 2013. “In 2014-2015, when stealing money from banks, the Carbanak malware was used, for which a certain infrastructure was needed - network addresses. Then the same addresses were used to control the malware that became part of the malware. software", - said the leading anti-virus expert of Kaspersky Lab Sergey Golovanov. According to him, the Carbanak group consists of about a hundred people, and the damage from its actions has already exceeded $1 billion. On average, one attack costs Russian banks tens of millions of rubles, Golovanov says.

Another group targeting banks is Lazarus, most notorious for stealing $81 million from Bangladesh Bank in 2016. According to the Group-IB report, these hackers may be close to the government of the DPRK, as they carried out some of the attacks from the Pyongyang Potongan region, where the headquarters of the DPRK National Defense Committee is located.

There has also been a lot of concern about hackers from a community called Metel, now possibly out of business. They have been active since 2011 and in a few years were able to compromise accounts worth more than $250 million. During the attack on Energobank in 2016, Metel's actions caused the ruble to change by more than 15% and caused damage to the bank in the amount of 244 million rubles.

How do they attack

A typical Cobalt attack consists of several stages, says a Positive Technologies representative. First, fake domains are registered, ostensibly belonging to large companies, such as Visa. Then a phishing mailing containing malicious file, usually document Microsoft Word. After opening this attachment, the user launches a program that prevents anti-virus protection systems from responding to the virus. After that, the Trojan itself is loaded, which allows you to organize remote access to the working computer of an employee of the victim company. Further, the attackers can either develop an attack within the organization, or send a letter from a hacked desktop with similar malicious software to another organization.

“Our statistics show that, on average, 20-30% of employees open potentially dangerous attachments that jeopardize the entire security of the company. But in this case, the percentage of those who opened was 2-2.5 times higher, since the letters were sent on behalf of the counterparty, and in some cases even on behalf of specific employees, ”Positive Technologies says.

Rustam Mirkasymov, head of the dynamic malware analysis department at Group-IB, says that Cobalt's main goal is still to steal money from financial institutions, but hacker attacks have really begun to affect not only banks. “Our Threat Intelligence system detected attacks on law firms, insurance companies, information and news agencies, and leasing companies. This is done in order to test the efficiency attack for further attacks on the banking infrastructure. There are already known cases when the infrastructure of a large integrator was used by this group to carry out attacks on banks in Romania, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Russia, etc.,” says Mirkasymov. According to him, the average amount of theft in one incident is about 100 million rubles.

The damage to Russian banks from the actions of hackers in 2016 amounted to just over 2 billion rubles. The average damage from a cyberattack during this period in the world averaged $926,000 per financial institution, according to a Kaspersky Lab report. At the same time, the average annual cost of one bank to ensure cybersecurity, according to the company, now reaches $58 million worldwide, which is three times more than that of non-financial organizations.

Russian hackers are infamous for their questionable skills, from evil programmer and nemesis James Bond in Goldeneye to the biggest cybercrime in American history. And while hackers from other countries can quite often be motivated by an ideology, most Russian cybercriminals have developed a reputation as digital pickpockets, more interested in cleaning other people's bank accounts than public statements.

And while it has long been assumed that most hackers are just scammers, cybercrime is still often admired for the technique and intelligence it brings, creating a heady cocktail of art, science, and criminal intent. And while Russian hackers may be less active than their Chinese and Latin American counterparts, the quality of the attacks makes them world leaders in this area. Here are some of the Russian names that have sowed panic in the cybersecurity world.

1. Anonymous international

This hacker group is also known as "Humpty Dumpty"(in Western folklore, a similar character is called Humpty-Dumpty). Arguably the most notorious hacker group in Russia today, Anonymous International has claimed responsibility for a major series of recent cyberattacks and document leaks. Hackers published personal archives Email several Russian government officials and stole various classified documents (such as reports of spying on opposition leaders after the protests in Moscow). But their most notorious act was hacking Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's Twitter account and posting several humorous tweets on his behalf for half an hour while Medvedev's representatives made every conceivable effort to regain control of the account. They do not motivate their interest with a thirst for money. However, because the group is very secretive, many still question its methods, motives, and moral character. The group's website hosted an archive of stolen files, for which it was blocked by Roskomnadzor. However, it can be viewed via a VPN.

2. Vladimir Levin

Levin, a biochemist from St. Petersburg, is a cult figure in Russian cybercrime and is considered one of the fathers of hacking. In 1994 Levin and a team of accomplices gained access to Citibank and transferred more than $10 million to various accounts in different countries. Levin was promptly caught and convicted in 1998 in the United States. It was a big performance. Levin did not know English at the time of the crime (he learned the language in prison in America. Apart from computer technology, this was the only skill he mastered), and journalists described him as "something between hippies and Rasputin." After Levin was found guilty, various hacker groups from St. Petersburg claimed that it was they who gained access to Citibank, which they later sold to Levin for a hundred dollars.

3. Igor Klopov

Klopov's story is similar to the American Hustle, but marked by a naive take on the American Dream. The 24-year-old Moscow State University graduate used the Forbes list of the 400 richest people on the planet to find his goals. Then, in Moscow, he found American accomplices from his laptop, promising them money, vacations in five-star hotels and limousines. Using what the state prosecutor would later call "a combination of clever and time-honored Internet techniques, such as forging a driver's license," Klopov and his accomplices stole $1.5 million and attempted to steal another $10 million, and were caught. Igor Klopov pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison in 2007.

4. Koobface gang

Unlike most of the other hackers on this list, members of the Koobface (an anagram of Facebook) Gang - all, as it turned out later, Russians from St. Petersburg - did not attack companies or people directly. Instead, they created a computer worm that they launched into various social networks(Facebook, Skype, Gmail, Yahoo Messenger and many others) to infect user accounts and steal their personal data. The investigation into the group's crimes has shed light on the intricate systems that prevented the police from even estimating the resources needed to sort out its activities: “All revenues were generated from thousands of individual micro-transactions, amounting to no more than a fraction of a penny each. In doing so, the victims were scattered across dozens of national jurisdictions.” The Koobface worm lured users with links with captions like "You must watch this video!" or "You won't believe what your friend X said about you!" - a strategy popular among hackers. The worm was discovered and shut down in 2012 after the names of members of the Koobface Gang were made public in the media.

5. Vladislav Khorokhorin

Hiding under the nickname BadB, Khorokhorin opened two online stores selling data of bank card holders. The commercial features a cartoon BadB wearing an earflap, selling credit card information for cartoon characters that include George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice. He ran his illegal business for 8 years before he was arrested in 2010 in France. Comments like "R.I.P. BadB" under his Youtube promo only confirm Horokhorin's status as a successful hacker. After his arrest, Khorokhorin hired Arkady Bukh, a well-known New York lawyer who specializes in cybercrime. Bukh claimed that Khorokhorin was not BadB, and in an interview with Forbes said that his client made his millions as a Tesla Motors dealer in Moscow. Tesla, which has never had dealers in Russia, denied this claim. In 2013, Horokhorin was sentenced to 88 months in prison and paid $125,739 in compensation.

High technologies, coding information and solving mysteries are the main interests of modern hackers in the world. Most of them prefer to remain in the shadows, because the nicknames of hackers are often hidden, in other cases, almost nothing is known about the life of active network users. But still there is a certain number of hackers who are known to the whole world.

Popular American hackers and their nicknames

The researchers compiled their list of the most advanced hackers in America. Among the most popular was Dark Dante. The nickname of the hacker is translated as "dark Dante", which was worn by American Kevin Poulsen. Today the guy is called "honorary retired hacker." His main specialization is hacking telephone lines.

At one time, Kevin won a Porsche, which was played on the air of the radio station KIIS-FM, due to his ability to cheat the system. On the other hand, he also engaged in an active network search for individuals who were looking for pornographic videos on the network. Unfortunately, Poulsen did not stop there and decided to prove his abilities to the whole world by infiltrating the FBI database. After that, he was sentenced to 5 years. And today Kevin works as an editor of one of the American magazines and often describes his hacker exploits.

C0mrade is another alias for a hacker, which means “comrade” in English. Its owner Jonathan James is famous for his criminal biography. And he was convicted at the age of 16 for the malicious code that he posted on the server of the US Department of Defense. Interestingly, in 1999, Jonathan attacked the NASA databases for the first time, for the protection of which the management spent more than 1.7 million dollars. After that, the guy was convicted. However, in 2007, a scandal thundered again: someone stole data from customers' credit cards and suspicions fell on the former hacker. He failed to prove his innocence to the person involved, so he found the only way out and shot himself the same year.

Homeless hacker has become another netizen famous for his abilities. Translated, the nickname for a hacker means "homeless hacker", since Adrian Lamo almost always used public computers, which made it extremely difficult to figure him out. At one time, he hacked the Yahoo! search engine, the Bank of America server, and was even able to access The New York Times data. As punishment, Adrian paid a $65,000 fine and spent several years under house arrest. Today the guy is one of America's famous journalists.

Nicky Russian hackers

Nicknames of hackers from Russia are often recognizable at first sight. The most popular of them is Magg, which belongs to Alexei Belan. In 2012, he hacked the networks of large American companies and also used the personal data of employees. To this day, Belan has not been found, and his trail has been lost in Athens. Perhaps today the hacker is in Russia.

The nicknames of hackers in the world are often united by hacker groups and have a single name, like, for example, the names of hackers in one of the Russian groups - Fancy Bear, which means "unusual bear." Interestingly, its members are credited with collaborating with the Kremlin. At one time, they attacked US defense sites.

Also, the Fancy Bear group is associated with direct interference in the election of the President of America. And in 2016, they were accused of cyberattacking Macron's election state.

The most famous hacker groups

Today the world knows the most active hacker groups: Anonymous, Lizard Squad and The Lulz Boat. One of the well-known hacker structures is Anonymous, which means “anonymous”, which has been operating since 2003. This is an international organization that does not have a single control center. Since 2015, they have become associated with cyberterrorists, and the Times magazine noted that Anonymous is one of the most influential organizations in the world.

Lizard Squad is another group of hackers. It means "team of lizards". It was founded in 2014, but despite the fact that it lasted for about 6 months, it has become one of the most famous in the world. This organization is known for repeated attacks on the game servers Destini, League of Legends. Initially, their actions were not taken seriously, but in the future it became known that Lizard Squad actively shared posts in support of ISIS and the DPRK. Today, most of the participants are under arrest for acts of fraud and unauthorized access to the servers.

The Lulz Boat is one of the three most famous hacker groups. Was founded in 2011. Translated, the band's nickname means "laughing boat". They gained access to Sony user accounts, and also attacked the website of the US Senate and police structures. Already in 2012, most of the participants were arrested. But it is also interesting that almost all information regarding the activities of The Lulz Boat was leaked to the police by the leader of this hacker group, Hector Xavier, since he was recruited by the authorities back in 2011.

Single hackers and their groups have recently become commonplace for most network users. Large companies are actively involved in the protection of personal data even today, but every day it becomes known about new cyber attacks on servers. Nicknames of hackers are often not disclosed and remain only in the personal files of hackers, however, information about the most famous and clever ones is leaked online from their fans, followers or even accomplices.

Over the past week, for the first time, many of us have heard about the Lizard Squad hackers, who have already claimed responsibility for two high-profile DDoS attacks: on the Malaysia Airlines website, which began redirecting users to a page that says “404 - Aircraft not found”, and on Facebook, which was unavailable for a full 40 minutes.

Facebook, however, denied the rumors of a hacking attack; instead, a developer error was cited as the cause of the site's malfunction. Malaysia Airlines has also managed to assure users that the site was not hacked, just temporarily transferred to another domain name.

And yet, who are the Lizard Squad? The next "hacktivists" trying to convey their political agenda, or a group of teenagers having fun? Do they pose a real threat or are they only strong in name? And what is their place among other hacker groups? Below we will talk about the hackers who have been the loudest in recent times.

The Lizard Squad gained notoriety after attacks on major IT companies, including Sony, Microsoft and Facebook. The general public first heard about them in August 2014 when they hacked several online games, including League of Legends and Destiny. They were followed by more significant attacks on Sony's Playstation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live.

It appears that hackers personal accounts with Sony. In August 2014, they reported a bomb on board the airliner, which was supposed to fly one of the presidents of the company. As a result, the plane made an emergency landing.

In addition, the group hints at its involvement in the Islamic State. During the attack on Malaysia Airlines, they called themselves the "Cyber ​​Caliphate" (also called the hacking arm of the Islamic State). Moreover, in August they planted an ISIS flag on Sony's servers.

At first glance, Lizard Squad are driven by purely political motives, however, it is very likely that it is much more important for them to demonstrate the capabilities of their Lizard Stresser service. As such, claims of links to the Islamic State may be nothing more than an attempt to get more media attention.

After the attacks on PSN and Xbox Live, US and UK authorities launched an investigation that ended with the arrest of a 22-year-old resident of Twickenham and a teenager from Southport (Britain).

Probably the most famous hacker organization, Anonymous is a decentralized association of tens of thousands of "hacktivists" who work together to hack websites in protest.

The group gained notoriety after attacks on a number of major political, religious and corporate resources. Their accomplishments include hacking the Pentagon website, threatening Facebook and Los Zetas, the Mexican drug cartel, and declaring war on the Church of Scientology.

In 2010, Anonymous launched the Payback operation after Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and other companies refused to serve WikiLeaks. They also openly supported the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 by attacking the New York Stock Exchange website.

Since 2009, numerous people have been arrested in America, the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, and Turkey for alleged involvement with Anonymous. However, the organization protests against the persecution, calling those arrested "martyrs of the movement."

The group's motto reads: "We are Anonymous. Our name is legion. We do not forgive. We don't forget. Wait for us".

LulzSec (short for Lulz Security) was formed shortly after the HBGary Federal hack in 2011 and was originally an affiliate of Anonymous. The main driving force of the group was seven people who chose the phrase "Laughing at your safety since 2011" as their motto.

The group carried out the first attack on Fox.com, stealing several passwords, LinkedIn accounts and the names of 73,000 participants in the X-Factor show. In 2011 they went one step further by hacking the CIA website.

LulzSec is famous for the large organizations they target and the snarky messages they leave on websites after they've been hacked. Some experts regard the organization's activity as pranking rather than a real threat, but the group's members claim that they are capable of more serious steps.

In 2011, the group released a "50 Days of Lulz" statement in which they announced they were disbanding. However, on July 18, they launched another attack on newspapers owned by the News Corporation holding, filling them with fake news about the death of company owner Rupert Murdoch.

In 2012, the FBI arrested the main members following a denunciation by the group's leader, Hector Monsegur, aka Sabu. According to prosecutor Sandeep Patel, the hackers lacked Anonymous's political ambitions and imagined themselves to be "modern pirates."

The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) has openly stated that it supports the government of current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Their main target is the political opposition and Western websites, especially news resources and human rights organizations.

The group's relationship with the Syrian government is not very clear. On the official website, the SEA calls itself "a group of young Syrian enthusiasts who cannot calmly respond to the distortion of facts about the recent uprisings." Some experts believe that hackers may indeed receive funding from the authorities.

The main methods of SEA - spam, deface, phishing and distribution malware. Often, hackers replace a company's web page with messages in support of the current government or an image of the Syrian flag.

The Syrians have already managed to hack into the Facebook pages of Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as the Twitter accounts of news agencies and IT companies. At the same time, the messages that they leave after being hacked vary greatly in style: among them there are both serious and openly political, and ironic ones.