Anonymous not focusing on Westboro Baptists for hacker assault

Anonymous, the "hacktivist" group that has been making waves lately, is rumored to have selected a new target. A website loosely affiliated with Anonymous had an open letter posted, which issued a stern warning to the Westboro Baptist Church. However, seems like to not be entirely genuine. Members of Anonymous have asserted that the group has larger priorities than the small church known for its hate speech.

Plans for Anonymous are bigger than this

The Westboro Baptists Church was being directed at with a letter found on a site. This website has ties to the "hacktivist" group Anonymous. The open letter led to speculation that Anonymous was going to goal the group for Directed Denial of service, or DDoS, attacks in the near future, according to CBS. It said that Anonymous wanted Westboro Baptists church to stop since the “inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex” according to the letter. Right now, there are "more pressing matters to deal with" for Anonymous. This is why representatives said that the Phelps family and the Westboro Baptists don't have to worry about a DDoS attack.

Westboro responds

The Westboro Baptist Church responded that Anonymous was “a puddle of pimple-faced nerds.”. Anonymous was worried that it was a trap somehow. They asked members not to target WBC yet. Typically, the group is more interested in larger adversaries than the WBC. However, a group of rogue members could effortlessly organize an attack since Anonymous does not have a formal structure at all. However, Anonymous has taken on religious organizations before, as there was a public feud between Anonymous and the Church of Scientology.

WBC too small to matter

The tiny group in KS that works with hate speech at colleges and at funerals isn't the audience that Anonymous has been working against recently. The combination hacker and activist group, or “hacktivists,” have gained notoriety for larger marks, for instance Visa, MasterCard and Paypal, for cutting off scheduled payments to WikiLeaks, and Egyptian government websites were targeted when access to the internet in Egypt was cut off.

Citations

CBS News

cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20033942-501465.html?tag=pop

BBC

bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12535456