“Remember, remember the 5th of November…” so begins the classic poem detailing Guy Fawkes attempt to blow up the House of Parliament on November 5th, 1605. It is also doubtlessly the beginning to numerous articles, all scribed by hack writers (yup), regarding Anonymous’ reputed plans to engage in cyber attacks against Facebook and online games producer Zynga. Guy Fawkes is a sort of hero/icon to the hacker group, who frequently disguise their identities with a mask of his face during their public demonstrations, so it only makes sense that on today, the hackers’ “holiday,” they would go after the biggest website on Earth.
The philosophy behind the attacks, which is posted as a manifesto on the group’s website, Anonnews.org, reads:
Zynga customers and Facebook users, we are Anonymous. During the last few days, Anonymous has been targeting Zynga for the outrageous treatment of its employees and its actions against many developers, We have come to believe that the actions of Zynga will result in massive layoffs of 1,000 people and legal actions against everyone who speaks to the public about this plan.
It will also come to end of the U.S. game market as we know it, as all this jobs will be replaced in other more convenient financial countries. With $1 billion in cash sitting in a bank, we do believe that such actions are an insult to the population, and the behavior of corporations like Zynga must change.
Anonymous could not allow this to happen, so it’s starting to release confidential documents we have leaked on this plan. As we speak, we are planning to release also all the games we’ve taken from their servers for free. That being said, we will stop the idea of the distribution of such games if Zynga will cease immediately the plan.
As nothing has so far appeared to interfere with Facebook or Zynga’s operating systems, skeptics are calling bullshit (though not this writer, no sir, all hail Anonymous!). A similar threat to unleash a computer virus last November 5th, though released through official Anonymous channels, also turned out to be a hoax. For now it’s wait and see, but if you’ve got some crops developing on Farmville … wait … who the fuck plays Farmville anymore? No shit, Zynga is laying people off left and right. Amateur farming? Mafia wars? Maybe they should develop something useful … like … Facebook.
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