You may have seen the recent YouTube video of Anonymous and Facebook in which an attack on Facebook has been scheduled for January 28th.  This comes directly after Anonymous’s most recent shutdown of the DOJ, FBI, Warner Brothers, and CBS among many others.  If you’re unfamiliar with that anti-SOPA attack we reported it on it recently here.  This was a DOS (Denial of Service) attack, which is what is also planned for Facebook as described in the Anonymous and Facebook video.

Anonymous and Facebook | How It Would Work

So the method that Anonymous used to shut down the Department of Justice site was a DOS attack using a LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon) that sends thousands of packets of information to Facebook’s servers rendering the site inaccessible.  Although Anonymous and Facebook are very different in size, by having thousands of participants to use the LOIC Anonymous could very easily cripple the Facebook servers by clogging them with information.

So just how is Anonymous trying to convince the people to support them in the shutdown of one of the most surfed sites in internet history?  Mashable reports on Anonymous and Facebook:

“An online war has begun between Anonymous, the people and the government of the United States,” the video begins. “While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from Congress, this doesn’t guarantee that our Internet rights will be upheld.”

The video gives instructions for downloading and running the program, as well as a time — 12 a.m. on Jan. 28 — to launch the attack. No time zone, however, is distinguished.

“Would you like to become part of the greatest Internet protests and first official cyber war?,” the video asks. “Oporation Global Blackout is ongoing and everyone can be a part of it.”

“While it is true that Facebook has at least 60,000 servers, it is still possible to bring it down,” says the Anonymous voice. “Anonymous needs the help of the people.”

YouTube commenters have raised an important question, Why would Anonymous want to crash Facebook, after the site came out against SOPA and PIPA?

The video essentially equates the privately-owned company with the U.S. government, with no explanation for the linkage. CNET postulates that Zuckerberg took too long to voice his opposition, landing his social network a spot on the potential targets list.

So its all a bit confusing on why there is this Anonymous and Facebook war, because as they said Facebook was in direct opposition to SOPA.  Thats why many Anonymous members are calling the video and proposed hack a hoax.

Anonymous and Facebook | The Work of One Member?

A report from Anonymous members angry about the report concerning Anonymous and Facebook said that this was the work of one lone member of the loose collective and this doesn’t represent them as a whole.  They said that it would be quite futile to shut down a social media site that they use to get their message and objectives across.

“Anonymous is a movement we don’t take kindly to when people try to (expletive) it up. Our movement relies on communicating with people around the world so we can help one another,” a statement posted to Pastebin today said.

“One skiddy queer chap named Anthony [last name redacted] from the US in Ohio decided to take it upon himself to have some lulz with creating an imaginary opfacebook and pawning it off as a legit anon op,” the statement said. “Despite us telling this mate several times we did not support his op, he continued to push his agenda for lulz. This op is phony but he continues to say it’s an anon op.”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-57319073-245/anonymous-says-facebook-attack-was-never-real/

So apparently we really don’t have to worry about the whole Anonymous and Facebook issue, at least thats whats reports are saying now, no telling what tomorrow will bring.

Image attribution: https://www.facebook.com/pages/anonymous-es-grande/210511492325908