We Are Anonymous

Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency

By: Parmy Olson

Narrated by: Abby Craden

Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

We Are Anonymous is a thrilling, exclusive expose of the hacker collectives Anonymous and LulzSec.

In late 2010, thousands of hacktivists joined a mass digital assault by Anonymous on the websites of VISA, MasterCard, and PayPal to protest their treatment of WikiLeaks. Splinter groups then infiltrated the networks of totalitarian governments in Libya and Tunisia, and an elite team of six people calling themselves LulzSec attacked the FBI, CIA, and Sony. They were flippant and taunting, grabbed headlines, and amassed more than a quarter of a million Twitter followers. The computer security world - and world at large - realized quickly that Anonymous and its splinter groups are something to treat with dead seriousness.

Through the stories of three key members, We Are Anonymous offers a gripping, adrenaline-fueled narrative in the style of The Accidental Billionaires, drawing upon hundreds of conversations with the members themselves, including exclusive interviews. By coming to know them - their childhoods, families, and personal demons - we come to know the human side of their virtual exploits, and why they're so passionate about disrupting the Internet's frontiers.

©2012 Parmy Olson (P)2012 Hacette Audio

Starts Great But Gets Boring

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This book starts out as an interesting, intriguing book about a group of computer hackers and their exploits. Later, however, it gets bogged down in a great deal of biographical info that could have been abbreviated or summarized. Yes, it is interesting to know the background of the hackers and why/how they got into the business of hacking. After a while I just couldn't listen to the narrator describe one more stupid trick on an unsuspecting target such as a restaurant or fast food purveyor. Didn't go further. If it got more serious or more interesting later in the book, I will never know.

Would you be willing to try another book from Parmy Olson? Why or why not?

Don't know if I would try another book. I have come to trust Audible listener ratings overall, not just the good reviews highlighted in the email newsletters

Excellent performance

A curious story of the underground world of anonymous. The prose is very narrative, which makes me wonder how much is fact and how much is creative license, but it is a fascinating story. Extra high marks for the narrator for keeping me on the edge of my seat as if this were an investigative mystery tale.

A well told story about the origins of the hacker

The hacker network known as anonymous has become very influential and receives much publicity in the world today. Yet people in general know very little about how Anonymous is actually organized or how many people are active in the network.

In this book, author Parmy Olson, takes us backstage and tells the story of ~5 core members of this renowned hacker network. Jake a.k.a. “Topiary”, a social outcast teenager on the Shetlands, was for some time the voice of the hacker network. Kayla, a highly skilled hacker whose identity still appears uncertain. Sabu, a mexican immigrant living in the US… among others. The their shared belief that the internet should be entirely free brought these people together and through their combined expertise they managed quite a lot of havoc in the real world. Together they brought down web pages belonging to the Church of Scientology as well as the Tunisian government. Other than high profile hacks such as these the members also did multiple hacks on social network sites which are actually kind of horrific. The book also describes how the members were identified and ultimately arrested. Still as anyone who has seen the news lately knows, anonymous did not disappear with these arrests. A strength and a weakness of their organisation is their lack of… organisation... The members do not know each other personally, they do not have a leader or a chairman steering the boat and anyone can perform a hack in the name of anonymous and thus move the agenda of the organisation.

What this book does particularly well is to give you insight into how anonymous is organized (and how it is not organized). You will learn about the types of attacks that are typically employed by the network as well as how they protect their real identities (though they were ultimately unsuccessful). The reader of this book will also learn how to protect one's identity online and how not to get fooled by social hackers. All in all, it is a very good and informative book and well worth a read if you are at all interested in anonymous or hackers in general.

Not a bad book

If you could sum up We Are Anonymous in three words, what would they be?

historical, depressing, enthralling

Would you recommend We Are Anonymous to your friends? Why or why not?

I might recommend this. The only problems are that it has a lot of vulgarity, obscenity, and graphic things, but it's an open window into what it's like in the under-world of the internet, so I don't think that's necessarily bad, it's just depressing.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The reading is in a very proud sounding lilt without much other emotion which tends to flatten all the accents. I'm not sure if they're bad accents or if it's the proud sound to every phrase, but something is wrong with the accents especially. They're a bit irritating.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, this wasn't a book that I wanted to listen to all in one sitting, but most books are long enough that it would be hard to anyways. The off accents are too grating in this one, however for that to happen.

Changing online practices

If you could sum up We Are Anonymous in three words, what would they be?

Hackers gotta hack!

What was one of the most memorable moments of We Are Anonymous?

The most memorable was really the opening scene. I was horrified but laughing inside at how easily the hackers took down a 'cyber security' firm's website, defaced the site, abused the CEO's twitter account and published its emails.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

If nothing else, I have learned why there are warnings to change your password frequently, use different passwords on different accounts, and to use phrases with upper case, lower case, numbers, and symbols. It was quite eye opening that the groups published lists of user names and passwords.

Any additional comments?

The book was engaging and felt like a quick listen up until the last hour or so. I enjoyed the walk through cyber history and how the culture evolved and morphed over time.
A synopsis of the stories would be a valuable listen for any company who wants to really get the point across to their employees that cyber security is important.

An important and educational story, well-told

If you are like me, you followed the story of Anonymous in the popular press. If so, you know about 10% of the story, most of which is completely wrong. This book tells the story of an important, emerging phenomenon that will shape our society for good or ill for many years to come. The book is well-researched and the story well-told. It is interesting and occasionally compelling. While the notion of a narrator reading chat-logs from the inner sanctum of Anonymous sounds boring, it is not. The author tells the broader story of the Anons who organized the most famous "operations" or attacks / hacks on Paypal, Scientology, HB Gary etc. The narrator brings the characters to life reasonably well, although the narration is occasionally marred by mispronunciations ("kern" for "CERN"). Oh, and also, this book will scare the stuffing out of you. If you think anything on your computer is private any longer, you couldn't be more wrong. Ironically, the "leaders" of Anonymous made that same mistaken assumption--a fact that drives the narrative to its conclusion.

Very good account of the rise and fall of LulzSec

What made the experience of listening to We Are Anonymous the most enjoyable?

Good performance and detailed account without being too techy.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

In the end, all criminals eventually slip up. The lulz was on them.

Which character – as performed by Abby Craden – was your favorite?

Tariopy, the spokesman. No one is completely good or completely bad. The book included a good profile of him.

Good read & memorabke!

Amazing story about the intelligent world of computer people who organize and follow thru in their highly technical work. The are great project managers. Their own "corporate" world.

Loved this audio book

The layout of the story is fantastic and the narrator does an exceptional job.
This book is definitely a must read (or heard) if you are in IT Security. There is a lot of computer jargon however the book nicely ties in technical terms and turns them into layman's words and meanings.

Great book, true story full of excitement and interesting characters

Love the style of the book. Thought the narrator did a great job. She mispronounced some words but that didn't detract from the the story. I think other reviewers might have been a little too critical but they're certainly free to express their opinions. I thought the author did a great job of researching the group and telling the story in a real dramatic way.