The purpose of anonymous is not to make anyone back off, but to rally more to their cause.

Just goes to show what I said about "catching them" (hackers etc.) originally is holding true.  The "catching them" attitude is doing exactly that as well......fueling the fire.  The only way to not make onself a target in the first place is to not piss someone (the wrong someone) off.  Once you've made yourself a target.......well then there just isn't anything to do but try to change the things the "bad guys" used (rightly or wrongly) to justify their actions and wait it out.

Sad really.

It's a shame these guys don't put their skills to better use...maybe something for the good of the country. Like maybe hack the payroll for these greedy corrupt politicians and give them a decrease in pay and take away all their perks.

Now, what I wonder is if they are just doing this for the laughs or is this some kind of Anarchy movement using modern technology?

They do it because they are sick in the head and are total worthless scum who did not even deserve the sperm it took to create them.

they need to hack area 51 and let the world know we have alien technology

You mean.....

do something actually interesting/worthwhile?

Sometimes they do. We've gotten stories of civilian killings that never would have seen the light of day otherwise from these groups, and they are also no friends of Syria, N. Korea, and other big repressive countries.

This particular attack seems to be more aimed at self-preservation than advancing any larger agenda. If Anonymous is justified in their other activities, then they're justified here as well. If not, then no.

Nothing justifies illegally hacking into another computer system, and as far as their statement of:

"We are releasing a massive amount of confidential information that is sure to (embarrass), discredit and incriminate police officers across the US," the group said in a statement, adding that it hoped the leak would "demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words" and "disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities."

There are corrupt people everywhere, they call them politicians, lawyers, stock speculators (oil prices), etc.  Human greed runs deep ... not one single human being on this planet is perfect.  If they do release this information, I am sure they will alter it to fit their agenda or not release "the whole story".

Like I said before, they are scum.

Woho, that's awesome.

If that's their aim, then they're idiots - Illegally obtained evidence is a 4th Amendment violation and cannot be used to incriminate anyone.

The fools never even learned that much about one of the greatest, poorly understood and misused documents ever written.

As I have said in other threads of this nature, the tools of today that folks use to commit crimes are new, the crimes are not, they have been going on for a very long time. 

The means and the mind set have been there and more than likely will never go away, that is unless we just one day go ahead and start killing folks for their illegal activities. 

I tell you one thing, the over population problem would be taken care of. 

I continue to wonder if Anonymous is secretly working for the government itself.

Most of us know all sorts of politicians (among other very powerful people) are trying to drastically limit the freedom of the internet as of late.  Acts like these are EXACTLY what the US government needs right now to tighten-up security, to the point all of us are going to see the effects.  Any large-scale cyber attacks are only going to be the perfect reason/excuse to do this.

If Anonymous was truly anti-government/corporate establishment etc, I would like to think they'd use their abilities with far higher goals in mind, or at least use their heads little bit (they're so damn talented at hacking afterall).  Either way, none of this is going to help anybody... including those they supposedly did all this "for".

I know there's movement to decrease crime on the net... If you hold that freedom means getting away with crime, then, yeah. Most of us favor a crime free internet or as close to that as we can get.

This gives you an idea of the cost of crime on the net:

http:/www.infopackets.com/news/security/2011/20110804_cyber_crime_costs_take_big_jump_in_2011_report.htm

Also... how much anti crime software we wouldn't need to waste money on.