It's easy to think of the hacking group Anonymous as a group of punk troublemakers, raising hell online.
Some have even debated whether their extra-legal protests should be labeled terrorist acts.
But that would overlook some of the genuinely good deeds the group — whose members identify themselves with the Vendetta mask— has done.
Whether it's retaliating against kiddie porn sites, helping to identify Chinese military cyber-attacks, or targeting the digital properties of various hate groups, Anonymous can sometimes be a force for good.
8. In December 2006, Anonymous took down the website of white supremacist radio show host Hal Turner. The attack ended up with Turner paying some very expensive bandwidth bills and dropping a lawsuit a year later.
7. Beginning in January 2008, Anonymous kicked off "Project Chanology," its attack on the Church of Scientology, a cult-like religion which allegedly imprisons its dissident members. They launched denial of service attacks against the organization's websites, gamed the link-sharing site Digg to more prominently display anti-Scientology pages, and even physically protested — showing up in person — many church events.
6. Anonymous released user information from a major hacking forum in February 2011, and security firm Mandiant was able to use this data to link the Chinese military to cyber-attacks against the U.S. this year.
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