THEY are our go-to pranksters. No sooner has online skulduggery been spotted than all fingers point to hacker group Anonymous. Like modern-day Scarlet Pimpernels, it is tempting to infer their presence behind every episode of cybernetic mischief-making.
DARPA's Shredder Challenge is the latest locus for Anonymous-spotters. A mysterious team has stormed into the lead, even as its name has turned up in an email purportedly sent by the saboteur of a competitor's efforts ("Inside the race to crack the world's hardest puzzle").
The emailer claims to have support from a favoured Anonymous haunt. Are the lead team connected too? Perhaps. But for all we know, they could just as well be reclusive jigsaw fans for whom the challenge is reason enough to take part.
That's not so different from the Anonymous ethos anyway. Doing it for the lulz, indeed.
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