Anonymous reacts to Symantec Trojan report

Symantec recently released a report explaining how Anonymous supporters were tricked into installing a Trojan. According to the security company, an unknown attacker slipped in a Zeus-infected version of Slowloris into the list of DDoS tools that Anonymous has been distributing to its supporters. Anonymous has reacted to Symantec's report on Twitter, but because the organization has so many members, and no official leadership, there isn't just one message to read.

Anonymous has many Twitter accounts, and none of them are official. There are also many fake ones. Let's take a look at the ones that I know are more reliable to see what Anonymous thinks about the issue.

YourAnonNews, which has 547,000 followers, had a very negative reaction (1, 2, 3):

This post from @Symantec about @YourAnonNews's spreading the DDOS hijacking trojan is wrong & libelous to say the least Dear @Symantec - @YourAnonNews NEVER posted the DDOS hijacker nor did we attempt to trick people; instead we WARNED of it. Also, @Symantec - maybe if you paid attention to more details and did proper due diligence, your source code wouldn't have been stolen. SMH

If you're curious about the last tweet, see Hackers: $50,000 to keep Symantec source code private and Extortion failed - Anonymous posts Symantec source code.

AnonymousIRC, which has 277,000 followers simply warned its followers (1):

http://is.gd/vF8RUU | #Anonymous supporters tricked into installing Zeus trojan | This MUSTN'T happen. Be careful what you post & click on!

AnonOps, which has 297,000 followers, did not tweet anything about the report. It did, however, retweet this message from our sister site CNET (1):

Did Anonymous itself get "hacked"? Symantec says yes. But Anonymous begs to differ. http://cnet.co/xE7A2s

GroupAnon, which has 72,000 followers, did not react to the news at all.

So there you have it. Anonymous seems to be denying Symantec's report although some members are warning about blindly clicking on links. If Anonymous releases more details disputing the claims, I'll be sure to update you.

See also:

• Anonymous tricked into installing Trojan
• Anonymous launches 'Operation Global Blackout', aims to DDoS the Root Internet servers
• Weekend Anonymous attacks bring down major websites
• How Anonymous took down the DoJ, RIAA, MPAA and Universal Music Websites
• Anonymous is not attacking Facebook today
• Profile of a failed Anonymous attack