KEY POINTS

  • US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last week
  • Her visit called "provocative" by Beijing 
  • Anonymous welcomed Pelosi to Taiwan by hacking a Chinese government site

The autocrats of the world should always remember there is Anonymous!

Recently Beijing unleashed its army of hackers on Taiwan, taking down the island democracy's government websites and even displaying messages against on screens in 7-11 stores against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi while she was visiting the country.

That was embarrassing for Taiwan. But now Anonymous, the decentralized international hacktivist and collective, has got even on Xi Jinping's China and its cyber gangs. Much like it has humiliated Vladimir Putin's Russia many times recently after Moscow sent its army into Ukraine.

After defacing China's Heilongjiang Society Scientific Community Federation website on Aug. 4 as a welcome to Pelosi, Anonymous gave her a send-off by hacking another Chinese website, this time to say "thank you" for visiting Taiwan. For this, the hacktivist collective defaced the official website of Wenling City Harvest Petrol Factory, a Chinese gasoline generator factory based in the Zhejiang Province in China.

The site, which was immediately taken down following the hack, is still offline as of early Wednesday morning. An Anonymous operative named Allez-opi_omi disclosed that they uploaded an HTML page on the attacked site with the collective's emblem, Taiwan's national flag, and the phrase Taiwan Numbah Wan and a message directed to the U.S. House Speaker.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan August 3, 2022. Taiwan Presidential Office/Handout via REUTERS
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi attends a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen at the presidential office in Taipei, Taiwan August 3, 2022. Taiwan Presidential Office/Handout via REUTERS Reuters / TAIWAN PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE

Anonymous revealed the latest hack was a response to the hacks on the 7-eleven stores and on the Taiwan Railways Administration station on Aug. 3 when Pelosi was in Taipei. "This hack is a retaliation for the CCP attacks on the Taiwanese billboards. Pepperidge Farm remembers how someone got COVID and hacked into your nuclear and satellite systems while leaving this picture as part of the souvenir," Anonymous said in a message left on the defaced website.

"True, there is one China, but Taiwan is the real China while yours is only an imitation straight out of wish.com. Anonymous thanks China for proving that "girl power" is something to be feared," another message on the uploaded HTML page read.

Last week, the hacktivist collective also uploaded an HTML page on China's Heilongjiang Society Scientific Community Federation website. The page showed the same Anonymous logo and phrase "Taiwan Numbah Wan" with a message for the U.S. House Speaker, who had just arrived in the country.

The collective at that time left a lengthy message on the hacked site, noting, "This hack is a retaliation for the DDoS attacks on the presidential website. Pepperidge Farm remembers how someone got COVID and hacked into your nuclear and satellite systems while leaving this picture as part of the souvenir." They also said, "the House Speaker did have COVID a few months ago, though. We'd count it as payback against you so that you won't forget the lesson next time. Things wouldn't be so bad if you remember the hard lesson of Sanlu milk."

The hack on various Chinese websites carried out by Anonymous is not an isolated case. The international hacktivist and collective movement has been very active in launching various operations against politicians, policies, governments and countries that they feel bullied other countries or violated human rights.

Anonymous was the unexpected player when Russia invaded Ukraine and carried out a series of cyber attacks against the Kremlin in ways the superpower did not expect. Anonymous also hacked the websites and leaked confidential data of companies that chose to stay and continue to operate in Russia.

In our interview with the Anonymous operative Spid3r, they defined what the collective is all about. "We are sons of revolution. We were born to change this world. We are made by the flame of hope for a new society. We are fighters for justice. We are the voice of the voiceless. We have no flags. We have no race. We are for the oppressed against the powerful. We have no leaders. We don't support any politician or state. Our motivation is peace and freedom of all individuals walking on this Planet. We will expose corruption. Because we believe. We are an idea. We are you!"

Read more