That is the point and also why for the past damned near 2 decades I've been banging my head against the wall every time there is a news article about Anonymous that frames it as some singular group.

Yes that's the idea.

I wonder - does it really benefit individuals to identify themselves with Anonymous? Do successful attacks carry more weight when identified w the group? And if caught, does it come with harsher penalties, less harsh, or the same?

It's a benefit only in terms of publicity. In the same way if someone killed someone with a knife and left a "Jack the Ripper was here" note would get a lot more sensationalistic press than no note.

Anonymous was a household brand name during Obama as they were exposing a lot of what he was doing behind the scenes, like drone strikes on innocent civilians and illegally targeting Americans overseas without due process. It was in the news constantly with their videos at a time when most people still watched TV.

It's (guerrilla) force projection.

You never know whether Anonymous is one angry teenager or an entire nation-state, so it behooves you to not piss "them" off.

Why would an individual identity themselves as being part of a group called Anonymous? That's not the point.

Then what's the point of an "Anonymous" Twitter account?

They are actually asking hackers everywhere to attack government sites in the name of Anonymous. Source: Their twitter

I don't understand how a social media account is supposed to work with an anonymous group. Do multiple people have access? Everyone?

Would be amusing if they had a blue checkmark.

One of the previous owner certainly does, namely Dell Cameron, who wanted to turn Anonymous into some sort of news organization[0], hence the name. He's a journalist who wrote for the Daily Dot, mostly about anything relating to Anonymous and WikiLeaks, but oddly enough also affiliated with people like Sabu (the founder of Lulzsec and FBI informant who set up all the hackers from the times of the Stratfor leaks, like Jeremy Hammond, who ended in prison).

I don't know who the current owner is but it's certainly not to be trusted by any hacktivist.

Edit: Another owner of the YourAnonNews account was Dan Stuckey, a Vice journalist, who was the one affiliating with Sabu[1]. Him and Dell operated the account for a long time, maybe they still do.

[0] https://www.gawker.com/anonymous-tries-to-found-a-legit-news... [1] https://thecryptosphere.com/2015/03/15/fuck-anonymous-im-at-...

If one is to do it, better to tell no one and let a poser take responsibility.

I believe that is the purpose.

I'm the real A. Nonymous! It says so on my driver's license, credit card and passport!

Bah, no you're not; you just hacked that.

Or a government/intelligence agency

yes they can, and im pretty sure current anonymous have absolutely nothing to do with the old ones

that is exactly what anonymous is

Yes

They could, but by declaring that they are responsible they would, by definition, no longer be anonymous. (ha ha?)

All of the individuals of the pre-2011 leftist hacktivist collective known as Anonymous are in prison.

If you're a fan of the Wichowski Siblings then you may recall the quote "You cannot kill an idea" from V for Vendetta (and also the silly mask). They use this to demonstrate and inspire the power of cellular, decentralized activism.

> pre-2011 leftist hacktivist collective known as Anonymous are in prison

I'm confused by this, are you referring to Lulzsec specifically? I've never heard Anonymous framed as leftist, and I'm certain that not everyone involved in pre-2011 hacktivism, such as Project Chanology[0], are in prison.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Chanology

During Project Chanology people on 4chan distributed the LoiC DDos software, which led to many kids without any opsec to commit a federal criminal offense under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and allegedly many of them had unpleasant visits by law enforcement.

But OP is probably confusing these shenanigans with Lulzsec, an supposed anonymous hacker collective but really FBI-led operation ran by their informant Sabu, who supplied hacktivists with targets to hack and later jail them (for example Jeremy Hammond who was sentenced to 10 years in prison because of this).

I believe they're referring to LulzSec. IIRC, they created a "ddos app" called orbital cannon something-or-other that was designed to take down paypal and visa for limiting payments to wikileaks. Interesting times.

"information wants to be free" goes back even further