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Anonymous claims “FawkesSecurity” bomb threat a hoax

The hacker group claims the bomb threat, issued Monday night, is a false-flag operation designed to make Anonymous appear dangerous and unstable.

 

Lorraine Murphy

Tech

Posted on Oct 23, 2012   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 8:56 am CDT

As the U.S. presidential debate drew the country to its televisions and its Twitter streams, a shadowy group called FawkesSecurity claimed to have planted a bomb which would detonate the day before the election, November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day.

Anonymous hadn’t expected that.

What followed was crowdsourced crisis PR, as the actions of FawkesSecurity were repudiated and the accounts behind it exposed. But what was the motivation, and who was really behind the threat? The hivemind’s answer might surprise you.

Photo via the|G|™/Flickr

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*First Published: Oct 23, 2012, 11:54 am CDT