Operations Manual

So you have joined Anonymous and lurked considerably and have gotten a feel for how the collective works. Now comes the next stage of your AnonOps career: Participating in operations.

Whether you are starting your own operation, or are simply a cog in someone else's op, there are a few things to keep in mind if you want the operation to be a success. Let us go over them:

Listen rookie, if you're gonna do this, do it right. You have a reputation to live up to now.

Before we can go through the checklist of how to run a successful operation, we need to lay out what an operation even is. Simply put, an operation (or “op” for short) is when Anonymous decides to take action about something. This can take a wide range of forms, ranging from protests and social awareness campaigns, to hacking sprees, jolly pranks, cyberbullying missions and public spectacles.

Defining the concept is not that simple, however. Thanks to the meddling of intelligence agencies and astroturf groups, the definition of “op” has become incredibly pigeonholed. These gatekeepers exploit our open membership model as a cover for political agitprop and illegal regime change operations. They also go out of their way to subvert most independent ops, while using our mask to swat or torment their personal enemies.

This problem has persisted so long that many people now only think of Anonymous Operations in terms of propaganda and drawn-out revenge campaigns. They have no idea the potential that sits behind this unassuming concept, as operations can be so much more than that.

Even this guy can start an op.

First off, anyone can start an op. There is literally nobody stopping you from declaring a new Anonymous operation. People can (and will) try to get in your way and demoralize you, but victory goes to the Anon who is more persistent.

Secondly, just about anything can be an op. Some types of ops you are probably already familiar with, such as our infamous DDOS attacks and hacking campaigns. These are basic offensive operations: Define a target and hit it with everything. Pretty standard stuff, and anyone (or anything) can be a target. You are likely also familiar with our propaganda operations, where protests, bot swarms and hacktivism are used to raise awareness about issues important to the groups of Anons who run those operations. These types of operations can likewise be done over pretty much any issue, as officially Anonymous does not and never will “take sides” in things like politics.

While these are the most well-known forms which operations can take, they are merely the distilled byproduct of the raid culture pioneered in the days of old when “awareness operations” were unheard of. Offensive ops took a largely different form as well, involving more prank phone calls and unscheduled pizza deliveries. “Raids” (as ops were once called) used to consist of actual raids, when swarms of Anons would spam message boards, render chat platforms unusable, and clog up the phone lines of radio talk shows.

Surrealist pranks and stunts made up the backbone of raid culture, and so they offer another window into what operations can be. In those days, it was less about the specific target and more about the act of wanton destruction and chaos. Nobody ever really had a grudge against Tom Green - he just had a live call-in show that was easy to regurgitate memes on, and it was entertaining to watch him go insane on air. Similarly, the nationwide campaign to call Gamestop locations and ask for Battletoads had little to do with Gamestop's corporate policies, and more with getting store clerks to react in humorous ways. Meanwhile, raids like the infamous ones that took place on Habbo Hotel and Second Life were publicity vehicles for Anonymous to flex its brand in new territories and establish street cred.

Contrary to popular belief, operations don't even have to make sense.

Of course, this isn't to say there were not specific hated targets back then, because there were a lot of those too. They just existed in a wider prankster culture that is now largely missing from modern Anonymous. However, this history is there for us to reference, and that data informs us of organized pranks, which are a type of op where the goal is merely humor and entertainment, or making complex statements when words fail. It also informs us of chaos ops where there is no goal other than generating discord and anarchy, because some of us just want to watch the world burn.

There is virtually no limit to the surrealism of Anonymous operations. You can literally hire some guys to mow the lawn at your neighbor's house while wearing Guy Fawkes masks, and proceed to act confused about the whole thing. You can install fake historical plaques around your hometown. You can even declare a war on California, which some Anons have already done.

Also contrary to popular belief: Operations don't even have to be a big public thing. You can conduct the entire thing in total secrecy with just a few people, or even by yourself. Just leave a note behind in a visible place that Anonymous was there, so that the collective may bask in the light of whatever controversy/confusion you generate.

If you can think outside the box, the world is your oyster.

This is not the personal army you are looking for.

With that freedom in mind, there is a caveat: Anonymous is not your personal army. This was a phrase we had in the early days of raiding, when everybody wanted to get Anonymous to attack their personal enemies, random kids from their school, and what-not. While the rule was only partially-enforced, a personal army request could sometimes get the instigator raided instead of their intended target. Such policies became necessary in order to keep Anonymous focused on spreading a more random form of chaos.

This proud tradition is still practiced today. Many Anons have made a sport of trolling the informants, gatekeepers and shills that have set up shop on our turf, who regularly treat Anonymous like their personal army. The message behind this enforcement mechanism is clear: Anonymous is not your personal fucking army. While anyone is free to put on the mask and declare operations in our name, we can still ruin you in a war of attrition if you annoy us.

What annoys us? Requests to go after your personal enemies, or the girl that wouldn't date you. Bunny boiler requests are a surefire way to piss a bunch of people off, as are ops that are just fronts for cryptocurrency scams and fake charities. If you are a shill running astroturf operations, other Anons will see through it and start fucking with you, because you do not belong here. If you are an informant or crooked cop running fake ops to entrap kids, that will also probably invite retaliation from one of the bored older Anons or professional hackers. This isn't a threat, this is just how the culture is. We didn't make up the rules.

So how can you, new operation organizer, avoid the Wrath of Anonymous? It is simple: Think twice about what you are dragging other Anons into before doing so. Is this a raid that would be funny, or be something the collective could brag about? That is an easy way to get a free pass.

And most importantly, don't just pitch an operation where you have not already done a significant amount of work yourself. We are not your personal free labor source. There needs to be an established plan of action, and progress made, or everyone is just going to ignore you. The best operation is one you have already completed, and you are just signing “Anonymous” to give credit to the collective.

There are no rules, just principles and smart ideas.

So what makes for a successful operation? Legwork. You cannot just declare an operation and expect it to take off. If you think it will have wide community support, throw that assumption out the window. Plan to do all of the work yourself, so you are not blindsided by failure. You need to buckle down, focus, get a plan together, and move on that plan, if you want your op to go anywhere.

The following things are worth keeping in mind when planning your op. Not all of them are required for every type of op, so think of it as a series of loose guidelines rather than a rigid formula. The further you diverge from these guidelines, the more likely you will run into problems. Your mileage will vary, depending on the type of op, the types of obstacles involved, and the skills of those running it.

As a bare building block, you will need organized manpower. You can certainly perform a one-man operation (and some operations are better conducted that way) but in most cases you will find ops more pleasant when other Anons are involved. Having more hands on deck for a shared goal means less of a burden on all involved. Extra eyes will also help you detect threats faster. Teams can be of any size, but they generally get more unruly the larger they go unless precautions are put into place.

Some teams are short-lived, and only stay together for the life of the operation. Other teams stick together for a long time, hitting many ops for years. There are benefits and drawbacks to both of these models. Short-lived teams can offer more individual privacy, and make it harder for spies to follow you to your next adventure. Meanwhile, teams that stick together develop valuable familiarity, which is useful in fast-paced situations when you need to stay on the same page with each other through a series of chaotic and stressful moments.

No matter the size or design of your group, you will want to be employing compartmentalization and good opsec, as you will be dealing with many prying eyes trying to dox you and your comrades.

You can always have your friends join Anonymous if you need extra hands. They'll probably fit in just fine.

The ideal size for a team is 2 to 12 people, known in military parlance as a squad.

A squad can consist of anyone. They can be total strangers bound together by a common cause, or they can be close friends. You may have time to carefully assemble a squad at your leisure, or one may just come together serendipitously by chance. You may have a versatile squad where each person specializes in something different, or you may have a squad that is focused on a specific set of skills. Everyone on the squad should bring something to the squad, whether it be skills or tactical insight or even just free time. It isn't necessary for everyone to be some kind of hardcore hacker, as eager newbs can be just as useful in the right roles. That said, all squad members should at the very least have a basic knowledge of military science and strategic hazards.

If you need a nerdy parallel to understand this, it is much like assembling a party in an RPG. There is no “correct” combination, except the one where everyone works well together. These are the people who you will be trusting with the most sensitive information regarding your operations, so make sure it is not a combination prone to infighting or drama.

Some squads give themselves names “Lulzsec” or “Clownsec” or “Whateversec”, and proceed to spend forever promoting their hot new brand with social media pages and fancy banners. This is actually a bad idea, as this type of clout-chasing will draw unwanted attention to your team. In some cases it is necessary (for example, if you are trying to maintain control over a very public op, dealing with the press, or if you are coordinating with other squads) but otherwise it is a form of hollow vanity. The point of being Anonymous in the first place is so that you don't have to take the blame credit for things.

Getting the whole gang together these days is a rare feat, but Lord have mercy on those who must face its wrath.

We have found that when you try to pack more than a dozen people into one squad, group cohesion starts to fall apart and opsec becomes harder to control. If you end up at a point where you have more than a dozen people working the same op, try to encourage people to split into smaller squads so they may each tackle different aspects of the same op (ie: a hacker squad doing the shady stuff while a PR squad handles marketing and the press). Dividing up large groups in this way will discourage clout chasers, keep Anons from stepping on each other's toes, contain bad actors, and reduce the opportunities for internal strife to arise.

Remember that Anonymous is a decentralized community composed of many autonomous cells. This organizational structure is designed to be leveraged to your advantage. The beauty of Anonymous is that each cell (whether the cell be an individual, a squad, or an alliance of squads) can work independently of the others, and so it is conductive to supporting diverse alliances of cells on operations. Have each squad set redundant points of contact with the other groups and agree on a basic plan of action, but let them manage their own compartmentalization policies and internal affairs. Do not try to micromanage them. Trust the natural mechanics of the hivemind, and it will reward you will greater efficiency and better results.

Some alliances maintain giant central group chats. Be wary that in those environments, an opsec risk in one squad can jeopardize the whole alliance. This applies to everyone, and not just the hackers doing illegal stuff. Your mere existence as an organized force within Anonymous will be a magnet for psychic vampires and other types of Dark Triad parasites that are compulsively driven to leech off our social energy. Don't let your guard down for anyone.

In fact, no matter the size of your group, you should count on all sorts of mysterious, curious and vindictive individuals trying to sniff out your group chats. The second anyone knows your team exists is the same second people will start plotting to infiltrate. This means that secure communications are something you need to have sorted from the start. Avoid unencrypted text messaging. Platforms like Signal, Session or Wire are a good start, but they aren't foolproof. Try not to use the same account that you use to talk with your family, coworkers or personal friends. Consult our secure comms guide for more information on your options here.

Avoid using your personal phone number to register for any messenger apps that you are using for operations, as it is a direct link to your physical location. Also avoid organizing these things on social media, as it is all heavily monitored and relatively easy for snoops to map out your entire social sphere. And for the love of God, do not organize operations on Discord!!! The reason you see operations conducted on Discord is because they are honeypots or otherwise run by informants, and so they do not have to worry about Big Tech and the Damn Government listening in. Do not be like them. Even an unencrypted IRC room is better than Discord.

If your op is serious enough and you have the option, nothing beats in-person communications in a place where there are no microphones listening in. After all, nobody can steal or subpoena your logs, if logs do not exist in the first place.

You don't get to look as professional as this man unless you do your homework first.

The first step to a successful operation is proper planning. You can start doing this at any time. Some operations are started by a single lone Anon, who will recruit a team later. Other operations are started collectively as a squad. It doesn't really matter in which order it is done, so long as there is a coherent plan to start from.

Many operations are doomed from the start, due to a lack of sensible planning. Other operations fail because they lack any kind of specific objective, such as ops against ambiguous concepts like “bigotry” or “poverty.” To avoid running into problems, ask yourself the following questions, and write down the answers in a TXT file for future reference:

1. What is the purpose of this operation?
2. What is motivating you to embark upon this op?
3. What are the goals do you want to see accomplished when the op is over?
4. How do you plan on accomplishing these goals?
5. How long do you expect this op to take?
6. Are there any relevant targets or entities in this op? If so, what do you want to pressure them into doing?
7. Is there anyone outside your squad that you need on your side (passively and/or actively) for this op?
8. What are the collateral damage risks, if any?
9. Are there any specific laws this operation might come into conflict with?

By figuring out the answers to these questions at the very beginning, you can save yourself much time that would be wasted on directionless meandering, and hit the ground running.

Once you have your operation and its goals defined, your next step is the research phase. Roughly 90% of the work required for most operations is research and recon. This is especially true for doxxing operations, where research is basically the entire op. Here is where it helps to have a basic grasp of OSINT techniques, and you should at least have one person on your team who is extremely skilled with OSINT.

Not all Anonymous operations have a target, but many of them do. If your op has a target, there are many specific things you will want to research, depending on the type of entity you are targeting:

• For individual targets you will want to slurp up as much information as you can: Names, aliases, addresses, employment history, educational background, ancestry, bio stats, phone numbers & providers, email addresses, social media handles, forum profile urls, arrest record, legal history, bank accounts, insurance policies, home & vehicle records, crypto wallets and etc. You are not just compiling dox here, but you are also building a psychological profile. Get so much information that you can get in their head and accurately predict their next moves. You may also want to find all that info on those in their inner circle, such as family members, romantic partners, close friends, and coworkers.

• For group & corporate targets (such as businesses, co-ops, non-profits, online communities, and cults) you will want to be equally as thorough. Start by compiling a list of everyone involved with the organization. Make notes of the most important and influential members, managers or employees, and follow the checklist for “individual targets” above. However, don't stop there, and examine every other aspect of the organization, including any vendors, clients, ad partners and financial history. Find everywhere that the organization operates, both online and offline. Dig up any legal disputes the organization was involved in, making notes of case numbers that can be used to find more information, as well as the names of all parties and lawyers involved in said cases. Scour the news and social media for reports about the organization or any controversies that it was involved in.

• If any of your targets has a web site or other online application, probe the hell out of it. Start by finding any relevant IP addresses (and the datacenters they operate out of) that you can start hitting with things like port scanners and other types of security auditing tools. Here you want to find the software and operating system that powers their site/app, and the versions of those things, so you can match up known exploits. The more information you find out, the deeper you can dig. Member databases, API keys, app store accounts, social media bridges… all of these things can be leveraged to enable further research.

Keep in mind, there are more things to profile than just targets. You will also need to run recon on the places you will be operating within:

• If your operation has an in-person component (such as a protest) you will want to scout out the location of the protest in advance. Map out the surrounding street grid, making notes of obstacles & hazards (cameras, fences, government buildings, neighborhood watch groups, etc) and things which can be strategically leveraged (such as alleys, tree cover, tunnels, hills, wifi access points and bathrooms). Public spaces such as parks and libraries can be incredibly useful, and obstacles like busy intersections and waterways can sometimes be leveraged to your advantage as well. Most importantly, do not rely solely on online map tools like Street View. Visit the location yourself ahead of time so that you are not caught by any surprises.

• If it is an operation that will take place on a neutral website (like social media) study the terms of service. You need to know what limits you can operate within before an administrator or staff member shows up and roadblocks your work. Smaller communities might pass through, such as chat rooms, forums or subreddits, will require a bit of lurking to get a feel for the culture and what you can get away with. Bonus points if you can get cozy with a moderator before the operation takes place. Nothing beats having a friend on the inside.

You will also want to get a basic profile on third parties that you may be crossing paths with or operating near. Even if you don't plan on interacting with them, you will want to keep them in mind to prevent unnecessary collateral damage which can turn people against you or incur legal liabilities. This is one of the reasons it is so important to run extensive recon on the places you will be operating, so you can identify the third parties that will be in the area. And who knows, you may find that some of them could be potentially useful allies worth approaching down the line.

Of course, save copies of everything. If you find a relevant news article online, print it right to PDF. Download photos. Don't count on anything remain where you found it. For more tips, read our archival guide.

Finally, spend some time to read up on the lesson plans available here at the Anonymous Military Institute. We have a plethora of guides, security tips and hazard alerts which cover a wide range of operation types. Knowledge of battlefield tactics and military history will help you outsmart your enemies, and our software library and armory will help you outgun them. Don't forget to consult our gear portal if you are doing in-person operations. All of these pages are here for you Anon, so make use of them if you want to succeed.

Pictured: One of Anon's many infamous PR victories.

At one point in your operation, you will have to deal with people outside of your squad and the impression you leave on them. The art of managing how the outside world sees you and your operation is called public relations, or PR for short. The modern public relations industry was invented by a psychopath named Edward Bernays, but the skills and tricks involved in PR are almost as old as humanity itself.

As a general rule, the less you have to deal with third-parties and what they think of you, the better for opsec. As mentioned earlier, the best operation is one that is conducted entirely in secret until the very end. If you can pull that off, the only PR consideration you will have to entertain is how to draft the announcement of another successful op by Anonymous.

However, you will not always have that luxury. Some operations have to be conducted in partial or full view of the public. In those situations, you will want to avoid actions that could turn outsiders against you, as they may get in your way or get law enforcement involved. If you are running proper recon on the places you will be operating, you will already have a list of the types of strangers you will encounter. Sometimes it will help to have an “official” statement that not only outlines your goal, but explains why this goal is something everyone should support. For example, if you are publicly doxxing a judge or politician that takes bribes, you will want to explain somewhere why this benefits the citizenry.

You especially want to avoid collateral damage, or pissing off neutral parties. You're going to have enough problems to deal with, and that is a quick way to exponentially compound them. Trolling is fun, but a successful op is even more fun. Everything has a time and a place.

Sometimes you will need to leverage the press to get the word out about what you are doing. In those cases, one person on your team will need to act as a designated press contact - ideally someone who has experience speaking the esoteric language of the journalist class. This job is not to be taken lightly, as most reporters are simply looking for a scoop that will get views. Journalism is a notoriously shady industry, full of sociopaths who will act like your best friend to soften you up, who will then use your own words against you the next day.

Rather than go on a long tangent here, we highly suggest consulting the following scans from Days of War, Nights of Love if you are going to be dealing with the press (8 pages, click to enlarge):

At one point, you will likely have to deal with other Anons who are not on your team. As we mentioned earlier in this article, Anonymous is not your personal army. If you are using our mask in a way that does not align with the values of the collective (such as political shilling, or begging us to harass your ex) it will invite retaliation against you.

However, if you play it smart (ie: chill & low-key) you will not only be given free reign to basically do whatever you want, but you may find other Anons coming to your aid. As we explained earlier, the best operation is one where most of the work has already been done, and where you have made it easy for other Anons to jump in to participate in an easy win with you.

Keep in mind that the collective is rife with demoralization trolls and agent provocateurs, who seek to hold back organic operations as it threatens their power base. The more you announce your presence as an Anon and the more you beg for help, the more opportunities you will give these selfish warlords to interfere with your work. If you have to operate in public for an extended period of time, it will help to have some OG Anons (or “oldfags”) on your side as they can leverage their Unquestionable Authority to hold these saboteurs at bay.

Get in, do the job, and GTFO.

As we have explained here, the bulk of all operations is in the planning and recon work that takes place beforehand. When time comes to do the actual operation, you want it to happen as fast as possible, like a blitzkrieg attack. Many years ago, the Anons at the Insurgency Wiki published a guideline: No more than 48 hours.

If you follow our model for compartmentalized secret teams, you can drag the planning stage out much longer than 48 hours. Some operations these days will involve many weeks or even months of planning, depending on how serious the operation is.

However, the 48 hour rule still applies when it comes to execution. As soon as anyone outside your squad can see what you are doing, the timer starts ticking before people start deliberately interfering. They may even start immediately. On top of that, the longer an operation carries on without a resolution, the harder it is to keep your allies and squadmates emotionally engaged. This is why it is of utmost importance to plan & research as much as possible ahead of time in secret, before the actual operation is executed. Again, the best announcement you can make, is an announcement of a finished operation before anyone even knows it existed.

Most importantly, make sure to give credit for the operation to Anonymous! Not only does this let the collective share in your victory and boost morale, but it will help rebuild our struggling brand image. There used to be a time when the name “Anonymous” used to strike fear into the hearts of normies. Let's make that a reality again, Anon.

Once the operation is over, you're in the clear. If you have carefully followed our guides, studied the tactics, security tips and hazard alerts outlined at this Institute, and made smart use of the tools and armaments available, you will likely have succeeded in your goals. If not, well no pressure. Better luck next time as they say, so long as you didn't get yourself in trouble.

At the end of a successful operation, you may find yourself with a larger team of allies than you started with, and many of them may be energized by the victory. If that is the case, it is very easy to channel this energy into another operation. However, you will have a limited window of time to do that before people get bored and drift away. If you play your cards right, it is possible to chain up a long string of successful operations in this manner.

Won't you say a few words to mark the occasion, Anon?

One of the ongoing projects at the Anonymous Military Institute is Operation Skunk Ape. Our research staff is actively tagging and tracking Anonymous squads and the operations they embark on. The field data we collect from our “Space Apes” is used to further refine our articles, guides and lesson plans. In turn this helps us train more competent operatives and chaos agents.

If you would like to participate in these ongoing surveys, contact our Dean, General MacOwlthur, or senior AMI professor, Captain Cornflake, for more information. You can also email the Foreign Affairs Desk at anonfad(at)protonmail(dot)com. Be prepared to answer the following questions about your operation:

• What was the purpose and goal of your operation?
• Did you accomplish your goals? Was the operation a success?
• What parts of the operation went smoothly? What went right?
• What parts of the operation did you experience problems? What went wrong?
• Did anything happen on the field which caught you by surprise?
• Did anyone try to get in your way during this operation? If so, who were they?

Be as detailed as you are comfortable with when answering these questions, but keep in mind the more data you send us, the better. Visit the Skunk Ape page for more information.