Anonymous OS – you’d be crazy to trust it

Proceed with caution if you’re thinking of downloading and installing Anonymous OS, the purported new operating system from the Anonymous collective.

More than 20,000 people may have downloaded the Ubuntu Linux image full of hacking tools – but how do they know what the code really does?

When I first heard about Anonymous OS a couple of days ago, I instantly asked myself why would anyone want to put their trust in a piece of unknown software, written by unknown people, promoted on an Anonymous Tumblr webpage that you don’t know is safe or not?

If I were writing a cybercrime thriller, I might dream up a plot where the computer cops – desperate to know the identities of the hacktivists – concocted a plot where they made available software that promised to hide hackers’ identities.. but in fact secretly passed information back to the cops.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that has happened in this case. But stranger things have happened.. (like the prominent leader of LulzSec…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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