Anonymous Shows Support for Egyptian, Algerian and Albanian Protesters

Various Anonymous cells have launched campaigns in support of Tunisian-inspired civil protests currently happening in countries like Egypt, Algeria or Albania.

Anonymous is a social movement characterized by strong anti-censorship views, whose supporters often organize mass Internet "operations" against companies, governments and other groups.

Anonymous is an ever changing group of people that share a set of ideals and choose to act together to achieve a common goal.

Anons have provided mirrors for Wikileaks when the organization lost the hosting for its primary website and have provided Tunisian Internet users with tools and instructions on how to avoid online traps set up by the government.

There are noew clear signs that Anonymous members are organizing similar campaigns to support protests in other countries with oppressive regimes.

The most advanced seems to be "Operation: Egypt," which has its own IRC channel where Anons are organizing a distributed denial of service attack against www.moiegypt.gov.eg, the website of the Egyptian Ministry of Interior and www.mcit.gov.eg, the Egyptian Ministry of Communications & Information Technology portal.

Earlier this week, the Egyptian government began blocking access to Twitter and other social media websites after thousands used them to coordinate protests in several cities.

The BBC reports that three people have already been killed as a result of clashes with law enforcement, including a police officer from Cairo.

"Operation: Algeria" has also been launched and participating Anonymous members threatened the country's government after street protests were banned in the country.

"We believe the Algerian attempts at censorship and oppression are doomed to fail if each one of us takes up our individual responsibilities: For only we, the people, decide to make it so," a press release read.

Meanwhile, "Operation: Albania" is also taking shape on Facebook, where Anonymous supporters posted links to censorship bypassing materials, proxy lists, encryption software and other tools.