Image via Wikipedia

Even though their faces remain a mystery, their motivation becomes clearer everyday. And even though their methods are difficult to track or understand hacker groups Anonymous and Lulz Sec have captured the attention of law enforcement agencies around the world.

A 2010 cyber attack against PayPal resulted in the arrest of 14 suspected members of Anonymous. Rather than taking this as a set back, the groups responding by issuing a joint statement that the arrests would not slow down their cyber attacks. In fact, the arrests seemed to only make the group more determined to continue their mission of attacking online security systems.

In the past, Lulz Sec seemed almost playful in its hacks. The group’s name is a take off of LOL and security, which denoted a jester like harmlessness as the motivation behind breaching security. The jolly nature of Lulz Sec diminished with this partnership with Anonymous and the joint statement that attacked lobbyists, corporations and governments.

The hacker groups operate under the assumption that the Internet runs by the rule that only the strong survive. If a company is hacked it is their fault for not protecting its assets. Booming online commerce might be curtailed if consumers deem online transactions unsafe.

According to Lulz Sec and Anonymous, the true villains are governments that lie to citizens and rule by fear. Arresting a few members of the hacking group will not cause them to stop because standing up to the government is an idea and ideas cannot be arrested. Civil disobedience has been an effective tool to change governments in the past, but never before did the groups have the ability to steal classified information and disrupt commerce.