Could the 'Face of Anonymous' go to jail?
We’ve seen the now infamous Guy Fawkes masks around for a long time. More so a few years ago, than in current times. The main group they belong to, 'Anonymous', has a reputation as hackers but members aren’t the people shutting down gas lines or airlines -- they prefer to think of themselves as ethical. Hacktivists if you will. You may disagree, authorities certainly do, and many members have been arrested.
A decade ago member Christopher Doyon was nabbed in San Francisco. He allegedly jumped bail and headed south of the border, where he has remained ever since. Producer Gary Lang traveled there and featured him in the Canadian documentary 'The Face of Anonymous' in 2020.
Now the hacktivist has been captured and extradited back stateside to face those charges he ran from. Per the DOJ he made his first court appearance yesterday. The agency lays out the reason: "According to the indictment filed in 2012, Doyon, 56, formerly of Mountain View and now a resident of Mexico City, Mexico, failed to appear at a February 2, 2012, status conference after being placed on pretrial release in a 2011 criminal case."
Doyon was indicted for a December 16, 2010 DDoS attack against the Santa Cruz, California computer servers. "Operation Peace Camp", as the attack was called, was a retaliation against the city for camping restrictions it had enacted, stopping camping within Santa Cruz city limits. But, more than a digital attack, it also resulted in a month's long occupation of the court house.
The indictment is merely an accusation of a crime so, like all defendants, Doyon remains innocent until proven guilty.
The loosely knit group he belongs to is described by security firm Sophos as "'a hacking group that wasn’t' -- a moniker that could be, and was, claimed by almost anyone with an internet axe to grind."
A trial date has not yet been set.