Moral outrage brimmed over the edge of the news day when television pundits finally began reporting that Sarah Palin's private Yahoo account had been hacked by the shadowy "Anonymous," an internet hacktivist group organized much like the Animal Liberation Front, utlizing leaderless resistance in which the lack of a visible hierarchal structure is replaced by like-minded individuals contributing to the group autonomously to avoid detection by authorities.

Anonymous is popular for its ongoing campaign against the Church of Scientology. In what first appeared to be a joke with its introduction to the mainstream through a cheeky youtube video, the group quickly went on to attack and expose an organization accused of fraud, murder, and censorship. Utilizing typical hacktivist strategies such as denial-of-service attacks, digg.com bumping of articles critical of Scientology, google bombing, and baiting suspected pedophiles, the group is special for going a step further from typical hacktivists and enjoys the activities of traditional activists: masked direct actions throughout the world, sometimes attracting as many as 300 participants, as well as leaking hacked materials to the mainstream media, such as the Tom Cruise Scientology video.