Anonymous Protection

Anonymous Protection, also known by the alias AnonymousUK2015, is a hacktivist collective based in the United Kingdom. The group describes its operations as involving cyber attacks, distributed denial‑of‑service campaigns, and the disclosure of information obtained from targets. Its activities are directed at entities that it perceives as facilitating or conducting malicious online services, particularly those linked to gaming networks and paid attack platforms. Anonymous Protection has no publicly disclosed legal corporate structure, and its members operate under pseudonyms rather than as a formal business entity. The collective’s known actions are limited to a few documented incidents that illustrate its focus on disrupting rival hacking groups and exposing their infrastructure.

On 16 January 2015, Anonymous Protection carried out a breach against the customer database of the group responsible for distributed denial‑of‑service attacks against major gaming networks. The compromised data included usernames, plaintext passwords, and transaction details for more than 14,241 users of the service. The leak also revealed approximately eleven thousand United States dollars worth of Bitcoin payments that had been made for attacks orchestrated through the LizardStresser platform. By publishing this information, the group provided actionable intelligence to rival threat actors and law‑enforcement agencies, thereby undermining the credibility of the targeted service in underground markets. The incident highlighted Anonymous Protection’s capability to obtain and disseminate sensitive credentials and financial records from entities that sell DDoS‑as‑a‑service.

On 25 December 2014, Anonymous Protection launched retaliatory cyber operations against the rival hacking group Lizard Squad. The operation consisted of a denial‑of‑service attack that rendered Lizard Squad’s website inaccessible and contributed to the subsequent suspension of the group’s Twitter account. Anonymous Protection stated that the action followed Lizard Squad’s earlier DDoS disruptions targeting gaming platforms and a celebrity social‑media account, as well as threats directed at Anonymous. The group reported Lizard Squad’s violations to Twitter, citing the promotion of paid cyberattack services and harassment campaigns as the basis for the request. This episode demonstrated Anonymous Protection’s use of disruptive tactics and platform abuse reporting as a means to counter perceived adversaries in the hacking community.