Use at Your Own Risk': Anonymous Releases Its Own Operating System

According to The Hacker News, the "hacktivist" collective Anonymous -- or at least a sect of the group -- has launched its own operating system -- "Anonymous-OS".

The Hacker News warns that since the operating system was not developed by a "genuine source" it can be "backdoored" by law enforcement or other hackers, so "[use] at your own risk."

The Peruvian news site RPP reports (translated by Google Translate) that it includes hacker-friendly tools such as Find Host IP, Anonymous HOIC, Ddosim, Slowloris, XChat IRC and Tor. Some of these are used to help launch DDoS attacks -- distributed denial of service -- on other websites, taking targets down by overloading them with a continual stream of traffic. RPP, like Hacker News, also states that the site could very well hold malware and even speculates that it could be a government strategy to identify Anonymous members.

The Anonymous-OS Tumblr site (via Technomania) states that the operating system was created "for educational purposes" and "to [check] the security of web pages." If you were feeling brave, Anonymous-OS can be download free of charge from the Tumblr site.

Somewhat ironic coming from a group that frequently is associated with illegal online hacking, the Tumblr site kindly asks its members to not attack any of the pages created in the OS. "If you attack to any web page, might end up in jail because is a crime in most countries!"

Update: Gizmodo has reported that the OS is full of Trojan malware. Hence the warning to download at your own risk.