NigAnon

"'The fuckin' pioneers of cyber freedom... the superhackers of the century. Shit, if anyone could embarrass the Corps, it was NigAnon. That's somethin' to aspire towards.' —Lina Misurova, Hyperion native" NigAnon Security, commonly known as NigAnon, is an elite hacktivist circle that has been designated a cyberterrorist organization by the Security Information Network. Operating on the  'hydra principle' coined by founding user NXVAK, NigAnon operates under a decentralized system ensuring the continued survival of the organization. NigAnon is widely known for its hacktivism, which particular high-profile incidents such as The Great Heist, the Bank of Albion Blackout, and (allegedly) the Tang OptiWorks Retinal Virus Incident, all of which have accrued the group a reputation as cyber-vigilantes combatting corporate oppression, cults and authoritarianism especially.

NigAnon originated in 2596, founded by members of the SlimeBBS boards of technology.hacking and technology.cyberware that had grown disgruntled with perceived corporate overreach. Through skilled programming and augmentation modding, NigAnon members pioneered 'new jailbreaking', proliferating en masse the knowledge of how to disable automatic updates and remove intrusive corporate software from augmentations.

The Bank of Albion Blackout in 2311, codenamed Project Slimeology, was a high profile incident in which NigAnon activists, protesting the Bank's investments in industries and corporations making use of hard labor and unethical work practices, including Chen Wu. The cyberattack commenced with Phase One, a multi-pronged attack that compromised the personal information of the Bank of Albion's top 50 executives, which found multiple individuals guilty of involvement in affairs including but not limited to fraud, child sex trafficking, humanoid trafficking, and war profiteering involving colonial insurgencies. Affected executives were also bombarded with crank calls, harassment, pranks and sporadic augmentation hacking. Phase Two led to the compromising of over 150 corporate accounts, culminating in the theft of over 5.7 billion CCN, 2.5 billion of which was pooled into charities and NGOs. The incident led to the arrests of 62 individuals affiliated with the Bank of Albion, although it led to NigAnon being designated a cyberterrorist organization by the SIN.

NigAnon continued to grow through the early 26th century, reaching a peak of 26,000 members in 2631 following the landmark Great Heist, in which a total of 11.5 billion CCN were stolen from compromised accounts tied to corporate executives and officials, which were promptly distributed across InfoScape in the form of 100,000 CCN packages. The subsequent 'great game' that ensued saw InfoScape users scouring the web in the most elaborate ARG to date, in order to secure great sums of money. The rest of the money, an estimated 4.3 billion worth of CCN were given to a variety of charities and NGOs, mirroring the Bank of Albion Blackout.

NigAnon's alleged involvement in the Tang OptiWorks Retinal Virus Incident severely impacted the group's numbers, with many going undercover or leaving the organization. By the 2650s, NigAnon was being torn apart by ideological debate, particularly pertaining to a growing left-wing faction of the group that had grown discontent with NigAnon's lack of a clearly-defined political stance, along with accusations of racism and widespread toxicity due to the group's name and 'oldschool' internal e-culture. Ultimately, it culminated in the NigAnon Split of 2661, with NuAnon splitting from the organization, its stated message being 'the combating of systemic racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, mechanophobia, synthphobia and the continued fight for marginalized peoples within the Coalition.'

After multiple high-profile busts conducted by the SIN, NigAnon entered a period of relative inactivity from the 2670s to the 2680s. NigAnon has seen a resurgence in recent years, however, with the 2695 release of the Pinkman Papers, exposing over 5,000 corporate executives for tax evasion and insider trading. This recent return to the spotlight may indicate the organization is truly back for good...