First attacks in U.S

​

Anonymous first became associated with hacktivism  in 2008. According to abc news “ Jan. 28, 2008  A group of hackers calling itself "Anonymous" has hit the Church of Scientology's Web site with an online attack. The attack was launched January 19 by Anonymous”

In January 2008, the Church of Scientology tried to take down an interview with Tom Cruise about Scientology from the Internet. Anonymous  disagreed with Scientology's illegal Internet censorship, and its position as a Church. In its YouTube video "Message to Scientology,"1 on January 21, 2008 it declared war on Scientology.

“save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing," according to a Web page maintained by Anonymous.

 

Anonymous used many methods on their attack included but are not limited to, spreading information against Scientology on the internet, distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), black faxes, prank calls, non-violent protests, and appeals to the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the Church of Scientology's tax exempt status in the United States