There is a more than valid reason why hacker groups have gotten such a bad reputation over the years. While some vigilante groups are trying to do things from a moral point of view, other groups are made up of criminals. Quite a few hacker collectives are only active to wreak havoc upon our society and that situation will not change anytime soon.

4. The Shadow Brokers

If there is one group of hackers making quite a few media headlines throughout 2016, it has to be The Shadow Brokers. This group continues to claim they successfully infiltrated the NSA and stole a lot of their hacking tools in the process. None of those claims have ever been confirmed, as no one has gotten their hands on the majority of information this collective claims to own. Some of their alleged exploits are still up for sale on the Zeronet darknet marketplace as we speak.

3. Syrian Electronic Army

It is evident terrorism is transforming into the digital age, which could have a lot of unforeseen and widespread consequences. The Syrian Electronic Army has been active since 2012 and they are actively engaged in an ongoing cyber war with Anonymous. SEA has been attacking Western media outlets, including the New York Times, The Washington Post, and CBC. Their arsenal of tools encompasses anything from malware to spamming and

While most of these attacks are not much more than annoyances, the Syrian Electronic Army has also attacked Gmail accounts and social media logins. Spreading fake news while controlling the Associated Press’s Twitter account, for example, could have a lot of disturbing consequences. It is evident this particular hacking powder keg is waiting to explode.

2. LulzSec

It is impossible to not mention LulzSec in this article, as they have become very prolific over the past few years. Initially founded in 2011, LulzSec has been making a lot of headlines for their corporate and government-focused hacking attacks.  The group also claims responsibility for the recent Sony hack. Interestingly enough, various other hacking groups have retaliated against LulzSec in the past. They also earned the scrutiny of the FBI, which is not entirely surprising.

1. Lizard Squad

When it comes to black hat hacker collectives, look no further than Lizard Squad. The group is best known for their large waves of distributed denial-of-service attacks. In most cases, these attacks are targeted at the gaming-related services, which may seem like an odd target for a lot of people. Some of their targets include League of Legends, Playstation Network, and Machinima. All of these services are high-value targets due to their status in the gaming world.

That being said, Lizard Squad has been quite active on other fronts as well. The group has successfully infiltrated the Malaysian Airlines website and they perform a sybil attack against the Tor protocol. Although several members of Lizard Squad have been arrested over the past two years, many people believed the hacking group is far from done. One never knows for sure how many members make up this hacker collective in the first place.

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