I've always found a lot of correlations between Anonymous and Al Qaeda. Not because of terrorism or exploding vans but because both are relatively unorganized collectives who appear much scarier than they are because independent operators/cells will claim they are flying under the group's banner, leading to headlines like "Anonymous Hacks Symantec".

The media eats up the concept of an organized global conspiracy group so it works out for everyone; the media makes money, the independent operators have a convenient, catch-all banner to fly under and the collective gets publicity for their cause.