Anonymous Hacks U.S. State Department

When you read reports like this, it's easy to guess the age of typical Anonymous hackers -- they're very young, too young to realize their strategy plays into their adversaries' hands.

The worst strategy would be one in which a large number of weak attacks results in progressive adaptation by the victims, creating a gradual evolution and improvement in cyber-defense.

The best strategy would be a long process of method development but no overt or detectable attacks, in order to strengthen the offensive methods, followed by an all-out attack with mature methods that completely overwhelm the adversary.

The worst strategy is almost as childish as the Anonymous hackers are themselves. The best strategy is the one the 9/11 attackers used -- quietly observe the adversary, detect weak points but don't betray your intentions, then launch a major attack all at once that causes a defensive reaction that is perfectly suited to the threat, but that arrives too late to contain the damage.

In this sense, Anonymous, by setting off many small alarms about unacceptable security practices, is only serving the needs of its adversaries in ways it doesn't understand.