UPDATE: Some in the Anonymous collective believe the threat against the NYSE and the group behind it don't really represent the Anonymous movement or the Occupy Wall Street protests. We've published a report on those counter-claims here.

Anonymous declared "war" on the New York Stock Exchange this weekend and vowed to "erase" the NYSE from the Internet on Oct. 10 as the Occupy Wall Street protest entered its third week in New York City after a weekend that saw hundreds of protesters arrested during a planned march across the Brooklyn Bridge.

"On Oct. 10, NYSE shall be erased from the Internet. On Oct. 10, expect a day that will never, ever be forgotten," intoned a computer-generated male voice common to many Anonymous videos, in a warning posted on TheAnonMessage YouTube channel (video below).

The AnonMessage channel has been used to post several Occupy Wall Street-related video messages since the protest against lax regulation of the financial sector and growing economic inequality began on Sept. 17. Those messages include Anonymous' initial "official" video regarding Occupy Wall Street and a warning sent last week to the New York Police Department that threatened retaliation if "the brutality does not stop" against Occupy Wall Street protestors.

Anonymous, until recently known mostly for wreaking havoc on the Internet through blunt-force takedowns of websites and opportunistic hacking attacks, has lent its help to low-tech street protests of late. Prior to its participation in Occupy Wall Street, the initiation of which is credited to the Canadian activist group Adbusters, Anonymous also had a large role in a string of live protests against actions taken by the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) authority's police force.

The threat to "erase" the NYSE from the Internet was not explained, though in comments on the YouTube video, some speculated that Anonymous was planning a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack on the public-facing NYSE.com website, similar to DDoS attacks the group has used to take down websites in the past.

Others felt that would only be a minor setback for the NYSE and guessed that Anonymous was planning a larger attack, perhaps even an attempt to actually disable trading on the exchange.

Here's the transcript of the latest Occupy Wall Street video from Anonymous:

Greetings, institutions of the media.

We are Anonymous.

The events transpiring within Wall Street have caught our eye.

It seems that the government and federal agencies enjoy enforcing the law a little bit too much. They instate unjust laws as mindless automatons, blindly following orders with soulless precision.

We witness the government enforcing the laws that punish the 99 percent while allowing the 1 percent to escape justice, unharmed, for their crimes against the people.

We have observed this same government failing to enforce even the minimal legal restraints of Wall Street's abuses. This government who has willingly ignored the greed at Wall Street has even bailed out the perpetrators that have caused our crisis.

We will not stand by and watch the system take over our way of life.

We the people shall stand against the government's inaction.

We the people will not be witnesses to your corruption and ill-gotten profits.

We will not labor for your leisure.

We will not assist you in any way.

This is why we choose to declare our war against the New York Stock Exchange. We can no longer stay silent as the population is being exploited and forced to make sacrifices in the name of profit.

We will show the world that we are true to our word. On Oct. 10, NYSE shall be erased from the Internet. On Oct. 10, expect a day that will never, ever be forgotten.

Vox Populi, Vox Anon.

The Voice of The People is The Voice of Anonymous.

We are Legion. We are the 99 percent.

We do not forgive. We do not forget.

Wall Street: Expect us.

Wow~ This is so cool! Like an internet Robin Hood. (*A*)

I know right! i found this when i was looking them up cuz i was curious, do you think they'll do it?

Amusing as always.

To be honest, I've always thought this kind of thing was very childish. Taking down something on the internet as "punishment" is just dumb. All they're gonna do is get a bad rap. They should figure out a way to actually talk with the people they've got a beef with, rather than just saying "We're pissed at you, we're gonna mess your stuff up". What are they, five?

That, and the whole 99% argument seems really shaky. If 99% of the people really felt like that, then you'd see sooooo many more people on Wall Street in these protests. The entire city would be flooded with people. Flawed logic + childish tactics = failure.

.-. interesting people

I wonder bout the hacking of facebook....is it true...I don't mind if they do it...I really don't care bout it...

Well, I'll just say one thing.

Drawing attention to their repeated antics is only encouraging them. Apparently, their tired fear tactics work wonders on a lot of people still, as evidenced by the number of people we get in here every time that respect, fear, and sometimes worship anonymous.

For every internet attack they do, I roll my eyes, 5 other people scream/squeal in horror, the news flips the fuck out, and they get an ego boost. Rinse, lather, repeat. Everyone from the media to the average internet user is spoiling them with attention.

Weren't these guys the prime suspects of the hacking of the Playstation Network earlier in the year? Well, if it was them I doubt that they'll be able to hack the NYSE. I mean come on, that systems got to be near impossible to hack. Its the stock exchange their talking about not somebodys facebook profile.

>>9 These guys have a history of hacking websites of both huge corporations and governments. I'm also pondering whether they'll be able to do it again this time, but if they do, it won't be shocking at all.

Aside from that, however, it's true that they're getting far too much attention than they deserve. But hey, it's entertainment.

The AnonMessage has posted two new videos.

It is entirely possible that the statements given in these videos are false, merely given in an attempt to throw off anyone defending the NYSE.

In my opinion, the Anonymous collective will not attack the NYSE on Monday. It is a possibility that there is a new attack in the future, however.

More on this topic from me later.

>>11 Continuation of reply:
Recently, a YouTube video was posted named, "WE ARE THEM - ANONYMOUS" by a channel that calls itself "whatdatruth." The video called for action in the movement against the 1%, and even went so far as to call for a revolution in America. It was much like the media broadcast made by the famous "V" from the movie, "V for Vendetta." This video is just one example of many that are being posted all over the internet.

It seems that people have taken the idea of Anonymous and run with it. Now, it seems that Anonymous might become a bit like the Dollars; people who aren't hackers have taken up personal missions to bring word about Anonymous and a revolution to the people. I personally like the idea of having so many voices behind Anonymous. I have been waiting for mass political movement for a long time.

I also support what the original Anonymous Collective did. Some of the information that Governments hold needs to be public. People need to know what's going on. But I won't go too far into my personal political values.

As to >>11, I cannot be sure what the hackers behind Anonymous will do, or when they will do it. If they actually do attack the New York Stock Exchange website, success will result in an instability of the Market itself, however much The AnonMessage claims that it will not. If the rumors are spread quickly and widely enough, even now there may be shifts. People may begin to panic about what might happen to their stocks on Monday and try to protect their shares.

It has been speculated that, instead of simply removing the NYSE's website from the internet, Anonymous will directly attack the Exchange itself. In my opinion, causing the whole 100% of America to suffer as a part of your punishment of police brutality is extreme. I don't want to suffer. I want the system to change, no matter what, but I simply don't think that attacking the market is the way to do it.

Today is 10-10-11, so when are they going to do something?

Yes, I too would like to know this. When? When shall this happen today?

I wonder how this is going to play out...

I actually hadnt heard about this until i read this but i decided to look it up and i came across this

"Citizens of the world,

We are Anonymous! Recently something very disturbing has come to our attention. You must take all notices and information claiming to be 'Anonymous' with a grain of salt. Consider EVERYTHING.

Operation Invade Wall Street is bulls***! It is a fake planted operation by law enforcement and cyber crime agencies in order to get you to undermine the Occupy Wall Street movement. It proposes you use depreciated tools that have known flaws such as LOIC.

Anonymous would never tell you to use LOIC—not after the arrests and failures of Operation Payback.

Anonymous wouldn't attack NYSE on a HOLIDAY—it is debatable if Anonymous would ever even attack NYSE.

Be wary friends!

We are Anonymous

We are Legion

We do not Forgive

We do not Forget

Expect Us

Be wary of imitations!"

i got it from this site if anyones intrested it checking out the whole articule heres the site i got it from

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394128,00.asp#fbid=877q4OpOOy1

I wonder how this is all going to play out because in situations like this its hard to tell whats the truth from the fiction because anyone can say there from the group hiding behind there name saying there with them and giving out false information to cause people to question the objectives of these people trying to get them to lose support for what they are trying to do to try to disband the group or atleast trying to weaken them

>>16 Well, as much as I like the Anonymous, this is kinda fishy. I see two main possibilities with the current situation we have:

1 - Anonymous failed to "Erase NYSE from the Internet" and decided to at least save some face by claiming it was a fake declaration posted by wannabes.

2 - This is fake and was probably posted to make us consider Possibility #1.

huh i didnt think about that. seems kinda obvious to me now =p but the post i put the link to was made Oct. 4 so its possible that it could have been put out as a back-up plan just in case the "Erase NYSE from the Internet" didnt work like they had hoped so they could say its true

Actually, the NYSE did go down on October 10th. anonymous attempted to DDoS it, and succeeded... for all of about 2 minutes. 5 if you count the second attempt as part of the total.

So they erased it from the net for 5 minutes. Now, granted, this is with a prior declaration that alerted people to the fact it was going to happen and thus gave them time to arrange defenses - Because it's not that difficult to derail or neutralize a DDoS.

Anyway, I'm not sure whether to consider this a failure or a success. In the end it didn't do much at all - it was barely worth mentioning.