Anonymous, which but remains a potent threat, has been a staunch defender of WikiLeaks, launching and turning over documents stolen from government and corporate websites.

In 2010, Anonymous launched distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the sites of Visa, MasterCard and Paypal after the companies refused to send customer donations to WikiLeaks.

Anonymous' anger goes beyond a donation page, however. The group believes WikiLeaks has become too focused on Assange, who is fighting extradition to Sweden to face rape charges by refusing to leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. Ecuador has agreed to give Assange asylum, but British authorities refuse to let him leave the country.

Assange claims he is innocent of the allegations and believes if he goes to Sweden, he will be sent to the U.S. to face charges for publishing secret documents leaked by Bradley Manning, a U.S. Army analyst arrested in 2010. Manning is currently in court martial proceedings.