A curious listing popped up in the registration section of Machine Project, a grassroots educational facility in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Bearing the title “Becoming Anonymous,” the listing proposed to teach registrants to learn the techniques used by the infamous and admirable hacktivist collective Anonymous. The class costs $95 for Machine Project members and $110 for non-members; the three 180-minute sessions are scheduled for March 4, 11, and 18 at 7pm.

Here’s the course description in full:
 

Becoming Anonymous is a three-session workshop that will focus on methods for the circumvention or blocking of digital and real-world surveillance. Browse the internet anonymously. Lock down your computer and passwords. Encrypt your email messages. Build a new you or a new identity. Learn about the benefits of burner phones and bitcoin. Stop individuals, corporations, or the government from tracking you. A toolkit for a new era!

Taught by Professors X & Y who are real-life professors, technology enthusiasts, and privacy advocates. But perhaps we’ve already told you too much.

Participants should have laptops and be 18 or over.

 
Given the inordinate interest that law enforcement officials are likely to have in such an event, I would imagine that the “teachers” will be present in the form of one or more computer monitors. Although it’s not like you can just arrest some dude called Anonymous anyway.

Here’s a taste of the kind of righteous mayhem you can perpetrate after taking the class, specifically blitzing the websites of the Westboro Baptist Church:
 

 
via Internet Magic

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Dear Koch Brothers, Tea partiers & union bashers:  ‘Anonymous’ would like your attention please
Anonymous Hacks U.K. Prime Minister and Home Office Websites