The Collective is a group of anti-authority hacktivists who were involved in the theft of one billion credits from Zachary Rackham, owner of Rackham Capital Investments in October 3304.
History[]
The Collective has existed for years and became well-known among hacker communities, although their activities were generally small in scale. The identity of the Collective's members was unknown, and the group had no spokespersons or apparent leaders. Technology journalist Harlow Nassry of the Federal Times credited them as being "possibly the best hackers in the galaxy".[1]
The Collective garnered international attention on October 18, 3304 with a highly sophisticated hack that successfully withdrew one billion credits from the personal account of billionaire Zachary Rackham. It left a short message encoded into Rackham's account: "The Collective plays to win." Financial journalist Bryanna Blanco of the Federal Times commented that the hack's purpose was apparently to reclaim the one billion credit prize that Rackham obtained from the Federal Grand Lottery in August. The Collective also equally redistributed the money they stole to several hundred former employees of Rackham Capital Investments who had been denied company pensions years earlier.[2]