Interpol cracks down on Anonymous - 25 arrested
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Twenty-five suspected members of the online activist group Anonymous have been arrested in sweeps across Europe and South America, the international police agency Interpol said today.
The sweep, dubbed "Operation Unmask," was in response to coordinated cyberattacks against government, political, and corporate Web sites in Colombia and Chile, Interpol said. The suspects, whose ages range from 17 to 40, were arrested in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Spain.
"This operation shows that crime in the virtual world does have real consequences for those involved, and that the Internet cannot be seen as a safe haven for criminal activity, no matter where it originates or where it is targeted," Bernd Rossbach, Interpol's executive director of police services, said in a statement.
Authorities said they seized 250 items of IT equipment and mobile phones, as well as payment cards and cash, during searches executed on 40 homes and businesses in 15 cities.
The hacking collective has raised the ire of law enforcement officials worldwide with its recent activity. This month alone, the group claimed responsibility for taking down the CIA's Web site with a distributed denial-of-service attack, released a recording of a conference call between the FBI and U.K. law enforcement regarding the group, and aided WikiLeaks in the release of confidential e-mails from an influential global security analysis company.
This article was originally posted on CNET News.
About Steven Musil
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Anonymous announced that "we are glad to be rid of these script kiddies who are not even using custom-coded hacks but are just using off-the-shelf crap. It makes us look bad, especially that recent failure to hack the Vatican."
Anonymous said that it would now focus on other organizations that protect sex offenders, such as the United Nations. "They can't hide forever," said Anonymous. "Not to mention the enormous waste of the tax money of the 99% going to bloated, useless bureaucrats who wouldn't know genocide if it shoved a bayonet up their nethers. Darfur? Anyone? Hello? Kofi Annan will rot for that."
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