PARIS – Interpol said yesterday that 25 suspected members of the loose-knit Anonymous hacker movement have been arrested in a sweep across Europe and South America.
The international police agency said in a statement that the arrests in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain had been carried out by national law-enforcement officers working under the support of Interpol’s Latin American Working Group of Experts on Information Technology Crime.
Those arrested, from ages 17 and 40, are suspected of planning coordinated cyberattacks against institutions including Colombia’s defense ministry and presidential websites, Chile’s Endesa electricity company and national library, as well as other targets.
Anonymous, whose genesis can be traced back to a popular U.S. image-messaging board, has become increasingly politicized amid a global clampdown on music piracy and the international controversy over the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks, with which many of its supporters identify.
Authorities in Europe, North America and elsewhere have made dozens of arrests, and Anonymous has increasingly attacked law enforcement, military and intelligence-linked targets in retaliation.
Article source: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/breaking/20120229_25_suspected_members_of_hacker_group_nabbed.html
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