Last night the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched collaborated raids throughout different US states and arrested at least 14 people suspected of being members of the hacking-activist group Anonymous.
Arrests were made in Florida, California and New Jersey, with computers and equipment also being confiscated in New York with the procurement of 35 search warrants.
Other Anonymous members have been raided in Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey, with more than 30 people linked to the group being arrested, reported the Guardian.
With ‘hacktivists’ joining together under the Anonymous name, government organisations and national security departments have had the security systems of their websites compromised, at times leaking private information to the public.
The hacking organisation rallied behind WikiLeaks founder Julian Asange after various companies severed ties and stoped donating, making it difficult for Asange to raise the money needed for the WikiLeaks operation. In retaliation, Anonymous attacked the websites of donators MasterCard, Visa and Paypal in protest, believing that Asange’s WikiLeaks operation promoted freedom of information: an ideal at the very core of their efforts.
The next hacking gig was a step up for some of its group members, attacking the CIA, Sony’s PSN, Fox News and the Arizona Department of Corrections, with the latter an angry response to their little tolerance of illegal immigrants.
The cyber-terrorists claim responsibility for their attacks through their twitter account, boasting of their successful online conquers.
Despite using various forms of hacking, Anonymous do have a common method known as a “distributed denial of service.” It is an illegal form of hacking that involves the creating of a computer network, which is bombarded by information requests, eventually overwhelming the server with traffic crippling it, or even causing it to crash.
Read: Hacktivist Group Anonymous Targets Google+ And Facebook here
The arrests come days after the announcement Anonymous is planning to launch its own social network in retaliation to Google banning several of its members from its Google+ social network, and even its Gmail service. Their take on the social network promotes uncensored and safe disclosure of information.
