14 Guys Arrested By FBI in Operation Targeting Anonymous
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The
FBI has conducted more than a dozen raids and made more than a dozen
arrests across the United States in connection with the Anonymous
computer hacking investigation.
The officials described the sweep as a "major" law enforcement operation and say there have been 14 arrests nationwide.
FBI
agents conducted raids at four New York residences as well as locations
in California, New Jersey and Florida Tuesday in connection with the
investigation.
Agents
seized computers and computer accessories under search warrants at four
homes of suspected hackers in Baldwin and Merrick both on Long island,
in Brooklyn and the Bronx. The allegations are that the network of
hackers allegedly carried out distributed denial of service attacks on
numerous victims including corporations and their websites.
The
amorphous, loosely organized group of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks
has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against corporate and
government websites around the world. The news comes as Anonymous
claimed a cyberattack that shut down the website of Rupert Murdoch's
Times newspaper.
In
addition, Anonymous has been linked to cyber attacks at the CIA, Sony,
Fox News, the Arizona Department of Corrections and a well-known
consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, among others.
The
group is implicated in denial-of-service attacks, in which large
amounts of traffic are directed to a website, overloading it and, in
effect, shutting it down.
The
FBI in New York refused to confirm Tuesday's actions involved
Anonymous. "These search warrants are being executed in connection with
an ongoing FBI investigation," said FBI spokesman Peter Donald.
-News Source (CBS, CNN)
