Washington: US authorities have arrested 16
people for cyber crimes including 14 over an online attack on the PayPal website claimed by the hacking group "Anonymous," the Department of Justice said.
The US indictment against the 14 hackers alleges the
denial of service (DDoS) attacks on PayPal were "retribution"
because the site terminated a donation account for the
whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks.
The Paypal attack suspects were arrested in raids in
Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington DC, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio, US officials said in a statement.
Two suspects were arrested under separate indictments but
similar charges in Florida and New Jersey, while British
police arrested one suspect and Dutch police four, it said.
In all FBI agents made 35 raids across the US as part of
a probe into "coordinated cyber attacks against major
companies and organizations," the FBI said.
Anonymous, an international hackers group, rose to fame
with a series of attacks on websites linked to the Church of
Scientology.
The group gained further prominence after launching
retaliatory attacks on companies perceived to be enemies of
the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
Anonymous sabotaged Turkish sites also last month to
protest against Internet censorship.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 10:37