U.S. indicts 13 suspected members of hacker group Anonymous

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

By David Ingram
WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 3, 2013 4:57pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United States brought criminal charges against 13 suspected members of the hacking group Anonymous on Thursday for allegedly attacking government, credit card and lobbying websites in a campaign in support of internet file-sharing.

A grand jury indictment of the 13 people was filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, charging them with conspiracy to intentionally cause damage to protected computers as part of Anonymous' "Operation Payback."

The loose-knit international group known as Anonymous has been in frequent battle with U.S. authorities, not only over file-sharing but also other ideological causes such as the willingness of financial institutions to process donations for the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/03/us-usa-courts-anonymous-idUSBRE9920ZD20131003

[Scuba]

1. Well, that'll put an end to that.

Not.

[Demeter]

2. Your NSA dollars at work

This, and the Silk Road/Bitcoin/Dread Pirate Roberts....who cares about al=Qaeda, which has been bombed out of existence, except when we are arming them to take down economically independent countries in the Middle East...

[sir pball]

9. To be fair, I have no problem with taking on Silk Road

Yeah, a lot of it was drugs and DPR finally got a little antsy (odd, considering his penchant for hired killing) and spun off The Armory, but at any rate there were (are) plenty of weapons for sale on SR/TA/the dark web, ranging from piddly little 22s up to genuine select-fire rifles and machine guns. I don't know if it's legitimate, and have no idea how you'd ship something that blatant, but given what they claim to be dealing in I'm actually A-OK with this. Not that we shouldn't be worrying about other things as well.

[trublu992]

3. Damn Damn Damn

[christx30]

4. That's 13 people I'd buy a beer for. N/t

[judesedit]

5. The key word is "suspected". They may have nothing to do with Anonymous I pray.

[pitbullgirl1965]

6. K & R

Damn it.

[struggle4progress]

7. ... The indictment filed in federal court in Alexandria says that from September 2010

to January 2011, Anonymous members used software to flood websites with huge amounts of Internet traffic to shut them down.

Anonymous focused on websites that were either critical of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy website founded by Julian Assange, or had refused to process payments for WikiLeaks, among them MasterCard and Visa. The targets even included the Swedish prosecutor’s office, in connection with arrest warrants on sexual crimes issued for Assange.

Members of Anonymous also launched what they called Operation Payback, an attack on the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, the British Phonographic Industry and others. The attacks were retaliation against the discontinuation of The Pirate Bay, a Sweden-based file sharing website devoted to the illegal downloading of copyrighted material.

13 members of Anonymous indicted in hacking case
Posted: Friday, October 4, 2013 12:00 am
Associated Press

[Pterodactyl]

8. Obama & Holder are on the case. Look out, Anonymous!

They're really good at monitoring internet communication.

[Arugula Latte]

10. And yet the financial criminals who brought down our economy roam free.