25 suspected Anonymous hackers arrested by InterpolFebruary 29, 2012 - 11:18 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Interpol said Tuesday, Feb 28, that 25 suspected members of the loose-knit Anonymous hacker movement have been arrested in a sweep across Europe and South America, AP reports. The international police agency said in a statement that the arrests in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain were carried out by national law enforcement officers working under the support of Interpol's Latin American Working Group of Experts on Information Technology Crime. The suspects, ages 17 to 40, are suspected of planning coordinated cyber-attacks against institutions including Colombia's defense ministry and presidential websites and Chile's Endesa electricity company and national library. The arrests followed an ongoing investigation begun in mid-February that also led to the seizure of 250 items of IT equipment and mobile phones in searches of 40 premises in 15 cities, Interpol said. Earlier Tuesday police in Spain announced the arrest of four suspected Anonymous hackers in connection with attacks on Spanish political party websites. These four were among the 25 announced by Interpol. A National Police statement said two servers used by the group in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have been blocked. It said the four included the alleged manager of Anonymous' computer operations in Spain and Latin America, who was identified only by his initials and the aliases "Thunder" and "Pacotron." Interpol is headquartered in Lyon, France. The organization has no powers of arrest or investigation, but it helps police forces around the world work together, facilitating intelligence sharing. 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. Related links: Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | Russia sends note of protest to Armenia over envoy’s trip to Ukraine’s Bucha Russia has sent a note of protest to Armenia over the visit of Vladimir Karapetyan and Tigran Ter-Margaryan to Bucha. Armenia: Protesters march to parliament, some spend the night on street The protesters did not disperse despite heavy rain that began at around 2 a.m. local time. Concept to complete Yerevan Cascade discussed at city hall A conceptual proposal to complete the Cascade complex in downtown Yerevan has been presented by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Pashinyan visits flood-hit region Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, June 8 visited the disaster area in the Lori province. |