In Spain, police claim to have arrested 3 leaders of the hacker group Anonymous this morning. The police’s Twitter feed stated “Spanish Police dismantle the #Anonymous hacker group in Spain. They attacked #Playstation Store.” Those leaders have apparently been released without bail now, but this still marks a milestone in the the investigation of the PSN attacks in April.
They weren’t even going for the PSN hackers specifically. These hackers were found as part of a 2010 investigation of a DDoS case against the Spanish Minister of Culture’s website.
The police go into a little detail about the hacking operation, stating “#Anonymous has thousands of “zombies” computers infected all over the world.” Is this a break in the investigation?
It’s too soon to celebrate, however. LulzSec continues to remind us that they are still active, despite news of one of their own under FBI custody. Further, Anonymous’s official Twitter offers us this message:
“Dear @policia, Expect us. #Anonymous.”
Oh dear.
I love this banner
@Derek Appel, it didn’t click until I read your comment and looked at it again. I lol’d.
Ugh, I hate when people try to claim any sort of “leadership” in Anonymous. They’re, quite literally, an anonymous group of likeminded people who have no structure to their community at all. This is what makes them such a threat when they start another hacktivist activity, because there is no head to take down.
I think the Spanish police are just trying to railroad these three guys that they nabbed. Anonymous has said, several times, that they’ve never been involved in the PSN attacks. If they were involved, they would own up to it. This is their MO. They have no problem claiming responsibility for their actions, when they do it.
Also, the “zombie computers” is a total fabrication by the Spanish police. Most of Anonymous’ attacks involve “LOIC”, or Low Orbit Ion Cannon, which is an app developed solely to flood a particular website with traffic. The reason it’s effective is because Anonymous has thousands of active members who regularly partake in these attacks.
Anonymous are white-hat hackers. They’re chaotic good. They wouldn’t stoop so low as to infect other people’s computers for use as zombies. That’s not their MO.
As for LulzSec, they’re still relatively new to the hacktivist scene. I know that a lot of LulzSec members are also Anonymous, but I don’t know if they’d be black hat or not.
Not criticizing this article, by the way. I’m criticizing the Spanish police for either being incompetent or intentionally defamatory toward the three individuals they’ve apprehended.
@Joe Pomerening,
That is by far the best definition of this group that I’ve read on any board. Thank you for that.
Heh, thanks for the banner love. I eat, drink, and breathe memes, so this came right up.
As for the concept of leadership in Anonymous… that’s why I chose the word “claim.” There is no such thing as understanding or classifying these crafty hackers. I would have added my doubts to the article, but I figured the facts were enough.