Breaking: Anonymous Hacks NATO

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Sixteen suspected members of "Anonymous" were arrested this morning in states across the country, from California to New York, in a federal raid on the notorious hacking group.

The arrests Tuesday, first reported by FoxNews.com, are part of an ongoing investigation into Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for numerous cyberattacks against a variety of websites, including Visa and Mastercard.


The Department of Justice, in announcing the arrests and more than 35 search warrants in the case, said the case stemmed from an alleged cyberattack on the website PayPal over its action against controversial group WikiLeaks, one of the inspirations for the hacker group Anonymous.

Fourteen of the arrests were identified in the same indictment out of California, while two separate criminal complaints filed out of courts in Newark, N.J., and Tampa, Fla., name the two other alleged hackers. All are believed to have been involved in carrying out nationwide coordinated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on multiple high-profile, billion-dollar companies.

"In retribution for PayPal's termination of WikiLeaks' donation account, a group calling itself Anonymous coordinated and executed distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against PayPal's computer servers using an open source computer program the group makes available for free download on the Internet," the Justice Department said in a news release.

The department identified the suspects in the California indictment as Christopher Wayne Cooper, 23, aka "Anthrophobic;" Joshua John Covelli, 26, aka "Absolem" and "Toxic;" Keith Wilson Downey, 26; Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20, aka "No" and "MMMM;" Donald Husband, 29, aka "Ananon;" Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27, aka "Trivette," "Triv" and "Reaper;" Ethan Miles, 33; James C. Murphy, 36; Drew Alan Phillips, 26, aka "Drew010;" Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, aka "Jeffer," "Jefferp" and "Ji;" Daniel Sullivan, 22; Tracy Ann Valenzuela, 42; and Christopher Quang Vo, 22. One individual's name has been withheld by the court.

They are charged with various counts of conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Each count of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Also Tuesday, Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 21, was arrested in Florida on charges of intentional damage to a protected computer for allegedly accessing without authorization the Tampa Bay InfraGard website and uploaded three files.

And Lance Moore, 21, of Las Cruces, N.M., was arrested on the New Jersey indictment, which accuses him of stealing confidential business information stored on AT&T's servers and posting it on a file-sharing site. He is charged with one count of accessing a protected computer without authorization.

U.S. law enforcement officials also told FoxNews.com that the arrest of a 16-year-old hacker in London, who goes by the online user name Tflow, was related to the raids in the U.S.

Some of the arrests were out of the San Francisco field office, sources said. Earlier in the day, the FBI executed search warrants at the New York homes -- two in Long Island, N.Y., and one in Brooklyn, N.Y. -- of three suspected members of Anonymous, FoxNews.com reported.

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[littleboy707]

Anonymous trolling the world since 2003

[dekerranda]

I say go Anonymous go. Has any one seen Oprah Whinphreys new network logo, I guess it what it is, it's Oprah Whinphrey Network, (OWN), by chance, just thought I throw that in. People like her are the skum of the earth.

[mintrev]

Wow lol... Society's standing up for itself lol

[kataskopos77]

oooo she is sexy

[MrFinCraft]

@KidStocking I think that they wouldn't be able of disabling NATO or FBI, they do have all so people protecting them from stuff like this. They can attack both of them, but i think that they couldn't just shut the NATO down. It is a international organisation and if it goes to that far, the NATO will retaliate. Now that we wouldn't want to see.

[MrChuckisgod]

for the last time anonymous is not a group

[Jakepod34]

Its like the Joker and his merry men with all the masks.....except for the fact that Anonomous is seeking justice, not injustice like in The Dark Knight

[MrChiron12]

0:55

[MrLittle123456789]

hack fox news Anonymous !!!!

[killer69men]

woud be good if that 13 year old hacked pay pal XD

[ZeusDeusEx]

I don't know about you guys. But the only thing I cared about in this video was the ass at 0:55