Tuesday afternoon, the international police organization Interpol announced the arrest of 25 alleged members of Anonymous by officials in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Spain. Shortly after the announcement, Interpol’s website was hit by a distributed denial-of-service attack. At the time this story was posted, the website remained unavailable.
Interpol announced that the arrests were made as part of “Operation Unmask”, an international effort launched in mid-February to grab the perpetrators of attacks on websites in Columbia and Chile, including the Colombian Defense Ministry and presidential websites, a Chilean electricity company, and Chile’s national library. Officials also seized 250 pieces of equipment, including computers and mobile phones, during a search of 40 locations in 15 cities.
The Guardian reports Interpol’s acting executive director of police services Bernd Rossbach said, “This operation shows that crime in the virtual world does have real consequences for those involved, and that the Internet cannot be seen as a safe haven for criminal activity.”
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