Spain, South America arrest 25 in Anonymous crackdown, with Interpol assist

With help from the international police organization Interpol, Spain and three South American countries today arrested 25 people who are suspected of being Anonymous activist/hacktivist/hackers. They are accused of defacing government and corporate websites. Reuters:

Spanish police also accused one of four suspects picked up in the cities of Madrid and Malaga of releasing personal data about police officers and bodyguards protecting Spain's royal family and the prime minister.

Other arrests were in Argentina, Chile and Colombia, and 250 items of computer equipment and mobile phones were seized across 15 cities, Interpol said. Colombia's Ministry of Defence and presidential websites as well as Chile's Endesa electricity company were among the targets of the hackers, it said.

And not coincidentally, the Interpol website has been intermittently offline today.

• [Memefilter Boldvoices]

  With respect for what I hope are good intentions, if anon is DDoSing sites to disrupt business, or defacing them, what’s not criminal about it?  It’s one thing to graffiti an empty building, or to turn it into a useful venue, or to protest or boycott, or publish factual information to raise awareness.  But as a subscriber to several “official” anon resources, their own “official” statements are plenty damning – openly admitting DDOS and defacement, and fairly gleefully at that.

  I’m not saying Law should have anything to do with it, or that anon isn’t achieving some social benefit, but as it is now – right on paper by their own statements they proudly admit breaking laws left and right.  If the party is organizing to commit crimes, they are a criminal organization – by definition.  

  Change the laws or change the tactics, but don’t just lie.  You can lie *on* the Internet, but you can’t lie *to* the internet – as anon knows well.

  • [Marja Erwin]

    Part of the problem is that the people starting wars, bombing civilians, and destroying the environment have the money and influence to change the laws, or ignore them, or use them against others. So peace groups get put on terror watchlists, get infiltrated, get death threats, etc. Another part of the problem is that the rest of us don’t have the money or influence to change the laws. It’s a rigged game.

  • [benher]

    Who cares if it’s criminal? Disrupting business? The same “business” that disrupts everything from the human character to our environment? 

    Is the law completely absolute? Is it  so imperative to uphold?

  • [wysinwyg]

    Yeah, “secretly” dropping bombs on Afghani and Pakistani villagers is just “collateral damage.”  Taking down Interpol’s internet poster — now THAT’S criminal.

    But yes, technically anon is committing crimes. Maybe they’re not a “criminal organization” because they’re not particularly organized?

• [Cowicide]

  hmmm…  Did they catch the hackers or the people whose wireless routers got hacked by hackers a block away?

• [scythenoire]

  They don’t get it, we are all anonymous. We are all just a number to the governments.

• [RuthlessRuben]

  The way I see it, this is exactly the same thing as catching a bunch of bees. Overall, it won’t stop anybody from producing honey.

  Want more metaphors? I got em.

  Another good one is that they’re basically wrestling a giant block of Jell-O. They might rip a chunk out here, a chunk out there, but it’s still a giant block of Jell-O.

  I could go on all night with these gems, but for the sake of sanity and the integrity of my knees, I’ll stop.