Spanish police on Friday celebrated the arrest of three men who are allegedly part of the computer hacking group that launched cyberattacks against Sony’s PlayStation Network, among others. Spain’s National Police said the three were among the local leadership of an international network known as Anonymous, a group of so-called hacktivists who use denial-of-service attacks to bring down web sites.
Anonymous gained fame last year when it issued a hit list of web sites hostile to WikiLeaks. The group went on to attack PayPal and MasterCard, which had stopped donations to WikiLeaks after the U.S. government shut down the site.
Understanding Hacktivists
“The escalating number of attacks and the continuing ability of hackers to apparently be able to get into corporate and government web sites with impunity has really shaken a lot of people up,” noted Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
“That said, the efforts of groups of independents like the Anonymous group or even WikiLeaks seem to have their roots in the traditional methodology of the hackers that we remember with some fondness from the 90s and later. These are people who were either personally or politically motivated and a bit sociopathic, but their aims are somewhat beyond mere filthy lucre.”
The More Serious Threat
Although there’s plenty of attention to the arrest of the trio of Anonymous hackers, King said there’s a much more formidable presence in the hacking world that’s accounting for a greater number of financially damaging attacks. Specifically, he pointed to this week’s attack on Citigroup and systematic lootings of intellectual property that are reportedly being supported by Asian and Eastern European governments.
On Thursday, Citigroup reported it “recently discovered unauthorized access to Citi’s account online.” Citigroup said the hack affected about one percent of its North America bank-card customers. And Google is making headlines in recent weeks with accusations…
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