Anonymous

There's a good whodunit developing over at The Pirate Bay, the popular BitTorrent file-sharing service.

An unknown entity has launched a large distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) against The Pirate Bay and rendered the site largely inaccessible for more than a day. The Pirate Bay posted a note to its Facebook page confirming the attack. Site operators wrote: "We don't know who's behind it but we have our suspicions."

Suspicions are all anybody seems to have at this point. Here's a list of the top suspects and where they stand on the issue.

The British military's head of cybersecurity, Jonathan Shaw, admitted that there have been a number of successful attacks into the Ministry of Defense's computer systems, according to the Guardian.

"The number of serious incidents is quite small, but it is there," Shaw told the Guardian in a final interview before he retires. "And those are the ones we know about. The likelihood is there are problems in there we don't know about."

He wouldn't say how many attacks there have been, but he did emphasize that it was serious enough to make … Read more

The Anonymous defendants arrested last month for allegedly breaking into corporate networks, stealing data, and defacing Web sites as part of LulzSec are likely to have an extended vacation at Club Fed, experts say.

With well-known victims like Sony, Fox Broadcasting, and the FBI, prosecutors will want to make examples of those arrested in the Anonymous-related hacking cases in the hopes that it will send a message to others.

"I believe they will (get harsh treatment)," Michael Bachmann, assistant professor of criminal justice at Texas Christian University, told CNET in a recent interview.

Like Kevin Mitnick, who was … Read more

Eight men have been arrested and charged with distributing more $1 million in LSD, ecstasy, and other narcotics through an online storefront that hid the identities of the service's users.

The online drug market -- known as "The Farmers Market" -- used the Tor Project to allow suppliers to anonymously sell their wares online to buyers in 35 countries, including the United States, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed today in Los Angeles. The store provided buyers with order forms, forums, and customer service, and accepted various forms of payment, including PayPal and Western Union, … Read more

An Ohio man has been indicted in connection with attacks that brought down the Web sites of police agencies in Utah.

John Anthony Borell III, of Toledo, Ohio, has been charged with two counts of felony computer intrusion and is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court today.

He is accused of bringing down two police Web sites in late January, causing thousands of dollars in damage, according to court documents.

Borell is apparently a member of the hacker activist group Anonymous, which has taken credit for numerous online attacks. Law enforcement officials were aided in their investigation by … Read more

Pride in one's lover's bodily parts can lead to a fall in one's own bodily security.

That seems to be the lesson from the tale of an alleged hacker, Higinio O.Ochoa, a 30-year-old Linux administrator from Galveston, Texas, who was arrested by the FBI and charged with unauthorized access to a protected computer.

The accusation, as described by the Sydney Morning Herald, is that Ochoa hacked into several Web sites belonging to law enforcement.

Sometimes, though, the temptation to leave a calling card can be too great. So Ochoa allegedly used a Twitter account to direct … Read more

Anonymous is certainly making the rounds this week. First China, now the telecom and tech industry.

The hacker group has claimed responsibility for leading denial-of-service attacks on two technology trade association Web sites, USTelecom and TechAmerica, according to Bloomberg. Anonymous is reportedly lashing out because these organizations support a cybersecurity bill that some members of congress are working to pass.

The attacks began yesterday when users were unable to log onto the sites, reports Bloomberg. USTelecom represents telecom companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and CenturyLink; and TechAmerica's members include tech companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Apple.

Both … Read more

The hacker group Anonymous has its sights set again on China.

Anonymous plans to launch more attacks on Chinese government Web sites in an effort to highlight corruption and push for human rights improvements, a member of the activist group told Reuters today.

The comments come after Anonymous, a loosely knit group of hackers, infiltrated hundreds of Chinese government sites last week. Messages posted on the compromised sites warned of the downfall of the Chinese government, although no central government sites were compromised.

The group commented to Reuters through its Anonymous China Twitter account.

Anonymous hinted at taking down the … Read more

Anonymous has recently turned its attention to the human rights struggle in China, hacking and defacing hundreds of government and commercial Web sites in that country.

The online hactivist group claims to have compromised more than 500 Web sites over the past couple of days, defacing them with messages claiming responsibility for the breach while The Who's "Baba O'Riley" plays in the background. (A complete list of the Web sites Anonymous claims to have hacked.)

The group posted the following message -- still visible at the time of this publishing -- predicting the downfall of the … Read more