Home >> Government

FBI raids homes in hunt for 'Anonymous' hackers

By: Jaikumar Vijayan On: 20 Jul 2011 For: ComputerWorld (US) Creator

According to reports, the FBI executed search warrants at the homes of three suspected members of Anonymous, two in Long Island and another in Brooklyn. The raids follow a recent spike in activity by the group

The FBI today raided several homes in New York and California as part of an ongoing investigation into recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks allegedly launched by members of the Anonymous hacking group.

Fox News first reported the early morning raids. An FBI spokeswoman later confirmed to Computerworld that the agency was carrying out "law enforcement activity" related to an ongoing cyber investigation in both states. She declined to identify the targets of the raids or to confirm whether they were tied to Anonymous.
According to Fox, the FBI executed search warrants at the homes of three suspected members of Anonymous, two in Long Island and another in Brooklyn.

One of the individuals targeted was identified by Fox as Giordani Jordan, of Baldwin, N.Y. FBI agents were seen removing at least one computer from Jordan's home. Similar raids began in California starting at 6 a.m. PT, Fox said.

The raids come amid a recent spike in activity by Anonymous. Just last week, members of the group claimed credit for breaking into computers belonging to military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and exposing the e-mail addresses and passwords of over 90,000 military personnel.

Earlier this month, Anonymous was labeled a cyber terrorism group by the Arizona Department of Public Safety after members of the group repeatedly attacked Arizona police union websites to protest the state's tough immigration laws. And last December, Anonymous launched a series of DDoS attacks against several organizations such as PayPal and Amazon, to protest what it claimed were efforts to stifle whistleblower site WikiLeaks.

Today's FBI raids shouldn't come as a surprise, said Josh Shaul, CTO of Application Security Inc. "They got a lot of people angry," he said. "When you play with fire you are going to get burned."

What is unusual, however, is that some Anonymous members appeared to have put little effort into concealing their tracks, he said. "It seems like these folks who got caught were brazen and careless about the way they went about their hacking activity."

Many of the recent attacks by Anonymous and splinter group LulzSec appear to be focused on embarrassing the victims, not about outright data theft or sabotage. Even so, "they [law enforcement officials] are certainly going to want to make an example of anyone they can bring in," Shaul said.

Sign up for our Newsletters

Tags: U.S. government, hacking

Close X

Your Name:

Your E-mail:

Friend's Name:

Friend's E-mail:

Close X

| Views: 1696 | Rating:

(0 votes)

Rate this article on a scale of
1 to 5 stars,5 being the best.

Close X

Page 1

Quick Access

Video Conferencing Cloud Computing Resource Centre CIO Canada's Brainstorm Centre CIO Canada Debate IdeaCity Conference June 18-20 - Toronto

Jaikumar Vijayan is a contributor to the International Data Group (IDG) News Service, which publishes global technology stories from bureaus around the world to more than 300 publications in more than 60 countries.

Recent Canadian IT Jobs

more: IT Jobs , Post A Job

blog comments powered by Disqus

Computing Canada Poll

Read the Computing Canada articles you made happen.

• Democratizing Business Continuity
• Agility and efficiency through virtual switching

* Sponsored by Microsoft

Related White Papers

Actionable Business Architecture for Smarter Cities - IBM’s Actionable Business Architecture for Smarter Cities can help local governments to define strategy and governance, improve performance, align resources with priorities and adopt emerging practices.

IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities - IBM Intelligent Operations Center for Smarter Cities provides local governments with an integrated view of events, incidents or impending crises, and ability to rapidly share information.

City of Cambridge - Saving millions through proactive infrastructure repair - The City of Cambridge, Ont., is using a sophisticated work and asset management system to become more proactive in its efforts to maintain the city’s water, sewer and transportation infrastructure.

Concise Guide to E-Discovery - Should E-Discovery Be a Top Priority for Your Company? Find out with our new whitepaper outlining the right e-discovery capabilities do for your company.

Moses Cone Health System deployed Unified Computing System as part of the transition to electronic medical records - Based in North Carolina, Moses Cone Health System offers a range of services, including cardiovascular care, the latest cancer treatments, rehabilitation neurology, and trauma care, in both hospital and outpatient settings. Moses Cone Health System is accelerating its transition to electronic medical records (EMR) and Physician Order Entry (POE).

more: White Papers