Hacker suspects arrested in global sweep

PARIS -- Interpol said yesterday 25 suspected members of the loose-knit Anonymous hacker movement have been arrested in a sweep across Europe and South America.

The international police agency said the arrests in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Spain were carried out by national law enforcement working under the support of Interpol's Latin American Working Group of Experts on Information Technology Crime.

The suspects, aged between 17 and 40, are suspected of planning coordinated cyberattacks against institutions including Colombia's defense ministry and presidential websites, Chile's Endesa electricity company and national library, as well as other targets.

The arrests follow an investigation begun in mid-February that led to the seizing of 250 items of IT equipment and mobile phones from 40 premises in 15 cities, Interpol said.

Earlier yesterday, police in Spain announced the arrest of four suspected Anonymous hackers in connection with attacks on Spanish political party websites. They were among the 25 announced by Interpol. National Police said two servers used by the group in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have been blocked.

It said the four included the alleged manager of Anonymous' computer operations in Spain and Latin America, who was identified only by his initials and the aliases "Thunder" and "Pacotron."

Anonymous, whose genesis can be traced to a popular U.S. image messaging board, has become increasingly politicized amid a global clampdown on music piracy and the controversy over WikiLeaks, with which many of its supporters identify. -- AP