Spanish police arrest three members of Anonymous

The police said it was the first operation against members of the hacking group in Spain

By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
June 10, 2011 10:05 AM ET

 Spanish police said Friday they arrested three members of the Anonymous hacking group who allegedly directed attacks on banks, government websites and companies including Sony.

Spain said it was the first police operation in the country dedicated to tracking down Anonymous, a decentralized group of activists who have mounted distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDOS) against businesses and organizations. The arrests were made in Barcelona, Alicante and Valencia.

Targets for Anonymous have included the Scientology website and companies that cut off relations with the whistleblower WikiLeaks website, such as Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Amazon.com and PostFinance, a Swiss financial institution.

The loose-knit group attracted followers who downloaded a tool called the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC), a simple DDOS tool to aid in the attacks. Some of the more technically adept Anonymous members used botnets, or networks of hacked computers, to carry out DDOS attacks.

Spanish police said those arrested helped direct the attacks on the websites for the Sony PlayStation Store, the bank BBVA, the Italian utility company ENEL and websites belonging to the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand. Their names were not released by police.

In Spain, the police said Anonymous has attacked the websites of the Catalan police, and in May, the Central Electoral Board and the UGT trade union.

The country’s Technological Investigation Brigade, part of the National Police, analyzed more than 2 million lines of chat logs as well as web pages to find those who were arrested.

The investigation started in October 2010 after Spain’s Ministry of Culture came under a DDOS attack that was organized through websites and chat networks by Anonymous, police said.

During one of the raids, police found software used to create malware. The group also allegedly used sophisticated techniques to encrypt their communications, which make it difficult for police to intercept and identify. Two of those arrested did not even have their own Internet connection and instead relied on hacking other Wi-Fi networks for their activities.

In January, U.K. police arrested three teenagers and two other people for allegedly taking part in a series of denial-of-service attacks against major websites as part of Anonymous. The five males, who range in age from 15 to 26, were charged with offenses under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990.

(Leo King of Computerworld UK contributed to this report.)

MEDLEM I HATGRUPPEN “ANONYMOUS” HAR DÖMTS FÖR BROTT MOT SCIENTOLOGI-KYRKAN I NEW YORK

Ännu en medlem i hatgruppen Anonymous , Jacob Speregen, dömdes  i New York stads kriminaldomstol i samband med ett angrepp mot Scientologi-kyrkan i New York den 8 januari 2009. (People vs. AhmahadinMahoud;Criminal Docket 2009NY007516)
 
New York,NY – 20 september 2010.
 
Tillsammans med en annan medlem i hatgruppen Anonymous, Ahmahadin Mahoud smorde sig Speregen med vaselin och sandstoft och sprang in i New York kyrkan intill Times Square, vanhelgade kyrkan och skadade religiöst material. Speregen spelade in attacken på video som med-konspiratör med Ahmahadin och andra medlemmar i Anonymous. Speregen dömdes att i fem år hålla sig borta från kyrkan, och att betala för skadorna han orsakat och till försvarlig samhällstjänst som straff för brottet.
 
Scientologi-kyrkans advokat, Kendrick Moxon sade: ”Detta domstolsbeslut sänder ett starkt budskap till Anonymous – och andra hatgrupper – att deras gärningar icke tolereras och att rättigheten att utöva sin religion skall skyddas.
 
Anonymous är en löst sammansatt grupp som riktar sig mot scientologer, judar och andra minoritets ras- och etniska grupper och organisationer. Ahmahadin Mahoud dömdes tidigare i år.
 
Innan detta beslut dömdes två tidigare domslut då två män dömdes för sin delaktighet i en cyberattack mot Scientologi-kyrkans hemsida. I januari 2008, också den utförd av medlemmar i Anonymous.
 
Dmitriy Guzner, 19 år, från Verona, New Jersey avtjänar för närvarande fängelsestraff för sin andel i en DDOS-attack mot Scientologi-kyrkans hemsidor. DDOS-attacker inträffar när en stor mängd ondsint Internet trafik riktas mot hemsidor, vilket överladdar deras kapacitet och gör dem oanträffbara för legitima besökare.
 
I mer an 24 timmar var kyrkans hemsidor otillgängliga för legitima besökare , och attackerna fortsatte i 12 dagar. Detta krävde att kyrkan måste hyra ett dator-skydds bolag för att skyddas mot angreppen och omdirigera trafiken. På grund av brottets grovhet dömde domaren Joseph Greenway i USAs distirkt domstol i Newark Guzner till 366 dagar i fängelse plus två år villkorligt efter fängelsestraffet, och beordrade Guzner att betala 37.500 dollar i skadeersättning åt kyrkan.
 
Ännu en Anonymous-medlem, Brian Thomas Nettenbrink sitter också i federalt fängelse för sin roll i samma angrepp på Scientologi-hemsidor, för konspiration och för ”överföring av kod, information , program och kommando till en skyddad dator.”
 
Domstolsdokument visar att han skaffade datorprogram från en Anonymous-hemsida och utförde DDOS-attacken från sin sovsal vid Iowa State University mot kyrkans datorer i Los Angeles.
 
Anonymous är en underjordisk hatgrupp som utöver cyber-attacken stört Scientologi-kyrkor och medlemmar med dödshot, bombhot och falsk anthrax-post. Dessutom till Scientologi-kyrkor och statsministern i Australien . Anonymous riktar sig också mot Epilepsy-stiftelsen, mot hip-hop musik hemsidor och andra.
 
Scientologi är en världsvid religiös rörelse med över 8500 kyrkor, missioner och anslutna grupper i 165 länder. Kyrkan och dess medlemmar ägnar sin tid och sina resurser åt otaliga humanitära program som Scientologi blivit känt för över hela världen, som t ex att bekämpa drogmissbruk, omoral, analfabetism och brott mot mänskliga rättigheter.

www.scientologi.se

Anonymous Hate Group Member Sentenced in Crime Against New York Scientology Church

 

​Another member of the hate group Anonymous, Jacob Speregen,  was sentenced today in New York City Criminal Court in connection with a January 8, 2009, attack on the Church of Scientology of New York. (People vs. Almahadin, Mahoud; Criminal Docket 2009NY007516).

New York, NY • September 20, 2010

In 2009, Speregen accompanied another member of Anonymous, Mahmoud Almahadin, who  smeared himself with Vaseline and assorted detritus, ran into the New York Church just off Times Square and desecrated the Church, including causing damage to Scriptural materials. Speregen videoed the attack as a co-conspirator with Almahadin and other Anonymous members.  Speregen’s sentence forbids him from going near the Church of Scientology for five years. He was also sentenced to pay the damages caused by his acts and to perform substantial community service as further restitution for the crime.

Church of Scientology attorney Kendrick Moxon said, “This decision by the Court sends a strong message to Anonymous—and any hate group—that their actions will not be tolerated and that the right to practice one’s religion will be protected..”

 “Anonymous” is a loosely connected hate group targeting Scientologists, Jews and other minority racial and ethnic groups and organizations. Mahmoud Almahadin was sentenced earlier this year.

The conviction follows the sentencing of two men on separate felony convictions for their part in a cyber attack against Church of Scientology websites in January 2008, also carried out by Anonymous members.

Dmitriy Guzner, 19, of Verona, New Jersey, is presently incarcerated in Federal prison for his role in the distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack against Scientology websites. A DDOS attack occurs when a large amount of malicious Internet traffic is directed at websites, overloading their capacity and making them unavailable to legitimate users.

Church websites were made unavailable to valid users for over 24 hours, with the attacks continuing for 12 days, requiring the Church to hire a computer security company to protect against the attacks and to reroute traffic. Due to the severity of the crime, Judge Joseph Greenaway in U.S. District Court in Newark sentenced Guzner to the 366-day prison term, plus two years probation following his prison term, and ordered Guzner to pay $37,500 restitution to the Church.

Another Anonymous follower, Brian Thomas Mettenbrink, is also incarcerated in Federal prison for his role in the same attack on Scientology websites, for conspiracy and “transmission of a code, information, program, or command to a protected computer.”

Court documents state that he obtained a computer program from an Anonymous website and executed a DDOS attack from his dormitory at Iowa State University against the Church computers in Los Angeles.

Anonymous is an underground hate group that, in addition to the cyber attack, targeted Churches of Scientology and members with death threats, bomb threats and fake anthrax mail. In addition to Scientology Churches and the Prime Minister of Australia, Anonymous has also targeted The Epilepsy Foundation, hip-hop music websites and others.

Scientology is a worldwide religious movement with more than 8,500 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups in 165 countries. The Church and its members dedicate their time and resources to numerous humanitarian programs that Scientology has become known for around the world, including combating drug abuse, immorality, illiteracy, and human rights violations.

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