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UPDATE 1-UK police arrest WikiLeaks backers for Web attacks

Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:32pm EST

* Five young men held in Britain for cyber attacks

* "Anonymous" group targeted "enemies" of WikiLeaks

* FBI conducts dozens of searches in United States

(Adds FBI searches in United States)

LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - British police arrested five young men on Thursday as they and U.S. authorities conducted searches as part of a probe into Internet activists who carried out cyber attacks against groups they viewed as enemies of the WikiLeaks website.

"The arrests were related to recent 'distributed denial of service' (DDoS) attacks by an online group calling themselves Anonymous," London police said in a statement.

In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that agents executed more than 40 search warrants as part of its investigation and that the attacks were facilitated by software the group made available for free on the Internet.

"The FBI is working closely with its international law enforcement partners and others to mitigate these threats," the agency said in a statement, adding that there were other, unspecified investigative and enforcement actions in the Netherlands, Germany and France.

WikiLeaks, which was founded by Australian-born Julian Assange, has disclosed classified U.S. diplomatic dispatches which included candid and embarrassing assessments of world leaders as well as classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition to the probe into the cyber attacks, U.S. authorities have been investigating the leak of the documents themselves and their prime suspect has been a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning.

Internet activists last month carried out a series of online assaults against institutions they viewed as enemies of WikiLeaks, temporarily bringing down the websites of credit-card giants Visa (V.N) and MasterCard (MA.N), Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and of the Swedish government.

Sweden wants Assange extradited from Britain so he can answer questions over sexual assault allegations.

Officers from a specialist London police unit dealing with online crime detained the five males, aged from 15 to 26, in raids at homes in central and southern England.

Dutch police last month arrested two teenagers suspected of involvement in the online campaign. They face trial later this year.

A DDoS attack consists of swamping the resources of a computer such as a server to make it unavailable to users.

The maximum penalty in Britain for offences of computer misuse is 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 5,000 pounds ($7,953).

In the United States, such a cyber attack carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison and significant fines.

(Reporting by Keith Weir in London with Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini in Washington; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton and Eric Walsh)

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Comments (5)
ccharles wrote:
Man, you see that. The only one at fault in this is the US Intell guy that sold the info. And here they have went on a international manhunt doing crazy stuff… Can you imagine how they carried out 40 search warrents. Big brother is world wide.

I think it is good to note that the General that got sacked for candid comments wasnt the only one guilty of such remarks, anyone else being relieved of duty? Or if you make the remark behind there back under the seal of “classified” its ok.

I think these actions are just the begining of the tightening we will see on free use of the internet. It will become a “use at your own risk” type of thing. If they cant control what you say or do, they will shut you down and lock you up.

Jan 27, 2011 7:22pm EST  --  Report as abuse
kryan74 wrote:
Man, you see that. The only one at fault in this is the US Intell guy that sold the info. And here they have went on a international manhunt doing crazy stuff… Can you imagine how they carried out 40 search warrents. Big brother is world wide.

I think it is good to note that the General that got sacked for candid comments wasnt the only one guilty of such remarks, anyone else being relieved of duty? Or if you make the remark behind there back under the seal of “classified” its ok.

I think these actions are just the begining of the tightening we will see on free use of the internet. It will become a “use at your own risk” type of thing. If they cant control what you say or do, they will shut you down and lock you up.
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No ccharles, that is not what this story is about. Little online nerds made themselves judge, jury and executioner in regards to companies not wanting to do business with Assange. What they did is illegal, stupid and will hold consequences. This has nothing to do with the ethical aspect of Wikileaks.

Jan 27, 2011 7:36pm EST  --  Report as abuse
kenradke wrote:
Well it all boils down to the founder Julian Assange should be incarcerated big time because of his reckless and insensitive acts of endangering our soldiers and certainly oth authoitive figures. Look at all the trouble starting already following the 40 people who are sympathetic to his illegal cause. He deserves no special treatment and i look forward to seeing him arrested soon and knock his ego down a few notches .

Jan 27, 2011 9:11pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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