Spanish Authorities Arrest Anonymous Members

Spanish authorities arrested three individuals believed to be high ranking members of Anonymous and responsible of coordinating the group's activity in the country.

One of the suspects hosted a server in his house which was used to coordinate attacks against government websites, financial institutions and companies around the world.

The server is said to have been involved in Anonymous' denial of service attacks against the European PlayStation Store, as well as the websites of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and Bankia, two large Spanish banking groups.

According to authorities, the group also participated in cyber attacks against the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand.

Some of them were part of Anonymous' campaigns supporting pro-democracy protests in the Arab world, while others, like the New Zealand one, were part of the group's infamous Operation Payback.

The EFE news agency reports [Google translation] that the investigation was carried out by the Technological Investigation Brigade (BIT) of the Spanish National Police who reviewed millions of chat logs from Anonymous IRC channels.

The three suspects arrested today in Barcelona, Valencia and Almeria, are believed to represent a somewhat independent cell within the hacktivist group and had access to botnets.

While Anonymous' primary DDoS tool is a program called the Low Ion Orbit Canon (LOIC) which supporters can install on their computers and voluntarily participate in attacks, security experts have long claimed that members of the group have access to armies of infected computers.

Spain is the fifth country after the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and the Netherlands, where law enforcement authorities have arrested alleged Anonymous members.

The hacktivist group claims to have no leaders or internal structure, however, there are older members whose words carry more weight within the organization and who are actively involved in coordinating operations. The group considers DDoS the online equivalent of sit-ins and claims it is should be a legitimate form of protesting.