14 DAY TRIAL // An individual suspected of writing a recent press release on behalf of Anonymous was possibly arrested in Greece after the published document contained his name in the metadata.
Last week the Internet was abuzz with news and discussions about distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, PostFinance and Moneybookers.
The attacks were launched by a notorious group of hacktivists known as Anonymous in support of WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing organization ostracized by the aforementioned companies.
On Friday, a document called ANONOPS_The_Press_Release.pdf appeared online. It stressed that Anonymous is not an organization, as the media presented it, but rather a spontaneous Internet gathering of people with the same believes.
It also explained the group's decision not to attack Amazon.com, which kicked WikiLeaks out of its network, but hit PayPal, which blocked its donations account.
People soon noticed that the metadata of the PDF document had a creation date in the GMT +2:00 timezone and listed one Alex Tapanaris as author.
Searching for Alex Tapanaris on Google quickly revealed www.alextapanaris.com, the website of a 3D model designer from Greece.
On Monday, a brief unsigned note appeared online saying that Anonymous spokesman Alex Tapanaris was arrested and listing his phone number and email address.
Editors from THINQ.co.uk called the phone number and managed to get someone on the other line. Faced with questions about the Anonymous press release and the alleged arrest, the person said "no comment" and hung up. The alextapanaris.com website was also taken offline.
If the rumors are true, Tapanaris would be the third individual arrested in connection with Anonymous' Operation Payback. Two Dutch teenagers were previously taken in for questioning in relation to the attacks.