Spain arrests three members of the hacktivist group Anonymous

SPANISH AUTHORITIES have arrested three individuals suspected of being the Spanish leaders of the hacktivist group Anonymous, which has been responsible for a number of attacks on websites throughout the world.

The hackers were arrested in Barcelona, Valencia and Almeria and are believed to have been high up in the chain of command in the group. Police refused to release their names.

They are accused of carrying out large scale cyber attacks on Spanish banks, an Italian energy firm and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Columbia and New Zealand, all from a server at one of the individuals' homes, according to the Associated Press.

The suspects were targeted in an operation that began in October of last year, where the cyber crime unit of the Spanish police analysed over two million lines of internet chat and monitored several websites connected with the group.

Usually these hackers, especially those in high positions, are extremely careful to cover their tracks and protect their identities, but it might be the case that others who knew them gave them away while chatting online.

These arrests make Spain the latest country to target hackers tied to Anonymous, with previous arrests having been made in the UK and US. Anonymous vowed to take action against those governments at the time, considering the arrests a "declaration of war", so it's likely that Spanish authorities will also incur its wrath.

Anonymous has been behind a number of major hacking attacks over the past year, including some relating to the whistleblower website Wikileaks and the Egyptian uprising in February.

It was also originally thought to have been behind the severe attacks on Sony's servers, which left millions of user accounts exposed and Playstation Network services down for several weeks, but the group denied having conducted the attacks and a separate hacker group called Lulzsec took responsibility.

As governments grow increasingly concerned about the rise of cyber disruption over the internet it's likely that we will see more arrests of suspected hackers. µ