Five Anonymous hacker suspects arrested in Britain, police say

By Hayley Tsukayama

Police in the United Kingdom have arrested five men in connection with the Anonymous hacking group, largely credited for denial of service attacks carried out in support of WikiLeaks and its editor Julian Assange.

London's Metropolitan Police Service issued a statement saying that it had arrested five males, ranging in age from 15-26, in connection with "in relation to recent and ongoing 'distributed denial of service' attacks (DDoS) by an online group calling themselves 'Anonymous.'" Of those arrested, two are under the age of 18 and three are teenagers.

Anonymous is the group of "hacktivists" that has taken credit for attacks against companies such as Amazon and PayPal in support of Assange and WikiLeaks after the Web site leaked thousands of U.S. State Department cables.

The release said all five men were being held in police custody and that the arrests are part of an ongoing investigation, "being carried out in conjunction with international law enforcement agencies in Europe and the U.S."

Dutch authorities have already arrested a 16-year-old male in connection with Anonymous, who reportedly admitted being involved in attacks against credit card companies.