The FBI cracked down on several hackers who participated in denial of service attacks in defense of Wikileaks.

Yesterday, we learned that Scotland Yard arrested five gentlemen for allegedly helping perform DDoS, or distributed denial of service, attacks by the group called Anonymous. Not to be outdone by their English counterparts, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation released a statement saying that they have executed over 40 search warrants in connection with the attacks made by members of Anonymous in support of Julian Assange's Wikileaks. The FBI said that it was working closely with many international law enforcement agencies to keep our internet safe from the likes of a few "hackers" using a program called "Low Orbit Ion Cannon" distributed by Anonymous to facilitate DDoS attacks.

"The FBI also is reminding the public that facilitating or conducting a DDoS attack is illegal, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, as well as exposing participants to significant civil liability," the statement read.

As far as I know, these coordinated raids by the Scotland Yard and the FBI are the first major organized response from law enforcement against Anonymous. The group has had quite a storied history of rubbing its nose at whatever kind of organization that it deems unworthy, from Scientology and the Tea Party to Amazon.com and Paypal for withdrawing access to assets from Wikileaks owner Julian Assange. Not even snow is safe from the likes of Anonymous.

But it seems that the loosely organized group of cyber-freedom fighters has bit off more than it can chew by messing with the federal government of the US, even if somewhat indirectly. Either that, or these so-called hackers shouldn't have used an application like LOIC to attack major corporations without properly masking where they were located.

As many of you pointed out on the story yesterday, it's sad that what these individuals did is even considered hacking.

Source: FBI