FBI conducts a second national sweep for members of Anonymous

by Steve Ragan - Jul 20 2011, 10:51

Update: For those who want to read the court documents, redacted copies are published on publicintelligence.net

The FBI has launched another wave of raids in their ongoing hunt for Anonymous. Across the country on Tuesday, some 40 warrants were executed by the law enforcement agency, leading to more than a dozen arrests, in an attempt to locate those who took part in attacks on PayPal.

Again, this is the second time the FBI has conducted such a massive sweep. In January, the FBI executed more than 40 search warrants throughout the United States as part of an ongoing investigation into the “coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations.”

On Tuesday, 14 people were arrested after an additional 40 warrants were executed by the agency. In addition to the arrests, the FBI conducted interviews, as well as seized computers and other records in 12 states.

Alleged Anonymous associates, or persons with ties to Anonymous, were raided in California, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Alabama, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and the District of Columbia.

FBI spokeswoman Adrienne Senatore told The Atlantic Wire that no arrests had taken place during the raids in Long Island and Brooklyn, New York. Senatore also said someone was likely interviewed in the Bronx, though she added that no search was executed, despite circulating media reports.

According to a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police's E-Crime Unit in London, in addition to the FBI sweep in the U.S., a single arrest was made across the pond. The teenager, name withheld due to being a minor, goes by the name “tflow” online. The teen has been linked to attacks on HBGary Federal, as well as the group LulzSec.

Moreover, the Dutch National Police Agency arrested four people on Tuesday as well for alleged related cyber crimes and association with Anonymous.

Two of the people listed by the FBI, confirmed to have been arrested during early morning raids, include an Anonymous associate known as “Trivette”, (Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27) in addition to another associate, known as “No” (Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20).

Online, some Anonymous associates speculated that of all the arrests made on Tuesday, excluding “tflow” in the U.K., these two are the most damning given their presence in many operations and number of connections. Both were raided earlier this year by the FBI.

However, their arrest didn’t surprise everyone, and one Anonymous associate said he expected it.

“No and Triv were camwhores. They showed their faces and discussed their identities on webcam, [their arrest] doesn't surprise me,” commented one of the regulars on AnonOps, an IRC network where No and Trivette were well-known.

Another notable arrest made on Tuesday includes Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 21, in San Jose, California, on charges of intentional damage to a protected computer. Arciszewski was raided and arrested for his role in an attack on the FBI’s InfraGard chapter in Tampa.

According to the indictment, Arciszewski allegedly accessed the Tampa Bay InfraGard website and uploaded three files. Afterwards, he then tweeted about the intrusion, and directed followers on Twitter to a website containing links and instructions on how to exploit the InfraGard website.
 

Tuesday’s nationwide raid comes shortly after the arrest of Ryan Cleary in June, who at the time spent days answering questions for law enforcement - including the FBI - in London. At the time, Cleary’s lawyer told the media that he was “assisting with police inquiries,” adding that he was “keen to continue doing so.”

The 19-year-old from Wickford, Essex, was charged for participating on attacks against the British Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). In addition, Cleary was charged for creating and allowing other to use a botnet in order to carry out additional attacks.

More information on Cleary and his role within Anonymous can be seen here.

Sources at the U.S. Department of Justice have stated that Tuesday’s raids are centered on Anonymous’ actions during Operation: Payback. At the same time, they were unable to confirm how much of Cleary’s information was useful during the warrant executions.

Operation Payback started as a campaign against the anti-piracy efforts of groups such as the RIAA, MPAA, ACS Law, AiPlex, and AFACT. Things came to a head in the campaign when it was revealed that AiPlex had been hired to launch a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) against The Pirate Bay.

In late 2010, Anonymous shifted gears, and moved Operation: Payback in another direction, targeting companies that - in its eyes - supported censorship by taking action against WikiLeaks.

While not related to WikiLeaks, Anonymous added their own brand of support to the organization by launching DDoS attacks against MasterCard, Visa, the Swiss bank Post Finance, the PayPal blog and PayPal.com itself. Earlier this year, after a short hiatus, Operation: Payback resumed with attacks on BREIN and IFPI.

According to the FBI, accounting to Tuesday’s raids, there have been more than 75 searches and scores of arrests as part of the agency’s investigations into Anonymous and the attacks on PayPal.

Those arrested on Tuesday are charged with various counts of conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer, the FBI said.

The charge of intentional damage to a protected computer carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Each count of conspiracy carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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