Police in Italy and Switzerland searched more than 30 apartments as part of an investigation into online activist collective “Anonymous,” amid a growing global law-enforcement crackdown on high-profile computer attacks claimed by the group’s followers.
The move is the latest enforcement activity in a probe that since December has netted more than 40 arrests of individuals authorities in the U.K., Netherlands, Spain and Turkey have linked to Anonymous.
In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation is continuing a probe that has involved dozens of searches over recent months.
That includes the raid last week of the home of a Hamilton, Ohio, man believed to have links to an Anonymous splinter group called LulzSec.
Italian police said they suspect some 20 people, five of whom are ages 16 or 17, are behind so-called denial-of-service attacks, in which websites are bombarded with data with the aim of knocking them offline.
The searches conducted on Tuesday included the home of someone the police identified as a leader of Anonymous’s Italian cell, a 26-year-old man who goes by the nickname “Phre” and lives in Switzerland.
According to Italian authorities, the attacks targeted the websites of the Italian Parliament and top companies including Enel SpA, ENI SpA and Mediaset SpA, the country’s largest commercial broadcaster, which is owned by Silvio Berlusconi. No arrests were made.
Anonymous grew out of an online message forum formed in 2003 called 4chan, a popular destination with hackers and gamers.
It entered the spotlight late last year, claiming cyberattacks against companies and individuals the group said tried to impede the work of document-sharing website WikiLeaks. That included MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc.
Over recent months, followers of Anonymous and LulzSec—which takes its name from Internet slang for laughter—have claimed responsibility for a number of denial-of-service attacks and computer breaches of a number of high-profile targets, ranging from corporations like Sony Corp. to the FBI and other government organizations.
British police, who are cooperating with the FBI, have arrested seven individuals this year. That includes 19-year old Ryan Cleary, who had been a prominent figure in Anonymous and then LulzSec.
U.K. prosecutors late last month charged him with five computer-related offenses.
Authorities allege he infected computers in order to form a computer network, called a botnet, which he then used to launch online attacks against websites including that of the U.K. Serious Organised Crime Agency.
Essex-based Mr. Cleary, who is out on bail, is cooperating with police, his lawyer has said. The other six individuals arrested in the U.K. have been released on bail and haven’t been charged.
The Wall Street Journal
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