WASHINGTON - July 24, 2011 - Hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec, which had 16 of their alleged members arrested last week in the United States by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, don't usually respond to statements written or made about them. But when the FBI's deputy assistant director gave an interview to National Public Radio saying those arrests send "a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable", the hacking collective erupted with a statement of its own:
“We are not scared anymore. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless (because) you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing - absolutely nothing - you can possibly to do make us stop,” said the group Anonymous.
In the interview, Steven Chabinsky of the FBI said that even if "hackers can be believed to have social causes, it's entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts."
Feds arrested 14 of the 16 Tuesday on charges tied to last December's attacks on PayPal as retribution for dropping WikiLeaks' donation account. Another two were arrested on charges related to intrusion and theft from computer systems at InfraGard, which has an IT contract with the federal government, and from AT&T.
In the U.S., Anonymous and LulzSec have taken credit for recent hacks and sharing of information from sites affiliated with the FBI, as well as from Arizona law enforcement, and the private groups they deem to be corrupt.
On the file-sharing PasteBin website the hackers often use to post various statements as well as files they have hacked, Anonymous said this, in part:
“Now let us be clear here, Mr. Chabinsky, while we understand that you and your colleagues may find breaking into websites unacceptable, let us tell you what WE find unacceptable!
“Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece. Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of (dollars) for federal contracts we all know they can't fulfill.
"These governments and corporations are our enem(ies)," the group said. "We will continue to fight them with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies."
