RSS 2.0 FeedJuly 22, 2011, Featured Articles, Merrick Life
FBI raids North Merrick home
FBI's focus turns to Carley Court.
FBI agents executed more than 35 search warrants throughout the United States, including one in North Merrick and another in Baldwin, as part of an ongoing investigation into coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations.
Kelly Langmesser, a spokesperson for the FBI, said a search had taken place at a home on Carley Court in North Merrick, as well as another home on Seaman Avenue in Baldwin, in connection with an ongoing cyber investigation.
Ms. Langmesser said a computer was removed from each location. No arrests have been made.
However, the FBI did make 14 arrests on Tuesday outside of New York. Individuals were arrested in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio on charges related to their alleged involvement in a cyber attack on PayPal’s website as part of an action claimed by the group “Anonymous.”
The suspects are charged with allegedly conspiring with others to intentionally damage protected computers at PayPal from December 6 to December 10, 2010.
“Anonymous” is a group of hackers around the world who have been inspired by WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange. According to the indictment, “Anonymous” referred to the attacks on PayPal as “Operation Avenge Assange.”
The indictment alleges that in retribution for PayPal’s termination of a WikiLeaks’ donation account, “Anonymous” coordinated and executed distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against PayPal’s computer servers using an open source computer program the group makes available for free download on the Internet.
DDoS attacks are attempts to render computers unavailable to users through a variety of means, including saturating the target computer or networks with external communications requests, thereby denying service to legitimate users,” said a press release from the FBI.
