Busted hacker ring also targeted Zim

groups were unveiled in indictments unsealed by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The indictments cover some of the most notorious hacking incidents of the past several years including those against Sony Pictures Entertainment, private intelligence firm Stratfor and computer security firm HBGary. Early in 2011 the hackers did an Operation Zimbabwe, which were cyber attacks by members of Anonymous on the Zimbabwean government computer systems and an attempt to steal information from a Zimbabwean government e-mail server.
The defendants were also accused of involvement in attacks on videogame maker Bethesda Softworks, the Irish political party Fine Gael, the Fox Broadcasting Company and the Public Broadcasting Service.
The five charged were Britons Ryan Ackroyd (23), Jake Davis (29), Darren Martyn (25); Donncha O’Cearrbhail (19); and Jeremy Hammond (27) of Chicago.
The US authorities also revealed that Hector Xavier Monsegur (28) of New York, who was known by the screen name “Sabu,” had pleaded guilty to a series of computer hacking crimes which could land him in prison for 124 years.
US law enforcement officials declined to confirm that Monsegur, a leader of Anonymous offshoot Lulz Security, or LulzSec, had been cooperating with the US authorities but Fox News said he has been secretly working with the FBI for months. Meanwhile, the hacking group Anonymous took down the Vatican website yesterday, saying it was targeting the “corrupt” Catholic Church, a day after a high-profile bust of the group’s alleged leaders.
“Anonymous decided today to besiege your site in response to the doctrine, to the liturgies, to the absurd and anachronistic concepts that your for-profit organisation spreads around the world,” the hackers said in a statement. — AFP.