FBI Raids The Houses Of Pro-Wikileaks Operation Payback Activists

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has executed over 40 search warrants for those involved with Operation Payback. Operation Payback was a group of hackers that took down the Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal websites using DDoS attacks out of Wikileaks retaliation. Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal had dropped financial support for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange shortly after he released confidential government cables. The group behind Operation Payback is known as “Anonymous.”

The FBI raided a server farm in Texas for hosting Anonymous chat rooms and there were five Anonymous members arrested in the U.K. Georgia Tech freshman Zhiwei Chen posted a copy of the warrant and the business card of an FBI agent on Reddit (picture above). Chen wrote “They came in the dorm room bustin in @ 7:00, and pushed everyone out of bed. They searched the place and questioned all people involved.” Chen was a former administrator of the Operation Payback chat room where the hack meetings took place. DDoS crimes are punishable for up to 10 years in prison.

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