DOCUMENT: Internet, Crime

FBI Exposes The Terrifying Face Of "Anonymous"

Fourteen charged in coordinated attack against PayPal

Mercedes Haefer

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PayPal Service Attack

JULY 19--Fourteen suspected members of "Anonymous" are named in an indictment unsealed today charging them with participating in an online attack against PayPal that was prompted by the company’s suspension of Wikileaks’s account.

A federal grand jury charged each of the defendants with conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer, felonies that carry a combined maximum of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

The alleged "Anonymous" figures, prosecutors allege, participated in a December 2010 denial of service attack against PayPal. The online assault came after PayPal suspended Wikileaks’s ability to receive donations in the wake of the group’s publication of classified Department of State cables on its site.

According to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, the coordinated "Anonymous" attack was dubbed “Operation Avenge Assange,” a reference to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

As seen above, nabbed in today’s FBI roundup was Mercedes Haefer, a 20-year-old University of Nevada, Las Vegas student. Based on her Facebook photos, the Arkansas native (reported nicknames: “No” and “mmmm”) is partial to disguises, including bunny ears, and those fake mustache/eyebrows/glasses combination.

Haefer, the terrifying face of "Anonymous" incarnate, was released on her own recognizance following an appearance Tuesday afternoon before a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. (1 page)