Italian police have arrested 14 suspected hackers who are accused of thousands of computer intrusions, including attacks on the U.S. Army and Navy and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Italy's financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, said Thursday that those arrested included four minors, the security manager of a large Italian Internet service provider, a network security manager for a computer consulting company, and several information technology consultants. Some had close ties to protest groups, police said.
They were all members of two hacking groups, called "Mentor" and "Reservoir Dogs," the police said. The individuals were based in cities throughout Italy, they said. The arrests are the culmination of several months of investigation, which began last October and was initiated by the U.S. Secret Service following the theft of sensitive files from U.S. government and military sites. The U.S. Army CID (Criminal Investigation Command), U.S. Navy and the U.S. Secret Service assisted in the investigation.
Besides the theft of government documents, the suspects are accused of running up large bills on credit card numbers stolen from servers and of using information gained from their attacks to crack an encryption system called SECA2, used by Italy's Tele+ and Stream satellite broadcasters.
News source: ZDNet
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