SAN JOSE, Calif., July 19 (UPI) -- U.S. authorities said they arrested 14 people Tuesday for a WikiLeaks-inspired cyberattack on PayPal's Web site by the group "Anonymous."
The arrests took place in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio, the Justice Department said in a release. The suspects were indicted in San Jose, Calif.
Besides making the arrests, FBI agents executed more than 35 search warrants across the nation as part of their ongoing investigation into coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations.
Two other individuals were arrested in Florida and New Jersey in other cyberattacks, the U.S. Justice Department said.
The Justice Department said the United Kingdom's Metropolitan Police Service arrested one person and the Dutch National Police Agency arrested four individuals Tuesday for alleged related cybercrimes.
The cyberattacks on PayPal came late last year after WikiLeaks released large numbers of classified U.S. State Department cables. That prompted PayPal to suspend WikiLeaks' accounts so the Internet whistle-blower could no longer receive donations via PayPal, an action WikiLeaks called an attempt to "economically strangle" it.
The San Jose indictment alleges the subsequent attacks on PayPal from Dec. 6-10 were in retribution for PayPal's action.
Thirteen of the indicted suspects on various counts of conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer were identified as: Christopher Wayne Cooper, 23, aka "Anthrophobic"; Joshua John Covelli, 26, aka "Absolem" and "Toxic"; Keith Wilson Downey, 26; Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20, aka "No" and "MMMM"; Donald Husband, 29, aka "Ananon"; Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27, aka "Trivette," "Triv" and "Reaper"; Ethan Miles, 33; James C. Murphy, 36; Drew Alan Phillips, 26, aka "Drew010"; Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, aka "Jeffer," "Jefferp" and "Ji"; Daniel Sullivan, 22; Tracy Ann Valenzuela, 42; and Christopher Quang Vo, 22. One individual's name was withheld by the court.
Arrested in the other U.S. cases were Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 21, and Lance Moore, 21, of Las Cruces, N.M.
