The Man Coming Down On Hacker Group Anonymous In Euro Locales

Police in Switzerland raided the home of a man who is suspected of carrying out computer attacks against Italian websites for the infamous hacker collective Anonymous according to Swiss prosecutors. “They seized lots of computer material,” Valerio Snider, spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Lugano, Switzerland, told reporters.

According to the Swiss Federal police, the authorities searched the address of a 26-year-old foreign national in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland. The raid was conducted at the behest of Italy's state prosecutor. The Italian man whose Swiss home was raided is “suspected of being part of this hacker group,” Snider said, adding that the man wasn't arrested.

Anonymous has stirred up a lot of trouble for some very prominent multi-national corporations. The group has targeted websites such as Ebay's (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal and Visa (NYSE: V). In their investigation, Italian police have carried out more than 32 searches and charged three suspects in a wide-ranging hacking investigation. The newly detained Swiss suspect has been described as a "promoter" of Anonymous, rather than a leader of the organization.

“The damage caused so far to institutions and companies has been enormous,” Palumbo said. “Once hit by an attack, they cannot provide services to users, and a return to normal functionality of the website often takes many hours and comes at considerable cost.”