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Interpol Arrests Alleged Anonymous Hackers, Then Suffers Website Attack

(Protesters wearing Anonymous Guy Fawkes masks take part in a demonstration against controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), on February 25, 2012 in Nice, southeastern France.)

Photo by VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images

By now, you’d hope authorities have identified a pattern.

Interpol suffered a cyber attack that brought the international law enforcement agency’s website down this week, just after it announced the arrest of 25 suspected members of the hacktivist group Anonymous in Europe and South America.

The arrests came as part of Interpol’s Operation Unmasked, which began in mid-February as a response to coordinated cyber attacks from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Spain against targets including the Colombian defense ministry, a Chilean electric company, and Chile’s national library. Last month, the group attacked Combined Systems, a company that is accused of selling weapons to Bahrain to aid in its suppression of democratic protests.

In addition to the suspects, all aged between 17 and 40, over 250 computers and electronic devices were seized. But not enough, apparently; Interpol’s website went down Tuesday and was still loading slowly today. The Internet—a place where revenge springs eternal.