Retaliation Fears Spur Anonymity In Internet Case

(Wall Street Journal) - Federal law-enforcement officials say they are concerned about cyber-retaliation against agents and prosecutors, in light of suspicions that people linked to the hacker collective Anonymous targeted the private life of a government official investigating WikiLeaks.

The concern prompted the government to take the rare step of keeping officials' names out of news releases and public statements when the government shut down the website Megaupload.com last week, charging company officials with violations of copyright law. Those people have denied the accusations. Such materials routinely identify prosecutors and investigators, even in cases involving terrorism, violence and organized crime.

Officials said the move to keep officials' names out of the public eye wouldn't affect the prosecution of the Megaupload.com case, where prosecutors and agents will be identified as needed in court. Since the arrests, though, authorities have noticed an uptick in hacking activity linked to Anonymous. Cybersecurity officials at the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning this week that Anonymous has been credited with a string of attacks against US and European government websites.

The decision to keep names out of public statements "shows deference to the sophistication and resolve" of the hacker subculture, said Tom Kellermann, chief technology officer of AirPatrol Corp., a mobile-technology company.

Anonymous is a loose affiliation of hackers and activists who are self-proclaimed protectors of internet freedom. To the Justice Department, the group is something more sinister. More than a dozen alleged members have been charged with computer crimes; they have pleaded not guilty. Anonymous has no formal structure or membership, and in some ways is more of a banner under which hackers and others choose to operate than an actual organization.

Though it has existed in one form or another since 2003, Anonymous raised its profile in 2010 after the website WikiLeaks released a large cache of secret US documents. Anonymous-linked hackers attacked credit-card companies that froze WikiLeaks accounts, law-enforcement officials have alleged.

The US has been investigating WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and has issued subpoenas seeking more information about how he obtained access to the US secrets. No charges have been filed. Assange's legal team has said the US has no jurisdiction to prosecute him, because he is an Australian citizen who committed no crimes on US soil.

One US prosecutor whose name was publicly linked to the WikiLeaks probe faced so many personal intrusions that colleagues grew concerned about possible bodily harm, according to multiple law-enforcement officials. The prosecutor's home address was spread online, and the person's email account was subscribed to a pornography site, officials said. The prosecutor was also bombarded with harassing phone calls, they said.

"The forces out there are very, very good at moving very, very fast to make it unpleasant," said one person involved.

In light of those incidents, several officials familiar with the Megaupload.com case said the issue of publicly naming those working on the case was the subject of an internal debate within the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Justice Department didn't put officials' names in news releases or in public statements, although papers filed in court did contain some names.

The FBI and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Read more: Wall Street Journal