Anonymous's Public Face Indicted

Barrett Brown an alleged former spokesperson of the hacking group has been indicted on twelve counts of information theft. 


The charges include one count of stolen authentication features for more than 5,000 credit card account numbers pulled from the Stratfor Global Intelligence database, one count of access device fraud affecting at least 15 unauthorized access devices, as well as ten counts of aggravated identity theft, which gave Brown full access to credit card accounts and related information.

Brown never confirmed that he served as a spokesperson for Anonymous, but was linked frequently to the activities of the group, giving the organization a public face. The indictment, for example, states that Brown transferred the file including more than 5,000 credit card account numbers from the #Anonops IRC channel to his own channel #ProjectPM. Brown describes ProjectPM as a "distributed think-tank" to promote online activism.

In an article published by ArsTechnica, Brown indicated that he was part of Anonymous, telling the publication that he got involved in the group 2010. The indictment covers charges between December 25, 2011 and March 6, 2012.

Source: tomshardware.co