FBI: Companies taking Anonymous 'too lightly'

Businesses are not taking Anonymous and hacktivism seriously enough, according to an FBI special agent.

The youth of alleged Anonymous hackers, who are often teenagers or in their early twenties, has lead a number of businesses to dismiss the hacking group without taking into account the ramifications of a successful hack, FBI cyber-investigator Eric Strom told the RSA Conference 2012 in San Francisco on Wednesday. "[Businesses] are taking it too lightly," said Strom. "A lot of people think it's a bunch of kids goofing around. In reality it's not, [hacktivism] can destroy a business."

eCrime Police in the UK have been working with the FBI and international law enforcement to round up suspected 'hacktivists' — people who engage in hacking for some claimed ideological end, rather than for monetary gain. Several UK teenagers and young adults were arrested in a series of raids in 2011, including teenagers Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis, and Hartlepool student Peter David Gibson.