At least 16 people in the United States were arrested in connection with the Anonymous hacktivist group earlier this week. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, at least one person in the United Kingdom and four people in the Netherlands were also arrested. As reported by CNET News, those arrested in the United States ranged in age from 20 to 42, and have been accused of "conspiring to intentionally damage protected computers at PayPal last December in retribution for PayPal suspending WikiLeaks' account to prevent supporters from donating to the whistleblower site."

The above incident refers to "Operation Payback," which in December 2010 saw Anonymous bringing down the websites for MasterCard and Visa, as well as causing a slowdown to Paypal's website as revenge for withdrawing the banking facilities of WikiLeaks. Far from being daunted by the arrests, Anonymous has since issued a statement that accused governments of lying to their citizens and "dismantling their freedom piece by piece." Declaring that it will continue to fight with "all methods we have at our disposal," the unknown author also stated that "we are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea." The short note finally concluded with a defiant "we're back--and we're not going anywhere. Expect us."

For more:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at Threatpost

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