After last week’s hack attacks across Asia, more Anonymous members are caught

The shadowy Anonymous Philippines group has managed to hack and deface many government websites a number of times over the years. Last week saw a fresh wave of digital ‘hactivism’. Despite this, the group has remained undefeated and unidentified for the past two years. But not any longer. A member of Anonymous Philippines has already been caught by the Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

An Anonymous Philippine member with the monickers “Anon Reaper” and “AnonymousButuan” was found in Butuan City, Agusan del Sur after a one-week surveillance mission by NBI officials. He was shown a search warrant and was identified as Rodel Plasabas. No other details about the suspect have been revealed to the public.

While the Cybercrime law is not yet in effect in the Philippines, DOJ secretary Leila de Lima says the arrested member can still be punished by law under provisions related to e-commerce. She adds:

He was online when the search warrant was issued. Initial checks on his current chats indicated discussions on website hacks.

Tracing back the hacks

The history of Anonymous Philippines’ website defacement traces back to September last year and January this year, when the group protested against what it sees as hampering of freedom of expression in the proposed Cybercrime Act.

But the attacks hit a peak last week when Anonymous Philippines messed with 37 government websites as part of its protest of a government “who has failed its Filipino citizens.” This was followed by the global million mask march protest on November 5.

Shortly after the hacks in the run-up to November 5, the government pledged an investigation into the whereabouts of the Anonymous Philippines group.

Last week, the Singapore government was the focus of Anonymous’ ire. One group member in Singapore calling himself ‘The Messiah’ was also caught a few days ago, and charged under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act.

With this turn of events, have these local Anonymous groups lost their power to keep up their hacktivism? Surely there are other Anonymous members out there, some of whom might continue the work of the arrested group members in the coming weeks.

(Source: GMA News Online)

(Editing by Steven Millward)