Alleged Anonymous hacker arrested in China for plotting government attacks

A 21-year-old hacker believed to be working with Anonymous has been arrested by authorities in Hong Kong for allegedly planning to take down Japanese government websites.

The man, who has since been released on bail, was arrested on suspicion of trying “to hack seven government websites between June and August this year,” Channel News Asia reported. He is believed to be a part of the same Anonymous faction who defaced 500 Chinese websites in April, the Next Web added.

The motives behind the planned attacks remain unclear.

The news of this arrest follows after two months of Anonymous-related attacks in China and Japan.

In early June, Team GhostShell took responsibility for allegedly hacking 800,000 Chinese government records in an operation called #ProjectDragonFly. The hack also took down sites like China Bearing Commercial Community (bearing.com.cn), International Club of Dalian (an international community club in Northeast China), and the Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (chalco.com.cn), according to Softpedia.

Anonymous hackers temporarily took down a handful of Japan’s government websites in July, including the Finance Ministry and Supreme Courts.

The attacks were in retaliation to the passing of a strict Japanese law that punishes people for downloading copyrighted content or backing up a DVD.

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