Anonymous, LulzSec Hackers Respond to FBI Message

Hacker collectives LulzSec and Anonymous have sent a new message to the U.S. FBI after the law enforcement agency promised to increase the ferocity of its campaign against hacking.

The statement was directed at the comments made by FBI director Steve Chabinsky to NPR.

The comment: "We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable, [even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it's entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts," was singled out in the two groups' joint statement.

Responding to the comment, the joint LulzSec and Anonymous statement wrote: "Now let us be clear here, Mr. Chabinsky, while we understand that you and your colleagues may find breaking into websites unacceptable, let us tell you what WE find unacceptable."

The statement went on to post three bullet points highlighting key practices the two hacktivists could not abide:

"Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece.

"Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can't fulfil.

"Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough so the status quo will never change."

The three bullet points mirror those contained in Anonymous previous Operation Anti-Security -- commonly referred to as AntiSec -- campaign's mission statement.

The campaign has already seen the two collectives mount ongoing assaults against numerous companies and governments. These include regular assaults on websites owned by the Turkish Government, a new ongoing campaign against oil companies damaging the American Heartland's forests and numerous hacks on several big-name U.S. military contractors.

Departing from the groups usual policy of referring to its members as pirates or ninjas, the statement went on to refer to its members as modern day "outlaws".

The point was addressed to Chabinsky's comment: "The Internet has become so important to so many people that we have to ensure that the World Wide Web does not become the Wild Wild West."

In response the group wrote: "Let me ask you, good sir, when was the Internet not the Wild Wild West? Do you really believe you were in control of it at any point? You were not.

"That does not mean that everyone behaves like an outlaw. You see, most people do not behave like bandits if they have no reason to. We become bandits."

Anonymous followed the statement with a tweet linking to a video showing a law professor explaining why an individual should never voluntarily agree to be interviewed by the police.

The statement comes just after the U.S., U.K. and Dutch law enforcement agencies reported the arrest of as many as 20 suspected Anonymous members. The FBI accounted for 16 of these and has confiscated the computers of several other individuals for "further investigation."