Cyber security: Turkish authorities detain 32 suspected Anonymous members

With Spanish police having just arrested three suspected members of the loose-knit hacking collective Anonymous last week, Turkish authorities have reportedly detained a further 32 suspected members of the Anonymous group.

The individuals were reportedly caught after Turkish prosecutors and police launched raids in 12 of the country's provinces this Monday. According to local news sources, the raids were a response to the "distributed denial of service" attacks the group allegedly inflicted on Turkish telecoms regulators last week.

DDoS assaults are a form of cyber attack that use large numbers of computers to overload a website with requests, thus knocking it offline.
It has since been reported that the Anonymous group launched such attacks against tib.gov.tr and sgk.gov.tr.

The attacks are reported as being motivated by the group's concerns that the Turkish government was increasing its monitoring and blocking of certain websites. The Anonymous group has also been blamed for hacking the country's election board website just days before its national elections.

Anonymous has voiced its discontent at the Turkish government before. In a post on its website last week the group commented, "Over the last few years, we have seen how the Turkish government has tightened its grip on the internet.

"Accessing and participating in the free flow of information is a basic human right. Anonymous will not stand by while the Turkish government violates this right."
The announcement followed widespread protests over the government's new plans to implement an internet filtering system.

Despite its rumoured hand in Sony's recent PlayStation Network breach, Anonymous members are not the first to voice discontent of Turkey's communications regulators. The institution is suspected -- and in some cases known -- of numerous instances of wire-tapping.

The regulator has also recently ordered all Turkish web-hosting companies to exclude domain names including certain keywords.

Inside Turkey despite certain institutions and individuals expressing support for Anonymous' actions there has been little reported in support of the group through the country's media -- in part due to the Prime Minister's habit of suing journalists for defamation.

Since the arrest of its members in Spain and Turkey, despite being illegal in numerous countries, Anonymous has released a statement comparing its use of DDoS tactics to peaceful sit in protests, "Arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their home town."

The attack on Turkey's regulators is not the first time Anonymous has targeted a company or institution it deems corrupt.

The group has a history of politically motivated attacks having previously targeted the websites of Iran and pre-revolution Tunisia and Egypt.

The country has not released news regarding the charges or identities of any of the 32 individuals currently being detained.