FBI turns up heat on Anonymous and LulzSec with more arrests

The FBI arrested two suspected members of hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSec on Thursday who are believed to have carried out attacks on targets including Sony and the Santa Cruz County government.

Law enforcers captured 23 year-old Cody Kretsinger in Phoenix and an as yet unnamed second suspect in San Francisco, Fox News reported.

LulzSec suspect Kretsinger, who went by the online name 'recursion', is believed to have carried out an SQL injection attack on Sony's systems in order to steal information and post it online.

Fox News reported that Kretsinger erased his hard drives in an attempt to evade capture.

The FBI also arrested a homeless Anonymous suspect they believe carried out a denial-of-service attack on the web sites of the Santa Cruz County government.

The arrests are part of a renewed effort by law enforcers across the US and Europe to catch those suspected of taking part in widespread hacktivist campaigns.

Police in the UK have been particularly busy, arresting teenaged LulzSec suspect Ryan Cleary, 22 year-old Hartlepool student and suspected Anonymous member Peter Gibson, and Jake Davis, who is believed to have gone by the online handle Topiary.

The news on Thursday was greeted with predictable defiance by Anonymous.

"We roll our many eyes while asking: You can arrest as many as you want. It will not make the symptom go away. Neither the problem," read one Tweet from the AnonymousIRC account.

"News about arrests are not good publicity for authorities anymore. But it's great entertainment," read another tweet from the same account, alongside an audio clip of The Benny Hill Show theme tune.