Anonymous vows cyberattacks on Wall Street, banks

Hacktivist group Anonymous is planning cyberattacks on Wall Street, "corrupt banking institutions" and the New York City Police Department, in what it called a "Day of Vengeance" this Saturday. In a statement posted on Pastebin.com, Anonymous indicated its "Day of Vengeance" stemmed from the recent New York City "Occupy Wall Street" demonstration where it claimed police used excessive force to deal with protesters. "Anonymous and the other cyber liberation groups around the world together with all the freedom loving people in the USA will NOT stand for this. We will peacefully yet forcefully resist the abuses of the NYC Police Department. And so Anonymous announces a nationwide 'Day Of Venge(a)nce' to take place in dozens of cities across the USA on Saturday - September 24, 2011 at High Noon," it said. "In coordination with these protests across the USA on September 24th, Anonymous and other cyber liberation groups will launch a series of cyber attacks against various targets including Wall Street, Corrupt Banking Institutions - and the NYC Police Department," it added. The group said media can follow the Twitter feed @PLF2012 for ongoing reports throughout the day. But a separate article on tech site CNET said it is "quite difficult" to determine if the latest release speaks for a large portion of Anonymous' members. It noted Anonymous is by design a loose organization of people fighting for causes they believe in, "which means there is no clear hierarchy to the group." "Even so, Anonymous has been very successful in launching cyberattacks. Just last month, the group claimed that it had hacked into the DNS servers of Symantec, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and several other major organizations," it said. — TJD, GMA News