The new hubs, in Yorkshire and the Humber, the Northwest and in East Midlands, will each get their own three-officer team. Each will work alongside the Metropolitan Police Central e-crime Unit.

During the 17-minute call – which was released as an MP3 file and distributed on YouTube and elsewhere – investigators can be heard discussing various Anonymous and LulzSec-related cases. Information discussed in the call reportedly included details of evidence against suspects (sometimes referred to by their hacker handles), plans for legal action and court dates. The hacktivist group also published what it said was an FBI email detailing the addresses of invited call participants: 40 law enforcement officials in the UK, US, France, Ireland, The Netherlands and Sweden.

Source: TheRegister

The service said that it has a government approved system of offering both recruitment and/or retention payments to keep internet security specialists. GCHQ said that it seeks to make the overall package of pay, pension, leave and flexible working as competitive as possible, but added that it also needs to demonstrate value for money for the taxpayer.

A spokesman for GCHQ told GGC that it does not comment on individual amounts, but said that reports that the sums amounted to “tens of thousands of pounds” were inaccurate.

“We are never likely to be able to compete with high-tech companies on salary alone. We clearly value our staff and their contribution to our unique mission in support of the UK’s national security and economic wellbeing,” he said.

They say Stratfor’s clients include the US defence department, law enforcement agencies and media organisations. An alleged member of Anonymous posted an online message, claiming that the group had used Stratfor clients’ credit card details to make “over a million dollars” in donations to different charities.

Both 419eater.com and scamwarners.com were back operating normally by Monday morning while aa419.org remains sluggish the load.

The identities of the perpetrators behind the attacks remain unclear. Scammers angry at the activities of the sites in exposing their swindles are the obvious prime suspects behind the DDoS assaults. One reader suggested that recent publicity against a range of fake Amazon sites might have prompted the attacks, but this remains unconfirmed.

Source: TheRegister

OpRobinHood aims to defraud banks for the benefit of the majority and comes as a response by hacktivists to the crackdown on the Occupy movement. Anonymous has joined forces with TeaMp0isoN, another hactivist group, to run the campaign – which is an illegal and aggressive extension of an earlier push to persuade consumers to transfer their accounts from banks to credit unions

Charities are unlikely to benefit from an Anonymous-led operation attempting to use stolen credit card details to make donations to worthwhile causes.

The Met’s Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) hopes smashing the online rogue traders will make online shopping in the run-up to Christmas much safer. The dodgy sites targeted by the action purported to sell a raft of designer goods, including brands such as Nike, GHD, Tiffany and Ugg at bargain prices. In reality many of the sites either took money without delivering the goods or supplied knock-offs.

Detective Inspector Paul Hoare of the PCeU commented: “The sites suspended are registered in bulk by crime groups with the sole intention of duping consumers into parting with their money for, at best, poor quality counterfeit goods, or, at worst, nothing at all. In the run up to Christmas the PCeU will continue to work with Nominet and others to disable as many such sites as possible, but I would urge customers to take all precautions to ensure they buy from legitimate sites only.”