The Department of Justice says 16 people have been arrested in the U.S., 5 arrests took place in Europe and more than 35 search warrants were executed, as part of an "ongoing investigation into coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations."

DOJ says three criminal cases have been filed in the U.S., the main one being an Indictment in San Jose, concerning the cyberattack on Paypal in December, 2010, allegedly in retaliation for Paypal's blocking contributions to Wikileaks. 14 defendants have been charged in that case.

DOJ says the Indictment has been unsealed, and while it is not yet showing on the California docket, it is available on Colorado's ECF filing system, because one of the defendants, Vincent Kershaw, was arrested here and appeared in court today. You can read it here.

The other two cases are in the Middle District of Florida and the District of New Jersey, where individual complaints were filed against the two other arrestees. The Florida case involves the June, 2011 hacking of the Tampa Bay InfraGard website. "InfraGard is a public-private partnership for critical infrastructure protection sponsored by the FBI with chapters in all 50 states." [More...]