Australian Police warn hackers will face up to 10 years imprisonment

After Hacktivists, led by Anonymous, targeted several Australian government and high-profile organization websites as part of OpAustralia, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) has issued a warning to all those involved in the hacking activities.

Authorities are warning Anonymous, its associates and hackers in general that hacking could potentially land up to a 10 year prison sentence if found out and convicted. However, the AFP have admitted that even though they are pushing for prosecutions, it is easier said than done:

“The difficulty is finding this loosely-based group who advertise their activism online but have been notoriously difficult to pin down in person,” an AFP spokesperson stated.

One of the first victims of OpAustralia, meant as a protest against the Internet surveillance bill proposed by Australian government officials, was the Australian ISP AAPT from which the hackers leaked around 40 gigabytes of information.

Since the OpAustralia announcement, the sites for the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (AISO) and the Defence Signals Directorate of the Department of Defence have been subject to multiple DDoS attacks.

OpAustralia has all but ceased activity since Attorney General Roxton announced that the controversial bill would be referred to a parliamentary committee, which most likely means that it will be stalled until after the next round of elections.

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