THE US Department of Homeland Security has warned financial companies to be vigilant about a cyber security threat from Anonymous.

Wanted for shutting down websites as high profile as that of the CIA, a recently released Department of Homeland Security bulletin said the group “will continue to exploit vulnerable publicly available web servers, computer networks and other digital information mediums for the foreseeable future”.

While the DHS warning did not mention the Wall Street protests in particular, it did say that “publicized events” like Occupy Wall Street, which is in its third week in Manhattan, may motivate the group.

Nevertheless, the agency would not weigh in on the ways it might monitor Anonymous’ involvement in Occupy Wall Street.

“We don’t have any role in someone’s right to public protest,” a DHS official said.

Occupy Wall Street spokesman Patrick Bruener acknowledged that Anonymous marches alongside those demonstrating against the financial industry’s misdeeds but said that sometimes its actions crossed the line.

“Anonymous stands in solidarity with us, and they’re non violent. They have legitimate grievances — they have reasons to be upset with the way the internet works — but sometimes the way they put that out there isn’t beneficial,” Bruener said.

So far, Anonymous’ international legion of pirate computer whizzes has done the most damage by exposing the internet data held in corporate computers.

- Article Written By: Anonymous/AnonOps