Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service's Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) have arrested five people in connection with offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
The five males aged, 15, 16, 19, 20 and 26, are being held after a series of coordinated arrests at residential addresses in the West Midlands, Northants, Herts, Surrey and London at 07:00hrs today (27 January).
The arrests are in relation to recent and ongoing 'distributed denial of service' attacks (DDoS) by an online group calling themselves Anonymous
They are part of an ongoing MPS investigation in to Anonymous which began last year following criminal allegations of DDoS attacks by the group against several companies.
Vigilance learnt that this investigation is being carried out in conjunction with international law enforcement agencies in Europe and the US.
All five have been taken to local police stations where they remain in custody.