Spain apprehends hackers

Five rounded up including teenagers

19 May 2008 10:58 GMT / By Katie Scott

Five hackers accused of attacking government websites worldwide have been arrested in Spain.

Said to be the most active cyber criminals on the web, the five were tracked down in Spain after a 2-month investigation.

The hackers are accused of disrupting government websites in the United States, Asia and Latin America.

But it was an attack on a Spanish political party's site which prompted the search.

The website was disabled after the Spanish election by the hackers.

Spanish police claim that the five, which include two 16-year-olds, co-ordinated attacks over the Internet and hacked into 21,000 web pages over a 2-year period.

They were arrested in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia.

Meanwhile, stateside, MySpace is currently trying to track down two spammers, which a US judge has ordered to pay $230 million in fines.

The record fine follows a campaign in which as many as 730,000 bogus messages were sent to MySpace members.

Another case against a third spammer is pending.