Texas man linked to Anonymous faces more charges

(AP) Texas man linked to Anonymous faces more charges
DALLAS
A Texas man who has described himself as a spokesman for the hacker-activist group Anonymous faces new charges over data stolen from the private intelligence firm Stratfor last Christmas, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Barrett Brown, 31, was indicted in Dallas this week on a dozen charges that include aggravated identity theft and device fraud. He is accused of making public an Internet link providing access to credit card information stolen from Stratfor, which had emails taken during that same hack released by WikiLeaks.

The charges are the latest against Brown, who already was in federal custody before a federal grand jury indicted him this week in Dallas. He was charged in October with allegedly threatening an FBI agent on the Internet.

Brown’s attorney, Doug Morris, had no comment about the new charges Friday.

Brown was a de facto spokesman for Anonymous, willing to speak for a movement that prides itself on anonymity. The Stratfor breach claimed by Anonymous ravaged the company’s servers, leading to the disclosure of thousands of credit card numbers and other information.

The latest charges Brown faces is one count of stolen authentication features, one count of access device fraud and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft.