South Texas Man Accused of Hacking Attempts

A South Texas man who federal prosecutors say is linked to the hacking collective Anonymous is facing additional charges for attempting to illegally access Internet servers on thousands of occasions.

Authorities said Thursday they've filed 14 hacking-related charges against 27-year-old Fidel Salinas of Donna. He was indicted last year for attempting to gain unauthorized access to the Hidalgo County website.

The latest indictment contends Salinas in 2011 and 2012 repeatedly tried to gain access to websites for Hidalgo County, the La Joya school district and The Monitor newspaper in McAllen. Authorities say he used a computer program to launch more than 14,000 attempts to access the county website over a two-day period in January 2012.

The episode caused the county to incur $10,000 in expenses in responding to the attack.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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