Internet hacking savants under the name "Anonynous (Anon)" disabled multiple government and corporate websites including the Department of Justice, the FBI, Universal Music and more Thursday in retaliation to the FBI shutting down MegaUpload.com, a file sharing website accused of hosting pirated materials.

Hacking group Anonymous said Thursday it knocked out the websites of the FBI, U.S. Department of Justice, the Recording Industry of America, Motion Picture Association of America and Universal Music as retribution for anti-piracy efforts by the government and private industry.

According to the Philippines Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, they busted the four with the help of the FBI, which are connected to a Saudi-based terrorist group that caused almost $2 million in losses to AT&T. read more

IT security experts have long loved to troll through hacker forums to gather intelligence on emerging threats and even (as in the ill-fated case of HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr ) try to profile the hackers themselves. But as a report from IT security firm Imperva shows, many of the so-called hacker portals out there are more hangouts for newbie hackers (and possibly a few budding FBI informants …