[September 04, 2011] British hold 2 in attack on HBGary Tweet Sep 04, 2011 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Two more computer hackers with alleged ties to the February attack on a Sacramento cybersecurity company were arrested Friday in England. The two men in their 20s were arrested by Scotland Yard at locations 200 miles apart. Neither was identified by name, but Scotland Yard said they were tied to crimes "conducted under the cover of the online identity 'Kayla.' " "Kayla" was previously believed to be a 16-year-old girl. Regardless of gender, the person using that identity has claimed to have played a key role in the attack on Sacramento's HBGary Inc. and its sister company, HBGary Federal of Washington, D.C. HBGary makes network-security software. The sister company is a consulting firm. The February attack was orchestrated by the group Anonymous. Hackers broke into the sister company's website and uncovered user names and passwords belonging to HBGary. Within hours, the hackers helped themselves to thousands of emails from both companies. Among other things, the emails showed that HBGary Federal was developing a high-tech dirty-tricks campaign it planned to offer to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Sacramento company swore it didn't know about the plan, as did the U.S. Chamber. But the episode became a worldwide embarrassment to HBGary. Nevertheless, company officials told The Bee last month that business has rebounded sharply. The company's spokeswoman, Karen Burke, declined comment on the arrests. Two other young Englishmen with alleged ties to the HBGary attack were among a group of Anonymous hackers nabbed by authorities in July in the United States and United Kingdom. Most of the July arrests were tied to a December attack on PayPal, the online payment service. Twelve of the American defendants pleaded not guilty this week in U.S. District Court in San Jose. Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066. -- Read more articles by Dale Kasler ___ (c)2011 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) Visit The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.) at www.sacbee.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]