From Cassel Bryan-Low, the Wall Street Journal:  Spanish police have arrested three alleged members of online hacker collective Anonymous as part of a global police crackdown on the group claiming responsibility for computer attacks against a broad range of targets in recent months , from Sony Corp. and MasterCard Inc. to governments, including Spain’s.

The Spanish national police identified the individuals as senior members within Anonymous in Spain. A computer server found in one of the homes was responsible for helping launch attacks against a number of government and corporate websites, according to the police. That included against websites of the Sony Playstation Store, two large Spanish banks, and Italian energy company Enel, as well as of the governments of Egypt, Libya, Iran and elsewhere, the police said. . . .

There already have been several Anonymous-related arrests in Europe on suspicion of computer-related crimes. Dutch police arrested two teenage males in December; both are awaiting trial. And U.K. police in January arrested five males aged 15 years to 26 years, who currently are on bail and haven’t been charged.

In the U.S., Federal Bureau of Investigation agents conducted more than 40 searches of the homes of alleged Anonymous members across the country in January, in an investigation being conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Secret Service. No arrests have been made following those searches, but Anonymous is well-known to U.S. law enforcement.