Last night’s raid on a computer data centre by the Dutch High Tech Crime Team was not directed at Wikileaks supporters but at a malicious software network, operating from the Netherlands.

Contrary to earlier reports, the main target of the special police unit were 143 servers in the town of Haarlem used to distribute malicious software to millions of unsuspecting users’ computers.

A group of cyber criminals referred to as 'Bredolab' hired servers from LeaseWeb. This is the largest hosting provider in the Netherlands, which operates four data centres in the Amsterdam region acting as an essential link in the internet. The raid was part of an operation launched last month aimed at busting the Bredolab cybercrime ring.

Attacks on banks
It has nothing to do with a Dutch police investigation into the forces behind the cyber attacks on major financial institutions such as MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, and the Swedish Public Prosecutor’s Office. The hackers accuse these organisations of blocking payments to the internet whistleblowing site Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange.

Interpol issued an international warrant against Mr Assange on the basis of two accusations of sexual misconduct in Sweden. He was arrested in London on Wednesday.

Some of the attacks were traced to a Dutch IP address. The group behind the campaign - aimed at overloading and crashing websites - calls itself Anonymous, but this is simply an internet term for any 'hacktivists' with an agenda thought to be supported by the online community. This particular cyber campaign has been dubbed 'Operation Payback'.

Signal to hackers
Ronald Prins is director of Fox-IT and a cybercrime expert. He explained the attackers’ motives on BNR radio:

“The size of this attack is new. A small group may have started it but they have gained the attention of a lot of people who can see it’s easy to join in and bring down a site. The point is to show who is boss on the internet. Whatever the companies, providers or governments do, the hackers determine whether you’re out there or not.”

Mr Prins says the police operations send a clear signal to the hacking community:

“The police have sufficient expertise to tackle these cyber attacks. They’ve shown that they’re able to act swiftly, and this is very important because it signals that these attacks will not be tolerated and that you’ll be in trouble if you do things that damage the wider community.”

(The photograph is not from the server centre in this report)