The Australian Federal Police today announced that a long-term investigation has resulted in the arrests of two alleged members of Anonymous for cyber attacks on Australian and international websites (h/t The Register).

"It will be alleged in court that these two men were known to each other online and targeted organizations including a large Internet service provider and Web servers hosting Australian and Indonesian government websites," the AFP said in a statement.

A 40-year-old man from Western Australia has been charged with involvement in cyber attacks on Melbourne IT and on Indonesian government Web servers, and an 18-year-old man from New South Wales has been charged with involvement in cyber attacks on the ISP NetSpeed and the ACT Long Service Leave Board.Hacking activities can affect everyone from small businesses right up to large government organisations," National Manager of High Tech Crime Operations Tim Morris said in a statement. "These acts can cause serious disruption to government and business networks, which in turn can be catastrophic for people who rely on these networks to run their small business or administer their entitlements or personal finances."

"The impairment or disruption of communications to or from computer networks is a criminal act and can have serious consequences; it is not harmless fun," Morris added.

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