‘Anonymous’ Hacker Group Identifies Fed as Target on YouTube

A group of online hackers identified the Federal Reserve as a target, using a video on Google Inc.’s YouTube to call on Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to resign.

In the video, the group, which calls itself Anonymous, said today would mark the “first step” of protests against Bernanke and urged those wanting him to quit to occupy a public space.

“The Federal Reserve’s policies are systematically looting the country to enrich one 10th of 1 percent of the population,” a distorted voice said on the video.

The group attacked several Turkish government websites last week to protest an Internet filter it says will restrict web surfing, the Hurriyet newspaper reported. Spanish police also arrested three suspected members after the websites of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Spain’s second-biggest bank, and Enel SpA, the Italian owner of Spanish power company Endesa SA, were hacked.

Anonymous also took credit for taking down the websites of Mastercard Inc. and Visa Inc. in December in revenge for the payment processors’ decision to suspend use of their networks by WikiLeaks, an organization that publishes secret documents on its website.