Alleged member of hacking group Anonymous attempted to access Monitor site

Fidel Salinas Jr.

McALLEN — A Donna man with ties to the international computer hacking group Anonymous is accused of trying to break into various web severs including Hidalgo County, La Joya ISD and The Monitor.

On Thursday morning, a somber looking Fidel Salinas went before Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby who informed him of the new accusations presented in a superseding indictment that was recently handed down. Ormsby allowed Salinas, 27, to remain out on bond pending trial.

Salinas had originally been indicted in September following an FBI investigation into his attempt to hack the HidalgoCounty web server.

Cyber crimes were called to assist a local investigation after the hacking of the Hidalgo County website Jan. 5, 2012, when more than 14,000 attempts to log on to its server were made, keeping network administrators from accessing it for about half a day, according to a criminal complaint.

As the investigation developed, authorities later learned that Salinas had tried to gain access to La Joya ISD and the Monitor’s servers.

Authorities believe Salinas belonged to a conspiracy related to Anonymous where he had entered the group’s chat room called Operation Anti-Security.