Reporter of fake foiled attack IDed

(ANSA) - Rome, January 21 - Police have identified and cited an alleged member of the hacktivist group Anonymous known as 'X' who claimed the organisation had prevented an ISIS terrorist attack in Florence, sources said Thursday.
    The 29-year-old computer expert from Aosta in northwest Italy made the allegations in an interview to an on-line Italian daily in December but they found no confirmation in investigations by the postal police or anti-terrorism experts. Anonymous subsequently distanced itself from the claims.
    "Our modus operandi has never been to release personal statements," the group wrote on Facebook, adding that had it discovered any intelligence, it would have turned it over to police.
    The hacktivist could now face charges of criminal association for the purposes of illegally accessing and damaging computer systems. Investigators claim he is also the founder of the Twitter account #OpParis allegedly created to hunt down the perpetrators of the November 13 terrorist attacks in the French capital in which 130 people were killed.