Thanks to its recent attacks on the Chamber of Commerce and security firm HBGary, anarchic hacker collective Anonymous has popped up on the radar of NATO, which worries that the cheeto-fingered dorks "could potentially hack into sensitive government, military, and corporate files." (Just kidding about the cheetos, guys! Don't hack us!)

A new report, authored by "General Rapporteur" (that's basically just the best rapper at NATO) Lord Jopling, is intended to alert NATO member countries to the dangers posed by Anonymous, which it says is "becoming more and more sophisticated." Unfortunately, Lord Jopling doesn't delve into 4chan — in fact, he takes the threat very seriously:

The report goes on to lay out a stark warning to the group's nameless participants:

"It remains to be seen how much time Anonymous has for pursuing such paths. The longer these attacks persist the more likely countermeasures will be developed, implemented, the groups will be infiltrated and perpetrators persecuted."

We'd guess Anonymous is planning some persecution of its own, right now.

[Thinq via Boing Boing]