Teen hacking suspect arrested in U.K.; LulzSec denies he’s a member
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A 19-year-old man’s arrest in London on suspicion of taking part in Web attacks against businesses and government agencies was announced on Tuesday.
Shortly after the arrest was made public by the U.K.’s Metropolitan Police, the hacker group LulzSec said on Twitter that the teenager wasn’t a member of its ranks.
‘Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it’s all over now... wait... we’re all still here!’ the LulzSec tweet read.
The Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit said in an online statement, which did not pinpoint the teen as a member of any particular hacking group, that it had arrested the as-yet-unnamed 19-year-old ‘in a pre-planned intelligence-led operation’ with help from Essex Police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
‘The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group,’ the agency said.
‘The teenager was arrested on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act, and Fraud Act offences and was taken to a central London police station, where he currently remains in custody for questioning.
‘Searches at a residential address in Wickford, Essex, following the arrest last night have led to the examination of a significant amount of material. These forensic examinations remain ongoing.’
The arrests come amid a seeming increasing of hacking activity among groups such as LulzSec, also known as LulzSecurity, and Anonymous, as well as others -- such as the unidentified groups that have hacked the IMF and Sega.
LulzSec has struck government-related websites, Sony, Bethesda, Nintendo and PBS in recent weeks. Anonymous has been blamed in part for taking part in attacks on Sony that disabled the company’s PlayStation Network and Qriocity online entertainment services.
In January, five alleged members of Anonymous were arrested in England, with three other suspects arrested in Spain and 32 in Turkey.
The international pursuit for members of both LulzSec and Anonymous, two of the more publicly known hacker groups, could soon intensify -- people identifying themselves as hackers with the two groups have recently said they’ve teamed up to target government websites.
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles