Authorities in the United Kingdom, in conjunction with international police agencies, have arrested an alleged member of the hacker group that performed the Sony Playstation Network hack. A 19-year-old man in the city of Wickford, to the east of London, was arrested on suspicion of computer crimes by Scotland Yard.
LulzSec denies any members arrested
The growing number of data hacks and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on websites of government agencies and major corporations has brought hacker-activist or “hacktivist” groups mainstream attention. These hacktivists includee a group that calls itself LulzSec. The group is accused of being behind the Sony data hack that shut down the Playstation Network and exposed the information of millions. LulzSec is also believed to have posted a false story about Tupac Shakur on PBS and orchestrated DDoS attacks on the Central Intelligence Agency and other agencies. A 19-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of computer crimes that may be related to the LulzSec hacks, according to the BBC. The arrest comes days after the website of the Serious Organized Crime Agency (the English FBI) was shut down by a DDoS attack. The group, according to CBS, denies any affiliation.
UK police working in conjunction with FBI
The name of the suspect has not been released but is believed to be Ryan Cleary of Wickford, a small city less than an hour from London in the county of Essex. It is unknown whether Ryan Cleary is his real name. The name is used online and could be a pseudonym, according to MSNBC. He was arrested for allegedly violating the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act by the Essex police and turned over to the London Metropolitan Police, commonly referred to as Scotland Yard. The Metropolitan police were working in conjunction with the FBI and discovered an online trail to the Wickford man. According to a Twitter user, the man who was arrested runs the website irc.lulzsec.org. LulzSec sarcastically posted on its Twitter page that its “glorious leader” had been arrested and that “it’s all over now,” but that its members were “all still here! Which poor bastard got taken down?”
Sony users not laughing
The group LulzSec, short for LulzSecurity, appears to a be a similar organization to Anonymous, a group of hacktivists without a leadership structure. Currently the group is allying itself with Anonymous on a campaign called “AntiSec,” anti-security, presumably with the intention of cracking online security structures various businesses and government agencies if they cross them, according to Fox News. LulzSec asserts that it was not behind the hack of the Sega Pass network, according to CBS, but has hacked Sony, Nintendo and other networks such as the United States Senate, the CIA and other agencies. The data hack on Sony is estimated to cost the company more than $100 million, according to CNN.
Sources
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13859868
CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20072915-501465.html
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43476665/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
LulzSec Twitter page: http://twitter.com/#!/lulzsec
CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/19/tech/cnettechnews/main20072366.shtml
Fox: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/21/uk-teen-arrested-for-hacking-suspected-member-lulz-sec/?test=latestnews
CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/06/21/uk.sony.hack.arrest/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
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