Teenager arrested on suspicion of hacking

[Technologic]

A teenager has been arrested in the UK in a joint Scotland Yard and FBI probe into the hacking of websites.

The man, named locally as Ryan Cleary, 19, was arrested in Wickford, Essex. Police have not identified him.

Scotland Yard said the raid followed a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

It comes days after hackers from a group called Lulz Security attacked a number of websites both in Britain and the United States.

Scotland Yard would not say if the raid was connected to LulzSec but said it had been a "pre-planned, intelligence-led" operation.

The teenager was arrested under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act and is being questioned at a central London police station.

He was arrested by the Metropolitan Police's e-crime unit.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial of service attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group.

"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."

Mr Cleary's mother spoke to BBC Radio Essex and confirmed her son had been arrested at 0330 BST on Tuesday.

She said he had been obsessed with computers since he was 12 and added: "Computers were his world."

An FBI spokesman said it had no comment "at this time".

'Online laughs'
When Lulz Security, or LulzSec, first appeared in May, the group portrayed itself as a light-hearted organisation, bent on creating online fun and Lulz (laughs).

But LulzSec is said to have been planning to establish itself as a rival to Anonymous, the hacking group embroiled in the WikiLeaks fallout.

LulzSec initially targeted US broadcasters PBS and Fox and gaming firms.

But the Twitter page @LulzSec then declared its intention to break into government websites and leak confidential documents.

LulzSec is also suspected of hacking into CIA, Sony and NHS websites.

Gary McKinnon, an unemployed computer programmer who allegedly hacked into Pentagon and Nasa computers, has been fighting extradition to the US since 2002.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13859868

Other sites such as PCGamer are claiming he's the Lulzsec ringleader....

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/21/lu...investigation/

[Sharon]

Made me laugh... The Sun say he hacked Sony and Ninendo.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...g-attacks.html

Also check out the "hacking hotspot" ahaha

[GommeInc]

I like how they're calling him the mastermind. As if organising these attacks requires a master-mind - I could tell people who to shoot and attack, it doesn't make me anymore special than the people with the skills. If anything, it makes you less of a target than the people with the know-how on what to do and how to carry out a DDoS.

Is this the same person who apparently owns the IRC, or a new one? A thread in Technology mentioned an IRC owner had been caught.

[Mathew]

the group portrayed itself as a light-hearted organisation, bent on creating online fun and Lulz (laughs).

Couldn't help but giggle at the translation for those who don't understand our jargon!

[Shar]

He probably doesn't feel that cool anymore LULZ

[dbgtz]

Did I just read that he hacked NHS sites... surely that's not right?

[Stephen]

lulzsec say all he is is the person that hosts their irc lol. I guess they have to arrest someone to make them look like they're doing a good job. Probably wasn't hard finding him either seeing as he isn't anything to do with them..

[Calvin]

Lmao, they've released information about some guy that snitched on them and is trying to flee the country.

[,elaboratedolls]

Wouldn't be surprised really if he did belong to LulzSec. I've heard quite about them in the past few weeks.
But I have to admit the bit about him hacking the NHS did make me laugh.

[DPS]

Weird, as i know a "hacker" called Ryan Cleary from Habbo LOL