One of the suspected ringleaders of the hackers behind Sony PlayStation and Nintendo attacks has been arrested.
The arrest was the result of “pre-planned intelligence-led operation” between FBI and Scotland Yard and followed on from several high profile attacks on respective government bodies including the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, NHS, CIA and even the US Senate.
The high profile attack on Sony which saw 77 million users of its PlayStation network compromised resulted in a PR nightmare for the gaming giant and led to subsequent attacks designed to show the vulnerabilities of its system.
The arrested teen Ryan Cleary, aged 19, stands accused of being one of the major figures in the group and was arrested in Essex “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,” Britain’s Metropolitan Police eCrime unit said today.
“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.”
News of the arrest comes as allegations also emerged of alleged theft by the group of 2011 UK census data on the website Pastebin and comes just a day after the hackers pledged to seek revenge on an attack suffered by Sega.
“@Sega – contact us. We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you. We love the Dreamcast, these people are going down,” it tweeted a day after the Sega attack on Monday.
However, Lulzsec took to the Twittersphere vehemently denying all knowledge of the census stealing incident:
“Just saw the pastebin of the UK census hack. That wasn’t us – don’t believe fake LulzSec releases unless we put out a tweet first,” it wrote on its account two hours ago.
Online notice board Pastebin claimed that LulzSec had acquired the 2011 UK Census records and was “keeping them under lock and key.”
“It’s outrageous that #LulzSec plan to release the census details online instead of through the official method: On a laptop left on a train,” another individual wrote on the limelight hungry hackers Twitter page.
And the group which emerged as a splinter group from hackers Anonymous, declared on Sunday its intention to hack-and-leak confidential information from governments and and “high profile institutions” in a similar style to Wikileaks.
“Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments,” it said.
