Hacker down
July 28, 2011
British police arrested a teenager in Scotland's remote Shetland Islands Wednesday on suspicion he was a spokesman for the high-profile Lulz Security and Anonymous computer hacking groups, Scotland Yard said.
"The man arrested is believed to be linked to an ongoing international investigation into the criminal activity of the so-called 'hacktivist' groups Anonymous and LulzSec, and uses the online nickname 'Topiary' which is presented as the spokesperson for the groups," a London-based cybercrime unit said in a statement.
British police said the young man was being taken to a police station in central London and that a search was underway at his house.
Investigators were also reported to be searching a home in Lincolnshire, eastern England, and interviewing a 17-year-old male in connection with the inquiry.
LulzSec has claimed responsibility for cyber-attacks on the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Sony's online gaming website and the website of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group, News International.
Hacking their way to global renown
LulzSec has received media coverage for its stunts, which have earned the group nearly 350,000 followers on the messaging website Twitter.
Last week, News International was forced to pull its websites offline after LulzSec replaced the online version of Murdoch's daily tabloid the Sun with a fake story pronouncing the embattled media magnate dead.
LulzSec's partner hacking team Anonymous - whose members authorities also believe are in their teens and early twenties - attracted international attention after launching attacks on companies perceived to be enemies of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
Anonymous and Lulz Security called in a joint statement Wednesday for a boycott of micropayment site PayPal to punish the electronic payments firm for refusing to accept donations to WikiLeaks.
Author: David Levitz (AFP, Reuters)
Editor: Andreas Illmer