Two Men Arrested Over 'LulzSec' Hacking

Two men have been arrested on Thursday over an ongoing investigation into the hacking group LulzSec.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) said they arrested two men for conspiring to commit offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

The arrests – of one man aged 24 years and another aged 20 - were part of the ongoing investigation in collaboration with the FBI, South Yorkshire Police and other law enforcement bodies in the UK and overseas, into the activities of the online 'hacktivist' groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

LulzSec is the high profile computer hacker group that rose to prominence after claiming responsibility for its attack on user accounts used by Sony Playstation Gamers. The group claimed to have compromised over 1,000,000 accounts, though Sony claims the real number was around 37,500.

The investigation is focused on suspected offences conducted under the cover of the online identity "Kayla".

The men were arrested separately at addresses in Mexborough, Doncaster, South Yorkshire and Warminster, Wiltshire. The Doncaster address was searched by police and computer equipment was removed for forensic examination.

The arrested men have been detained at police stations in South Yorkshire and central London whilst further enquiries and interviews are conducted.

DI Mark Raymond from the PCeU said: "The arrests relate to our enquiries into a series of serious computer intrusions and online denial-of-service attacks recently suffered by a number of multi-national companies, public institutions and government and law enforcement agencies in Great Britain and the United States.

"We are working to detect and bring before the courts those responsible for these offences, to disrupt such groups, and to deter others thinking of participating in this type of criminal activity."

Irish Crime

Meanwhile, Gardaí in the Irish Republic's have now released two teenagers without charge after they were arrested and questioned on suspicion of computer and website hacking.

An on-going investigation into criminal damage, hacking of computers and websites led to the two arrests.

The Garda Computer Crime Investigation Unit carried out searches at two houses in Counties Galway and Offaly this morning.

During the course of the searches computers and other media equipment was seized and removed for forensic examination.

They said that two males aged in their late teens were arrested. During the course of the search in Co Offaly equipment and chemicals associated with the production of controlled drugs were seized.

(DW/BMcC)