Global crackdown on hackers: British teen arrested along with 14 suspected members of 'Anonymous' group



British boy, 16, arrested in south London



Arrests made across 10 states in the U.S



Raids on three New York homes of hacking suspects

A British schoolboy of 16 has been arrested as part of a global crackdown on two computer hacking groups that laid siege to the CIA and PayPal.



Police have carried out dozens of raids in Britain, Holland and America in a dramatic swoop on those suspected of masterminding attacks by hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec.



Fourteen people were arrested in the U.S. by the FBI and four were held in Holland on Tuesday over a cyber attack on the online payment service PayPal, used by millions of British consumers to make secure money transfers for purchases.

Stepping up the fight: FBI agents with search warrants take away items from a home on Long Island where a suspected member of the hacking group Anonymous lives

The attack was believed to have been motivated by the company’s decision to stop processing donations to WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.



Yesterday detectives were quizzing the 16-year-old boy who was arrested in south London on suspicion of involvement in attacks by both Anonymous and LulzSec.

Officers from the Met were last night analysing computer equipment seized from his address. Anonymous, which formed in 2003, is a loosely organised group of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks.



It has claimed responsibility for attacks against corporate and government websites worldwide.

Shadowy figures: A member of the Anonymous at work with two laptops

Targeted: PayPal payment service was hit by the attacks

The group claimed credit for disrupting the websites of Visa and MasterCard in an operation named ‘Operation Avenge Assange’.



It came after the companies stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks following its release of thousands of classified U.S. State Department cables in November last year.



Police believe the British teenager may also be involved in LulzSec, a smaller hacking group which splintered from Anonymous in April this year and embarked on a two-month spree of cyber attacks on bodies including the CIA, the U.S. Senate and the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Public face: Anonymous members have become known for wearing the Guy Fawkes masks on outings

The shadowy group has also targeted the NHS, the games firm Sony, Telecoms giant AT&T and most recently the website of The Sun newspaper, publishing a spoof story that claimed owner Rupert Murdoch was dead.



Yesterday FBI agents executed more than 35 search warrants as part of its investigation into the hacking of major companies and government organisations.



‘Officers from the Met Police’s computer e-Crime unit arrested a 16-year-old male on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990. He was arrested at an address in south London and remains in custody at a central London police station.’ - Met Police spokesman

In the U.S., 14 people were indicted for involvement in a ‘denial of service’ attack on the PayPal website in early December 2010.



The accused, including 11 men and two women aged between 20 and 42, were arrested in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio.



The charge of intentional damage to a protected computer carries a maximum penalty of ten years in jail and a $250,000 fine in America.



The FBI also arrested a customer support contractor who was charged with stealing confidential business information on AT&T’s servers.



A man suspected of involvement in LulzSec’s attack on a security website linked to the FBI was also held.



The 16-year-old is the second British teenager to be held recently over allegations of cyber-crime.



Last month Ryan Cleary, 19, was charged with five counts of hacking related to a series of attacks against Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the British Phonographic Industry.



He is also suspected of involvement in hacking attacks on the CIA.



A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘Officers from the Met Police’s computer e-Crime unit arrested a 16-year-old male on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990.



‘He was arrested at an address in south London and remains in custody at a central London police station.’

