This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A 15-year-old boy from Devon has been charged with cyber-attacks on websites around the world and bomb hoaxes on airlines in the US.

The teenager from Plymouth was charged following an investigation by officers from the Zephyr regional cybercrime unit, which draws on expertise from five forces in the south-west of England.

The boy’s actions allegedly cost at least one company in the US a large amount of money and caused disruption to air travel. He is also accused of targeting government institutions.

Prosecution sources have said the alleged offences are not related to terrorism and are not linked to attacks on the TalkTalk website.

The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, has been charged with three offences under section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act, relating to alleged distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on websites in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. DDoS attacks involve overwhelming a website with traffic, often taking it offline.

He is also charged with two offences under section 51 of the Criminal Law Act, relating to bomb hoaxes allegedly placed with airlines in North America via social media.

The 15-year-old has been bailed to appear before Plymouth youth court on Friday 18 December.

Scant details about the boy have been released, but he is said to be from Plympton, a suburban area to the north-east of the city centre.

It is believed the Zephyr officers have been investigating the boy for several months. He was charged on 16 November and has been released on police bail.

Zephyr was established in September 2010 to identify, disrupt and dismantle organised crime groups affecting the south-west of England.

It is a collaboration of the Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire forces working across county borders, and is led by the Dorset police assistant chief constable David Lewis.

A 15-year-old boy from County Antrim in Northern Ireland was among four people arrested in connection with the TalkTalk investigation. TalkTalk has put the cost of that attack at up to £35m and offered customers a free upgrade following the incident.