This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary has admitted hacking into the websites of the CIA and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Cleary, 20, confessed to launching a string of attacks on major institutions in Britain and the US with fellow hacker Jake Davis, 19.

The two targeted sites including the NHS, News International, Sony, Nintendo, Arizona state police, film studio 20th Century Fox and other sites in a series of so-called distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, where websites are flooded with traffic to make them crash.

Cleary, of Wickford, Essex, and Davis, of Lerwick, Shetland, plotted to carry out the attacks with other unknown members of the internet groups Anonymous, Internet Feds and LulzSec.

Other websites targeted by the pair were Westboro Baptist church, Bethesda, Eve Online, HBGary, HBGary Federal, PBS Inc and Infragard.

Cleary also confessed to four separate charges, including hacking into US air force agency computers, based at the Pentagon.

Both men appeared in the dock at Southwark crown court on Monday to enter guilty pleas to a series of charges brought against them. But both Cleary and Davis denied allegations they posted "unlawfully obtained confidential computer data" to public sites including LulzSec, Pirate Bay, and PasteBin, in order to encourage offences contrary to the Serious Crime Act.

Alleged co-hackers Ryan Ackroyd, 25, of Mexborough, Doncaster, and a 17-year-old A-level student from south London, deny their involvement in the DDoS attacks and will stand trial on 8 April next year.

The name LulzSec is a combination of "lulz" or "lols", meaning "laugh out loud" and security.