Hackers often joke that no security system is ever fully secure, and that no online network can ever be completely impregnable. Unfortunately for them, it seems that no hack is ever truly untraceable. After Anonymous members were arrested in the UK, Spain and Turkey, police have arrested a suspected member of LulzSec.
The group behind attacks on Bethesda, Nintendo, CCP Games and possibly Codemasters, Sega and Epic also targeted government sites such as the CIA website and – fatally – the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency. After LulzSec claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack on the SOCA website yesterday, UK police arrested a 19 year old male in Essex who was “specifically charged in connection with a DDoS attack on the [SOCA] website,” as well as a “number of network intrusions and DDoS attacks.” We contacted the Metropolitan Police Press Bureau for further clarification, and were told that technically they hadn’t confirmed whether he was a member of LulzSec or any other group, but were investigating the possibility: “investigations are being made to establish if he is linked to any such group”.
When questioned whether the suspected cybercriminal was involved in the PSN hack – by far the largest of the gaming hacks – the spokesman was coy: “the suspect was arrested for multiple network intrusions, his computer will be examined for Sony data,” he later said that “there is a significant amount of material” that they are currently investigating.
Tracking the criminal was done “in co-operation with the FBI,” but he refused to confirm or deny if Sony had helped in the arrest. We have contacted the FBI, but have yet to receive a response.
UK newspapers claim that the suspect is former-Anonymous member Ryan Cleary, who split from the group after it became “too PR hungry,” but LulzSec previously denied that Cleary was a member.
