A 19-year-old man has been arrested in Wickford, Essex by local authorities “working in co-operation with the FBI.”
The complete police report is as follows:
“Officers from the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) have arrested a 19-year-old man in a pre-planned intelligence-led operation.
The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group.
The teenager was arrested on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act, and Fraud Act offences and was taken to a central London police station, where he currently remains in custody for questioning.
Searches at a residential address in Wickford, Essex, following the arrest last night have led to the examination of a significant amount of material. These forensic examinations remain ongoing.
The PCeU was assisted by officers from Essex Police and have been working in co-operation with the FBI.”
Security provider Sophos has an entry on its blog titled: ‘LulzSec suspect’ arrested by New Scotland Yard, with a snippet that says, “It’s important to note at this point that it has not been confirmed that the arrested man is suspected of being involved with LulzSec by the authorities. But many observers are speculating that that could be the case.”
LulzSec, for its part, is denying that the suspect is one of their own.
So we seem to be hovering in that pesky “gray area” with everything so far.
(story continues on next page…)
The second paragraph of the police report that mentions “attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group” is somewhat telling but pulls up short of identifying the group by name.
More importantly is the fact that police have searched the man’s residence and found “a significant amount of material” that is currently being examined by forensics experts.
LulzSec recently posted a document titled “Operation Anti-Security” wherein it outlined the following:
“Welcome to Operation Anti-Security (#AntiSec) – we encourage any vessel, large or small, to open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path. We fully endorse the flaunting of the word “AntiSec” on any government website defacement or physical graffiti art. We encourage you to spread the word of AntiSec far and wide, for it will be remembered. To increase efforts, we are now teaming up with the Anonymous collective and all affiliated battleships…
…Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments. If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood.”
And the group has most recently claimed to have taken down the website for the U.K.’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, a law enforcement agency funded by the U.K.’s central government.
In a Twitter post yesterday, LulzSec said: “DDoS is of course our least powerful and most abundant ammunition. Government hacking is taking place right now behind the scenes. #AntiSec” followed by a more recent post saying: “Our next step is to categorize and format leaked items we acquire and release them in #AntiSec ‘payloads’ on our website and The Pirate Bay.”
If this arrested suspect turns out to be a member of LulzSec, it’ll be interesting to see if and how authorities are able to use the evidence collected from the man’s house to connect other people to the barrage of recent high-profile attacks for which LulzSec has claimed responsibility.