Teen hacking suspect arrested in Scotland Yard-FBI swoop

A teenager suspected of masterminding a notorious international computer hacking group was being questioned today after a swoop by Scotland Yard and the FBI.

Ryan Cleary, 19, is believed to have have been a "major player" with LulzSec, a hacking group linked with breach attempts at organisations including the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, the US Senate and the CIA.

Authorities on both side of the Atlantic have been trying to trace the hacking group, which also claimed credit for security breaches at games firms Nintendo and Sony, for several weeks.

Cleary was arrested in a "pre-planned intelligence-led operation" in Wickford, Essex, the Metropolitan Police said.

American authorities were being kept informed, as the teenager was questioned at a central London station under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act.

LulzSec is said to have established itself as a formidable splinter group to Anonymous, the hacking group embroiled in the WikiLeaks fallout.

The group was believed to have initially targeted only US broadcasters, including PBS and Fox, and gaming firms.

But the Twitter page @LulzSec recently declared its intention to break into Government websites and leak confidential documents.

There were no tweets in reaction to the arrest today.

Soca, the UK national law enforcement unit dubbed the British FBI, was forced to temporarily take its website off-line yesterday after LulzSec bombarded it with traffic to stop other users accessing it.

Security sources were keen to underline that no confidential information was surrendered.

Cleary was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard's specialist e-crime unit.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial of service attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group.

"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 Met and Essex Police are working "in co-operation" with the FBI, the spokesman said.

LulzSec has been known for several weeks to have been a subject of concern among US authorities.

Steven Chabinsky, the FBI's deputy assistant director, told the Financial Times last week that LulzSec and Anonymous were avoiding prosecution by using the likes of Twitter to draw supporters under an anonymous guise.

Mr Chabinsky told the paper: "These organisations have managed to use new technologies to connect to otherwise disenfranchised hackers to gather force and momentum in a way we have not seen before."

The FBI is placing "a lot of emphasis and focus on Anonymous and other groups that would be like them, through co-ordinated transnational efforts," he added.

Anonymous came to prominence last year when it launched digital assaults against MasterCard, PayPal and other businesses that stopped working with WikiLeaks. No US arrests have been announced in relation to LulzSec or Anonymous.

The arrest of a Briton in relation to hacking attempts in the US will prompt comparisons with Gary McKinnon.

McKinnon, 45, who is wanted in the US, faces 60 years behind bars for hacking into Pentagon and Nasa computers between February 2001 and March 2002 while searching for evidence of "little green men".