Britain Nabs 2, Charges 2 Others in Big Hacking Sting
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CREDIT: Anonymous |
British police rounded up two more suspected Anonymous and LulzSec hackers yesterday (Sept. 1) as part of an FBI-aided trans-Atlantic sting that has already netted them nearly two dozen alleged members of the high-profile hacking collectives.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's e-Crime Unit arrested two men, ages 24 and 20, in South Yorkshire and Wiltshire, England, for conspiring to commit offenses under the Computer Misuse Act of 1990, the official press release says. Police believe the two men, who were unnamed, carried out online attacks sharing the hacker name "Kayla."
"The arrests relate to our enquiries into a series of serious computer intrusions and online denial-of-service attacks recently suffered by a number of multinational companies, public institutions and government and law enforcement agencies in Great Britain and the United States," Detective Inspector Mark Raymond said.
The "serious intrusions" may refer to the devastating fate suffered by HBGary Federal , a security company that, in February, planned to expose the identities of Anonymous members. That plan was thwarted, however, when Anonymous hacked the company's website and leaked more than 50,000 emails belonging to former chief executive Aaron Barr.
At the time, "Kayla" believed to be a 16-year-old girl was thought to be instrumental in the HBGary incident, Computerworld reported.
Along with the two arrests yesterday, British police also charged Christopher Jan Weatherhead, 20, and Ashley Rhodes, 26, with conspiracy to do an unauthorized act in relation to a computer.
Weatherhead and Rhodes join Peter David Gibson, 22, and an unnamed 17-year-old boy who were brought up on similar charges on Aug. 30. All four are due to appear in court on Sept. 7.
In the past few months, dozens of people in the U.S. and Europe have been brought up on hacking charges related to website takedowns by Anonymous and LulzSec, which have hit such sites as the CIA , the U.S. Senate, PBS, Sony's PlayStation Store, Fox Broadcast Network and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
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