LONDON -- The police in Britain arrested a 19-year-old man in connection with digital attacks on businesses and government agencies "by a single hacking group," the Metropolitan Police said Tuesday in a statement.
The police did not identify the man (Deutsche Presse-Agentur said his name was Ryan Cleary) or the hacking organization. Suspicion immediately fell on two groups: Anonymous, a shadowy international network of computer hackers, and Lulz Security, a group that has claimed responsibility in recent weeks for attacks on the websites of the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Senate as well as Sony and, on Monday, the website of a British agency that combats organized crime.
The arrest resulted from a joint investigation by a British cybercrime unit, local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into attacks on "a number of international business and intelligence agencies," the police said, without naming specific targets.
The British police said man was being questioned in a London police station and was suspected of violating several British computer and fraud laws. After his arrest, they said, officers searched a home in Wickford, about 35 miles north of London, and turned up material that police said was under examination.
They said the search was conducted late Monday night.
Attacks this spring on the websites of several companies, including Sony and Bethesda Softworks, a gaming site, exploited holes in Internet security systems that are meant to protect hundreds of thousands of private user accounts. In a letter posted last week, Lulz Security said that it was now teaming with Anonymous. "Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments."
Lulz Security seemed to dismiss speculation that one of its hackers had been the target of the British arrest.
