A 19 year old British teenager has been arrested after being suspected in having connections with, and possibly participating in attacks by the hacking group LulzSec – known for their attacks on the CIA, Nintendo and Sony.
The teenager, from Wickford, Essex, has been detained after a joint operation with the Metropolitan Police and the FBI. He currently remains in custody for questioning, and is being held under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act.
Metropolitan Police confirmed reports of an arrest after news broke on Twitter by Channel 4 News:
[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/channel4news/status/83129762142363649″]
However, while Channel 4 News reports that it was a LulzSec member, the Metropolitan Police have not confirmed that allegation.
The arrest follows news that the group have managed to obtain data from the 2011 UK Census, which holds details on every UK citizen, after a document on Pastebin, with the traditional LulzSec header, was located. However, breaking tradition, LulzSec has not posted the news on Twitter.
“We have blissfully obtained records of every single citizen who gave their records to the security-illiterate UK government for the 2011 census,” LulzSec said on the Pastebin document.
“We’re keeping them under lock and key though… so don’t worry about your privacy (…until we finish re-formatting them for release).”
That last message was soon repeated on Twitter with the latest tweet: “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.” However it is unknown if it has anything to do with the census data or another hack on a UK government website.
Census officials have confirmed that they are looking into the information.
The hacker group has also recently announced a partnership with Anonymous, amidst rumours of a war which both sides have denied. Called “AntiSec”, both sides are calling for all hackers to unite together in order to expose corruption and dark secrets – a-la Wikileaks.
However, for me, questions are emerging on their goals. Yes, I admit that opening dark secrets do help for real change, but at the cost of many people’s data? It may be a security fault that exposes my data, but I rather someone tell the company the security hole rather than plastering my personal details on the internet where identity thieves and people who do it for the “lulz” could use for purchases on condoms and random books.
But, that’s my personal view. Hopefully, LulzSec isn’t like other companies and attacks those who start criticising or questioning their actions and motives.