19-year-old arrested, suspected in CIA, Sony hacks

CBS/AP

LONDON - A 19-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of hacking attacks on Sony and the CIA website, British police said Tuesday. The Metropolitan Police said the arrest took place following a joint operation by its Internet crimes unit and the FBI.

Police would not say if the suspect was tied to the Lulz Security hacking collective, which has claimed responsibility for recent high-profile attacks, but did confirm that a computer seized in the operation will be examined for Sony data.

Lulz had boasted of successfully hacking Sony in addition to subsequent attacks on the CIA web page and the U.S. Senate computer system. The hackers recently called for "war" on governments that control the Internet.

The teenager was arrested late Monday in the commuter town of Wickford, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) northeast of London, and taken to a central London police station for questioning, police said.

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Officers are conducting forensic examinations on "a significant amount of material" found in the search of a home following the arrest.

Lulz has taken credit for hacking into Sony Corp. - where more than 100 million user accounts were compromised - and defacing the PBS website after the U.S. public television station aired a documentary seen as critical of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The hackers also say they are responsible for attacks on the CIA website and the U.S. Senate computer system.

Most recently, Lulz said it had compromised the security of more than 1,000 accounts of an FBI partner organization and brought down the website of Britain's FBI equivalent, the Serious Organized Crime Agency.

The group has taken to taunting victims of its attacks on Twitter using the handle "LulzSec." The Twitter account appeared to make light of the news about Tuesday's arrest, giving no indication anyone from the group was involved.

"Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here!," the group Tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

On Monday, Lulz Security issued a statement calling for a united hacker effort against governments and organizations that control the Internet.

The group said it was teaming with fellow hacker collective Anonymous, and encouraged others to fight corruption and attack any government or agency that "crosses their path" including banks and other "high-ranking establishments."

Anonymous is a group of online activists that has claimed responsibility for attacking companies online such as Visa, MasterCard and PayPal over their severing of ties with WikiLeaks following that group's release of troves of sensitive documents. Anonymous also led a campaign against the Church of Scientology.

Anonymous and similar hacker organizations are notable for their leaderless, diffuse construction that maximizes secrecy but can lead to mixed or unclear messages.

[Gamesman001]

I doubt he was as important as they try to make him sound. He will be a scapegoat to save the rep of the idiots that allowed it to happen. If you understand these groups at all you know they have no "leader" so this is just some guy who may or may not have been involved but probably was just a fan.

[Reality-Checker]

They only catch the dumb ones. The smarter ones always get away.

[fwd23515]

I am neither condoning nor congratulating what this person may or may not have done.

However, I find it fascinating that every year we give the CIA billions of dollars in tax money, and a 19-year-old can hack one of their computer systems. I've never met a bureaucracy with a sense of humor, so I suspect that they now will waste lots of energy and tax dollars trying to prosecute him, not for doing anything significant, but simply for making them look stupid.

Perhaps the CIA does deserve more sunshine. Among other things, they lost hundreds of millions of dollars in unaccounted-for cash in Afghanistan/Iraq, damaged our international reputation by torturing people in secret prisons, told us Iraq was a danger to us based on flawed analysis and fabricated data, didn't see that the USSR was imploding because it was at heart a dysfunctional government bureaucracy, consistently overestimated the USSR's nuclear capabilities and led us into the most expensive weapons build-up in the history of Man, sponsored violent coups against democratically-elected governments in Iran, Guatemala, and other countries, AND helped Osama bin Laden become a significant leader by giving him guidance and weapons.

Now that I think of it, I'm hard pressed to think of anything the CIA has done that ended up in the long run being good for us.

I'd be happy for someone to provide a list of the CIA's genuine, significant, positive accomplishments.

[samXXkiley]

coucou,

je ne suis pas ?tonn?e, ils ya surement beaucoup de personnes
des jeunes surtout qui s'amusent ? ce "jeu", pour prouver qu'ils sont forts, pour attirer l'attention
certains le font; dans le but de nuire,
d'autres pour le plaisir, dans les deux cas il faut le prouver

........................

I'm not surprised, they are surely many people
especially young people who play this "game" to prove they are strong, to draw attention
some do, in order to harm,
other for fun, in both cases it is necessary to prove
"au revoir"

[cyberus-2009]

Heh ... just as likely that the kids computer was used remotely by the real hackers

[askagain]

People like this are dangerous. They steal identities, disrrupt people's lives, and cost companies millions of dollars. At 19, throw the book at him.

[askagain]

correction

People like him are dangerous. They steal identities, disrupt people's lives, and cost companies and governments millions of dollars. At 19, throw the book at him.