Teenager charged with hacking crime website
THE British teenager suspected of masterminding an international cyber attack was yesterday charged with hacking the website of the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency.
Ryan Cleary, 19, is also accused of attacks on the websites of music bodies the British Phonographic Industry and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
Scotland Yard said the computer whizz-kid will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates Court today charged with five offences under the Criminal Law and Computer Misuse Acts. Cleary, from Wickford, Essex, is believed to have committed the offences on a computer set up in a bedroom at his mother’s home.
He is charged with conspiring with other people on or before June 20 to create a remotely-controlled network of zombie computers, known as a “botnet”, to carry out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, where websites are flooded with traffic to make them crash.
He is accused of launching a DDoS attack on the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s website on June 20, as well as on the British Phonographic Industry’s website last October and International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s website last November. It is understood investigations are being held into other alleged hacking attacks.
Cleary was held as part of a Scotland Yard and FBI probe into LulzSec, a group which has claimed responsibility for hacking attempts on Soca, US Senate and CIA. LulzSec denies Cleary is a member.
His mother Rita, 45, said she was “really worried” about her son, who rarely left his room. “He could seriously harm or even kill himself.” His brother Mitchell added: “He’s not the sort of person to do anything mad.”