Police in Essex, England have arrested a 19-year-old whom Scotland Yard believes masterminded computer attacks on Sony, the CIA and the United States Senate, British officials announced Tuesday.
Scotland Yard and the FBI worked together on the investigation. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit and the Essex Police Department arrested the teen in his home on on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act offenses.
London's Daily Mail identified the teen as Ryan Cleary, and said police believe he is affiliated with the hacking group Lulz Security, or LulzSec. The group is known for exposing websites that it can access and then posting information online.
If he is extradited to the United States and convicted here, he could face 60 years in federal prison.
LulzSec has claimed responsibility for hacking Fox.com, Nintendo and Sony, among others.
On Twitter, LulzSec said Scotland Yard got the wrong guy:
"Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate chatrooms on his IRC server, but that's it." the organization wrote.
A few minutes later, it continued, "We use Ryan's server, we also use Efnet, 2600, Rizon and AnonOps IRC servers. That doesn't mean they're all part of our group." And it followed with: "Clearly the UK police are so desperate to catch us that they've gone and arrested someone who is, at best, mildly associated with us. Lame."
