A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in the UK as part of an FBI investigation into the activities of hacktivist group Anonymous.
The teenager, suspected of offences relating to the Computer Misuse Act, was arrested in South London and taken into custody. The arrest was part of an international crackdown on the activities of the hacking group which also lead to the US charging 16 individuals involved in a Cyberattack advocated by Anonymous.
The US charges step from the denial-of-service attacks instigated against a number of firms in retaliation for the involvement of firms such as PayPal suspending the account of Wikileaks. Those held in the US face a maximum penalty of a $250,000 fine and 10 years imprisonment.
Anonymous provided tools which allowed sympathetic users to participate in denial of service attacks but leaving those people at the mercy of the authorities that are able to trace the attacks back to IP addresses and ultimately physical addresses.
Four other suspects have been detained in the Netherlands.
Advertisement
Related Stories
- Pirate Bay slams Anonymous attack May 10th 2012 at 3:38AM
- Jury struggles for verdict in Oracle vs Google May 6th 2012 at 11:56PM
- America sues Apple and book publishers Apr 11th 2012 at 11:45PM
- Hacktivists lifted more data than criminal gangs Mar 22nd 2012 at 11:14PM
- Hackers steal user data from porn site Mar 12th 2012 at 8:36PM
- 'Hackers attempted to extort money' reveals Symantec Feb 8th 2012 at 2:51PM
- Conference call between the FBI and UK Police hacked Feb 3rd 2012 at 4:09PM
- The US and China are responsible for 40 per cent of global hacks Feb 2nd 2012 at 6:37AM
- Symantec tells users to disable PCAnywhere Jan 27th 2012 at 7:10AM
- Wikipedia to shut on Wednesday to protest US internet legislation Jan 17th 2012 at 6:54AM
