Police believe Ryan Cleary, 19, had 'significant role' in hacker group LulzSec which is thought to have attacked CIA website
Investigators believe a teenager arrested at his family home in Essex may have been a "significant" figure in a computer hacking group alleged to have staged attacks against websites belonging to the US government, the electronics giant Sony, and an elite British crime unit.
Scotland Yard cybercrime detectives were questioning Ryan Cleary, 19, over the attacks carried out by the LulzSec group, which mostly targeted websites belonging to institutions and companies in the US.
The events leading to the arrest of Cleary involved an investigation by British police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI's involvement, plus the nature of the targets, raised the prospect that Washington may seek the teenager's extradition to the US, just as it did in the case of UFO obsessive Gary McKinnon, a saga that is still ongoing.
LulzSec have attacked the websites of the CIA, the US senate, US broadcasters and, on Monday, the day of Cleary's arrest, the hackers bought down the website of Britain's Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca).
LulzSec is believed to have established itself as a formidable splinter group to Anonymous, the hacking group embroiled in the WikiLeaks fallout, with high-profile attacks on the Gawker website in December last year and a devastating assault on the US security firm HBGary in February.
Members of Anonymous claimed in emails to the Guardian that Cleary, though involved, was not the "mastermind" behind any hacking group. "He owned the server which LulzSec used to communicate using IRC [internet relay chat, a bit like instant messenger]."
UK records show that a company called Arcusvoice, which held domain names used to host websites, was registered to Cleary's home address in Wickford, Essex.
"Ryan Cleary was not a mastermind hacker," the email continued. "He could not keep his own personal information safe. He simply provided the means of communication, just like if two people send letters to each other, FedEx/Royal Mail/DHL are the providers of communication."
Cleary's brother, 22-year-old Mitchell, said: "He's not the sort of person to do anything mad or go out and let his hair down or do anything violent. He stays in his room ? you'll be lucky if he opens the blinds, but that's just family, isn't it? I barely see him ? I'm more of a football person ? he's more of an inside person."
Mitchell said his brother had fallen out with people over WikiLeaks: "He used to be part of WikiLeaks and he has upset someone from doing that and they have made a Facebook page having a go at him."
James Rounce, a neighbour of Cleary, said: "They moved in about 10 years ago and have been pleasant neighbours. I think he had been away at university and had come back for the holidays or because he had finished his exams. You could tell he was very bright just from the way he spoke and presented himself."
LulzSec staged two types of attacks. One was hacking into websites, the other was effectively blocking a website from being used, called a denial of service.
As recently as May, the group attacked websites belonging to broadcasters, including Fox and the US public service broadcaster, PBS. LulzSec also claimed credit for an attack on the US X Factor website, which experts believe indicates the relatively young average age of the group.
Earlier this month, LulzSec declared its intention to break into government websites and leak confidential documents. Yesterday it dismissed claims it had staged an attack on the British census.
According to security experts, it is a small and close-knit team ? although they probably do not operate in the same country or even time zone. The security firm Imperva believes there are just eight members, including one who orchestrated the attack on the US security company HBGary, and another who can call on the resources of a "botnet" of virus-infected PCs to attack any website on the net.
Researcher Rik Ferguson of security software firm Trend Micro said "it seems to be a tight-knit group ? they don't let people join them, they just take suggestions from people of what to target for a hack next."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/21/hunt-hackers-us-government-essex-teenager
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