Met hold online hacking group suspect
London’s Metropolitan Police have arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of being a founder and spokesman for a hacking group believed to be responsible for a series of cyberattacks on organisations such as the CIA and News Corporation.
The man used the online nickname Topiary, and “presented himself as a spokesman for the group” called Lulz Security, Scotland Yard said. Scottish authorities participated with the Met’s eCrime unit in making the arrest on Tuesday in the Shetland Islands.
He was being taken to a police station in central London, said the Met.
The arrest is the most significant to date in the investigation of Lulz and a related but larger group called Anonymous. In recent weeks, the Met arrested Ryan Cleary and another teen said by police sources to have used the name Tflow.
Topiary controlled the Twitter account LulzSec, which was the main way the group communicated to the public during a prodigious 50-day hacking spree this year that alarmed law enforcement and national security officials. That account has more than 340,000 followers.
In internal Lulz chats that were later leaked, Topiary wrote that “Tflow/Sabu/myself/kayla started” the group.
Ryan Cleary is the founder of Encyclopediadramatica.ch and Tflow was one of his first administrators. The FBI is still on the hunt for kayla* and Sabu.
*Kayla is now thought to be two British men who were recently arrested in September.
Garrett E. Moore mentioned on ED's IRC channel:
Jul 26 2011 09:53:38 <garrett> ive known kayla waaaaay longer than tflow
I wonder to what extent Garrett's connection is to Lulzsec?
Here is Garrett, using the handle KnownCyberbully on Twitter, chatting with Sabu.
@anonymouSabu Hey dude, missed your PM. Hit me up whenever, glad you aren't dead. <3
Here is Sabu, more recently.
@Le_Researcher You fucking scrub - you got that from Ryan (who is violating his online prohibition) and that IP is a public Proxy. GOOGLE.
about 18 hours ago from web in reply to Le_Researcher
He doesn't mean Ryan Cleary, does he?