Suspected LulzSec spokesman to be quizzed

A teenager arrested by detectives as part of the investigation into hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec is due to be questioned by detectives today. The alleged hacker, 18, who is said to use the online nickname "Topiary" and present as himself as a spokesman for the groups, was detained at an address in the Shetland Islands yesterday, Scotland Yard said. He is due to arrive at a central London police station this morning for questioning. The property where he was arrested was searched by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's police central e-crime unit following yesterday's swoop. Police also searched a house in Lincolnshire and interviewed a 17-year-old boy under caution in connection with the inquiry. He was not arrested. The 18-year-old suspect is being held as part of an ongoing investigation into hacking and distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), where websites are flooded with traffic to make them crash, against international companies and intelligence agencies believed to be carried out by Anonymous and LulzSec. Scotland Yard said in a statement: "The man arrested is believed to be linked to an ongoing international investigation into the criminal activity of the so-called 'hacktivist' groups Anonymous and LulzSec, and uses the online nickname 'Topiary' which is presented as the spokesperson for the groups." Lulz Security has claimed responsibility for a hacking rampage in the United States which saw the group target websites of the Central Intelligence Agency, the US Senate, Sony and others. Last week, Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper division News International pulled its websites after LulzSec replaced the online version of daily tabloid the Sun with a fake story pronouncing the mogul's death. Anonymous gained prominence after launching retaliatory attacks on companies perceived to be enemies of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. Anonymous and Lulz Security called in a joint statement Wednesday for a boycott of micropayment site PayPal to punish the electronic payments firm for its refusal to accept donations for WikiLeaks. DDoS attacks overwhelm websites with requests, causing them slow down or be inaccessible. Authorities in Britain and the United States have already made a number of arrests of suspected Lulz Security and Anonymous hackers. British police arrested Ryan Cleary, 19, last month at his home in Wickford, and charged him with attacking websites as part of Lulz Security. He was charged with offences including hacking into the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the British equivalent of the FBI. He was released on bail after being diagnosed with autism. US authorities on July 19 arrested 16 people for cyber crimes including 14 over an online attack on the PayPal website claimed by the hacking group "Anonymous," the Department of Justice (DoJ) said. In a sign of the transnational nature of the two hacking groups, it said those raids were carried out in coordination with Scotland Yard and the Dutch National Police Agency.