Reports confirmed on Tuesday that UK law enforcement arrested Ryan Cleary, 19, of Essex in connection with several recent hackings.
The Guardian reported that U.K. police officers framed the arrest as a "pre-planned intelligence-led operation" worked jointly with the country's Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU) and FBI.
Officials claimed they discovered "a significant amount of material" (read: computer equipment) at Cleary's family's home. Not the most original place to allegedly launch far-reaching cyber attacks that affect millions - in fact, it's just a little stereotypical. Then again, expecting supposed teenage hacking masterminds to operate out of high-tech mansions or seedy basement apartments might be going too far out on the other side of the stereotype spectrum.
Authorities seem convinced Cleary is a member of the new hacker collective, LulzSec.
The group quickly gained both fame and infamy due to the seemingly capricious nature of its attacks; targets ranged from PBS to Nintendo to Sony Pictures. LulzSec also took credit for attacks against an FBI affiliate as part of its "F*ck FBI Friday" jaunt. Last week, the hackers frustrated countless gamers when it took down "Minecraft," "EVE Online" and "League of Legends" servers - all in a single day.
LulzSec, which communicates almost solely via its Twitter account, promptly denied Cleary's perceived status, saying that the UK police arrested someone who was "at best mildly associated with us." Going one step further, the group later clarified, "Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate chatrooms on his IRC server, but that's it."
For Cleary, who previously severed ties to that other online hacker group Anonymous during what some considered a civil war between two opposing factions, the "lulz" may be over - official member of LulzSec or not.
