UK man charged with attack that shut down SOCA site
Investigation of Ryan Cleary continues
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UK officials have formally accused a 19-year-old man of involvement in Monday's attack on the website of the British Serious Organised Crime Agency and two previous web-based assaults directed at the music industry.
Ryan Cleary was charged with five offenses in all, according to a press release issued Wednesday by the Metropolitan Police. He was arrested Monday night and has remained in police custody pending an investigation into any involvement he had in various high-profile DDoS, or distributed denial-of-service, attacks.
According to police, the Wickford teenager was involved in the DDoS attack on the SOCA website that prompted authorities to temporarily shut it down. The site contained only publicly available information. He also stands accused of participating in similar assaults in October and November against the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) respectively.
Two additional charges accuse him of helping to construct a botnet for the purposes of mounting DDoS attacks and supplying a botnet to assist in the commission of unspecified offenses.
Cleary was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard, but according to The Telegraph, the investigation into his alleged offenses is “being driven by the FBI.”
The LulzSec hacker collective claimed responsibility for taking down the SOCA website. It has also taken credit for several other attacks, including one that briefly disrupted the website for the Central Intelligence Agency. Although it's impossible to substantiate the claims, speculation has run rampant that Cleary was involved in that attack and possibly a much larger list of computer crimes.
Web searches yield a variety of webpages and online forums that make a variety of serious claims about Cleary. Few if any of them can be independently confirmed. He is scheduled to appear at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday.
Separately, claims from earlier this week that LulzSec stole sensitive UK census data has been labeled a hoax. Which just goes to show that unsubstantiated claims made online can't be taken seriously. ®
COMMENTS
DDoS is not smart
Leading a bunch of impressionable kids in an IRC channel to go attack websites is not smart.
Getting a bunch of morons to install your DoS software by sending them britney_spears_naked.jpg.exe is not smart.
If they hacked into SOCA backend, they'd be smart. If they stole accounts from banks, they'd be smart.
DDoS is not smart. It's the equivalent of 20 boozed up guys destroying the front window of a bank with bits of wood and road signs.
Err...
He has been charged with several crimes, in the first 48 hours of detention, I believe this is required, or he be set free. Now that he has been charged the police are able to investigate more/interview him more while seeing if he can be charged for further crimes. He will have a bail hearing or be given police bail fairly shortly.
In the case of rape/assault/etc bail is not automatic, you don't just get released particularly for rape. Most rapists are remanded, pending trail. With other crimes, it depends upon previous character and the nature of the crime.
This really pisses me off
>He was arrested Monday night and has remained in police custody pending an investigation
Be suspected of rape, violent assault, hit and run and you get an appointment to go back to the police station at a later date, no bail required.
Something like this and you get locked up.
Not that I'm defending him, claiming he's innocent of the alleged crime nor saying he shouldn't be fully investigated but I know who I'd rather have walking the streets while the police did their job.
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