LulzSec hacker thought to have been arrested in UK

Members of the Met Police's Police Central e-Crime Unit have arrested a 19-year-old man on suspicion of hacking and launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, leading many to speculate he could be a key player in the LulzSec hacking group.

In a brief statement posted to the Met's web site, the force said it had caught the man as a result of a pre-planned intelligence-led operation.

"The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial of service attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group," the statement noted.

"The teenager was arrested on suspicion of offences against the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act, and was taken to a central London police station, where he currently remains in custody for questioning."

The person was arrested at a residential address in Wickford, Essex, where a "significant amount of material" was found and removed for forensic examination.

Although not named as a LulzSec kingpin, the 19-year-old is widely believed to be such, a theory given extra weight by virtue of the Met having worked with the FBI on the operation.

LulzSec rose to prominence in the past few weeks with audacious and numerous attacks on several big-name organisations, including Sony and Nintendo as well as the US Senate and FBI.

Only today, a document posted to Pastebin claimed the group had "obtained" the records of all UK citizens, via the UK 2011 Census, and would soon post them online on The Pirate Bay.

"There has been much speculation recently regarding who might be behind LulzSec – if the police believe that they have cracked the group then a strong message will be sent to others considering engaging in illegal acts such as malicious hacking and denial-of-service attacks," said Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley in a blog post.

"It will be interesting to see if LulzSec's Twitter account is updated, or has anything more to say about the arrest. Will it be a case of ‘who lulz last, laughs longest?'."