British Police have arrested an UK teenager in connection with the Lizard Squad hacking attacks that took down Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live over Christmas.
The UK Police arrested the 18 year old during a raid at his semi-detached home in Southport, Merseyside County in northwest England on Friday.
The man in custody is suspected of unauthorized access to computer material with intent to commit further offences and threats to kill. He is also accused of “swatting”, the act of falsely reporting a crime to law enforcement to prompt a SWAT team mobilization.
The operation was a joint effort between three UK cyber crime units and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
“This investigation is a good example of joint law enforcement co-operation in relation to a type of criminality that is not restricted by any geographical boundaries,” said Craig Jones, Head of the Cyber Crime Unit at the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) as quoted by BBC News.
“We are still at the early stages of the investigation and there is still much work to be done. We will continue to work closely with the FBI to identify those who commit offences and hold them to account.
“We are pursuing cyber criminals using the latest technology and working with businesses and academia to further develop specialist investigative capabilities to protect and reduce the risk to the public.”
Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network both suffered “distributed denial of service” attacks over Christmas, which made it difficult for users to log on.
A hacking group called Lizard Squad assumed responsibility for the attack.
PRISON Is correct punishement
Give him 10 years imprisonment.