Teenager charged over Anonymous DDoS attacks

Ryan Cleary, the teenager arrested on Monday for involvement in distributed denial-of-service attacks and hacking, has been charged with offences under the Criminal Law Act and Computer Misuse Act.

Ryan Cleary, 19, has been arrested in connection with DDoS attacks claimed by Anonymous (above) and LulzSec. Image credit: Anonymous

Cleary, 19, will appear before the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday on five charges. He is charged with conspiring to form a botnet that was used in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and with participating in three particular attacks, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.

Cleary is alleged to have participated in a DDoS attack on the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) on Monday. The charges also allege he took part in taking down the websites of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in November and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in October.

Responsibility for the IFPI and BPI outages was claimed by the activist  group Anonymous, while the Soca attack was part of the AntiSec campaign launched on Sunday by Anonymous and LulzSec combined.

Cleary was arrested on Monday following an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service's Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), with assistance from the FBI. Apart from the charges he faces in the UK, there have been reports that Cleary could face extradition to the US over his involvement in international DDoS attacks.