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09:28 GMT
LONDON, July 20 (KUNA) -- A 16-year-old boy has been arrested in Britain on
suspicion of cybercrime, police said here Wednesday.
The teenager was arrested at a south London address yesterday and taken to
a central London police station, where he remains in custody, the police said.
He was held on suspicion of breaching the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
The Metropolitan Police is liaising with the FBI and authorities in the
Netherlands, a police spokesman added.
It is understood that he is suspected of being connected with hacking group
"Anonymous".
It came as 14 people were arrested in the US for allegedly mounting a
cyberattack on PayPal's website in retaliation for suspending the accounts of
WikiLeaks.
The attacks on the online payment specialist by the group Anonymous
followed the release by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks in November of
thousands of classified US State Department cables.
Anonymous, a loosely-organised group of hackers sympathetic to WikiLeaks,
has claimed responsibility for attacks against corporate and government
websites all over the world.
The group also claims to have disrupted the websites of Visa and MasterCard
in December when the credit card companies stopped processing donations to
WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.
The 14 allegedly involved in the PayPal attack were charged in US District
Court in San Jose, California, and were arrested in Alabama, Arizona,
California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Massachusetts,
Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio.
Meanwhile, FBI agents executed more than 35 search warrants around the
country in an continuing investigation into co-ordinated cyberattacks against
major companies and organisations. There were two arrests in the United States
unrelated to the PayPal attack and four arrests by the Dutch National Police
Agency.
The London suspect is the second British teenager to be arrested over
allegations of cybercrime in recent weeks.
Last month Ryan Cleary was detained and accused of attempting to hack into
the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).
Cleary, 19, who is accused of taking part in a conspiracy to attack sites
including those of Soca and the British Phonographic Industry, is currently on
conditional bail.(end)
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