Teen Hacker behind FBI Leak Arrested in UK

Following months of taunting and bragging on social media, and a recent leak of vital information acquired from its attack subjects, the FBI and the UK police authorities may have finally brought a series of cyber-attacks on the U.S. government and its officials to a close after arresting the operation's alleged leader—at least for now.

British police officials have not disclosed details of the arrested hacker, given the fact that experts and authorities have surprisingly uncovered a teenager behind this series of attacks. Instead, a statement provided by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU), headed by the Thames Valley Police under UK’s National Crime Agency, confirmed the arrest of a “16-year-old boy Tuesday (9/2) in the East Midlands on suspicion of conspiracy to commit unauthorised access to computer material contrary to Section 1 Computer Misuse Act 1990, conspiracy to commit unauthorised access with intent to commit further offences contrary to Section 2 Computer Misuse Act 1990 and conspiracy to commit unauthorised acts with intent to impair, or with recklessness as to impairing operation of a computer contrary to Section 3 Computer Misuse Act 1990.”

Further details of the arrest remain undisclosed and the charges that the alleged hacker could face domestically are still unclear. However, the suspicion of that he is the hacker known as “Cracka”, the leader behind the cybercriminal wrongdoings of hacktivist group “Crackas With Attitude” is strong.  The arrest was linked to a previously reported tweet made by another CWA member who claimed he was brought in by the UK authorities for questioning.

The group started gaining notoriety after it successfully used social engineering techniques to breach CIA Director John Brennan’s AOL email account and leaked sensitive documents in October of last year. Following this, the list of prominent hack victims grew, including FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano, and then the director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The most recent operation involved a data dump that exposed personal information of at least 30,000 FBI and Department of Homeland Security employees. These actions, according to the group, were done as a protest of the injustice being done against Palestine.

Several CWA members then took to Twitter to post threats of carrying out intensified campaigns against the government after the arrest was made public. An account under the display name @IncursioSubter wrote, “Will we stop attacking governments since cracka got arrested? Simple answer: no. In fact, our campaign will only intensify now.”

According to Motherboard, the teenager was released on bail after he was detained for 7-hours, saying “I’m innocent until proven guilty so I have nothing to be worried about.”