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Young CHAP CUFFED in Blighty over Xmas Sony and XBOX hacks
Plods chum up with FBI
UK coppers and the FBI have arrested a man in connection with the denial of service attack on Sony Playstation and Xbox systems in 2014.
Hacking group the Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attacks last month, which caused major disruption to the platforms over Christmas.
Officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (Serocu) arrested an 18-year-old man from Southport, near Liverpool, this morning.
The man was also arrested in relation to "swatting" offences, a term used to describe the activity of providing false information to law enforcement agencies in the USA. In this case agencies received hoax calls via Skype for a major incident in which SWAT teams were dispatched.
A number of electronic and digital devices were seized to be examined by Serocu's cyber crime forensic and eForensics unit.
Craig Jones, head of the cyber crime unit at Serocu, said: “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 to who commit offences and hold them to account."
Peter Goodman, cyber security lead at the Association of Police Officers (ACPO), said this is a "significant" arrest of "a UK citizen suspected of engaging in serious and organised cyber crime on the national and international stage."
The man was arrested on suspicion of unauthorised access to computer material contrary to section 1 of Computer Misuse Act 1990. ®