Met police quadruples size of cybercrime unit

Scotland Yard issues fresh warning to hackers following arrests of teenagers accused of links to LulzSec and Anonymous The Metropolitan police has quadrupled its cybercrime unit to 85 officers in just two months as the investigation into so-called “hacktivist” groups, LulzSec and Anonymous, gathers pace. Scotland Yard issued a fresh warning to computer hackers following the high-profile arrests of three British teenagers accused of having links to the groups. Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, the head of the Met’s e-Crime unit, said on Thursday that the cybercrime division has benefited from a recent £30m boost to its budget. The Met has helped coordinate an international investigation into the hackers linked to attacks on gaming firms and government agencies, including the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca and the US Congress. Jake Davis, an 18-year-old from the Shetland Islands, was released on bail on Monday after being charged with five offences under the Computer Misuse Act, the Serious Crime Act and the Criminal Law Act. Davis is accused of gathering data from NHS computers, being involved with attacks on News International and being part of an attack that crippled Soca’s website. The arrest of Davis, who allegedly used the online alias “Topiary”, follows that of Essex teenager Ryan Cleary in June and the arrest and release of an unnamed 16-year-old from London two weeks ago. The apparent ringleader of LulzSec, known as “Sabu”, remains at large. Police have warned that anyone using a computer unlawfully – which includes online denial of service (DoS) attacks, used frequently by the hacker collectives – faces up to 10 years in prison. Det Supt McMurdie warned : “What they’re doing isn’t civil disobedience, it’s serious crime.” The Met said in a statement: “Under UK legislation, it is an offence if a person acts from within the UK upon a computer anywhere else in the world. It is also an offence if someone anywhere else in the world to criminally affect a computer within the UK.” Hacking Internet Computing Metropolitan police Police Crime Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.