Anonymous and LulzSec case: UK police fly to US to gather hacking evidence

Summary: Guardian reported that UK police officers have flown to the US to gather evidence of computer hacking that could be used in the prosecution of two UK teenagers suspected of carrying out online attacks on behalf of Anonymous and LulzSec.

18-year-old Jake Davis is suspected by the authorities of being "Topiary" , the public face of the Anonymous and LulzSec hacktivist groups who was arrested earlier this month in the Shetland Islands.

Ryan Clear who was arrested in June, are remanded on police bail, prohibited from accessing the internet via a computer or phone, and have restrictions on their movements.

While neither Davis nor Cleary were at Southwark crown court for a short hearing on Tuesday morning, Judge Nicholas Lorraine-Smith said the co-defendants would need to appear at the court for a plea and case management hearing on 27 January.


It is believed the UK authorities are having to trawl through a large amount of forensic evidence to build their cases.

The FBI declined to comment on whether it has sought the extradition of the pair, whose arrests form part of an ongoing international investigation into a number of online attacks by members of the hacking collective Anonymous and the smaller group LulzSec.

Cleary is charged for DDOS Attack with zombies computers(botnet). He is also alleged to have carried out DDOS attacks against Soca, the British Phonographic Industry's website and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's website by making or supplying or adapting botnets.  

Davis was charged with five offences including unauthorised computer access and conspiracy to carry out a denial-of-service attack against the Serious Organised Crime Agency's (SOCA) website, which overloaded the site with traffic.


LulzSec has claimed responsibility for online attacks against Soca and the Sun newspaper, as well as targeting US authorities such as the Senate and the CIA.

Peter David Gibson, a 22-year-old student from Hartlepool, was charged in connection with online attacks related to Anonymous last Thursday. US authorities have so far arrested more than 16 people there as part of their investigation into the groups.