A teenage boy, believed to go by the online handle "MLT" and to be a member of the notorious TeamPoison hacking gang, has been arrested by British police.
The 17-year-old was arrested in Newcastle on Wednesday evening, and is being questioned about offences under the Computer Misuse Act. Computer equipment has been seized for forensic analysis - and no doubt investigators are hoping that they may find digital clues which could help uncover other suspected hackers.
The authorities, no doubt, will be hoping to confirm that they have arrested the correct man. Certainly, MLT's Twitter account has been silent since 6:27pm on Wednesday evening.
The arrest is part of an ongoing investigation by the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) division of the Metropolitan Police into various hacking gangs who have made headlines in the last year or so.
TeamPoison, which likes to dub itself "TeaMp0isoN" online, has claimed responsibility in the past for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, hacking into United Nations web servers, defacing BlackBerry's blog during the London riots, and even publishing private information belonging to Tony Blair.
Most recently, TeamPoison hackers were blamed for swamping the UK's counter-terrorism hotline with automated Skype calls. Two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were arrested the day after that incident.
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It never ceases to amaze me that there are people out there bright enough to be able to do this, their talents are wasted, surely they could earn exceptionally good money working legally with those skills?...
I Kinda know MLT and what he was doing i supported what him and Team Poison goal was to Tell the World what the Government Kept hidden from Everyone They Goal Was good. The way they Went out with their plan might have not been so good
Yeh.. that's what WikiLeaks is for <3
He's young and mislead into believing the government wants what's worse for him..
I don't blame him either.. :/
You don't jail someone with a bad case of paranoia for carrying a knife around because he was ganged when his leg was broken and he had no defense.
That stuff grows on one young minded. And when he's this bright, it doesn't grow the right direction.
With their response to him and penalty they only worsen this considering how many love him and consider him a hero.
If you want to change how the world is start with children.
Ending them like this only makes it worse. If he was spared and taught better and they proved to him they want what's best, what change this world will have. Among youth. And what a brighter future it will be.