UK Teen Arrested on Computer Misuse Charges

A 17-year-old has been arrested in the south of England on hacking charges, the City of London police has confirmed.

A brief statement posted to Twitter revealed that the boy was apprehended last Thursday as part of an investigation supported by the National Crime Agency’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU).

“The teenager has been charged with two counts of breach of bail conditions and two counts of computer misuse,” said detective inspector Michael O’Sullivan from the City of London police force’s Cyber Crime Unit.

“He will appear at Highbury Corner Youth Court on Saturday 24 September 2022.”

No further details were given by police. However, one journalist took to Twitter to claim that the individual is the same teen arrested earlier this year in connection with cyber-attacks on Microsoft and Nvidia.

That may explain the charges of breach of bail conditions.

Citing a “source with knowledge of the matter,” Matthew Keys claimed the latest arrest was carried out in connection with the recent attacks on Rockstar Games and possibly Uber. It was also done in concert with the FBI, he said.

That would tie the attacks more definitively to the infamous Lapsus$ group, which the teen is thought to have been a member of.

He and another teenager were charged back in April with hacking offenses related to previous Lapsus$ breaches.

At the end of March, City of London police said it had arrested seven suspects between the ages of 16 and 21 in connection with the group. A report claimed the ringleader was a 16-year-old from Oxford with autism, who went by the online monikers “White” and “Breachbase.”

Although Rockstar Games has been more tight-lipped over an incident in which a hacker leaked footage of an upcoming Grand Theft Auto game, Uber last week linked its breach to Lapsus$.

The individual in question claimed at the time to be 18.