An alleged member of the Lizard Squad – the hacking group accused of taking down Internet services supporting Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox on Christmas – was arrested Tuesday in the United Kingdom on cyber fraud charges.
The Thames Valley Police declined to name the suspect but cyber security researcher Brian Krebs identified him as Vinnie Omari, 22,
reported The Guardian. The South East Regional Organized Crime Unit arrested the man at his home,
according to a Thames Valley Police statement.
"The arrest … is in connection with an ongoing investigation in to cyber fraud offenses which took place between 2013 and August 2014 during which victims reported funds being stolen from their PayPal accounts," said the Thames Valley police. "The arrested man was released on bail until (March 10)."
Krebs wrote on his security blog that he believed that Omari's arrest may be just the first against the hackers.
"Sources tell KrebsOnSecurity that Vinnie is one of many individuals associated with this sad little club who are being rounded up and questioned," Krebs wrote. "My guess is most, if not all, of these kids will turn on one another."
The Daily Dot reported that Omari told it during an email exchange that authorities snatched most of his hardware in the raid on his home.
"They took everything. Xbox one, phones, laptops, computer USBs, etc.," Omari told The Daily Dot. "(It is) just alleged charges. (I will) know more when the forensics team gets info."
The Lizard Squad started a service where it could be hired to launch denial of service attacks against any target, much like the Sony and Microsoft attacks. The group claimed that its service, called Lizard Stresser, would cost from $6 to $500, depending on the length of the attack, reported The Daily Dot.
Krebs reported that the Lizard Squad made a mistake that may have identified them.
"In a show of just how little this group knows about actual hacking and coding, the source code for the service appears to have been lifted in its entirety from titaniumstresser, a more established DDoS-for-hire booter service, Krebs wrote.
"In fact, these Lizard geniuses are so inexperienced at coding that they inadvertently exposed information about all of their 1,700-plus registered users," Krebs wrote.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.