Teen hacking suspect charged with computer misuse and breach of bail conditions

Teen hacking suspect charged with computer misuse and breach of bail conditions

Teen hacking suspect charged with computer misuse and breach of bail conditions

British police have charged the 17-year-old youth they arrested last week in Oxfordshire.

As I noted at the time, the arrest was widely rumoured to be connected to an investigation into the LAPSUS$ hacking gang, which has hacked the likes of Microsoft, Ubisoft, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Okta.

Most recently, LAPSUS$ has tied to data breaches at Uber, 2K and Grand Theft Auto maker Rockstar Games.

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The Rockstar data breach saw more than 90 videos of footage from the as-yet-unreleased “Grand Theft Auto 6” game leaked onto the internet by a hacker calling themselves “TeaPot.”

Teapot post

The teenager arrested in Oxfordshire has been charged with two offences under the computer misuse act, and two counts of breaching bail conditions, according to a tweet from City of London police.

The mention of breaching bail conditions is interesting, because it does rather suggest that the individual arrested was already known to police, and was already awaiting a court hearing.

As I detailed back in March, a teenager (then reported as being 16 years old) was arrested in Oxford following a string of hacks by the LAPSUS$ group.

At the time, BBC News reported that the boy was autistic, and that his father claimed he spent “a lot of time on the computer.”

Other hackers were said to have “doxxed” the boy, revealing his name, address, and social media pictures following a falling-out.

Could the 16-year-old arrested in Oxford in March now be the 17-year-old arrested in Oxfordshire and charged with breaching his bail conditions?

That’s a rhetorical question… for now.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon’s Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy.

Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, or drop him an email.

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