Six UK Teens Arrested in Connection With Lizard Squad

UK authorities have arrested six teens who allegedly used the hacking group Lizard Squad's "Lizard Stresser" tool. This is a "boot-for-hire" service, which allows paying customers to nominate a website they would like to see taken down for a fee. Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the infamous Christmas Day Xbox Live and PlayStation Network attacks that brought down both online platforms during the holiday.

The "Lizard Stresser" tool uses DDoS attacks, which basically overwhelm servers with too much data, rendering them inaccessible or in a heavily compromised state.

The six UK teens were nabbed as part of an initiative called "Operation Vivarium," carried out by the country's National Crime Agency (NCA). They were not members of Lizard Squad itself, but instead only used the Lizard Stresser tool. Officers from various police forces and Regional Organized Crime Units were involved in the new wave of arrests, which took place August 24-27.

From a news release: "Those arrested are suspected of maliciously deploying Lizard Stresser, having bought the tool using alternative payment services such as Bitcoin in a bid to remain anonymous. Organizations believed to have been targeted by the suspects include a leading national newspaper, a school, gaming companies, and a number of online retailers."

The release doesn't specify which companies were attacked, but Bloomberg has heard from a source that Amazon, Microsoft, and Sony were among the targeted.

Those arrested, all males, range in age from 15 to 18. They were nabbed last week, following the arrests of two other males in March and April of this year. Click here for a full rundown of those arrested.

The NCA also says it is visiting about 50 addresses linked to people registered on the Lizard Stresser website. However, these people are "not currently believed to have carried out attacks." Instead, authorities are meeting with them to inform them that DDoS attacks are illegal and can lead to stiff penalties in the future if they don't stop.

“By paying a comparatively small fee, tools like Lizard Stresser can cripple businesses financially and deprive people of access to important information and public services," NCA Cyber Crime Unity boss Tony Adams said in a statement. “This multi-agency operation illustrates the commitment of the NCA and its partners to pursuing people who think they can criminally disrupt important public services or legitimate businesses."

"One of our key priorities is to engage with those on the fringes of cyber criminality, to help them understand the consequences of cyber crime and how they can channel their abilities into productive and lucrative legitimate careers."

The Lizard Stresser tool was itself hacked earlier this year, exposing details of the thousands of people listed on its registry. For its part, Lizard Squad has responded to the recent raids. See below.