16-year-old Dutch teenager arrested for pro-WikiLeaks cyber attacks

16-year-old Dutch teenager arrested for pro-WikiLeaks cyber attacks

2010-12-10 06:27:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (BNO NEWS) -- Dutch authorities on Thursday announced that they arrested a 16-year-old teenager over his alleged involvement in the pro-WikiLeaks hacking attacks on the Visa and MasterCard websites.

Dutch police officers arrested the young suspect at his home in The Hague on the first hours of Thursday. The youngster allegedly admitted being involved in the cyber attacks against the websites of the two credit card companies.

Officers from the hi-tech crime unit of the Dutch national police force entered his home while he was sleeping. Later, law enforcement agents seized computers and data storage devices in order to aid the investigation.

The Dutch police is working in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in an investigation into the hacking attack and more arrests are expected. The information that led to the arrest of the teenager did not come from the U.S.

"We received information that one or more of the WikiLeaks-related attacks were coordinated from the Netherlands," Wim de Bruin, spokesman for the Dutch prosecution office, said. "That is the reason the police have been investigating."

When it was learned that the hacking attacks were launched from a server in Haarlem, the Netherlands, the hi-tech crime unit opened an investigation but specified that it targets people responsible for carrying the attacks and not those who allowed their computers to be used by the hackers.

It is believed that the 16-year-old suspect is part of a larger group of WikiLeaks sympathizers behind the attacks that intend to keep the Internet open and free for everyone as well as the website founded by Julian Assange active.

On Wednesday, hackers launched DDoS attacks on the Visa and MasterCard websites in retaliation for the credit card companies' withdrawal of services to WikiLeaks. The attack was dubbed as "Operation Payback."

The DDoS attacks essentially flood websites with traffic to slow them down and some times knock them offline. The MasterCard website was unavailable for several hours while Visa's website crashed at about 4:00 p.m. ET and it has not been restored since.

The teenager was not named by authorities and is currently under custody. He is scheduled to appear before a judge in Rotterdam on Friday.

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