The websites of record label trade bodies the BPI and IFPI were among those targeted by the 19 year old Essex geek who was arrested earlier this week for his alleged part in a campaign of cyber-attacks.

Ryan Cleary was specifically arrested for his alleged involvement in Distributed Denial Of Service attacks against the BPI and IFPI as well as the Serious Organised Crime Agency. The arrest comes as  authorities in various countries try to crack down on a recent spate of hacking attacks against big business and government institutions, most designed to hinder the operations of organisations the attackers believe are behaving irresponsibly, usually for enforcing copyrights or limiting freedom of speech, though some have resulted in significant data grabs.

The authorities believe Cleary, arrested at his Essex home on Monday, is linked to on online hacking community who go by the name Lulz Security, though they denied the link via their Twitter feed, tweeting: “Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it’s all over now … wait … we’re all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?”

Sections: In The Pop Courts | Tags: BPI, IFPI

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