Boy, 15, grilled over ‘attempt to hack FBI f iles’
A SCOTTISH schoolboy was grilled in the presence of FBI agents over his role in an alleged plot to hack into US government files.
The 15- year- old Glasgow youth was arrested days after a 16-year-old in the East Midlands was accused of hacking targets including the White House, a senior FBI executive and the director of the CIA.
The latest arrest took place in Glasgow on Tuesday and is said to have involved accessing FBI computer systems.
Sources close to the case confirmed that Police Scotland acted on information from an English force.
The South East Regional Organised Crime Unit yesterday refused to deny the two cases were connected.
Its detectives arrested the older boy at his home last week on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act following an investigation on both sides of the Atlantic.
He i s accused of being the leader of a group of hackers called Crackas With Attitude. Using the pseudonym Cracka, he is alleged to have swept up huge amounts of sensitive data before dumping it online and leaking confidential documents to whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.
CIA director John Brennan’s personal email was among those t argeted. The names and addresses of 30,000 FBI and Department of Homeland Secu- rity e mployees were also obtained.
The 15-year- old was arrested under the Computer Misuse Act and his home searched.
A source said: ‘ The boy is believed to have hacked into the FBI’s computer systems. Agents travelled to Scotland to sit in on him being questioned by detectives. He could be extradited to the US, where he would face a long jail term.’
Someone with similarities to Cracka last week published the names, telephone numbers and emails of more than 20,000 FBI agents. A hacker with the Twitter handle @ IncursioSubter l ast night claimed the younger boy ‘went silent’ on Tuesday and he assumed he had been arrested.
He said: ‘We think it’s hilarious the FBI cares more about us than actual terrorists.’
A source close to the case said the boy’s family were horrified at the allegations, adding: ‘ He comes from a respectable family.’
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Following a search of a property in the Glasgow area on Tuesday, a 15-year-old male was arrested i n connection with alleged offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. He has since been released and is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.’
The US authorities have previously attempted to extradite people over alleged hacking of government systems.
Scot Gary McKinnon won a lengthy battle to stay in the UK following a campaign by the Daily Mail.
The 50- year- old, who has Asperger’s syndrome, faced 70 years in jail after he was accused of breaking into 97 Pentagon and NASA computers.
Home Secretary Theresa May blocked his extradition on human rights grounds.
US authorities claimed Mr McKinnon, using the name Solo, had deleted critical files from operating systems which shut down the country’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours.
He was first interviewed by police in March 2002 and in November of that year was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia.
The indictment contained seven counts of computer- related crimes. This led to years of legal appeals as the US tried to extradite Mr McKinnon.
As well as support from UK politicians, several high profile celebrities, including Bob Geldof and Stephen Fry, backed him.
Britons Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis were jailed in 2012 after admitting hacking the CIA and the Pentagon.
‘He could be extradited’