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Teenagers arrested after using the Lizard Squad DDoS tool

Six British teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of attacking websites by using the Lizard Squad’s DDoS tool, the Lizard Stresser.

Lizard Squad is the popular hacking crew that brought the online gaming networks Sony PlayStation Network and Microsoft Xbox Live with major Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks.

The hackers developed a tool dubbed Lizard Stresser that draws on Internet bandwidth from hacked home Internet routers worldwide.

Lizard Stresser also proposed it with an attack-as-a-service model for sale.

News of the week is that six British teenagers linked to the Lizard Squad team have been identified and arrested by the National Crime Agency. The NCA hasn’t provided the name of the teenagers, the information shared by law enforcement is the age and the residence of the suspects.

An 18-year-old from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
An 18-year-old from Manchester
A 16-year-old from Northampton
A 15-year-old from Stockport

Other two teenagers arrested early this year are a 17-year-old from Cardiff and a 17-year-old from Northolt, north-west London.

The investigators clarified that none of the teenagers are believed to be a member of the Lizard Squad, neither was involved in the attacks that hit Sony and Microsoft last year.

The suspects are accused of using the Lizard Stresser DDoS tool to coordinate cyber attacks against a national newspaper, gaming companies, a school, and a number of online retailers.

Law enforcement speculates the six teenagers are clients of the Lizard Squad and rent their DDoS tool.

“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.
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.” explained Tony Adams, senior head of investigations for the NCA.

All the six teenagers have been bailed, meanwhile the two 18-year-olds suspects were interviewed under caution.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – NCA, Lizard Squad)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.