Australian police arrest leader of hacking group LulzSec

The police in Australia claim to have arrested a self-proclaimed leader of the LulzSec international, after charging him with attacking and defacing a government web site.

The 24-year-old, who operated online as "ozshock", was picked up from a town 76 km (47 miles) north of Sydney yesterday.

"The man is a self-proclaimed leader of the group Lulz Security (Lulzsec), a computer hacking group that has existed since 2011," the Australian Federal Police said.

It was alleged that this person, known by the online identity ozshock, had gained unauthorised access and caused data impairment to a government web site during this month, the police added.

LulzSec, an offshoot of the larger group, Anonymous, has claimed responsibility for several cyber attacks, including against Sony Pictures, the CIA and other government organisations.

According to the police, the man was employed as an IT professional "in a position of trust within the company", with access to sensitive information from clients, including government agencies.

The police said the man's knowledge and skills presented a significant risk to the clients of the company had he continued his illegal online activities.

The man stood charged with two counts of unauthorised modification of data to cause impairment and one count of unauthorised access to a restricted computer system that could land him a maximum of 12 years in jail.

Australian federal police, (AFP) cyber crimes commander Glen McEwen said the man's job in the IT sector afforded him access to sensitive information, allowing him to carry out the attack.

AFP, he said, believed the man's skill sets and access to this type of information presented a considerable risk to Australian society, adding that the early intervention interrupted him before he could commit any further serious offences.

Though AFP did not identify the hacker, a 24-year-old man named Matthew Flannery is expected to appear on the charges at Sydney's Central Local Court on 15 May.

According to Flannery's LinkedIn profile identifies him as an employee of Tenable Network Security, a multinational based in the US state of Maryland.

Videos have also emerged of a man closely resembling Flannery and identifying himself as Aushok. Also amateur audio recordings of the hacker singing cybercrime-themed rap music have emerged and in another video the same man appears to be singing "Summer Nights", from the film Grease, with a young woman.