UK police arrest possible LulzSec member

Update #3: Ryan Cleary, the man thought arrested, used to belong to the hacker collective Anonymous. Is Cleary the leader of LulzSec?

Website Thinq interviewed Cleary in May after he had split from Anonymous to create a splinter group. LulzSec's first hacked data release happened on 7th May 2011.

Cleary was unhappy with certain Anonymous members who were secretly establishing a hierarchy with themselves on top. Cleary tried to hack Anonymous and steal IP addresses and passwords before launching a DDoS attack against his former allies.

Cleary claimed to have taken "the majority of firepower" from Anonymous, including the DDoS capabilities used against Sony. Could this be the Lulz Cannon that LulzSec so frequently references?

However, Cleary also criticised Anonymous key figure "Owen" and his cronies for "stupid operations" undertaken purely to grab headlines. Such a stance seems clearly at odds with LulzSec's open Twitter-based revelling.

The Metropolitan Police said earlier today that the arrested hacker's house was in Wickford, Essex. Thinq claims Ryan Cleary lives in Wickford, Essex.

Update #2: LulzSec has responded.

"Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now..." LulzSec tweeted.

"Wait... We're all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?

Update #1: Sky News may have identified the arrested hacker as Ryan Cleary.

Original story: The UK Metropolitan Police have confirmed the arrest of a male teenager whose "e-crimes" fit the bill of notorious hacking group LulzSec.

"The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group," wrote the Metropolitan Police.

The 19 year-old was cuffed on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act, and Fraud Act offences and was carted off to a London police station where he remains in custody.

The suspect's Essex address is being turned over for evidence.

The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency was taken offline following a LulzSec attack earlier this week.

LulzSec rose to infamy as fellow hacker collective Anonymous sank to the shadows. LulzSec deploys comical anarchy, revelling in its own DDoS bombardments publicly on Twitter. LulzSec also recently release 62,000 names and log-in details for the internet to use at its pleasure. Before that, LulzSec hacked Bethesda, Sony, the US Senate servers, Fox and even the X-Factor databases.

Today's arrest, if connected with LulzSec, suggests the hacker group may be British. The Twitter updates contradict this, however, as they seem to be posted on a US time-frame.