Schoolboy, 16, Arrested Over Huge Global Cyber Attack

Schoolboy, 16, Arrested Over Huge Global Cyber Attack

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A 16-year-old schoolboy has been arrested in connection with a huge cyber attack which is alleged to have affected the internet globally.

According to the Evening Standard, police said they arrested the boy in April after 'significant sums of money' were found to be 'flowing through his bank account'.

The boy, who lives in south-west London, has not been identified, and was bailed until later this year.

Detectives at the National Cyber Crime Unit were acting with police from around the world in a swoop against a gang of suspected cyber criminals.

A Dutch man, 35 years old and living in Spain, was also arrested at the time.

The attack was allegedly a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against the Dutch anti-spam group Spamhaus.

A DDoS attack involves a programme repeatedly trying to access a website from various computers, to make it unavailable to its intended users.

The attack was described in a briefing document as the 'largest DDoS attack ever seen', which had a 'worldwide impact' on internet exchanges. It said the attack caused 'worldwide disruption of the functionality' of the internet.

It continues: "The suspect was found with his computer systems open and logged on to various virtual systems and forums. The subject has a significant amount of money flowing through his bank account. Financial investigators are in the process of restraining monies."

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