A Merseyside man has been arrested for a series of cyber attacks against bank and council websites.
Titan officers raided a house in Farmer Place in Bootle and arrested a 50-year-old man seizing his computer and other equipment.
He was taken to a police station in Merseyside where he has been questioned by detectives on suspicion of offences under Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act.
On July 7 and 8, two separate ‘denial of service’ attacks were launched against the customer-facing websites of two multi-national banks.
The attacks disrupted the websites for around 40 minutes on each evening.
The previous month, a council website in the north of England had been disrupted for two hours one afternoon using the same tactic.
Two days earlier on June 7, a website provider for an advisory service providing advice about family court matters was attacked.
The server was flooded with hostile traffic which blocked genuine users of the site for four hours.
The organisations in all four cases have suffered as a result of customers or service-users being unable to access their websites, financial losses from getting IT specialists to rectify the problem, and reputational damage.
Detective Chief Inspector Janet Hudson, who leads the North-West’s e-crime unit, which is part of Titan, the regional organised crime unit, said: “Today’s arrest is the result of a highly complex but fast-developing investigation by specialist investigators both here in the North-west and elsewhere in the UK.
“Four large organisations have suffered as a result of these cyber-attacks with the services they provide badly affected for lengthy periods.
“These attacks caused worry and concern – no-one knew how long they would last or if the damage could be repaired. This is the impact of cyber-crime – it is not a victimless crime. It affects real people with real businesses and this arrest shows the police and other agencies can and will take action against suspected offenders.”
The warrant was executed in Bootle as part of an on-going investigation by Titan, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) Cyber department and the Police Central e-Crime unit (PCeU).
Titan officers raided a house in Farmer Place in Bootle and arrested a 50-year-old man seizing his computer and other equipment.
He was taken to a police station in Merseyside where he has been questioned by detectives on suspicion of offences under Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act.
On July 7 and 8, two separate ‘denial of service’ attacks were launched against the customer-facing websites of two multi-national banks.
The attacks disrupted the websites for around 40 minutes on each evening.
The previous month, a council website in the north of England had been disrupted for two hours one afternoon using the same tactic.
Two days earlier on June 7, a website provider for an advisory service providing advice about family court matters was attacked.
The server was flooded with hostile traffic which blocked genuine users of the site for four hours.
The organisations in all four cases have suffered as a result of customers or service-users being unable to access their websites, financial losses from getting IT specialists to rectify the problem, and reputational damage.
Detective Chief Inspector Janet Hudson, who leads the North-West’s e-crime unit, which is part of Titan, the regional organised crime unit, said: “Today’s arrest is the result of a highly complex but fast-developing investigation by specialist investigators both here in the North-west and elsewhere in the UK.
“Four large organisations have suffered as a result of these cyber-attacks with the services they provide badly affected for lengthy periods.
“These attacks caused worry and concern – no-one knew how long they would last or if the damage could be repaired. This is the impact of cyber-crime – it is not a victimless crime. It affects real people with real businesses and this arrest shows the police and other agencies can and will take action against suspected offenders.”
The warrant was executed in Bootle as part of an on-going investigation by Titan, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) Cyber department and the Police Central e-Crime unit (PCeU).
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