Hacktivist group confirms arrest of its leader

One of the two teenagers arrested late last week in the UK has been charged with one count of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and with one count of violating the Computer Misuse Act of 1990 for having carried out a phone based denial-of-service attack against Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Hotline.

The initial speculation that the unnamed 17-year-old from Birmingham is the leader – called “TriCk” – of the hacktivist group TeaMp0isoN was first denied then confirmed by another member of the group. According to the same source, the other arrested teenager is not a member of TeaMp0isoN.

The two allegedly used a script that bombed the hotline with calls for two days, making it impossible for others callers to get through, V3 reports. Those legitimate calls were instead redirected to an outside line where the callers were greeted with a robot voice which said “TeaMp0isoN”.

Simultaneously, other hacktivists performed DDoS attacks against official websites of the UK Ministry of Justice, the Prime Minister and others, all in the name of protesting the country’s extradition laws.

Following all that, TriCk has allegedly performed and taped a prank call directed against the anti-terrorism hotline, then put it on YouTube, and the group allegedly even managed to compromise the Met’s phone system – a claim that the Director Of Information for the Metropolitan Police Service vehemently denied.

TriCk has been charged on Saturday and released on bail until his next appearance in court on May. The second teenager has not been charged yet.

In the meantime, TeaMp0isoN has called on hacktivists to participate in Operation Retaliation, which is set to target the UK’s intelligence agency MI6.