(CNN)British
law enforcement officers have arrested a 23-year-old man suspected of
hacking the U.S. Department of Defense and swiping data from a
satellite-based system used by the military to communicate with people
worldwide, UK authorities said Friday.
This arrest was one of 56 made this week in 20 separate operations
conducted by regional organized crime units, Metropolitan Police
officers and others. The others caught range from a family of suspected
fraudsters and a 16-year-old believed to be behind hundreds of
cyberattacks, according to Britain's National Crime Agency.
Yet the arrest that the agency highlighted most was the one that targeted the world's most powerful last June 15.
On that date, someone hacked into the U.S. Department of Defense's
servers and got data related to its "Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services"
system. This included contact information -- including their names,
emails and phone numbers -- of about 800 people and info on
approximately 34,400 devices, the National Crime Agency reports.
None of the hacked material was considered confidential, nor did it
apparently include "sensitive data" or anything that "compromises U.S.
national security interests," the British agency said.
Still, the person responsible for the hack cryptically played it up big
in a post to Pastebin, a website that allows for anonymous posts.
Alongside screenshots of the dashboard used to control the Defense
Department database, the hacker wrote, "We smite the Lizards,
LizardSquad your time is near" in apparent reference to a notorious band
of black-hat hackers.
"We're in your bases, we control your satellites," the hacker adds. "The
missiles shall rein (sic) upon they who claim alliance, watch your
heads... We're one, we're many, we lurk in the dark, we're everywhere
and anywhere.
The 23-year-old suspected hacker was not identified by name, with the UK
National Crime Agency saying only that he was arrested Wednesday
morning in Sutton Coldfield,a Birmingham suburb in the West Midlands
region.
The U.S. military has been targeted by hackers before. Some of those actions have been blamed on ISIS sympathizers, like the January temporary takeover of the U.S. Central Command's Twitter account and YouTube page. And last year, U.S. federal officials accused four men of hacking into computer networks of the U.S. military and Microsoft and stealing more than $100 million worth of software, some it related to the video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3."
There's no indication that the June hack had anything to do with ISIS or
involved the theft of anything of much monetary value. Still, hacks
from groups such as Lizard Squad and Anonymous can have a significant
impact.
Jeffrey Thorpe, special agent in charge with the U.S. Department of
Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), said in the UK government
statement that "this arrest underscores DCIS commitment and the joint
ongoing efforts among international law enforcement to stop cyber
criminals in their tracks."
"DCIS special agents will use every tool at their disposal to pursue and
bring to justice those who attack the Department of Defense," Thorpe
said.