Ryan Cleary officially charged by U.K. police after arrest

by Steve Ragan - Jun 23 2011, 08:01

On Wednesday, just 24 hours after they arrested him, a 19-year-old now officially identified as Ryan Cleary, has been formally charged with offences under the U.K.’s Criminal Law Act and Computer Misuse Act.

Cleary was charged with creating a botnet, as well as offering the use of his botnet to others for the commission of a crime. In addition, he is charged with taking part in the DDoS attacks on the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) website, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) website, and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) website.

Since his arrest, the media has claimed Cleary to be the leader of LulzSec, the group responsible for several recent high-profile attacks targeting the FBI, CIA, and SOCA. Yet, at best there is only a thin link between the group and Cleary.

At no point while providing comments to the media has Scotland Yard suggested or outright reported that Cleary is a member of LulzSec. The supposed connection comes from the fact that he runs an IRC server used by the group, and the fact he is charged with the attack on SOCA. Based on the charges, Cleary has stronger ties to Anonymous than he does to LulzSec, which has denied any serious connection to him.

“Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate chatrooms on his IRC server, but that's it,” the group said on its Twitter feed.

“We use Ryan's server, we also use Efnet, 2600, Rizon and AnonOps IRC servers. That doesn't mean they're all part of our group,” it added. “Clearly the UK police are so desperate to catch us that they've gone and arrested someone who is, at best, mildly associated with us.”

Depending on how far the police intend to press matters, building a botnet and then offering it to others are crimes in the U.K. They are the only two things needed to drag Cleary before a judge.

The Tech Herald was present when Cleary admitted publically to controlling a botnet of 5-10,000 bots, out of an install base of 50,000 to pull from. According to his statements, they were used during OpSony and attacks against BMI (actions performed during Anonymous’ Operation: Payback), as well as DDoS attacks against DreamHost.

It’s likely that the charges against Cleary are being used as leverage. The police will be interested in learning everything he knows about Anonymous and LulzSec. However, this won’t prevent him from being made an example of.

Unlike others who were arrested for actions related to Anonymous, Cleary is charged with building and providing access to a botnet. There’s almost no chance that police will use him for information and let him walk away with such charges hanging around.

After that, it’s possible that the U.S. legal system will want its day in court with him. According to The Telegraph, a source explained that Cleary could well be facing extradition across the pond.

“He would have to be charged here [in the U.K.] first if any offence has been committed, because he was allegedly attacking the SOCA website when he was arrested,” the source said.

“But the investigation into his activities was being driven by the FBI, and it seems likely they will want to have him extradited to the US so they can question him about attacks on American websites.”

Cleary will appear in custody at City of Westminster Magistrates Court this morning.

Update:

Cleary appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday morning. He did not enter a plea, and the judge ruled there was insufficient information to set bail at this time. In addition, the judge noted that Cleary could face additional charges. Another court date was set for this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. 

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