Britons face computer hack charges

Two Britons accused of major computer hacking plots are facing prosecution on both sides of the Atlantic, it was revealed here Wednesday. In a statement, Scotland Yard and the FBI said that simultaneously they launched separate court proceedings against alleged members of online anarchists "LulzSec" yesterday. British officers said the decision to charge Ryan Mark Ackroyd, 25, and a 17-year-old youth from south London was "completely unrelated" to actions in America. Ackroyd and another Briton, Jake Davis, were named in prosecution papers in New York just hours earlier. The FBI also accused an Irish county councillor's son of tapping into a conference call the agency had with a string of international agencies investigating an international hacking ring. Donncha O'Cearrbhail, whose online name is palladium, faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty of recording the transatlantic briefing on investigations into the Anonymous outfit and cyber crime. A second Irish student, Darren Martyn, 25, with the hacker name pwnsauce, has also been named on the charge sheet published by the US Attorney's office. The Metropolitan Police has now charged four suspects - including Davis, 18 - over the alleged hacking of websites, including the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency. Ackroyd and the 17-year-old are accused by British prosecutors of two counts of conspiracy to "do an unauthorised act with intent to impair or with recklessness impairing of an operation of a computer", the force said. Ackroyd will appear on bail at Westminster Magistrates' Court on March 16 while the 17-year-old will appear at West London Youth Court on March 13. Davis, 18, and Ryan Cleary, 19, appeared in court last autumn charged with similar offences. LulzSec is a spin-off of the loosely organised hacking collective Anonymous. The group is accused by the FBI of attacking governments and corporations in Britain and around the globe. The court papers in the US said he participated in attacks over the past few years on Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, government computers in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemeni and Zimbabwe, Fox Broadcasting, and the US Senate.