British teenager detained over cyber hacking

A suspected British computer hacker was being held on Thursday for questioning about cyber attacks against a British law enforcement agency and two music industry bodies.

Ryan Cleary, 19, was charged on Wednesday with five offences under the Criminal Law Act and Computer Misuse Act after he was arrested as part of a joint investigation between London police and the U.S. FBI into recent attacks on high-profile websites.

He is accused of attacking the website of Britain's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and sites owned by the British Phonographic Industry and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Cleary appeared briefly at Westminster Magistrates' court in London on Thursday and was remanded into police custody for up to three days for more questioning.

The attack on SOCA was one of a number of recent incidents claimed by the Lulz Security (LulzSec) group of hackers, which says it has also targeted the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Sony Corp.

LulzSec has denied Cleary belongs to the group which often uses so-called denial-of-service attacks to overwhelm websites with internet traffic.

Its members are believed to be scattered around the world collaborating via secret chatrooms.

Security experts say the group emerged from Anonymous, a hacker activist group which became well-known for targeting companies and institutions that opposed WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange.

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby, edited by Richard Meares)