British cops arrest six for using Lizard Stresser DDoS tool

British police are cracking down on users of the Lizard Stresser distributed denial of service tool, making a wave of arrests over the weekend.

Six young males were apprehended and released on bail or cautioned by different UK police forces for having bought the Lizard Stresser software and maliciously deploying it against a number of organisations, Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

The loosely organised Lizard Squad hacking group took credit for a series of denial of service attacks against Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox gaming networks over the Christmas period in 2014.

All the arrested in the weekend raids were under 20, with the youngest being a 15 year old boy from Stockport, Greater Manchester.

The NCA said two other 17 year old boys were arrested and bailed in March and April for allegedly taking part in other Lizard Squad DDoS attacks this year.

British police are also visiting around 50 addresses they say are linked to people registered on the Lizard Stresser website even though they are not thought to have carried out DDoS attacks.

Many of the individuals receiving police visits are under 20. The NCA said it was part of an effort to dissuade young people from entering into serious forms of cyber crime. 

Those visited will be told that DDoS attacks are illegal, and can prevent access to vital online services as well as causing significant financial and reputational damage to businesses.

They will also be warned of the consequences of taking part in such attacks, which include the possibility of custodial sentences and removal of internet access and confiscation of computer equipment.

The authors of Lizard Stresser, which takes advantage of residential broadband routers with weak security to execute DDoS attacks, have not yet been identified by police.