British authorities have arrested a man accused of hacking into multiple US federal agencies.
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According to the indictment (PDF) filed in New Jersey, Love and others hacked into thousands of computers in the USA and elsewhere, collecting personal data from 104,000 people along the way.
Cryptosphere contributor, Occupy stalwart, and dedicated Adrian Lamo heckler Lauri Love has been arrested in the United Kingdom, and after two years of sparring, a request for extradition has been filed by the US.
The 30-year-old was charged in New Jersey in 2013 and then charged previous year in both Virginia and New York.
Love’s lawyer, Karen Todner, said Love is now out on bail, and she has previously confirmed that they would fight any extradition request.
Ms Todner said his re-arrest came “out of the blue” and he would be fighting extradition.
He was initially arrested in Britain in October 2013 on suspicion of computer crimes but was released on bail and has yet to be charged there.
Love is also said to have bragged in messages with his co-conspirators: “You have no idea how much we can f*** with the USA government if we wanted to”.
Though the alleged hacker was bailed at the time this was cancelled over a year ago, with no further action following and no demands from the United States that he should be extradited.
Using the moniker “peace”, Love told others in a chatroom that he had “shelled” – or infiltrated – the Federal Reserve computer system, the indictment said.
He also allegedly discussed possibly defacing the Federal Reserve website, sending fake emails to users of its computer system and publishing employee passwords and phone numbers.
McKinnon, who was accused of hacking into 97 USA federal and military computer systems in 2002, set up a search engine optimisation business in 2014 after winning his 10-year battle against extradition due to the intervention of home secretary Theresa May in October 2012.
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May made the move on human rights grounds because of medical reports warning that McKinnon, who has Asperger’s syndrome and suffers from depressive illness, could kill himself if sent to the US.
