Lizard Squad 'takes down' National Crime Agency website following arrests

The attack follows raids last week of teenagers who are suspected of buying the group's "Lizard Stresser" cyberattack tool

The Lizard Squad's Twitter avatar

Hackers claim to have taken down the website of the National Crime Agency, in response to its arrests of teenagers accused of buying a cyberattack tool.

The agency said last week that it had arrested six teenagers on suspicion of launching attacks using “Lizard Stresser”, a tool made by the group that were responsible for high-profile cyberattacks on Xbox Live and PlayStation at Christmas. The group, Lizard Squad, has now launched what it claims are revenge attacks, taking the NCA’s website down.

The site did not load after the attack, which seemed to be a distributed denial of service. The NCA said that there had been "no intrustion" to its websites or services during the attack.

Messages posted by accounts affiliated with Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attack, and explicitly linked it to the “stresser” tool and the arrests.

None of those arrested in the raids were accused of involvement in those incidents, nor are they believed to be members of Lizard Squad.

The NCA said they are suspected of maliciously deploying Lizard Stresser having bought it using alternative payment services such as Bitcoin in an attempt to remain anonymous.

Organisations believed to have been targeted by the suspects include a national newspaper, a school, gaming companies and a number of online retailers. They have not been named and it has not been confirmed whether the attempted DDoS attacks were successful.

The group tweeted last week to say that it would restart its attacks, in response to the raids. That followed a long hiatus that saw the group become mostly quiet.

Additional reporting by Press Association