UK charges two teenagers linked to the Lapsus$ hacking group

Image: John Cameron

Two teenagers from the UK charged with helping the Lapsus$ extortion gang have been released on bail after appearing in the Highbury Corner Magistrates Court court on Friday morning.

According to a statement from Detective Inspector Michael O'Sullivan of the City of London Police, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old were charged following an international investigation into members of a hacking group.

"Both teenagers have been charged with: three counts of unauthorised access to a computer with intent to impair the reliability of data; one count of fraud by false representation and one count of unauthorised access to a computer with intent to hinder access to data," O'Sullivan said.

"The 16-year-old has also been charged with one count of causing a computer to perform a function to secure unauthorised access to a program."

While the UK police detective didn't name the gang the two teens worked for, a BBC report linked them to the Lapsus$ group today and said they were released on bail, "subject to certain conditions."

As a result of Lapsus$ being on the radar of international law enforcement for a while now, seven people aged 16 to 21 believed to be connected to the gang were arrested by the City of London Police last week.

The Lapsus$ gang has been in the news lately because they attacked high-profile tech companies worldwide, including Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, Okta, and Ubisoft, with many of them resulting in massive data leaks.

In spite of the huge names they added to their victim list, most Lapsus$ members are believed to be teenagers driven mainly by their goal of making a name on the hacking scene and not by financial motivation.

The FBI is also looking into the group's illegal activities and is seeking info concerning the Lapsus$ members involved in the compromise of computer networks belonging to multiple US-based companies.

"These unidentified individuals took credit for both the theft and dissemination of proprietary data that they claim to have illegally obtained," the US law enforcement agency says. "The FBI is seeking information regarding the identities of the individuals responsible for these cyber intrusions."

While it's still unclear how many active members the gang has and what roles each of them plays, it is believed that they have affiliates all over the world based on Telegram chats seemingly suggesting that they speak multiple languages, including English, Russian, Turkish, German, and Portuguese.