56 Suspected Hackers Arrested in Anti-Cybercrime Operations in the UK

The National Crime Agency arrested 56 suspected hackers in 25 separate operations as part of a "strike week" against cybercrime.

Those arrested are suspected of being involved in a wide variety of cybercrimes including data theft, fraud and virus writing, the BBC reported.

West Midlands police arrested a 23-year-old man in Sutton Coldfield who is believed to have been involved in breaking into the network of the US defence department in June 2014.

The biggest operation saw the arrest of 25 people in London and Essex suspected of using the net to steal money, launder cash and carry out other fraud.

The hackers behind that attack stole contact information for about 800 people and data on the network's internal architecture was also pilfered.

The action also resulted in the arrest of people thought to be part of some well-known hacking groups.

In Leeds, a suspected member of the Lizard Squad group was arrested, and in London a 21-year-old man was taken into custody on suspicion of being part of the D33Ds Company hacking collective.

The D33Ds group is believed to have been behind a 2012 attack on Yahoo that stole more than 400,000 email addresses and passwords subsequently published online.

Investigations about suspects in Sutton Coldfield, Leeds and Willesden were aided by forensic information provided by the FBI.

The other actions targeted alleged phishing gangs, intellectual property thieves, users of financial malware, companies that offer hosting services to crime groups, and many people who took part in so-called DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks in an attempt to knock websites offline.

"Criminals need to realise that committing crime online will not render them anonymous to law enforcement," said Andy Archibald, deputy director of the NCCU.

"It's imperative that we continue to work with partners to pursue and disrupt the major crime groups targeting the UK."

The strike week also involved four forces setting up pop-up shops to give advice to the public about staying safe online and to get their devices checked to make sure they are free of malware and other digital threats.