Police in Norway have arrested two teenagers suspected of participating in large-scale denial-of-service traffic-flooding attacks against Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) and other government targets.
The 18- and 19-year-old unnamed suspects reportedly targeted the Norwegian Lottery and Germany's Bild newspaper as well, Norwegian prosecutor Erik Moestue told BBC News.
"We have arrested the two we think were most important in these attacks, but we still want to talk to more people," Moestue said.
Police picked up the teens last week following a hacking stint that lasted "several weeks," and may have also affected DNB, the country's largest financial services group, Moestue said. The teens have been released on bail, The Register confirmed. If convicted, each suspect faces a maximum term of six years behind bars.
Britain's SOCA, which was taken offline as a result of DDoS attacks on May 2, has long been a favorite target of hacktivists. The "AntiSec" movement, an offshoot of the LulzSec and Anonymous hacking groups, kicked off its anti-government campaign last year by going after SOCA. More recently, Anonymous has set its sights on SOCA, as well as the U.K.'s Home Office and Ministry of Justice, in several DDoS attacks to protest the extradition of U.K. cybercriminals to the U.S.