Lapsus$: Two UK teenagers charged with hacking for notorious gang

Two teenagers from the UK have been charged by police over hacking for a notorious cyber-crime gang.

A 16 and 17-year-old will appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

The boys have been charged with multiple cyber-offences and remain in police custody.

The teens were arrested as part of an international police investigation into the Lapsus$ gang, which is relatively new but much talked-about.

The cyber-crime group successfully breached major firms like Microsoft, and then bragged about it online.

Last week, the FBI launched an appeal for information about the people behind the hacking crew.

According to Det Insp Michael O’Sullivan, from the City of London Police, 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.

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.

Legal restrictions related to the ages of suspects means the names of the boys cannot be revealed.

The police announced last week that they had arrested seven people between the ages of 16 and 21 around the UK as part of their investigation into Lapsus$.

Around the same time as news of the arrests emerged, Lapsus$ told its 45,000 followers on Telegram that some of its members were taking “a vacation”.

On Wednesday, they started posting again – releasing stolen material from a software development company with headquarters in Argentina.