Scotland Yard arrests possible LulzSec leader, group denies

The "lulz" for LulzSec may be about to end as worldwide authorities begin a push to apprehend those responsible. The British Metropolitan Police Service -- better known as Scotland Yard -- said Tuesday that it had arrested a 19-year-old man believed to be one of the lead individuals within the hacking collective.

UK law enforcement was under increasing pressure to find those responsible after LulzSec said that it planned to release the entire database from Britain's 2011 census. That would have meant some 62 million people could have their personal data exposed, the biggest hack yet for the group.

Officials with Scotland Yard say a raid following the teen's arrest led to the uncovering of a "significant amount of material." Examinations of what was found are ongoing, and the FBI is apparently also assisting in the operation.

"The arrest follows an investigation into network intrusions and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against a number of international business and intelligence agencies by what is believed to be the same hacking group," the Metropolitan Police Service says in a statement.

It is not immediately clear as to whether or not British authorities have actually apprehended a major player in LulzSec's operations, or just one of the group's likely many expert hackers.

In fact, the group itself remained defiant in a tweet sent Tuesday morning. "Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?" the tweet reads.

Either way, it does appear that LulzSec's days may be numbered, as law enforcement moves into overdrive to find and arrest the group's members. And their downfall may be the group's tendency to brag about their exploits.

"It would, after all, be hard to keep a secret from friends and peers if you were a member of LulzSec," Sophos' Graham Cluley says.