Alleged Lulzsec Hacker Cleary ‘Has Asperger’s’

Ryan Cleary, the 19-year-old accused of carrying out cyber-crimes as part of the Lulzsec hacker group, has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and agoraphobia, the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Saturday.

Cleary, from Wickford in Essex, was arrested as part of a Scotland Yard and FBI probe of the Lulzsec group, which said over the weekend it has disbanded following seven weeks of high-profile hacking exploits. The group’s targets included the CIA, the FBI, Sony and the US Senate.

Bail battle

Cleary was granted bail, but remained in custody over the weekend following prosecutors’ objections.

Ben Cooper, Cleary’s defence attorney, told the court that Cleary is highly intelligent but has difficulties interacting with other people.

Cleary’s defence is appealing the bail decision and the appeal will go to a Plea and Case Management Hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 30 August, according to the BBC.

Cleary’s prosecutors allege that, working with Lulzsec, he set up a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) on 20 June.

He is also accused of attacking the website of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in November 2010 and the British Phonographic Industry’s website in October 2010. He was charged under the Criminal Law Act and Computer Misuse Act by the Met Police’s e-crime unit.

Botnet attack

Cleary allegedly conspired with others to construct the botnet used to attack Soca, according to prosecutors.

His defence has not yet entered a plea to the charges.

If he is granted bail he will not be allowed to possess any device that can access the Internet. His home will not be allowed to have an Internet connection and he will not be allowed to leave home without his mother, according to the BBC.

Lulzsec has acknowledged that Cleary hosted one of its chat rooms on his IRC server, but denied that he was a leader of the group.

Gary McKinnon, the NASA hacker, has also been diagnosed with Asperger’s.