It started with an online series and get a plan for the 19-year-old Ryan Cleary's parents in a quandary. Then, the infamous anonymous hacker collective to believe Cleary was an attack on your own network starts, recorded his name and address on the Internet - and a few weeks later he was in police custody, facing major charges in connection with cyber-crime

Also for the vengeful world of hackers, it was edgy stuff. Ryan Cleary 's enemies in Anonymous, the infamous hacker collective, whose exploits have embarrassed planned businesses and governments, to dozens of dildos, send the Essex House, where the teenager lived with his parents.

Then they were ambitious. "Fuck send him over, pizzas to his house, hire strippers, his e-mail spam, hack his shit, call prank of his house, that 's what he deserves, in fact, he would do the same with us, do not feel like a moral fag [naive prude], "one suggested.

But what initially as a childish spat - one that says a lot about the selfish, often tribal, the nature of modern hacking - ended last week with Cleary 's get arrested for allegedly attempting to numerous destinations, including the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Scotland Yard may never knock when the beginning of May, Anonymous had not felt compelled to warn his members on his side AnonOps: "Our network was developed by a former IRC [Internet Relay Chat] operator and other workers compromised named 'Ryan' . He decided that he didn 't like the leaderless command structure, the network administrators use AnonOps. So he organized a coup d 'etat . "

Anonymous, the famous symbol of the Guy Fawkes mask use in the film V for Vendetta , Did Cleary, 19, had stolen passwords and targeted the servers used to run to their websites.

Someone identified as "Ryan" boasted about what he had done, telling a technology website that he and his allies had formed a new splinter group because they were disgusted with how "PR-hungry" Anonymous had become. Hacking into the Anonymous system had been "regrettable but necessary", he said.

The revelation that the hacker 'safety had been compromised, apparently triggered by one of their own fear. "Ryan posted IP addresses of all users, including me, and I 'm innocent, I'm just running the clock I don' t get involved," a member booked online.

A few days later, chopped someone the website of the computer games maker Eidos and made it appear that it was by a group called Chippy 1337 defaced - whose members, it was claimed in an online business card, including "Ryan Cleary ". Then, in May, the nuclear option: were Cleary 's home address, telephone number and IP address in an Anonymous-linked Web site. From that moment on, he was living on borrowed time.

Even within some were appalled Anonymous, that Cleary 's personal data had been published. As one Anonymous member online: ".. Ryan pulled a big dick move, but leave the bastard alone get any karma in the end"

Cleary's arrest has seen him transformed into two distinct characters in the public imagination. To some he was public enemy number one, a hacker of skill and menace who allegedly had the power to bring businesses to their knees. To others he was simply a computer geek who had, perhaps unwittingly, been caught up in the strange world of "hacktivism", a subset of hacking that targets large companies and governments, not for money but for a cause. Some drew comparisons with another man, Gary McKinnon, wanted in the US for allegedly hacking into the Pentagon and Nasa while searching for evidence of aliens.

In the period immediately after Cleary 's arrest, the attention turned quickly to his possible connections with other group Lulz Security hacktivism, which has close ties Anonymous. LulzSec responded by Tweet: ".. It is clear that the British police are so desperate to catch us, that they 've been arrested and who is best, mild, with our affiliated Lame"

The partial refusal are not easily refuted. Hacktivism is decentralized. With collectives 'members across time zones and continents distributed, and only rarely come together here to coordinated attacks by a handful of key agents start by placing them on a particular event or attack is often impossible.

For the groups, this may be an advantage. "Leaderlessness their strength seems to be," said Ray Bryant, Chief Executive of Idappcom, an Internet security firm. "Cut off one head, and they will grow another. Arrest of a person in Essex will create a martyr for the cause." But the lack of hierarchy and discipline encourages unpredictable behavior among members. Anonymous recently urged his followers to mass sightings of UFOs, with the result that fake stories about alien sightings craft on television stations were as far afield as Russia and Argentina, report says.

Horrified many within Anonymous, which have made their name by hacking the Church of Scientology, and last year attacked for refusing to process payments to the WikiLeaks Web site PayPal, the childish stunt.

But then the internal disputes among cohorts are hacking together. Anonymous was formed by a splinter group from behind 4Chan, the online crew set up to Japanese manga art to share. 4chan was'd find behind the phenomenon of "rick rolling", where people apparently after an online connection relevant to what they chose instead watching a video of Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up.

After their self-imposed exile from 4chan, Anonymous 's founders such frivolous activities, avoided painting themselves as counter-cultural power, its faith in the motto: ... "We are legion We do not forgive We do not forget expect us \."

In contrast, plays LulzSec whose website the topic Love Boatcartoon and has a monocle bon viveuras an avatar, is extravagant.

After the fore by the release of confidential information from the U.S. shot X Factor Participant, LulzSec blamed for attacks on Sony, Nintendo and the NHS. In one famous incident, he defaced the PBS news website, reported that it was a fake article that the deceased rapper Tupac Shakur was carried out living in New Zealand. In recent months, the group responsible for the shutdown of the U.S. Senate and the CIA website says.

"Watching someone - the method by which it informs its 250,000 supporters that it launched a successful attack - LulzSec explain recently published manifesto, why it carried out hacks for fun (or" lulz "), celebrate tweet about 1,000 's Facebook picture turn into a penis and see her sister' s shocked response is priceless. receiving angry e-mails from the man you too just sent 10 dildos, because he 't can safely be forgotten Amazon, is priceless. They find it fun to watch unfold chaos, and we find it funny to cause it. "

But while the anarchic appeal of both Anonymous and Lulz is earning them a global following, experts warn that their activities run the risk of obscuring the real threat posed by cyber-espionage and online organised crime.

Indeed, much hacktivism is not even "hacking" in the conventional sense – that is, the illegal retrieval of confidential information from protected computer systems. Rather, it takes the form of "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attacks, whereby software loaded onto a series of computers inundates a website with traffic, causing it to crash. Such attacks are not difficult to mobilise: the "malware" needed to carry them out can be freely downloaded from websites, while YouTube videos are available to explain how to install it. Significantly, Cleary is charged with conspiring to launch DDoS attacks, rather than hacking, suggesting he may not be the computer genius that some claim. His arrest, however, will certainly further the hacktivism cause.

The success of a DDoS attack depends on building a strong brand. The more supporters of the handful of people in the center of a hacktivism collective reach to the more computers they can use for an attack. In Operation Payback, a coordinated attack on anti-piracy organizations, launched late last year, Anonymous gathered a great army with impressive speed.

According to the Internet security firm Imperva, 5 To start in December last year, the necessary software was downloaded 306 times Operation Payback attack. Three days later, more than 10,000 computers downloading the software as Anonymous put the word out.

"There has been an increase in attacks; we have seen very recently an increase in activity from LulzSec," said Imperva's co-founder, Amichai Shulman. "But I don't think it's proportionate to the media attention it is getting. I don't think these people are that sophisticated. In many of the attacks, they have been using standard hacking tools."

So much hacktivism is rudimentary, but is itself a cause for concern, experts said. "In the last few months, we 've a number of incidents, starting with seen breaking into [online security firm] RSA, Lockheed Martin, Sony, the IMF, which are all large and reputable company, good security had practices and yet it was relatively easy to get to the criminals and steal information, "said Mickey Boodaei, Chief Executive of Trustees, a company that specializes in providing secure Web access.

Experts warn that competition creates an introduction to hacks and more boldly inflationary spiral. "I 've never been a year like this is known: it' s predicted was that very soon a large corporate below taken", Professor John Walker said of the ISACA Security Advisory Group, which advises companies on-line protection .

For Walker, the story turns full circle. "It 's go back to the early days of the virus creation, as the people doing these things, to announce their presence - say sending little cards cascading over computer screens" I' ve so smart, I ' ve infected computer "What 's happening now is bragging about, it'. s to do something for its own sake, because it".

Sometimes the boasts are hollow; several claims surrounding hacktivists have been exposed as false. Last week it was reported that LulzSec had obtained the 2011 UK census data and was planning to post it on the Pirate Bay, the online shopping centre for confidential information. The Office of National Statistics poured cold water on the story and LulzSec denied involvement, stating in a Twitter update: "Don't believe fake LulzSec releases unless we put out a tweet first."

Even the false rumors can be useful to the cause of hacktivism helps to spread fear and chaos on the Internet.

Dr Simon Moores, chairman of the International Congress eCrime, a body that was regular briefings from law enforcement authorities on how to tackle hacking, hit the Internet to facilitate a "post-modern, crowdsourcing equivalent The War of the Flea - Robert Taber 's influential text on guerrilla war. "What was the Red Brigades in the 70s, can LulzSec the early 21st century," said Moores.

For his part, LulzSec is confident enough to realize that the Darwinian nature of hacking, with rival groups vying to outdo each other is, it soon through an unusual outfit interested to grab some glory of the shadows are made. "You 'll us in three months, forget' time when it 'sa new scandal to gawk," acknowledged on its website, closing philosophically: "This is the Internet, where we each screw on for a jolt of satisfaction. "

Perhaps predictably LulzSec was temporarily taken on Friday morning, apparently from an ex-military hackers as the Jester, who has led a protracted struggle against LulzSec anonymous and known.

The Jester said he knew it "for the lulz". As Cleary was discovered, hackers will be happy to eat their own.