UK police charge two teens in connection with Lapsus$ hacking group case

After arresting seven alleged members of the hacking group Lapsus$ last week, London police have charged two of them with multiple computer crimes. The teenagers, aged 16 and 17, remain in police custody in connection with the investigation. 

“Both teenagers have been charged with: three counts of unauthorized access to a computer with intent to impair the reliability of data; one count of fraud by false representation and one count of unauthorized access to a computer with intent to hinder access to data,” the City of London Police said in a news release. “The 16-year-old has also been charged with one count of causing a computer to perform a function to secure unauthorized access to a program. They will both appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court this morning (April 1st).”

Lapsus$ claimed to have downloaded 37GB of Microsoft source code for key products like Bing and Cortana, along with mobile apps. They also reportedly compromised the security system of MFA company Okta, forcing the company to admit that it made a mistake in the way it handled the attack. 

One of the teens arrested was reportedly a 16-year-old Oxford resident known as “Breachbase” or “White,” who has supposedly made the equivalent of $14 million in Bitcoin. London police have not released any names, however, nothing that the people charged are juveniles and that reporting any identifying information about them is prohibited.