Dutch police arrest second teenager for hacking

Dutch police arrested a 19-year-old on suspicion of hacking a government website, the second teenage arrest for cyber attacks linked to the WikiLeaks fallout, prosecutors said on Saturday.

Police arrested the man on Saturday afternoon in the municipality of Hoogezand-Sappemeer, suspecting him of being one of the people responsible for an attack on the website of the national prosecutor.

An anonymous group claimed responsibility for the attack on microblogging site Twitter, saying it was to avenge the arrest of a 16-year-old who had attacked opponents of whistleblower website WikiLeaks, the prosecutor said in a statement.

The 19-year-old suspected hacker had incited others to take part in Friday's attack, the prosecutor said.

Under Dutch law the maxiumum penalty for a denial of service attack -- in which a target computer or website is rendered unusable -- is six years in prison, the prosecutor said.

Hackers -- dubbed "hack-tivists" -- stepped up cyber attacks on those they perceived as opponents of WikiLeaks, including companies who in recent days have deprived the organisation of their services.

(c) 2010 AFP