FBI probes international hacking conspiracy

The FBI is investigating an international plot by young computer hackers who planned to cause chaos on the internet on New Year's Eve.

Computer equipment has been seized from youths in several US states during the inquiry and police in Israel have arrested four people.

The Israelis are being held on suspicion of conspiring to disrupt computer systems, but no arrests have been made in the US as yet.

The FBI is analysing mountains of computer data and other evidence seized during searches.

Teenagers with aliases such as Doork, Deadkode and Sorcerer - from California, Michigan, Washington state and Israel - are suspected of trying to inject a malicious computer code into the web servers forming the communications backbone of the Internet, FBI documents say.

One US teenager whose home was raided by the FBI had boasted on his website that the hackers' plot would "take down the internet".

The FBI found a website operated by the youth - who used the alias Booterror - on which he said he had a program called "godswrath" to destroy the web. The 16-year-old has told the FBI his boast was just a misguided effort to impress his friends in cyberspace.

But Special Agent Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for the FBI's Los Angeles office, said it is difficult for federal authorities to respond to the teenager's claims because agents thwarted any attacks before they could occur.

He said: "Search warrants are obtained based on evidence. And if that evidence indicates that a serious crime may be on the verge of happening, the FBI is compelled to investigate that aggressively.

"At this point we are analyzing this rather complex body of evidence we've gathered and are working closely with the US attorney's office to determine if any suspects should be charged in this matter, and if so, with what."