A British man has been arrested in connection to the denial-of-service attacks on Sony PlayStation and Xbox systems over Christmas - the second arrest made so far in relation to the bunch of idiots who have caused so much trouble for game companies and networks over the last year.

Although we aren’t sure of his identity right now, we do know that the 18-year-old - who assigns himself with the hacking group known as Lizard Squad - was arrested at an address in Southport, near Liverpool. The arrest was a joint operation between officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (Serocu) and the North West Regional Crime Unit (Rocu), with additional support offered by the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU).

If prosecuted, his charges will include both unauthorized access to confidential computer material, swatting and knowingly and willingly providing false information to American law enforcement agencies.

Craig Jones, head of the Cyber Crime Unit at Serocu said:

“This investigation is a good example of joint law enforcement co-operation in relation to a type of criminality that is not restricted by any geographical boundaries. We are still at the early stages of the investigation and there is still much work to be done. We will continue to work closely with the FBI to identify those who commit offences and hold them to account.”

The national policing lead for cybersecurity at the Association of Police Officers (Acpo), Peter Goodman, added: “This is a significant arrest… of a UK citizen suspected of engaging in serious and organised cybercrime on the national and international stage.”

The investigation into Lizard Squad is a joint venture between UK cybercrime units and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US. The attacks - which occurred on Christmas Day - made it increasingly difficult for users to log on to both PlayStation network and Xbox Live. By establishing the DDOS attacks on both services, flooding servers and causing them to stop working, the group managed to cause major disruptions over the festive period. The systems are now working fine on the whole. PlayStation have even offered compensation for the downtime, including free membership extensions and a ten percent discount code for a total cart purchase from the PlayStation store.

Lizard Squad was also responsible for numerous other crimes during 2014, including a false bomb threat aimed at a plane carrying SOE boss John Smedley last August. You’d think that these people would know by now that no bad deed goes unpunished. Is causing minor inconvenience for others really worth risking a lifetime in jail?