Founding member of Lizard Squad pleads guilty to cyber-crimes

A founding member of Lizard Squad, a group of cyber-attackers that took credit for taking down the PlayStation Network in 2014, has plead guilty to cyber-crimes.

As reported by the Chicago Tribune, Zachary Buchta confessed to being one of the group's founding members during his guilty plea, where he admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit damage to protected computers. 

The charge can often carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 2.5 years if Buchta co-operates with a planned investigation. 

Lizard Squad rose to prominence after disrupting the PlayStation Network with a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack in August 2014. 

The group also managed to get a plane carrying then Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley diverted to a different location by tweeting a bomb threat at American Airlines. 

Lizard Squad continued to hound Smedley after his move to H1Z1 developer Daybreak, and took responsibility for multiple DDOS attacks against the company. 

The serious nature of the crimes prompted the FBI to look into the matter, while the UK's National Crime Agency also begun its own investigation, and eventually managed to arrest five teens in connection with the attacks.