The charges are in connection with three attacks on targets based in the UK, but police are investigating the 19 year-old's connections to other attacks by LulzSec, which is believed to have targeted websites including those of the US Central Intelligence Agency, the US Senate and electronics giant Sony.
The charges relate specifically to Cleary's alleged involvement in a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on the UK Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) on 20 June, an attack on the website of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in November 2010, and an attack on the British Phonographic Industry's website in October, according to the BBC.
The charges against Cleary include conspiring with others on or before 20 June to construct a botnet of hijacked computers to conduct DDoS attacks, and making, adapting, supplying or offering to supply a botnet, intending that it should be used to commit, or to assist in the commission of a DDoS attack to take down targeted websites by flooding them with requests.
Police are searching through Cleary's computers that were seized at the time of his arrest. He is due to appear at the City of Westminster magistrates court on the morning of Thursday 23 June.
This story was first published by Computer Weekly