The FBI arrested the twenty year-old on Tuesday. Based in Tempe, Arizona, the alleged member of the hacking group LulzSec surrendered to authorities six days after a federal grand jury in Los Angeles issued an indictment. He is being charged with conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer.
According to the charge, Rivera worked with Cody Kretsinger, who pleaded guilty to hacking charges in April after being arrested last year. Kretsinger is due to be sentenced in October.
Both men have been hunted by authorities in connection to the hacking group posting statements online in June last year, which said it had broken into SonyPictures.com and stolen over 1 million user accounts on the PlayStation network. LulzSec gained access to data including passwords, email addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth from those who had entered competitions hosted by Sony.
The company was forced to close the network in both the U.S. and Europe for roughly six weeks after the security breach.
The data was gained through an SQL injection, which tricks a server into handing over restricted information. At the time of the breach, Lulzsec members wrote "Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?".
The indictment says that after the break-in occurred, Rivera was part of a team that posted the data onto LulzSec's website and then announced the attack through the group's Twitter account.
According to federal authorities, Rivera apparently used names including "royal" and "wildicv" and set up a proxy server to try and remain anonymous.
Rivera is now being held in custody in Phoenix. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
