Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Ryan. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Ryan. Sort by date Show all posts

Full Story of Hacking Anonymous IRC Server

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/15/2011 04:54:00 pm





War rages between competing factions within the hacker collective Anonymous after this weekend's drama-filled takeover of the main Anonymous IRC server network. That network, used by Anons to plan and conduct attacks, was taken over by one of its own, an IRC moderator known as "Ryan."
His attack has sparked a debate over the "leadership" of Anonymous.

Hacking the hackers:-

The main Internet chat servers used by Anonymous have been run by a group called "AnonOps," which provides communications platforms for the group. Pointing IRC clients at anonops.ru or anonops.net would connect anyone to the servers, where they could then join channels like "#OpSony" and participate in various Anon activities.
Though Anonymous is often described as leaderless, factions like AnonOps by necessity have a loose structure; servers must be paid for, domain names must be registered, chat channels must have at least some moderation. Ryan was one of those IRC mods, and this weekend he proceeded with an attack that seized control of the AnonOps servers away from the small cabal of leaders who ran it.
Those leaders include people with handles like "shitstorm," "Nerdo," "blergh," "Power2All," and "Owen"—and if you're paying attention, you'll remember that HBGary Federal's Aaron Barr had fingered Owen as one of three "leaders" of all Anons.
The most popular channel on the old IRC servers now says simply, "anonops dead go home." Ryan also put up a set of chat logs showing Owen and others reacting to the weekend's massive denial of service attacks against AnonOps that culminated in the server takeover. (In the transcript below, "doom" is one of the AnonOps servers.)

Owen -> SmilingDevil: we lost a numbe rof servers last night
SmilingDevil -> owen: :P we need some more security.

t forcved level3 to stop anno
Owen -> SmilingDevil: dude
Owen -> SmilingDevil: 
iuning a /24
Owen -> SmilingDevil: it was in the gbps range

vil -> owen: gigabit or gigabyte?
Owen -> Smili
Owen -> SmilingDevil: doom alone got hit with 1 gb
SmilingD
engDevil: all leafs went down
Owen -> SmilingDevil: add it all up
Owen -> SmilingDevil: yeah huge

ly they know about
Owen -> SmilingDevil: um thats called the hub
Owe
SmilingDevil -> owen: :P we need a hidden irc server for the admins.
SmilingDevil -> owen: that o
nn -> SmilingDevil: :)
SmilingDevil -> owen: did they take that too?
Owen -> SmilingDevil: but anyhow

Owen -> SmilingDevil: we suffered alot of damage
The "old" leaders released a statement this morning explaining what happened over the weekend and why IRC remained down:
We regret to inform you today that our network has been compromised by a former IRC-operator and fellow helper named "Ryan". He decided that he didn't like the leaderless command structure that AnonOps Network Admins use. So he organized a coup d'etat, with his "friends" at skidsr.us . Using the networks service bot "Zalgo" he scavenged the IP's and passwords of all the network servers (including the hub) and then systematically aimed denial of service attacks at them (which is why the network has been unstable for the past week). Unfortunately he has control of the domain names AnonOps.ru (and possibly AnonOps.net, we don't know at this stage) so we are unable to continue using them.
Not everyone buys the explanation. One Anon pointed out that the Zalgo bot in question is controlled by a user named "E," not by Ryan.
Second, Zalgo can only see chan msgs and msgs to zalgo. The net staff is saying (pretty much) Ryan used Zalgo to steal server passwords (false, I know server protocol) which were tranfered in channels in plain text for the to see (true).
Third: Take everything AnonOps says with a grain of salt. They're putting out lies and not telling the whole story.
Others pointed out that E and Ryan are friends and that E was actually recommended as an op by Ryan.
However it happened, the end result was that Ryan redirected some of the AnonOps domain names he had control over, he led an attack on the IRC servers with denial of service data floods, and he grabbed (and then published) the non-obfuscated IP addresses of everyone connected to the IRC servers. Ryan apparently also gained root access to the Zalgo network services bot, which is presumably how he harvested the non-obfuscated IP addresses, though it's not clear exactly what Zalgo did or how much access it provided Ryan.

Clashing factions

Ryan is associated with 808chan, a 4chan splinter site and apparent home of the recent denial of service attacks on AnonOps. Ryan is "DDoSing everything that he doesn't own with his band of raiders from 808chan," says one Anon.
The 808 brigade apparently valued big botnets, and made users prove their abilities before letting them participate. AnonOps had a more democratic ethos; anyone could show up, configure the Low Orbit Ion Cannon attack tool, and start firing at Sony or others.
"It's an open network where everyone, mostly newfags can join and not have to prove they're able to wield a botnet and can just join a channel of their choosing, fire up LOIC and hit some organization for reasons they believe are right," said one Anon.
Ryan's control of AnonOps extends to some of the actual domain names, including AnonOps.ru. This wasn't a hack; he was actually given administrative control over the domains some time ago by AnonOps leaders.
One Anon explained the reason for this, saying: "As for the domains, they were transferred to Ryan after some of us got vanned so he can keep the network up. What he did certainly wasn't the plan." (Getting "vanned" refers to getting picked up by the police.)
According to another Anon, the current fight was precipitated when Ryan's IRC credential were revoked. "You morons don't realize Ryan IS LEGALLY THE OWNER OF DOMAINS," he wrote. "Nerdo and Owen removed Ryan's oper, Ryan took domains."

Smoky back rooms?

Among Anons arguing over what happened this weekend, the key debate involves the issue of leaders. Anonymous also said it was leaderless and memberless, but is it? The AnonOps statement above claims that Ryan was angry at the "leaderless" structure of the group and wanted to set himself up as king; again, though, not everyone is so sure.
Owen, for instance, helps to shape the conversation and planning in IRC. One Anon complained privately to me that Owen has booted him from the IRC servers—and thus from the place where all the real work against Sony was taking place several weeks ago. "Owen has not only told me that he doesn't really give a shit about freedom of speech, he's also moderately against the action that's being taken on Sony," this Anon said.
Owen and others conduct some of their work in private, invite-only channels, which leads some Anons to suspect that the really important operations and hack attempts are only discussed in a virtual back room. As one Anon put it yesterday:
"Have you ever been in one of their invite-only chats? This is no bullshit. EVERYTHING is decided on them, the eventual course of the operation, the hivemind's target, the channel's topic, everything. Why all this secrecy? These invite-only chats have NO reason to exist. You want to keep out trolls? Turn on mute, and give voice to a few. At least we can see what is being written."
Others were even angrier. A former AnonOps member wrote:
From the fucking beginning (during the hack at Aiplex which started Operation Payback) there has been an secret club, an aristocracy in AnonOps, deciding how operations will play out in invite-only channels.
It's obvious, for they control the topic, the hivemind, the guides, every single thing behind the scenes.
I don't know if the Owen's current bureaucracy is to be trusted, or Ryan's new delegation (from 808chan!) is.
What I do know is that AnonOps no longer has a good reason to exist. The insane amount of power the channel operators wield, and the reputations gained by their NAMES, causes them to become dictator-like, as "power corrupts".
Why did we leave the comforts of the womb of anonymous imageboards, and end up in name-fagging circlejerks controlled only by a few? Why?
Anonymous, this is bullshit. Neither side, neither Ryan's coalition of hackers nor Owen's bureaucracy can be trusted.
Others argued against this equivalence. "Ryan was the dictator, not the one who decided to solve the dictator problem," said one. Another responded, "Lol, how do you know? For all you know, Owen and Ryan are just the classic generals duking out to take over."
For his part, Ryan told the UK's Thinq today that he shared the concerns over private decision making. Owen and the other leaders "crossed the barrier, involving themselves in a leadership role," Ryan said. "There is a hierarchy. All the power, all the DDoS—it's in that [private] channel."
But among those who backed AnonOps, one thing was clear: Ryan needs to get got. Anons quickly embarked on a mission to find Ryan "dox," and quickly unearthed what they said was his full name, his home address (in Wickford, Essex, UK), his phone number, his Skype handle, and his age (17).
On Twitter, some Anons began spreading the word that Ryan had "betrayed" Anonymous, and that he had done so "to mess up all after having stolen PSN credit cards." No evidence for this last assertion was provided.
As the old AnonOps team attempted to get a handle on what had happened—and after they switched to an Indian domain name—they expressed irritation with early media mentions ("fail reporting") of the attack.
"Some 'mainstream' media is calling this the 'insider threat,'" they wrote, "which isn't really a fair representation, AnonOps doesn't have any corporate secrets, its run by the people for the people on a basis of mutual trust. Drama happens almost 24/7, occasionally drama overspills the network.
"Also we must remind the press AnonOps DOES NOT EQUAL Anonymous, saying they are one and/or the same thing in a blog/article just makes you look stupid. AnonOps is just a IRC network and a few other services that ANYONE can use, its not the only place Anonymous gather, and unlikely to be the *last* (see Streisand effect)."
But will the AnonOps leaders ever gather on a forum they don't control? Ryan took great delight in posting the following alleged comment from Owen to another AnonOps leader: "yo odnt honestly think we're goign to some other irc where we have no control do you?"
Of course, Anonymous has always been about drama and "the lulz," so the current confusion may not even bother them that much; this is just par for the course. But it's certainly amusing to others.
"Lmao. You fucking twits can't even keep your shit safe," wrote someone watching the debacle. "This literally made me laugh out loud. Not lol, but laugh. You all are so stupid."
Click here To see the Dump of Anon Ops Chat 

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LulzSec Hacker Ryan Get Bail (He Was Behind The Attack Against CIA & SOCA)

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 3/19/2012 12:10:00 am

LulzSec Hacker Ryan Get Bail (He Was Behind The Attack Against CIA & SOCA)
Two days ago an alleged  hacker has appeared in court accused of conspiring with three British teenagers to bring down the websites of the CIA and the UK's Serious Organized Crime Agency. Ryan Ackroyd, 25, appeared at Westminster Magistrates court in London on Friday charged with computer hacking offences for the so-called “hacktivist” group, LulzSec.
Ryan was also accused of attacks on the NHS and News International, publisher of the Sun, as well as police authorities in the UK and US. The Doncaster man is the last of four British males to appear in court in the UK in connection with attacks by LulzSec, a spin-off group linked to the hacking collective Anonymous.
He faces two counts of conspiring with Jake Davis, 18, Ryan Cleary, 19, and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to do “an unauthorised act with intent to impair or with recklessness as to impair the operation of a computer” between 1 February and 30 September 2011. 
He made no plea and was granted bail by Westminster magistrates until a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 11 May. Mr Ackroyd is the last of four alleged members of LulzSec to appear in court. District judge Howard Riddle granted him bail until a plea and case management hearing at Southwark crown court on 11 May, on condition that he does not access or have in his possession any device that could access the Internet.
Earlier in 2011 Ryan also faced imprisonment and later released on bail. Court ordered him not to use Internet even Ryan was also banned from seeing his girlfriend alone by the court.  



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LulzSec Hacker Ryan Sent Back To Prison For Contacting Sabu

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/04/2012 03:10:00 pm

LulzSec Hacker Ryan Sent Back To Prison For Contacting Sabu (Violation of His Bail Agreement)

Former Lulzsec hacker Ryan Cleary from Essex, England sent back to jail for violating court's conditions. Few days ago Ryan has been granted bail by Westminster magistrates until a hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 11 May. He has been charged of conspiring with three British teenagers to bring down the websites of the CIA and the UK's Serious Organized Crime Agency. Ryan was also accused of attacks on the NHS and News International, publisher of the Sun, as well as police authorities in the UK and US. Court granted his bail on condition that he does not access or have in his possession any device that could access the Internet. But it has been found that he tried to make contact with none other than LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur aka "Sabu". That was a direct violation of his bail agreement, which dictated that Cleary was to have no access to the Internet whatsoever. London's Metropolitan Police say they rearrested Cleary on March 5, the day before the FBI revealed Sabu's identity, and that "the party boy of the projects" had been eagerly spilling the beans on his fellow hackers. According to Cleary's lawyer, the teen is being held at Chelmsford Prison north of London, awaiting a court appearance in May. 
Sabu was recently revealed to have betrayed LulzSec members, and associated Anonymous hacktivists, by secretly working for the FBI for many months.




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LulzSec Hacker Ryan Cleary & Jake Davis Plead Guilty at London Court For Hacking CIA & Pentagon

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 6/25/2012 10:26:00 pm

LulzSec Hacker Ryan Cleary & Jake Davis Plead Guilty at London Court For Hacking CIA & Pentagon

Two British LulzSec hacker Ryan Cleary, 20, and Jake Davis, 19 today admitted hacking into the websites of the CIA and the Pentagon as well as the Serious Organised Crime Squad in the UK. Accoridng to an exclusive report of The Guardian both Jake Davies, also known as "Topiary" and Ryan Cleary, known under the names "Anakin," "hershcel.mcdooenstein", "George hampsterman" and "ni"  have confessed attacks on the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), National Health Service, News International, Sony, Nintendo, Arizona State police, and other sites in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks designed to cause the sites to cash. Cleary also confessed to four separate charges including hacking into US Air Force Agency computers at the Pentagon.
Cleary and Davis plotted to carry out the attacks with other unknown members of internet groups Anonymous, Internet Feds, and LulzSec. Other websites targeted by the pair were Westboro Baptist Church, Bethesda, Eve Online, HBGary, HBGary Federal, PBS Inc, and Infragard. Cleary also confessed today to four separate charges, including hacking into US Air Force Agency computers, based at the Pentagon.
Both men appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court to enter guilty pleas to a series of charges brought against them.
But both Cleary and Davis denied allegations they posted 'unlawfully obtained confidential computer data' to public websites including LulzSec.com, Pirate Bay, and PasteBin, in order to encourage offences contrary to the Serious Crime Act.
Alleged co-hackers Ryan Ackroyd, 25, and a 17-year-old A-level student, from south-London, deny their involvement in the DDoS attacks and will stand trial on April 8, 2013.








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Anonymous IRC servers hacked by a splinter group

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/11/2011 02:35:00 am


While Sony is busy pointing the finger at the hacker group Anonymous for the on-going PSN and SOE hacks, Anonymous has problems of its own. This weekend AnonOps, an IRC network where some of the members congregate and plan operations, found itself under a denial-of-service attack. That attack finally ended with a number of its IRC servers being taken over.
The culprit: one of their own, a former IRC Operator (IRCop) named “Ryan.” Depending on who you believe, Ryan was power-hungry and wanted control over AnonOps for himself, or he was tired of the autocracy of the few Anonymous members who made up the group’s loose leadership structure.
The story is far from clear, and may never be, but the fact of the matter is that a good number of the IRC servers used by AnonOps were seized in the attack, and one of the most popular channels was all but shut down. Ryan also owns a number of AnonOps and Anonymous-related domain names, as well.
This schism in leadership at AnonOps is due to two big issues: one of power, and the other of authority. Some believe that Ryan favored a more “prove your mettle” approach to internet activism, where people had to prove they were worthwhile and actually had a cause worth attacking for before they could leverage tools like the infamous Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) denial-of-service tool. LOIC is the utility used to control botnets and give them targets to attack. At AnonOps, virtually anyone could come in, tell the LOIC who to target next, and just sit back and wait for the attack.
The second issue was leadership: a number of Anonymous members argued that the owners of the AnonOps IRC servers and their tools were starting to get a little power-mad as their names were circulated around the Internet. Some members accused the small group of making all of the decisions about who Anonymous would attack, when, and what operations they would engage in without involving the rest of the group in them.
Whether or not they had the right to act as leadership is up for debate. Most of the people in the tiny group of IRC moderators at AnonOps were the people responsible for paying to keep the domains registered and the servers up.
What this means for the group is unclear, and it’s very likely that the amorphous and fluid nature of a group like Anonymous means that any lack of specific leadership will ultimately go unnoticed by the larger collective. At the same time, unless something changes, AnonOps will likely shutter and the group of IRC operators that used it will be forced to gather somewhere else to plan their activities.

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Lulzsec Hacker Ryan Cleary Charged in US For Hacking Fox, PBS Websites

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 6/17/2012 02:48:00 am

Lulzsec Hacker Ryan Cleary Charged in US For Hacking Fox, PBS Websites
Federal prosecutors have charged a 20-year-old Briton suspected of links to the hacking group Lulz Security with cracking into websites for a Fox reality TV show, a venerable news program and other sites. In an indictment filed Tuesday, Ryan Cleary is accused of conspiring with other hackers in LulzSec, an offshoot of the larger hacking group Anonymous, to break into multiple sites. Cleary is accused of conspiring to steal the confidential information of people who registered to get information on auditions for the Fox talent competition "The X-Factor." He also is accused of defacing the website for "The NewsHour," a nightly Public Broadcasting Service show.
An after-hours call to Cleary's legal representative in London wasn't returned. Calls to Fox and "The NewsHour" seeking comment and confirmation weren't immediately returned Wednesday. In the United Kingdom, Cleary is in custody following allegations that he hacked a law enforcement agency and various British music sites. If Cleary were to be extradited to the US and convicted, he would face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said that they would "allow the prosecution to take its course" in the UK before deciding whether to apply for extradition. 





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Prolific "spokesman" for Anonymous leaves the hacker group

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/20/2011 01:57:00 pm




In one year, Barrett Brown made himself into one of the best-known public faces of the hacker collective Anonymous—and now he's stepping away from the group.
"There's little quality control in a movement like that, which was not a huge problem when the emphasis was on assisting with North African revolutions and those who came on board thus tended to be of a certain sort," he told Ars this week.
"But as things like OpSony arise, you attract a lot of people whose interest is in fucking with video game companies—which is not to say that there aren't legitimate reasons for OpSony or that the majority involved aren't quality people, but to the extent that someone sits things out when we're working to promote liberty and fight dictatorships but then hops on board when we start going after an electronics firm that's perpetrated far lesser villainy, one has to question those peoples' priorities."

Public face

Brown has been an unofficial "spokesman" of sorts for Anonymous, a go-to guy whenever a news outlet needed a real name or a face to put on TV. He and another Anon, Gregg Housh, have become public symbols of a movement that largely cloaks itself in anonymity, hiding behind Guy Fawkes masks and Internet Relay Chat handles.
How many other Anons would sit for a lengthy profile of the sort featured in the March issue of Dallas' D magazine that talks about Brown's heroin use, his sexual escapades, and the reason he wears cowboy boots—while running a photo of him slumped in a chair beneath a stuffed bobcat? And that featured descriptions like this?
The 378-square-foot efficiency was dimly lit and ill-kept. Dirty dishes were piled high in the sink. A taxidermied bobcat lay on the kitchen counter. Brown is an inveterate smoker—Marlboro 100’s, weed, whatever is at hand—and the place smelled like it. An overflowing ashtray sat on his work table, which stood just a few feet from his bed in the apartment’s “living room.” Two green plastic patio chairs faced the desk. I left with the feeling that I needed a bath.
Brown got publicly involved in Anonymous in early 2010, when the group launched Operation Titstorm and targeted the Australian government's Web censorship proposals (which included a plan to ban depictions of nude small-breasted women who might resemble underage girls—hence the name of the operation). Brown wrote a piece for the Huffington Post at the time in which he saw the Anonymous attack as a new kind of "revolutionary engine" that might one day remake the world and even threaten the concept of the nation-state.
"Having taken a long interest in the subculture from which Anonymous is derived and the new communicative structures that make it possible, I am now certain that this phenomenon is among the most important and under-reported social developments to have occurred in decades, and that the development in question promises to threaten the institution of the nation-state and perhaps even someday replace it as the world's most fundamental and relevant method of human organization," he wrote.
To help create this world of spontaneous communities linked only by shared goals and not by geography or ethnicity, Brown decided to help Anonymous in a public fashion after being contacted by Housh. He had a front-row seat for the late 2010 Anonymous ops targeting Middle Eastern regimes. "What I saw and did during the next few weeks convinced me that these sorts of efforts can and should be used to channel dissatisfaction with injustice into concrete action in opposition to such things," he told me.
But it wasn't the Anonymous Middle East ops that captured the world's attention; it was the group's pro-WikiLeaks attacks on financial firms that had cut off the site's access to donations which led to international headlines. Anonymous staged denial of service attacks on MasterCard, Visa, and others—and the FBI got involved, eventually executing 40 search warrants against the group.
Meanwhile, HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Barr decided to "unmask" the supposed leadership of Anonymous, only to see the group break into his company's computers, make off with his private e-mails, and expose some terribly shady goings-on to the light of day. Barr eventually resigned his job—but Anonymous gained even more press. Brown even took the lead role in a national NBC News segment on Anonymous earlier this year, one that called him "an underground commander in a new kind of war." (The stuffed bobcat is visible in the background.)

The HBGary operation showed Brown that he had been right. "The HBGary operation demonstrated that small teams of individuals with relevant skills can do a great deal of damage to institutions that are otherwise effectively invincible by virtue of their position within the system," he told me.
"The fact that the FBI had just raided 40 alleged participants in DDoS attacks in conjunction with a sweeping international investigation into Anonymous even as Team Themis' various criminal conspiracies were facilitated by the Justice Department and have thus far been ignored by 'law enforcement,' meanwhile, has reaffirmed my belief that the rule of law is void."

Creating "pursuants"

What's going to replace the rule of law? Private bands of citizens engaged in a "massive campaign of investigation and exposure." While Anonymous could do some of the work, the group seems unable to shake its juvenile rhetoric, its thirst for "lulz," and its reputation for drama. These traits were certainly on display in the last few weeks when an Anon known as "Ryan" took over the main AnonOps IRC servers and posted chat logs and IP addresses of users—temporarily depriving Anonymous of its main gathering point. Ryan said his actions were taken to overthrow the dictators off in invite-only chat rooms, making plans and acting like the group's leaders. Was this true? And does the truth even matter?
For Brown, Anonymous has become a distraction to the work he really wants to accomplish. "To the extent one works out of AnonOps or some other venue of that sort, one has to deal with those people, as well as with a lot of frankly disturbed hacker types like Ryan—who continues to fuck with my projects," he said. So Brown and some like-minded associates will do some of the same work, but under a different banner—Brown's existing "Project PM."
What is Project PM? According Brown's description of the project, it's "a pursuant—an autonomous online entity composed of individuals who have come together to conduct activism in pursuit of a particular end and who wish to do so by the most efficient means available." The first big project is OpMetalGear, which has set up a wiki to collate information on defense and intelligence contracting, especially as it related to the "persona management" software sought by the US government and discussed in some of the HBGary Federal e-mails.
To some, Brown looks like a spotlight-hogging "namefag"; a Radio Free Europe blogger recently suggested that Brown could be the next Julian Assange. "There are clear parallels with Assange," wrote Luke Allnutt on May 18. "A broken home, interrupted education, a fierce independent streak, a conspiratorial mind, and a clear desire to be in the limelight. They both like to see themselves (in Assange's case, with some justification) as plucky digital outlaws taking on the Internet’s evil corporate and state overlords."
Critics of Anonymous routinely single out Brown for criticism due to his public identity. "Barrett Brown, you are one dumb son of a bitch. Ballsy, but dumb," said one critic on Twitter, who complained that Brown was little more than an apologist for a gang of crooks. Conservative blogger Robert Stacy McCain wants to know if the FBI is watching Brown, "and if they’re not already, shouldn’t they?"
Others suggest that Anons don't like him much, or perhaps worry about what he knows. Earlier this week, security firm Kaspersky Labs noted Brown's departure, saying, "Anonymous observers, who asked to remain anonymous themselves, said there's reason to believe that Brown is being cut off by core Anonymous members worried about having their identities exposed, or wary of Brown's focus on government wrongdoing."
As for Brown, he plans to keep working "with people who are themselves still very much associated with Anonymous and AnonOps in particular," but he won't be operating under the "Anonymous" banner any longer.
Funding this kind of work can be a challenge. When he announced Project PM last year, Brown asked readers for donations.
"You’ll also get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of the marginal utility of your patronage, as I am extraordinarily frugal, even Spartan insomuch as that I spend a lot of time sitting around without a shirt on, or pants, or more than one sock," he wrote. "I smoke Top rolling tobacco, which goes for around $3 a package and is sold in many prison commissaries. I eat oatmeal for breakfast rather than endangered condor eggs dipped in wasabi-infused veal compote like Christopher Hitchens does. Anyway, the tobacco is necessary for my work."
Thanks to his heightened profile, Brown did secure a writing gig with The Guardian newspaper in the UK, which brings in a bit of cash. He also writes for magazines like our sister publication Vanity Fair here in the US. (Update: Brown clarifies that both the Guardian and Vanity Fair gigs began before he got involved with Anonymous.)
He's now working on pieces for Al-Jazeera that discuss what he has learned from OpMetalGear. Brown also has hopes for a film script. "It's a sort of dark political comedy about a guy who secretly ends up as a speechwriter for both candidates in the same campaign," he said.

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LulzSec Hacker 'Raynaldo Rivera' Arrested Over Sony Pictures Hack

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/30/2012 01:39:00 am

LulzSec Hacker 'Raynaldo Rivera' Arrested Over Sony Pictures Hack

Last year hackers have targeted Sony many times.  Hacktivist Anonymous, Lulzsec have penetrated Sony's PSN network and stolen millions of user personal information. Later Sony was forced to shutdown its entire network & apologized for the whole massacre. Not only PSN, also Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Several Sony's official website from different countries fallen victim to the hackers.  But in 2012 all the key members of LulzSec, who was mainly responsible for attack on Sony get busted one by one. Among them we can take the name of Jeremy Hammond, Ryan Ackroyd, Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis & so on. In the last move another hacker from LulzSec has been arrested in connection with an attack on Sony Pictures in June last year. A 20-year-old man 'Raynaldo Rivera' surrendered to FBI agents on Tuesday for his alleged hacking of Sony Pictures. If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.
The arrest comes shortly after a judge postponed the sentencing of LulzSec ringleader Hector Xavier Monsegur, known by his nickname "Sabu," for his continued cooperation in the investigation. Monsegur provided information to the FBI, leading to the arrests of one American man and four in the U.K. in March. 
Rivera allegedly used a proxy server to hide his real IP address and used a SQL injection attack against Sony, according the indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday. The type of attack involves the input of commands into web-based forms to see if the backend database will yield information. Rivera, who went by the online nicknames "neuron," "royal" and "wildicv," allegedly distributed Sony's information to other LulzSec members, who publicized it on the @LulzSec Twitter account, the indictment said. Damages to Sony exceeded US$5,000.
Prosecutors allege Rivera worked with Cody Kretsinger, who was indicted in Sept. 2011 for the same attacks on Sony. Kretsinger allegedly provided the coupon codes along with email addresses and passwords for an extensive data release by LulzSec on June 2, 2011. Kretsinger pleaded guilty in April and is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 25, according to the FBI.



-Source (BBC, PCW)







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Thousands of E-Mails, Résumés at Risk After Eidos Hacking

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/14/2011 03:25:00 pm


Hackers might have accessed up to 25,000 e-mail addresses and 350 résumés during an attack on game developer Eidos Interactive’s websites, parent company Square Enix said Friday.
The security breach, which Square Enix said occurred Wednesday, could have given hackers access to user data for the Deus Ex: Human Revolution website, as well as résumés submitted by job applicants to Eidos.
“Square Enix can confirm a group of hackers gained access to parts of our Eidosmontreal.com websiteas well as two of our product sites,” the company told Joystiq. “We immediately took the sites offline to assess how this had happened and what had been accessed, then took further measures to increase the security of these and all of our websites, before allowing the sites to go live again.”
Square Enix added that it would be contacting all parties that might have been affected by the breach, emphasizing that no credit card information was compromised.
According to a report by former Washington Post writer Brian Krebs, the official Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Eidos websites were inaccessible Thursday morning. During this period, hackers reportedly put up a banner that read “Owned by Chippy1337.”
The hackers, Krebs wrote, said they plan to distribute the stolen information on file sharing networks. His report pegs the volume of information stolen, according to the hackers, to be the personal information of more than 80,000 users and 9,000 ésumés.
A recent Ars Technica report suggests there might be discord among members of hacking collective Anonymous, centering on a 17-year-old British hacker named Ryan. According to a chat log uncovered by Krebs, the Eidos hackers attempted to frame Ryan for the attack.
It’s unclear whether this is related to the crippling hack on Sony’s PlayStation Network several weeks ago that left millions of users’ personal information at risk. Anonymous has disavowed responsibility for that attack.
Neither Square Enix nor Eidos Interactive responded to Wired.com’s requests for comment Friday.

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LulzSec Guy Ryan gets bail, but he cannot use the Internet

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 6/29/2011 05:08:00 am



Even though LulzSec has now disbanded and rejoined as part of Anonymous, that doesn’t mean their past hacks have been forgotten about. Early last week teenager and LulzSec member Ryan Cleary was arrested in the UK as it was claimed he is the “mastermind” of the hacking collective. A week later and he is out on bail, but under strict instructions not to access the Internet. That’s becoming quite a difficult thing to do nowadays. He won’t be allowed near a PC unless the Ethernet ports and wireless are disabled. A smartphone is out of the question, as is the Xbox, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, 3DS. How about watching TV? Sure, as long as his house doesn’t have a new flatscreen with Internet out-the-box.
Cleary may not care much as at least he’s no longer sitting in a cell 24 hours a day. But his troubles are far from over. As well as no Internet access he is electronically tagged and under a curfew each day. He also has to face charges of hacking into several websites including the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). We’ve also learned that Cleary is a recluse and suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, just like Gary McKinnon the man who is fighting against extradition for breaking into U.S. military computers.
LulzSec has denied that anyone in their group has been arrested, but we have no evidence to back this up. On the other hand the police have someone they are sure is part of the hacking group, as well as being associated with Anonymous. If Cleary is a member then he could have in his possession detailed accounts of other members and what they got up to as a group. As the police also took his computer hardware we should know soon enough if there’s anything usable as more arrests will be made.

-News Source (geek.com)

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Four LulzSec Hackers Appeared In Court Together For The First Time

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/14/2012 03:48:00 pm


Four LulzSec Hackers Appeared In Court Together For The First Time

For the first time the four men, Ryan Ackroyd, 25, Ryan Cleary, 20, Jake Davis, 19 and a 17-year-old male who could not be named appeared in Court together. They are charged with taking part in cyber attacks under hacking group LulzSec, an offshoot of Anonymous, appeared in court Friday afternoon, appearing side-by-side for first time before a judge.  British prosecutors allege that the quartet last engaged with one another under the guises of online pseudonyms to wreak havoc on the web. These LulzSec key members are accused of accessing computers operated by News Corp. (NWSA) (NWSA)’s Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Corp. (6758), the U.K.’s National Health Service, the Arizona State Police, and technology-security company HBGary Inc.
Four of the eight counts listed in the updated British indictment today, were levelled solely on 20-year-old Cleary. He is accused of supplying a botnet — or a network of thousands of infected computers that can be used to paralyze websites — to others, and operating one himself to attack the website of DreamHost, a web hosting company. He is also accused of “installing and/or altering computer programs” on computers at the Pentagon controlled by the U.S. Air Force, between May 1 and June 22, 2011.
Cleary was the only one of the four defendants who was still in police custody. He was arrested on March 6 of this year — the same day Hector “Sabu” Monsegur was unveiled as an informant — for breaching his bail conditions. 
According to the new indictment, the four men also targeted denial of service attacks against: Westboro Baptist Church, which has staged anti-homosexual demonstrations at military funerals; the online role-playing game Eve Online; the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency; and Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency.





-Source (Forbes) 






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The End Of Anonymous: Anonymous Attacks Eachother

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/13/2011 10:28:00 pm


It now seems that there is an internal war happening in the ranks of leaderless hacker group ‘Annoymous’ in which a rogue admin had taken control of two key sites that the group uses to coordinate their actions online.
In a message to users posted on AnonOps.in, part of Anonymous’s AnonOps network, admins accused a former comrade of organising a “coup d’etat“.
The name that seems to be comng up is ‘Ryan’, who is now being accused of stealing IP addresses and passwords of users of two ‘Anonymous’ sites. AnonOps.net and AnonOps.ru were attacked by first getting the precious information, and then getting Denial of service (DoS) attacks directed against them.
The sites provide communication within the members of the group through IRC channels and have been used to launch several attacks, they were also key in organising Anonymous activity in support of the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt and Siria.
Some messages have been appearing in hacking websites from anonymous:

‘We regret to inform you today that our network has been compromised by a former IRC-operator and fellow helper named “Ryan”. He decided that he didn’t like the leaderless command structure that AnonOps Network Admins use. So he organised a coup d’etat, with his “friends” at skidsr.us . Using the networks service bot “Zalgo” he scavenged the IP’s and passwords of all the network servers (including the hub) and then systematically aimed denial of service attacks at them.’
‘We would STRONGLY ADVISE all users to STAY AWAY from AnonOps.net and AnonOps.ru, and they should be considered COMPROMISED. Using or connecting to any service on those addresses may put your computer, and by extension your person, at risk’.
These latest developments come after Sony had accused the hacker group to be more than likely (however without providing definite evidence) involved in the data leak that caused the loss of personal and financial information of over 70 million users of the Playstation Network. Please let us know what are your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

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Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith : Ryan 'LulzSec Hacker' is Banned From seeing His Girlfriend Alone

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 9/02/2011 02:20:00 pm

On the face of it, teenager Ryan Cleary appears the archetypal computer geek who retreated from the real world into a digital one. When he was charged with hacking into the website of the Serious Organized Crime Agency, observers branded him a recluse who needed to 'get a girlfriend'. But he was already dating Amy Chapman, 19, - and now a judge has refused his request to see her alone. The Aspergers sufferer is said to be a key member of the computer hacking network LulzSec, which has been blamed for attacks on the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the CIA, Sony and News International. He is alleged to have controlled a 'botnet' of up to half a million compromised computers which he used to launch 'denial of service' attacks against websites. He was charged in June and bail conditions imposed in court stipulate that he can only leave his home address with a parent.
Addressing London's Southwark Crown Court, his defence barrister Ben Cooper asked for this to be changed so Cleary could see Miss Chapman without his parents being present.

Refusing the application, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: 'I will not consider making a variation until the police have interviewed her and that they are satisfied that she is responsible enough to take on the duty.’ Cleary and fellow alleged LulzSec member Jake Davis, 18, were not required to attend the hearing. Davis is said to have operated from his bedroom in the Shetland Islands and used the online name Topiary.
The judge issued a stark warning to both defendants to comply with their bail conditions as he fixed their plea and case management hearing for January 27, 2012. 'First of all bail has to be on the same stringent terms for both of these defendants and I reiterate, as I did to one of them who has appeared before me, that if they breach any of these conditions they can be arrested and brought before the court and almost certainly remanded in custody,' he said.
Cleary, of South Beech Avenue, Wickford, Essex, is charged with five offences under the Computer Misuse and Criminal Law Acts.
He is alleged to have taken part in a denial of service attack - which cripple websites by overwhelming them with requests for data – that briefly brought down SOCA's site.
Cleary is also accused of involvement in two similar attacks on the websites of both the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and its British counterpart on November 28 and October 29 respectively. A further charge alleges that he 'made, adapted, supplied or offered to supply' access to a 'botnet' - a network of computers, hijacked without their owners' knowledge - for use in the attacks.
Each of the three charges relating to DoS attacks carry a maximum jail sentence of 10 years, while the botnet charge could result in up to two years imprisonment. Davis, of Hoofields, Lerwick, Shetland, is alleged to have played a leading role in LulzSec, a group that was said to have been disbanded after being linked to attacks on a number of high-profile sites.
He is charged with gaining unauthorized access to a computer system, encouraging or assisting offences and two counts of conspiracy to commit offences.
He also faces a charge of conspiring to carry out a distributed denial of service attack - where a website is flooded with traffic to make it crash - on the Serious and Organised Crime Agency website.

-News Source (Mail Online)

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TANGO DOWN brasil.gov.br & presidencia.gov.br by LulzSec

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 6/22/2011 11:48:00 pm



Hacker group LulzSec said it has taken two Brazilian government Web sites offline. The sites Brasil.gov.br and Presidencia.gov.br were both unavailable as of the time this story was written
"TANGO DOWN brasil.gov.br & presidencia.gov.br LulzSecBrazil", LulzSecBrazil tweeted in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The outage, which probably stemmed from a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, follows the arrest yesterday by the Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit of a 19-year-old man who they suspect is involved with the group.
LulzSec has denied that the individual, who it names as Ryan Cleary, is part of the group.


"Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate chatrooms on his IRC server, but that's it," the group tweeted last night.

News Source (ZDNet UK)

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Anonymous hacked by one of its own

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/11/2011 12:24:00 pm


Infamous hacktivist group Anonymous has been hacked by one of its own. In a message posted to the AnonOps.in site, the group claimed a former member organised the attack, taking over its AnonOps.ru and .net communications sites and publishing names and IP addresses of users online.
After receiving media attention worldwide when Sony claimed it was unwittingly involved in hacking the PlayStation Network, it seems Anonymous now has its own crisis to deal with.
"We regret to inform you today that our network has been compromised by a former IRC-operator and fellow helper named 'Ryan'," the group claimed.
The hacker brigade strongly advised users to stay clear of the AnonOps network and added: "He decided that he didn't like the leaderless command structure that AnonOps Network Admins use. So he organised a coup d'etat."
After stealing the IP addresses of hundreds of the message board's users, the mysterious Ryan reportedly launched denial-of-service attacks against AnonOps.ru and AnonOps.net, the platforms that provide communications for the group. It is where hundreds of supporters have collaborated when they brought sites such as PayPal and Bank of America offline, and commanded the cyber attacks in support of WikiLeakslast year.
Anonymous is still under attack. Going to AnonOps.net diverts to a page with the title 'LOL ANONOPS DEAD' followed by some rather unpleasant language.
Despite repeatedly denying responsibility for the hack, Anonymous has been in the spotlight since the Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, Kazuo Hirai, wrote to US authorities suggesting the group played a role in Sony's massive data breach.

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