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

LulzSec Spokesman Busted By Scotland Yard

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 7/29/2011 12:02:00 pm


Scotland Yard's cybercrime unit has arrested a teenager it suspects of working as the spokesman for the Lulz Security hacking collective, officials said Wednesday.
The Metropolitan Police's Central e-Crime Unit arrested a 18-year-old at an address in Scotland's remote Shetland Islands, the force said in a statement. His name wasn't released, but police said he was believed to be "Topiary," one of LulzSec's most prominent members.
Police originally gave his age as 19 but later issued a correction. 
LulzSec shot to prominence in May with attacks on the US Public Broadcasting Service - whose website it defaced by posting a bogus story claiming that the late rapper Tupac Shakur had been discovered alive in New Zealand.
The group is a spin-off of Anonymous, an amorphous collection of Internet enthusiasts, pranksters and activists whose targets have included the Church of Scientology, the music industry, and financial companies including Visa and MasterCard.
Topiary was linked to both groups, serving as the on-again, off-again media liaison for the publicity-hungry hackers.
In his only known television interview, on the "David Pakman Show" earlier this year, Topiary phoned in via Skype to feud with Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas-based group notorious for picketing the funerals of slain American soldiers.
Anonymous vandalised the church's website live over the course of the interview.
In conversations with The Associated Press, Topiary said he controlled LulzSec's Twitter feed, which garnered some 300,000 followers over the course of its six-week-long Internet rampage.
LulzSec has claimed responsibility for breaches at pornography websites, gaming companies, and law enforcement organisations. It's also claimed credit for harassing seemingly random targets including an obscure New Jersey-based magnet manufacturer.
One its most spectacular hacks was against Sony Pictures Entertainment. The group posted the usernames, passwords, email addresses and phone numbers of tens of thousands of people, many of whom had given Sony their information for sweepstakes draws. Another stinging series of breaches last month targeted Arizona's police force in protest against its contentious immigration law. Officers had to scramble to change their numbers because their phones were being jammed with calls.
Shortly thereafter the group abruptly announced it was disbanding, although Topiary said at the time that the group wasn't bowing to police pressure.
"We're not quitting because we're afraid of law enforcement," he said in a Skype call. "The press are getting bored of us, and we're getting bored of us."
Attempts to reach Topiary since then have been unsuccessful, although his group recently re-emerged from retirement, defacing The Sun newspaper's website with a fake story claiming that media tycoon Rupert Murdoch had died. In one of its last messages, LulzSec said it was working with unnamed media outlets on a WikiLeaks-style release of emails it claimed to have stolen from the tabloid.
Topiary's once-plentiful Twitter feed was practically wiped clean Wednesday. The only remaining post, from nearly a week ago, read: "You cannot arrest an idea."
The latest arrest is one of an increasing number claimed by law enforcement in Britain and the United States in connection to their investigations into Anonymous and its offshoots. Last week, the FBI, British and Dutch officials carried out 21 arrests, many of them related to the group's attacks on Internet payment provider PayPal Inc., which has been targeted over its refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks.
Last month another 19-year-old, Ryan Cleary, was charged with attacks on Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency and various UK-based music sites. Although at least one of the attacks he was charged with seemed linked to LulzSec, Topiary claimed at the time that Cleary was at most only tangentially involved with the group.
Scotland Yard said Wednesday it was also searching a residential address in Lincolnshire, in central England, and interviewing an unnamed 17-year-old in connection with the investigation. The second teen has not been arrested.

-News Source (IBN)

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More than 70 Police Websites Hacked in Response to #Op-Topiary (#Antisec)

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/08/2011 01:50:00 pm


AntiSec, the hacker group made of members from Anonymous and LulzSec, said Saturday that it has hacked more than 70 law enforcement agency websites in the U.S. in retaliation of recent arrests of alleged AntiSec members in the U.S. and the U.K.
The group, which has previously lodged attacks against law enforcement in Arizona, also said it was able to access 10 gigabytes of emails, credit card details and other sensitive data from the agencies.


And in a move that will infuriate law enforcement further, AntiSec called this cyber attack "ShootingSheriffsSaturday."
"A week after we defaced and destroyed the websites of over 70 law enforcement agencies, we are releasing a massive amount of confidential information that is sure to embarass, discredit and incriminate police officers across the US," AntiSec said in a statement posted on the website PasteBin, which has become a favorite place for the hackers to post the information they've stolen.

"Over 10GB of information was leaked including hundreds of private email spools, password information, address and social security numbers, credit card numbers, snitch information, training files, and more. We hope that not only will dropping this info demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words, as well as result in possibly humiliation, firings, and possible charges against several officers, but that it will also disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities."

Many of the agencies had no immediate comment on the hackings, while others expressed confusion as to what information was hacked.
In Mississippi, the Tunica County Sheriff's office was aware that their website was down, but did not know much beyond that, said Lt. Persundra Jones

“We don’t what’s really going on,” Jones said. “We have no idea.”

In Tishomingo County, sheriff’s officials alerted the FBI and the company that oversees the website, who promptly shut it down, said dispatcher Edric Parish.
AntiSec said in its statement that it was "doing this in solidarity with Topiary and the Anonymous PayPal LOIC defendants as well as all other political prisoners who are facing the gun of the crooked court system. We stand in support of all those who struggle against the injustices of the state and capitalism using whatever tactics are most effective, even if that means breaking their laws in order to expose their corruption.

"You may bust a few of us, but we greatly outnumber you, and you can never stop us from continuing to destroy your systems and leak your data."

The most recent arrest of suspected hackers affiliated with Anonymous and LulzSec, was that of 18-year-old Jake Davis. England's Metropolitan Police Service, better known as Scotland Yard, has said it believes Davis is the "Topiary," a hacker who has acted as a spokesman for the groups.

Davis was released on bail Monday, but a London court ordered that he be prohibited from using the Internet.

"We have no sympathy for any of the officers or informants who may be endangered by the release of their personal information," AntiSec said in its statement. "For too long they have been using and abusing our personal information, spying on us, arresting us, beating us, and thinking that they can get away with oppressing us in secrecy. Well it's retribution time: we want them to experience just a taste of the kind of misery and suffering they inflict upon us on an everyday basis. Let this serve as a warning to would-be snitches and pigs that your leaders can no longer protect you: give up and turn on your masters now before it's too late."
In a bit of a departure from the Arizona-targeted cyber attacks, the law enforcement agencies AntiSec says it hacked were mainly in the central and southern parts of the U.S., including agencies in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi.

-News Source (LANT)

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UK Cops Gave Warning To hacktivist Via Twitter

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/04/2011 07:21:00 pm


After arresting several suspected members of high-profile hackers’ groups, the UK police issued their latest warning to other hackers – via a tweet.
In a message on its Twitter account, the UK Metropolitan Police reminded people against computer misuse, adding the probe into the criminal activity of hacktivist groups continues.
 
"The investigation into the criminal activity of so-called ‘hacktivist’ groups #Anonymous and #LulzSec continue(s)," it said.

 
A link on the tweet led to a longer statement, where the Metropolitan Police reiterated anyone considering accessing a computer without authority risk imprisonment.
Hacker groups had taken to using Twitter to inform the public of their latest acts.
Under UK law, “it is an offence if a person acts from within the UK upon a computer anywhere else in the world. It is also an offence if someone anywhere else in the world to criminally affect a computer within the UK," the police tweet said.
The tweet also said UK law penalizes unauthorized access to personal accounts, Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) Attacks and intrusive hacks where data is taken or systems changed.
"Other jurisdictions have similar law," it said in the extended tweet.
In past weeks, UK police had arrested “Topiary," the suspected spokesman of hacker group Lulz Security, which had joined forces with Anonymous to hack government and corporate sites.
But “Topiary" a.k.a. Jake Davis, 18, was released on bail after he was charged with five offenses relating to computer attacks and break-ins by LulzSec and Anonymous.
Anonymous had issued a press release to free “Topiary" and hinted at getting back at those who led to his arrest.
It called on its Anons in the UK "to revolt and wash this shame brought upon them by a band of traitors and bandits who sold out to Anonymous’ enemies and disparaged the sentiment of this noble, lulzy people."

The group also called on Anons "to revolt altogether to cleanse the world of the ProSec filth who spread mischief in the land."

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Internal Collision Between Anonymous Team, Group Members Are Quitting

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/21/2011 03:55:00 am


Internal collision between  Anonymous team,  members are quitting Anon group, and the main caused described by them si Lulzsec and Antisec movement. An alleged member of  Anonymous has apparently outed himself and quit. The UK-based hacker, who says his real name is Matthew, operated under the pseudonym “SparkyBlaze” during his time with Anonymous. As to his reasons for leaving the group, he points mainly to LulzSec, the AntiSec movement, and Anonymous’ leadership.


Mathew said :-
“When I started with Anon I thought I was helping people but over the past few months things inside anon have changed,” the hacker said in a statement posted to the Web. “I am mostly talking about AntiSec and LulzSec. They both go against what I stand for (and what anonymous says they stand for). Antisec has released gig after gig of innocent peoples information. For what? What did they do? Does anon have the right to remove the anonymity of innocent people? They are always talking about peoples right to remain anonymous so why are they removing that right?” To the Anonymous members he leaves behind, SparyBlaze adds, “You are not helping anyone.” He continues, “Think about the long run. Some thinking now can save you some large legal bills later. And yes i will be there when you get out of court to say: I told you so. There are other ways to help people, just don’t go to anon you are not hurting the governments you are hurting yourselves in the long run.” 

To see Matthew's full statement and the reason why he is quitting cheek the following link where he has described everything.  

Else You Can See the Statement of Matthew Here:-

"Ok,

So Over The Past Few Days I Have Been At A Cross road With Anonymous. Why? Because I Started To Think.

So When I Started With Anon I Thought I Was Helping People But Over The Past Few Months Things Inside Anon Have Changed. I Am Mostly Talking About AntiSec And LulzSec. They Both Go Against What I Stand For (And What Anonymous Says They Stand For). AntiSec Has Released Gig After Gig Of Innocent Peoples Information. For What? What Did They Do? Does Anon Have The Right To Remove The Anonymity Of Innocent People? They Are Always Talking About Peoples Right To Remain Anonymous So Why Are They Removing That Right?


Now I Could Talk for Hours On Why I Have Came To This Choice But I Don't Think Anyone Would Or  Read It Or Care. So I Will Just Say Some Key Points:

They Are Removing Peoples Right To Anonymity, A Right Which They Claim To Protect And Uphold.

Sending Some Packets To A Server And Putting Info On-line Is Not Helping Or Solving Anything

Anonymous DOES Have A Leader Ship And They Don't Give 2 Fucks About Us. Think, When Anons Were Arrested For DDoSing Paypal A While Back Was There A Mass Free Anon Operation?. Did They Put-Out Press Releases And Start Donations For Them?. No They Did One TV Interview And Fed Them To The Lions But When TopIary Was Arrested They Started #FreeTopIary We All Know He Is A "Higher Up" In Anon And They Started A Op For Him. You Think Those Donations Are Going To Topiary? Why Start A Op For Him? Well I Think It Is Because Of 2 Things:

    - Press (Anon Is The Biggest Fucking Media Whore I Have Ever Seen)

    - TopIary Is A Anon Who They Give A Fuck About

Now You May Think I Am Mad But All The Proof Is There. I Am Not Saying People In Anon Are All Fags, Some Thing They Are Helping. But They Have Been Tricked Into Thinking It. Truth Is Anonymous Hasn't Brought Down Governments. The People Have. If You Was A Dictator you Wouldn't Give a Fuck About People Taking Down Your Site. You Would Give A Fuck About The People Rioting And Wanting You Dead.

Anonymous Has Prayed On Peoples Willingness To Help Others. And Most Of Them Are Kids Who Don't Understand What They Are Doing Can Fuck Up There Lives And The IRC Wont Help Them.

I Could Put More But I Don't See The Point.

A Message To The Governments:

If You Hate Anon, Don't Arrest The Kids. Arrest The Leaders. Without Them Everything Will Fall To Shit. All The Recruitment Will Stop And Then The People Will Start To Think And Understand That Anon Is Not Helping Anyone.

A Message To The Leaders Of Anon:

Fuck You Can't Wait Till You All Get Arrested :D

And If One Anon Sees The Truth Every Week Then Your Time Is Running Out

A Message To The Anon's:

Quit While You Still Can, You Are Not Helping Anyone And You Need To Think About The Long Run. Some Thinking Now Can Save You Some Large Legal Bills Later. And Yes I Will Be There When You Get  Out Of Court To Say: I Told You So. There Are Other Ways To Help People, Just Don't Go To Anon You Are Not Hurting The Governments You Are Hurting Yourselves In The Long Run. And No I Am Not Saying I Agree With What The Governments Are Doing But I Also Do Not Agree With Anon.

You Cant Arrest A Idea But You Can Throw A Kid In Jail And Fuck Up Their Life.

Don't Do The Crime If You Can't Do The Time.

Ps:

I Am Not Saying Everything Anon Has Done Is Pointless Things Like Getting Internet To People When Governments Cut It Off I Support. I Am Just Saying Most Of It Isn't Helping Anyone And Is Just Getting Kids Arrested.

I Would Like to Thank People Like:
@th3j35t3r
@sambowne
@AnonTangoDown
@providesecurity
And Everyone Else Who Has Been Spreading The Truth About Anon.
Thanks

SparkyBlaze

For Proof That I Am Not Trolling:

My Name Is Matthew And I Live In The UK, Manchester And No I Wont Post My Address And Phone Numbers Because I Know I Will Have Pizzas And Prank Calls To My House (That In It's Self Is More Proof That You Are All Kids). If You Want To Know More Then By All Means Dox Me. Remove My Right To Remain Anonymous."

-News Source (BGR & Pastebin)

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FBI Used LulzSec To Track & Spy on Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 6/02/2012 02:03:00 am

FBI Used LulzSec To Track & Spy on Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

After the inside story of Anonymous former leader Hector Xavier Monsegur aka "Sabu" case get revealed, the world came to know that Sabu was working as an under cover agent of FBI which lead a series of arrest for several key members of hacker collective Anonymous & LulzSec. Now we got another twist which came from a new book written by Parmy Olson, the London bureau chief for Forbes Magazine, saying that FBI used an agent inside the LulzSec hacker group to track and spy on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. According to the book, an associate of WikiLeaks contacted LulzSec spokesman Topiary on June 16 hours after the assault on the CIA. The two would eventually converse over an Internet Relay Chat channel that was reported to be witnessed by Assange, who confirmed his identity by providing a video to the hacker in real time during their chat. For a few weeks, writes Olson, Assange and/or his associate returned to the LulzSec IRC channel “four or five more times,” during which others occasionally engaged in conversation with both sides. During at least one of those conversations, Assange’s contact at WikiLeaks offered LulzSec a spreadsheet of classified government data contained in a file named RSA 128, which she says was heavily encrypted and needed the manpower of black hat hacktivists to decode.
According to an exclusive report of RT - Aside from a few unsealed court documents, details about the now-defunct hacktivism group LulzSec remains few and far between. One journalist is saying she got inside the organization though — along with Julian Assange.
“We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency” is an upcoming book from Parmy Olson, the London bureau chief for Forbes Magazine. And although her alleged account has not yet hit the shelves, a lengthy excerpt has been leaked to the Web — and its contents suggest that that the world’s once most powerful hacking collective was in correspondence with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after he allegedly reached out to the organization for assistance. The US government says that they had already infiltrated LulzSec by then, though, meaning that WikiLeak’s plea to the hacking collective was actually being offered to an FBI mole.
According to Olson, the June 2011 attack on the public website of the US Central Intelligence Agency by LulzSec caught the attention of Assange, who was residing in the countryside manor of an English journalist while on house arrest.Once he saw that a LulzSec-led invasion had crippled CIA.gov, Assange allegedly sent out two tweets from the WikiLeaks Twitter account, only to delete the micomessages shortly after:
"WikiLeaks supporters, LulzSec, take down CIA . . . who has a task force into WikiLeaks," read one."CIA finally learns the real meaning of WTF” reads the other.
Assange “didn't want to be publicly associated with what were clearly black hat hackers” writes Olson, speaking of computer compromisers who target network for perhaps no real intention other than mischief making. “Instead, he decided it was time to quietly reach out to the audacious new group that was grabbing the spotlight,” she says. Olson says that one of those hackers aware the newfangled relationship was Hector Xavier Monsegur, who spearheaded LulzSec by serving as a leader of sorts under the handle Sabu. Perhaps unbeknownst to all engaged in the IRC chats, however, was that Sabu had been arrested on June 7 and, according to the federal government, began immediately working as an FBI informant.
"Since literally the day he was arrested, the defendant has been cooperating with the government proactively," Assistant US Attorney James Pastore said at a secret bail hearing on August 5 2011, according to a transcript released this March after his arrest was made public.
While details of Sabu’s escapades under the direct influence of the FBI are obviously being kept confidential, federal attorneys have said that the hacker more or less masterminded the group under their command until LulzSec dissolved on June 25; Jake Davis — Topiary — was arrested in the UK on August 1. If Olson’s allegations add up, that could mean that the FBI’s top-secret informant, Sabu, was speaking directly with America’s cyber-enemy number one: Julian Assange.
On Wednesday this week, the UK Supreme Court agreed to extradite Assange to Sweden, where he is facing a lawsuit unrelated to his involvement with WikiLeaks. Once there, however, the United States may be able to more easily fight to have him sent stateside to be charged with aiding the enemy — the crime being pegged to alleged WikiLeaks contributor Bradley Manning, who now faces life in prison for that involvement. The uncertainty of who exactly conversed with whom might be near impossible to confirm given the widespread anonymity of hacktivists tied with LulzSec and Anonymous alike, but if Olson’s account adds up, the FBI’s inside man may very well have come close to working with Assange. On his part, Topiary claims that he never received the RSA 128 file.




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Anonymous Started #Op-Solidarity To Protest Against FBI, MET & Other Agencies

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/26/2011 05:24:00 am


Well known hacker group Anonymous declared Operation Solidarity (#OpSolidarity) to protest against FBI in the US, MET and all other agencies who have arrested freedom fighting Anon's in recent months.

According To the Official Press Release Of Anonymous:-

"This is a message from Anonymous to all Anon's, FBI in the US, MET Police in the UK, and all other agencies who have arrested freedom fighting Anon's in recent months:
To Anon's: While the show of support for all arrested Anonymous and LulzSec members has been great, including all donations to said Anon's legal funds, we feel this is not enough. There is so much more that we, as a whole, can do to further pressure the FBI, MET, and other authorities into releasing, and dropping charges on our fellow freedom fighters. I am here by declaring #OpSolidarity to be in effect as of now. Brain storm with other Anon's to come up with new ways to hit MET, FBI, and other agencies; with the sole purpose of getting them to drop charges against our brothers and sisters. I know each and everyone of you, if you got v&, would want the other Anon's to do the same for you, and show our solidarity to the world. Cyber protesters have been arrested by corrupt government agencies all of the world; this is not okay. Show them, that this is not okay.

To MET, FBI, and other police agencies currently holding suspected Anonymous members in custody:
    We, Anonymous, demand the immediate release of the following people: Jake Davis aka "Topiary", Christopher Wayne Cooper aka “Anthrophobic;” Joshua John Covelli aka “Absolem” and “Toxic;” Keith Wilson Downey, Mercedes Renee Haefer, aka “No” and “MMMM;” Donald Husband, aka “Ananon;”  Vincent Charles Kershaw,  aka “Trivette,” “Triv” and “Reaper;” Ethan Miles, James C. Murphy, Drew Alan Phillips, aka “Drew010;” Jeffrey Puglisi, aka “Jeffer,” “Jefferp” and “Ji;” Daniel Sullivan, Tracy Ann Valenzuela, and Christopher Quang Vo. Along with all other persons currently being detained by authorities worldwide for being suspected members of Anonymous. Failure to comply with these demands will result in dramatically increased hostilities against authorities currently holding any members of Anonymous worldwide.

    I have been a Hacktivist since the mid 90's, and active within Anon for a few years, and i have never ONCE disclosed my name on any dumps, roots, or site defacements. I have also changed my handle every year or so for the last 10 years. I have done this because i was afraid of getting caught at some point. I disclose my name now for one reason, and one reason alone: I am not afraid anymore. You cannot arrest an idea, nor can you stop one as powerful as the one Anonymous, Anti-Sec, and LulzSec are championing. We are not afraid anymore.

"You are not failures, you have not blown away. You can get what you want, and you are worth having it. Believe in yourself." - Jake Davis aka "Topiary"

-Bree
@anon_bree

We are Anonymous
We are Legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget fallen Anonymous members
Expect Us.."

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Sun Email Is Still Under Control Of Lulzsec

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 10/13/2011 05:32:00 am


"The ironic twist will be that my own friends will take me down and not these idiots who hide behind the patriot veil," said Sabu. However, despite the very real possibility that his former hacking mates will expose him, Sabu doesn't plan to stop hacking or go into hiding. "I'm at the point of no return. Not trying to sound like a bad ass, however, it's the truth," he concluded.
The 4GB worth of email stolen by the LulzSec hacking group from The Sun tabloid site earlier this year are sitting on a server in China, according to "Sabu," the outfit's alleged leader.
"We got them stashed on a Chinese storage server. Alongside the dumps of a whole bunch of hits we did," Sabu said during a question and answer session held on Reddit this weekend. LulzSec kept corporate IT security departments on their toes for weeks back in May and June when the group randomly attacked many companies for fun.
The hacking group said they disbanded on June 26, after 50 days of mayhem that left thousands of innocent users with their personal information and passwords exposed, only to re-emerge a month later. On July 18, at a time when new revelations were being made in the News of the World phone hacking case, LulzSec attacked its sister publication, The Sun. The hackers managed to post a fake story on the newspaper's website and claimed to have copied its email database.
The group originally intended to publish the email, but later decided against it, allegedly because they could have badly affected the court case against those involved in the scandal. It's not clear if the messages will be released when the case is over and who else except Sabu has access to them.
For a while LulzSec seemed to be one step ahead of the authorities, its members apparently confident that they couldn't get caught. However, several people associated with the group were eventually identified and arrested.
Such was the case with Jake Davis, an 18-year-old teenager from the U.K., who used the online alias "Topiary" and played a spokesperson role within LulzSec and Anonymous. "I miss Topiary. We became brothers," said Sabu during the Reddit Q&A session. "Lost too many friends. Will probably never talk to them ever again," he added.
Last month the FBI arrested a 23-year-old man from Tempe, Ariz., named Cody Kretsinger who is believed to be a former LulzSec member known as "recursion." Sabu claims that arresting recursion was probably the closest authorities got to him.
It's not clear if by closest he refers to his location or to information that could lead to him being caught. He remains defiant and doesn't believe that the FBI can catch him without help.



-News Source (Computer World)



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This Year PCEU Saved £140m

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 10/03/2011 04:36:00 pm



The UK cyber police have saved the country £140m this year, according to government figures.
The coppers at London's Metropolitan Police central e-crimes unit (PCEU) have made some big arrests in the last few months, including Lulzsec's Topiary and several people at the News of the World.
We expect that the £140m saved is not the result of people having no Sunday tabloid to buy however, but rather an accumulation of savings to businesses, banks and consumers. The Met said that its operational activity so far has completed 30 percent of a £504m "harm reduction target", which we expect is the police bureaucracy's term for 'goal'.
"The Police Central e-Crime Unit continues to take action in its continuing efforts to reduce the harm caused to the UK economy and to UK citizens by those making use of the internet to commit crime," said detective superintendent Charlie McMurdie of the PCEU.
"This initial result is only a small sample of the current investigations and interventions being conducted... the figure alone does not capture the other important benefits gleaned from the learning obtained from targeting the higher echelon of cyber criminals that we then share with our partners."
Perhaps the biggest savings came from Operation Pagode. This saw the Met break up an online crime forum that specialised in personal identity theft and allegedly saved some £84m.
It might be just a drop in the bucket, though. According to a government report released this Spring, cyber crime costs the UK around £27bn a year.


-News Source (The Inquirer)


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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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LulZsec Hacker Jeremy Hammond Aka "Anarchaos" Might Have to face 10 Years Imprisonment

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 5/05/2012 01:21:00 am

LulZsec Hacker Jeremy Hammond Aka "Anarchaos" Might Have to face 10 Years Imprisonment
Federal prosecutors said four Irish and British men charged in a crackdown on the international hacking group Anonymous also helped breach the security analysis company Stratfor last year. Among them 27-year old Chicago hacker Jeremy Hammond had been formally charged with the Stratfor breach. Hammond, who is in custody in New York, was formally indicted on Wednesday for the first time, and has yet to be arraigned. His lawyer declined comment. Hammond's arrest was announced on March 6 along with charges against the four suspected "AntiSec" members, Donncha O'Cearrbhail and Darren Martyn of Ireland, and Jake Davis and Ryan Ackroyd of Britain. 
In announcing the charges in March, U.S. authorities revealed that a leading hacker known online as "Sabu" was Hector Xavier Monsegur, and that he was arrested at his small apartment in a Manhattan housing complex last June and had been cooperating with the FBI ever since. U.S. authorities said all six men were top members of LulzSec, an offshoot of the loose-knit cyber-activist group Anonymous.

Wednesday's indictment also charged Hammond, known online as "Anarchaos," "tylerknowsthis" and also "cred­iblethreat," and Davis, known as "Topiary," with a June 2011 hack of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The four Irish and British defendants are charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit computer hacking, which each carry a 10-year maximum prison term. Hammond is charged with two hacking conspiracy charges and one substantive hacking count. He also faces one count each of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to access device fraud.


-Source (Reuters)

 

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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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LulzSec Hacker Cody Kretsinger Pleaded Guilty in Sony Breach

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/06/2012 10:33:00 pm

LulzSec Hacker Cody Kretsinger Pleaded Guilty in Sony Breach 

Accused LulzSec hacker Cody Kretsinger pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in California to taking part in an extensive computer breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Kretsinger, a 24-year-old who used the moniker "Recursion," pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer in a deal with prosecutors.
"I joined LulzSec, your honor, at which point we gained access to the Sony Pictures website," Kretsinger told the judge after entering his guilty plea. He testified that he gave the information he got from the Sony site to other members of LulzSec, who then posted it onto the group's website and on Twitter. Kretsinger flew from Decatur, Illinois, to Los Angeles for the hearing, and responded to the judge's questions calmly, with his hands clasped behind his back.
He and other LulzSec hackers, including those known as "Sabu" and "Topiary," stole the personal information of thousands of people after launching an "SQL injection" attack on the website, and ultimately caused Sony Pictures Entertainment more than $600,000 in damages, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Vandevelde said.The plea agreement is under seal, although Vandevelde said Kretsinger would likely receive substantially less than the 15-year maximum sentence he faces. He could also be forced to repay any damages. His sentencing is scheduled for July 26. Neither Kretsinger nor his lawyer would comment after the proceedings.


-Source (Yahoo News & Reuters)


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Lulzsec Spokesman Jake Davis Get Bail

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 8/01/2011 11:36:00 pm


An 18-year-old British man Jake Davis arrested on suspicion of being a spokesman for hacking groups LulzSec and Anonymous was granted bail when he appeared in a London court on Monday. Jake Davis is charged with hacking into websites, including that of Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), which was out of service for several hours on June 20 after apparently being targeted.
Davis was arrested on Wednesday at his home on the Shetland Islands, north of the Scottish mainland. He faces five charges, including conspiring to carry out a distributed denial of service attack on SOCA, the British equivalent of the FBI. Such attacks flood websites with traffic to make them crash.
Davis wore a grey-blue shirt and a black T-shirt and clutched a book as he appeared in the dock at the City of Westminster Magistrates Court in London.

He appeared relaxed and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth. District Judge Howard Riddle told the teenager he will have to appear in Southwark Crown Court in London on August 30 and granted him bail with stringent conditions and a curfew attached.

He is barred from using the Internet or having access to any computer or mobile phone and must remain indoors from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am at his mother's home in Lincolnshire, eastern England. The alleged hacker is said to use the online nickname "Topiary" and present himself as a spokesman for LulzSec and Anonymous.
LulzSec has claimed responsibility for a 50-day rampage earlier this year against international businesses and government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and Senate in the United States and electronics giant Sony. Another alleged British member of the group was released by a court on bail in June after being diagnosed with autism. 
Ryan Cleary, 19, has been charged with offences including hacking into the SOCA website.


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Sabu Former #LulzSec #Anonymous Leader Working As An Informant For FBI (Key-Members of LulzSec Arrested)

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 3/07/2012 04:58:00 pm

Sabu Former #LulzSec #Anonymous Leader Was Working As An Informant For FBI (Key Members of LulzSec Arrested)
Several members of the LulzSec and Anonymous hacking groups were arrested this morning by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. It is reported that the arrests were made possible after turning the group’s "senior leader", Hector Xavier Monsegur aka "Sabu", 28, who is believed to be a cooperative witness after the FBI turned him last June. Monsegur pled guilty to several charges of computer hacking conspiracy, for which he could receive a maximum of 124 years behind bars. Those arrested today included a member of the AntiSec hacking group who is believed responsible for the massive intrusion at security think tank Stratfor last December.
A law enforcement official in New York confirmed the arrests and said that six hackers belonging to the Anonymous, LulzSec and Antisec groups were nabbed in U.S. and overseas locations. The official described those arrested as "principal members" of Anonymous and LulzSec. The five hackers are identified in the report as Ryan Ackroyd, aka "Kayla" and Jake Davis, aka "Topiary" from London, two residents of Ireland, Darren Martyn, aka "pwnsauce" and Donncha O'Cearrbhail, aka "palladium", and Jeremy Hammond aka "Anarchaos," from Chicago, USA. According to the FBI press release, all but Davis face charges of computer hacking conspiracy and various other charges. Each carries a maximum 10 year prison sentence.
According to Anonymous Twitter feed: "We are Legion. We do not have a leader nor will we ever. LulzSec was a group, but Anonymous is a movement. Groups come and go, ideas remain"
It is unclear what to expect from Anonymous in reaction to the arrests. The hacking group is known for revenge cyber attacks. After 25 Anonymous members were arrested on February 29, the group downed Interpol’s main website. The same thing happened when the CIA website became a victim of Anonymous. The group also downed several large music industry, Department of Justice, FBI and many other federal authorities websites in response to the shutting down of Megaupload and the arrest of its founder Kim Dotcom. 
News of Sabu's arrest prompted several tweets from Anonymous this morning, including one that threatened retaliation. "The way Sabu & gang took control of Anonops.. anonops gonna retaliate," the tweet said.
 

-Source (FOXNews, Computer World)



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The Sun Newspaper Defaced By LulzSec & Declared Fake Death Notice of Murdoch

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 7/19/2011 02:33:00 pm

They’re back, are they?? The dangerous hacker group LulzSec, after declaring retirement last month, cracked the Rupert Murdoch–owned New Times on Monday and used it to host a fake news story declaring that the embattled media mogul had been found dead at his home.
The web defacement took the form of a mock article from Murdock’s The Sun, with the headline “Media moguls body discovered” [sic]. The text goes on to claim falsely that Murdoch “ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night.”
“We have owned Sun/News of the World – that story is simply phase 1 – expect the lulz to flow in coming days,” the group announced on its Twitter feed.

At the same time, some visitors were redirected from The Sun’s home page to the fake story, which appeared to have been blocked within an hour.
Murdoch’s news empire has been badly shaken in the last month by a massive voice-mail hacking scandal involving reporters at the UK-based News of the World, which Murdoch recently shuttered.

In May, LulzSec made news for the the first time with a similar attack against the website of PBS Newshour, in which it posted a false news story announcing that deceased rapper Tupac Shakur had been found “alive and well” in New Zealand. By then the gang had already hacked Sony’s Japanese website, and before that Fox.com, where the group stole and posted 363 employee passwords, the names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of 73,000 people who had signed up for audition information for the Fox talent show The X-Factor.
Subsequent hack targets included the Arizona Department of Public Safety. By late June, though, web vigilantes and rival hackers had exposed what they said were the real identities of LulzSec’s members, and on June 25 LulzSec announced its retirement. Group leader “Sabu” joined an outfit called AnonymousIRC, which continued targeting corporations and users, including the defense contractor 


To see the twitter Status of Lulzsec Click Here

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LulzSec Hacker Cody Kretsinger Sentenced 1 Year Imprisonment For Sony Breach

Posted by Avik Sarkar On 4/20/2013 05:03:00 pm

LulzSec Hacker Cody Kretsinger Sentenced 1 Year Imprisonment For Security Breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment  

Infamous LulzSec hacker Cody Kretsinger who pleaded guilty last year in front of Federal Court of California for taking part in an extensive computer breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment server has faced judgement. 25 year aged Kretsinger who is also known as "Recursion" was one of the key member of Lulz Security, widely known to us as LulzSec, an offshoot of the international hacking group Anonymous. According to federal prosecutors, Cody Kretsinger has been sentenced to one year in prison in  Los Angeles. This court rule has been followed by home detention. Kretsinger, was also been ordered by a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles to perform 1,000 hours of community service after his release from prison, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. Although prosecutors refused to say whether the hacker was co-operating with authorities in return for a softer sentence. 
During last year's plea hearing, Kretsinger told a federal judge that he gained access to the Sony Pictures website and gave the information he found there to other members of LulzSec, who posted it on the group's website and Twitter. "I joined LulzSec, your honor, at which point we gained access to the Sony Pictures website," said Kretsinger in the federal court. Prosecutors said Kretsinger and other LulzSec hackers, including those known as "Sabu" and "Topiary," stole the personal information of thousands of people after launching an "SQL injection" attack on the website; ultimately caused the unit of Sony Corp more than $600,000 in finical damage, along with that the attack caused bad impact and loss of faith for Sony Corporation and it's customers across the globe. 
While talking about this story, we would like to recap the decent history - where the arrest followed by guilty pleading of all the key members of LulzSec including  Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis, Jeremy Hammond, Raynaldo Rivera & Cody Kretsinger came a month after court documents revealed that Anonymous leader "Sabu," whose real name is Hector Xavier Monsegur, turned traitor to his community and became FBI informer and provided all the information on fellow hackers.


-Source (Reuters & Yahoo) 





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