LulzSec

[LoGiCaL__]

As a result of Monsegur’s cooperation, which was confirmed by numerous senior-level officials, the remaining top-ranking members of LulzSec were arrested or hit with additional charges Tuesday morning. The five charged in the LulzSec conspiracy indictment expected to be unsealed were identified by sources as: Ryan Ackroyd, aka “Kayla” and Jake Davis, aka “Topiary,” both of London; Darren Martyn, aka “pwnsauce” and Donncha O’Cearrbhail, aka “palladium,” both of Ireland; and Jeremy Hammond aka “Anarchaos,” of Chicago.

Hammond was arrested on access device fraud and hacking charges and is believed to have been the main person behind the devastating December hack on Stratfor, a private company that provides geopolitical analysis to governments and others. Millions of emails were stolen and then published on Wikileaks; credit card numbers and other confidential information were also stolen, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.

This is devastating to the organization.

- Senior FBI official

The sources said Hammond will be charged in a separate indictment, and they described him as a member of Anonymous.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/ ... forcement/

[centip3de]

As a result of Monsegur’s cooperation, which was confirmed by numerous senior-level officials, the remaining top-ranking members of LulzSec were arrested or hit with additional charges Tuesday morning. The five charged in the LulzSec conspiracy indictment expected to be unsealed were identified by sources as: Ryan Ackroyd, aka “Kayla” and Jake Davis, aka “Topiary,” both of London; Darren Martyn, aka “pwnsauce” and Donncha O’Cearrbhail, aka “palladium,” both of Ireland; and Jeremy Hammond aka “Anarchaos,” of Chicago.

Hammond was arrested on access device fraud and hacking charges and is believed to have been the main person behind the devastating December hack on Stratfor, a private company that provides geopolitical analysis to governments and others. Millions of emails were stolen and then published on Wikileaks; credit card numbers and other confidential information were also stolen, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.

This is devastating to the organization.

- Senior FBI official

The sources said Hammond will be charged in a separate indictment, and they described him as a member of Anonymous.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/03/ ... forcement/

He's back.

[limdis]

Now this is interesting. Kinda makes you wonder though -- I know a bit about what went down with xec96, but details are sketchy and thin on what happened to him after his release and his ties to HTS.

[anarchy420x]

How do you think this will impact the rest of the "community"?

[Kage]

Now this is interesting. Kinda makes you wonder though -- I know a bit about what went down with xec96, but details are sketchy and thin on what happened to him after his release and his ties to HTS.

I'll clear that up for you easily:

After Jeremy was released from prison and his prohibition of involvement in HackThisSite expired, he returned and talked to us about returning HackThisSite to "its roots." To be specific, this involved planning on effectively incorporating more missions, more articles, and more hacktivism. On that last point, this essentially involved making HackThisSite much more active in the "hacktivist" (specifically, the "technologically-savvy political activist") news realm, much like Techdirt and TorrentFreak. Much planning was done, some action was done (you can see some of our news activity on the front page of HackThisSite as an example), but overall, Jeremy had very, very little involvement in HackThisSite since his imprisonment.

In no way was HackThisSite ever involved in anything Jeremy allegedly did with Lulzsec or Anonymous. For that matter, HackThisSite has had no involvement whatsoever with Lulzsec or Anonymous whatsoever. Truth be told, I don't think anyone at HackThisSite knew if Jeremy was involved with either organization, beyond him once publicly mentioning he spoke with some people at one or both occasionally.

Personally, if these allegations prove to be true, I will be quite disappointed in Jeremy, since I truly thought he had moved past this and onto more legitimate action (e.g., being part of the "age of the protester" rather than the "age of the Lulzsec/Anonymous hacker." The former achieves legitimate results, the latter just pisses governments off and adds stupid amounts of fuel to their fire). I really wanted him to be involved with HackThisSite again as a "face" and PR-guy, to try and use his namesake within the hacktivist community to incite more involvement in information awareness and activism. But, this kind of fucked those plans. :/

How do you think this will impact the rest of the "community"?

If you're talking about the HackThisSite community: Simply put, it won't. If you're talking about the blackhat hacker community: Simply put, it won't. HackThisSite hasn't been involved with Jeremy in a long, long time (and was never involved with Lulzsec or Anonymous). And Lulzsec/Anonymous are basically headless organizations. They'll keep going with or without those guys.

Edit: Fixed to properly reflect presumption of innocence, rather than mistakenly assert alleged guilt.

[anarchy420x]

makes sense

[limdis]

Kage: +1

[tremor77]

Great reply Kage, very informative. I've trolled the articles and blogs for stuff and found no mentions of HTS anywhere for what it's worth good or bad. I liked this read though. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/anonymous-insider-spills-beans-to-fbi-20120307-1ukkh.html

[LoGiCaL__]

^Agree. Thanks for the detailed reply.

[Kage]

Just something I noticed while reading through all the news articles and other released information:

"After the hearing, as he stood in a narrow hallway, Hammond appeared curious," wrote reporters Todd Lighty and Wailin Wong. "He asked deputy marshals if he could keep a copy of the criminal complaint since he had no idea about the charges until his arrest Tuesday morning."

(Source: Ars Technica)

There's overwhelming amounts of chat logs that were used against Jeremy, but a surprising lack of legitimate evidence. Jeremy was a very profound member of the hacking community, and was one of the most notorious and well-known hackers around, by name. His past is well-known, and everything mentioned which helped "connect the dots" on all the IRC nicknames is common knowledge for anyone who spends a half-hour researching him.

Is it possible that his arrest was simply a "wag the dog" maneuver (other hackers planting evidence to assert Jeremy's guilt to divert attention away from them), or a "false flag" operation (under pressure of the federal government, Sabu or others coerced Jeremy into these actions to mitigate one of their own plots)?

Discuss.