by Constantine von Hoffman

Cops Get Last Laugh as LulzSec, Anonymous, Antisec Learn Truth About Honor and Thieves

Opinion
Mar 06, 20122 mins
CybercrimeData BreachFraud

Leader rolls over on troops faster than a kitten playing with a ball of yarn

Authorities today arrested three people allegedly affiliated with LulzSec, Anonymous, and Antisec because a fellow group member turned informant. Two others were also charged.

601px-Anonymous_Idea.jpg
Hector Xavier Monsegur, the alleged former leader of LulzSec who went by the code name “Sabu,” rolled over on his comrades after being arrested last August. Arrested or charged were 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.

Those arrested are among the de facto leadership of Anonymous and LulzSec, or Lulz Security, according to Barrett Brown, an informal Anonymous spokesman, whose apartment in Dallas was raided this morning. Brown said, “Anonymous will go forward as usual. So will I. We hired an army of lawyers last January. We are prepared for a big slug-out.”

One of those arrested today was apparently the person who recorded a call among law-enforcement agencies discussing how to go after the hacker groups. The call may have been part of a sting operation but the FBI hasn’t confirmed or denied that yet. If you run into an FBI agent trying not to giggle then I would take that as confirmation.

The FBI played this thing to the hilt until the very end. Yesterday the Twitter account allegedly run by “Sabu” tweeted “The federal government is run by a bunch of fucking cowards. Don’t give in to these people. Fight back. Stay strong.”

Any prospective black hat hackers out there would do well to remember the timeless advice: Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead. Trusting a crook is about as smart as marrying someone who cheated on his or last spouse.  In fact, black hat supporters would be well advised to remember this as well because …

Symantec announced today that thousands of people who downloaded the Slowloris tool to support a recent DDoS attack by Anonymous may have infected themselves with the Zeus banking Trojan. While the downloaded program will carry out the distributed attacks, it also steals users’ online banking credentials, webmail logins, and cookies.

Try not to be too surprised.