LulzSec taken down

[RobinDaHood]

Remember kiddies- Three people have a meeting, one of them's a fed. And if two people know something, it's not a secret.
Top members of hacking group LulzSec arrested

A law enforcement official says top members of the hacking collective LulzSec -- and offshoot of Anonymous -- have been arrested, the Associated Press reports.

LulzSec, also known as Lulz Security, and Anonymous have claimed responsibility for hacking into such companies and institutions as the CIA, Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency, Japan's Sony Corp and Mexican government websites, Reuters reports.

Foxnews. com, in an exclusive report, says law enforcement officers on two continents nabbed three LulzSec leaders early today and charged two more with conspiracy.

It reports that two of those charged are from London, two from Ireland and one from Chicago.

Fox says the authorities were acting largely on evidence gathered by the organization's leader who, according to unidentified sources, has been secretly working for the government for months.

"This is devastating to the organization," an FBI official involved with the investigation tells Fox News. "We're chopping off the head of LulzSec."

Foxnews.com reports that was LulzSec was allegedly led by a 28-year-old hacker identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur, who used the Internet alias "Sabu."

Foxnews.com says Monsegur, who operates out of a public housing projects in New York City, was arrested last June and has been cooperating with the FBI.

Foxnews.com says an indictment in the case will be unsealed today in the Southern District Court of New York.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/03/top-members-of-hacking-group-lulzsec-arrested/1

[psynapz]

Remember kiddies- Three people have a meeting, one of them's a fed. And if two people know something, it's not a secret.

the authorities were acting largely on evidence gathered by the organization's leader who, according to unidentified sources, has been secretly working for the government for months.

All those arrested, including Sabu, failed to protect their identities while communicating amongst LulzSec. #epic #fail

Now that the game has been raised to the level that it has, it's time for a review of operational procedure:

Rule #1: You do not reveal your identity or location.
Rule #2: Assume you're the only good-faith actor among them, but act anyway.
Rule #3: YOU DO NOT REVEAL YOUR IDENTITY OR LOCATION!

It doesn't matter how much you love some other Anon, you must assume your every communication is being intercepted and act accordingly.

That means no procedural slip-ups to anonymizing your network activity during participation.

That means no discontinuity of typical non-anonymous network activity which could draw attention as a pattern break.

That means no late-night, small-crowd confessions of who or where you are or what you do on some IRC channel.

It doesn't take many data points to triangulate your meat in meatspace, and this had better be a stern lesson to all Anons engaged in illegal-ethical operations.

"This is devastating to the organization," an FBI official involved with the investigation tells Fox News. "We're chopping off the head of LulzSec."

Huh. That's quite an accomplishment:

Monsegur, who operates out of a public housing projects in New York City, was arrested last June and has been cooperating with the FBI.

Foxnews.com says an indictment in the case will be unsealed today in the Southern District Court of New York.

It will be instructive to learn explicitly how the other members gave up their identities to Sabu, so hopefully Anons can learn explicitly how to avoid this in the future.

[Laodicean]

[Wombaticus Rex]

Sabu was a fed? Amazing. I am really patting myself on the back today. Gonna go get some whiskey to celebrate.

Edit: Sabu made me feel super-guilty last November and almost got me involved, despite my gut instinct to keep on keeping on with how I keep on. Sabu engaged me through the Skilluminati storefront and gave a prolonged pitch that really had me second-guessing myself. Fortunately, I am both a Vermonter and a triple Taurus, so I can only second-guess myself so much. Ultimately, I came to see Sabu as a hysterical bully, but attributed that to his/her overwhelming passion for the cause of global revolution.

As it turned out, yet again, the loudest voice in the room turns out to be the agent.

I suspect we will all just keep re-learning this until nuclear weapons and/or power makes repeat lessons impossible.

Edit #2: I am also taking stock of the fact that the loudest and most vehemently pro-Palestinian voice in Anonymous was working for the Feds. Interesting vector and probably over my head to really evaluate, I can only note it in passing and move on.

[Nordic]

Looks like the Feds really worked him over and got to him. See, the trouble with having kids is that they can use that against you.

Case in point: In Iraq, torturing people's kids in front of them to get them to talk. You know. That's what our Federal Government considers "playing the game".

Evil fucks.


http://gizmodo.com/5890825/lulzsec-lead ... -anonymous

LulzSec Leader Betrays All of Anonymous

According to the FBI, you're looking at Sabu, the head of LulzSec, and the de facto King of Anonymous—easily the most notorious and influential hacker alive today. One thing: he just turned in his people to the police.
The name Sabu should be familiar: as part of LulzSec, a potent offshoot of Anonymous, he masterminded legendary attacks against the CIA, FBI, Sony, and numerous other corporate and government targets. He was their Captain Hook. That was before. Fox News reports the shadowy hack deity is not only confirmed to be unemployed 28-year-old New Yorker Hector Xavier Monsegur, but that Sabu has been "collaborating with the government for months," leading to a string of arrests around the world today. It's unclear how many will be dragged down with Sabu's nine months of federal collaborating, but it's safe to assume whatever vestiges of LulzSec remained are toast—we'll know for sure when all of the indictments are unsealed.

And according to Fox, the dragnet was thick:

On August 15, 2011 Monsegur pleaded guilty to more than ten charges relating to his hacking activity. In the following few weeks, he worked almost daily out of FBI offices, helping the feds identify and ultimately take down the other high-level members of LulzSec and Anonymous, sources said.

That's right—the man who helped the internet celebrate #FuckFBIFridays was doing so from an FBI desk. But only after the feds wielded Sabu's children against him:

"He didn't go easy," a law enforcement official involved in flipping Sabu told FoxNews.com. "It was because of his kids. He didn't want to go away to prison and leave them. That's how we got him."

I've talked to Sabu multiple times, and on each occasion he's seemed more and more distant, to the point where it was hard to get in touch with him at all. Now, says the FBI, it's because he was busy ratting out his cadre.

This also isn't the first time Sabu's been accused as a snitch—a prominent hacker and Sabu-detractor by the name of Virus I spoke with last year ranted about his hunch that the LulzSec leader was a rat:

6:12:32 PM virus: I don't have proof of him being a snitch, and he doesn't have proof of me being a snitch. it's my word against his.
6:15:39 PM virus: he disappeared for a week, I don't recall what day
6:15:52 PM virus: but when he returned he said his grand mother died and that's why he was MIA
6:16:01 PM virus: after that he started offering me money to own people
6:16:14 PM Sam Biddle: anyone important?
6:16:55 PM virus: backtrace security and laurelai
6:17:22 PM virus: he gave me IPs, asked me to access their accounts with their IP and asked me to access their emails
6:17:25 PM virus: told me he would pay me
6:17:42 PM Sam Biddle: did you?
6:17:53 PM virus: no, I found that to be suspicious and declined

...

6:19:19 PM virus: another reason why I believe he was converted after he disappeared and returned is everybody else started getting arrested one by one starting with ryan clearly, who was their ddos bitch
6:19:29 PM virus: yes, I believe he cut a deal to save himself

This August conversation jibes perfectly with Fox's report, who says Sabu began working for the FBI in June after they busted him—it's unclear what his fate is now. What is clear is the enormous grin of the feds, who have finally fired one back after almost a year of humiliations and runarounds from Anonymous brass:

"This is devastating to the organization," said an FBI official involved with the investigation. "We're chopping off the head of LulzSec."

Though LulzSec proper has been dormant since last summer, Sabu has remained a hugely influential character atop a vast cult of personality. The revelation that he's sold out the movement he professed to love so much will deal as much a psychological as logistical blow to Anon. After all, the guy tweeted this, only yesterday:

"The federal government is run by a bunch of fucking cowards. Don't give in to these people. Fight back. Stay strong."

[justdrew]

so, no word on how they got Sabu in the first place then or was he ALWAYS a plant?

doesn't it say in one place he was from Chicago and another he was in NYNY? Anyway talking to IRL friends and neighbors?

[Wombaticus Rex]

^^Read the quoted article in Nordic's post above.

I don't think Sabu has changed his mind, but he did get compromised. This does not appear to be a B. Darby situation.

[justdrew]

that doesn't explain how they got onto him in the first place. If they can bust they boss without the boss turning himself in...

[Wombaticus Rex]

Via: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/06/148069169 ... -their-own

Monsegur, 28, secretly pleaded guilty in August 2011 to a dozen criminal charges including conspiracy, computer hacking and identity theft. Prosecutors say he faces up to 124 years in prison.

The court papers don't specify exactly what Monsegur may have done, but they do describe more than two years of high profile hacks against some of America's largest businesses.

Via: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-I ... up-LulzSec

But when the "brilliant, but lazy" Sabu forgot one time to cover his online tracks, the FBI was able to uncover his real identity: Hector Xavier Monsegur, a father of two living in public housing in New York.

Once Mr. Monsegur was identified, the FBI were able to keep tabs on him and eventually arrested him in June 2011 on identity theft charges. Monsegur cut a deal with the feds and pleaded guilty in August 2011 to stay out of prison and take care of his children. In return, he helped the FBI track down his comrades -- the men charged today.

Really pissed Sabu took down Hammond. Really pissed.

[gnosticheresy_2]

Really pissed Sabu took down Hammond. Really pissed.

Why?

[Wombaticus Rex]

Because Hammond had a journalist's heart. He wasn't just showboating on meaningless stunts like DDoS.

[Laodicean]

[psynapz]

From Barrett Brown today, via http://pastebin.com/vZEteA3C:

As I have noted, the FBI raided my apartment in Dallas on the morning of March 6th. I was not there at the time; I had been given a vague warning that a raid was to take place the next day, so I went to my mom's place, where she lives with her husband, who is out of town, on the 5th. On the morning of the 6th, three FBI agents came to my mom's door and asked if I was there. She woke me up and I went down to talk to them. They told me that they'd executed a search warrant at my apartment and that the door had been broken in the process, and then asked me if I had any laptops with me here at my mom's place that I wanted to give them. I responded in the negative, and they left. At that point I began taking calls and e-mails from the press regarding Sabu, whom I learned was in fact a degenerate pussy traitor who couldn't face two fucking years in prison, making him the biggest pussy in the history of mankind. There were several people who came to this conclusion early on; I was not wise enough to be one of them. As to the various stunts he pulled in the months since his arrest - including but not limited to the unnecessary release of credit card information for Stratfor customers - we may never know to what extent such things were encouraged by his "Justice Department" handlers in an effort to discredit this movement. But I digress, lol. At any rate, the Feds came back a couple of hours later with a search warrant for my mom's place - they fully intended to take a certain laptop, and did.

The documentation left with me by the FBI after the raid on my mother's home states that the evidence they were looking for pertains to "conspiracy to obstruct justice, and the obstruction of justice, i.e. tampering with a victim, witness, or informant" and "conspiracy to access without authorization protected computers, and fraud and related activity in connection with computers (aiding and abetting), in whatever form, namely:

1. Records relating to HBGary;
2. Records relating to Infragard;
3. Records relating to Endgame Systems;
4. Records relating to Anonymous;
5. Records relating to Lulzsec;
6. Records relating to IRC chat;
7. Records relating to Twitter;
8. Records relating to wiki.echelon2.org;
9. Records relating to pastebin.com;"

... and then goes on to list computers and anything relating to them as things to be seized.

I am happy to post this list as it contains the names of two firms - HBGary and Endgame Systems - which I will now have particular opportunity to discuss, in a more public setting, as this matter proceeds.

Barrett Brown
Project PM

This is going to turn into a Mega-Streisand effect, I suspect... which is delicious!


Edited for emphasis to support Streisand Effect reference. The South Park screengrab is barely relevant, but fuckin funny.

[Wombaticus Rex]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

The Streisand effect is a primarily online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely. It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose attempt in 2003 to suppress photographs of her residence inadvertently generated further publicity.

Similar attempts have been made, for example, in cease-and-desist letters, to suppress numbers, files and websites. Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity and media extensions such as videos & spoof songs, often being widely mirrored across the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks.

[Luther Blissett]

Be safe out there in the world outside RI, everyone.