Hacker group busted by FBI

Good day all, this is the Angry Systems Administrator. Normally, I leave news stuff to the other guy and just handle anything technical. However, I think this story needs my touch.

A group of hackers affiliated with the Anonymous hacker group was broken last week. The group, called “LulzSec” was responsible for the break-in and trashing of the Stratfor network a while back. It turns out that the FBI caught the head of this group after they went on hacking spree last year. The person, known as “Sabu” (Real name Hector Xavier Monsegur) was arrested last summer, pled guilty and then turned States Evidence ((Turn state’s evidence)) and worked with the FBI to break the rest of the ring.

The story of how the FBI tracked down and caught Hector makes for interesting reading. Fox News got the story and posted it yesterday. It’s right out of a crime novel.

It was one of the hottest days of the year and evening temperatures were still sweltering when two FBI agents wearing bulletproof vests under their dark suits climbed the stairs of the Jacob Riis housing complex in New York’s Lower East Side on June 7, 2011. Drenched in sweat, they knocked on the steel door of a sixth-floor unit. It swung open to reveal a man in his late twenties wearing jeans and a white T-shirt.

“I’m Hector,” he said.

The agents were suddenly face-to-face with “Sabu,” the computer genius they had stalked for months, a quarry so elusive they hadn’t pinned down his identity and location until just weeks before. The suspected ringleader of the Anonymous offshoot group LulzSec, Hector Xavier Monsegur and his web minions had just completed a month-long reign of terror, hacking the CIA, Fox, Sony and several financial institutions, causing, according to some estimates, billions of dollars in damage around the world.

In order to get the others in Hector’s group of hackers, they kept his arrest secret and made a deal with him. Help them catch the others and he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life in prison. Help them he did. Eventually, the group hacked Startfor, and rampaged through their systems.

Stratfor:

Is a subscription-based provider of geopolitical analysis. Individual and corporate subscribers gain a thorough understanding of international affairs, including what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what will happen next.

The LulzSec group raided the email servers and also stole thousands of credit card numbers. The email ended up with Julian Assange ((About Julian Assange)), founder of Wilileaks and spread all over the world. The credit card numbers ended up on a server that was thoughtfully provided by the FBI in the course of their investigation.

The story on how the FBI broke the LulzSec group is covered on Ars Technica and reads like something from an episode of Law & Order. In the end, it was the arrogance of the people involved that brought them down. These people are absolutely brilliant, no doubt about it, but are lazy and think the world owes them whatever they want. They also liked to brag about what they did and the damage they caused.

To be accurate, LulzSec and the other Anonymous groups are not “Hackers” in the purest sense of the word, but “Crackers.” There is a big difference. Hackers like to get into things and see how they work. They are not interested in doing damage or hurting anyone. Crackers like to break into things, steal anything they find interesting or valuable and wreck the systems they have broken into.

In other words, they are thieves and vandals.

One of the things groups like LulzSec and Anonymous never consider is what might happen if they hit the wrong people or organizations. I’m not talking about your average person or corporation. I’m talking about groups like the Chinese Ministry of State Security or the Russian Security Service (FSB).

These people do not care about a hackers civil rights. If Anonymous were to hit China or Russia, these intelligence services would track them down and depending on the circumstances and damages they did, quickly kill them. If they were lucky, it would be quick. More than likely, they would be questioned in a way that would make waterboarding ((What is Waterboarding?)) look like a summertime activity. Then the operatives, (Spys), would make a very messy example of them. If you think I’m exaggerating, take a look at what has been happening to Iranian nuclear scientists over the last year or so.

The days of fun and games by groups like Anonymous are starting to come to an end. The police agencies around the world have become just as sophisticated as the hackers and they have a lot more resources to play with. At least Law Enforcement agencies won’t torture these people when they catch them and they won’t summarily execute them in a very messy manner. They will get a fair trial, and if convicted, a prison cell. Or, if they get acquitted, they will walk out of the courtroom free and clear.

Beats a 9mm to the back of the head any day.

Thank you

~The Angry Systems Administrator~

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