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LulzSec's 'Topiary' arrested

148 points| SubZero | 14 years ago |nakedsecurity.sophos.com | reply

107 comments

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[+] _delirium|14 years ago|reply
Excellent. This means the problem is solved and we don't have to secure any of our systems, because he was a one-in-a-billion case that nobody could replicate. (Surely nobody is currently doing the same things with less fanfare.)
[+] commandar|14 years ago|reply
So we shouldn't arrest people when they commit a crime because others are committing the same crime? Or because they're doing it in a high-profile manner?

I'm not sure what your point is here.

[+] jgrahamc|14 years ago|reply
The other day his Twitter feed was cleaned up and a single tweet remained: http://twitter.com/#!/atopiary/status/94225773896015872 reading "You cannot arrest an idea". I guess he saw this coming.
[+] ChuckMcM|14 years ago|reply
Isn't the second half of that 'but you can torture a metaphor' ?

I get the impression reading some of the blogs that some of the arrests recently have in fact picked up people who were 'known' to other people who might very well become somewhat more cautious.

[+] cowboyhero|14 years ago|reply
Almost positive that's a direct quote toward the end of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.

Which kinda makes me grin and roll my eyes at the same time.

[+] Aloisius|14 years ago|reply
You may not be able to arrest an idea, but you sure can give its owner more jail time for destroying evidence. What was he thinking?
[+] dmbass|14 years ago|reply
So the A-Team dox were a bunch of rubbish? (or perhaps that was already confirmed and I missed it).

http://pastebin.com/iVujX4TR

[+] pyre|14 years ago|reply
If this report is right, then those d0x were BS:

  ###########################################################################
  ###########################################################################
  ooooooooooooo                       o8o                                
  8'   888   `8                       `"'                                
       888       .ooooo.  oo.ooooo.  oooo   .oooo.   oooo d8b oooo    ooo
       888      d88' `88b  888' `88b `888  `P  )88b  `888""8P  `88.  .8'  
       888      888   888  888   888  888   .oP"888   888       `88..8'  
       888      888   888  888   888  888  d8(  888   888        `888'    
      o888o     `Y8bod8P'  888bod8P' o888o `Y888""8o d888b        .8'    
                           888                                .o..P'      
                          o888o                               `Y8P'      
 
  ###########################################################################
  ###########################################################################

    Now we have Topiary.  Probably the lamest one of the bunch.  He doesn't
    actually do anything except give interviews.  There are plenty of logs of
    him all over the internet being a complete idiot.  His "d0x" are all over
    the internet also.  He tries to deny it but there are logs of him bitching
    about being d0x'ed int he #hq logs that Laurelai leaked.
 
    Name: Daniel Ackerman Sandberg
    Location: Sweden
[+] lwat|14 years ago|reply
Yea that was Aaron Barr's attempt at 'exposing' anonymous after losing his job in disgrace.
[+] alanfalcon|14 years ago|reply
Every time I read a story like this, I picture the opening sequence from "Hackers". I wonder if that isn't one of the most realistic portrayals (of anything) in that movie?
[+] Hominem|14 years ago|reply
I was busted in much the same way in the early 90s in NYC.

Yes, it was the only realistic part of the movie. It is a bit frightening to be woken up by a man pointing a shotgun in your face when you are 13.

IIRC, there was a well known NYC hacker who was getting ready for school, and was in the shower, when the SS burst in and the scene was loosely based on him.

[+] yalue|14 years ago|reply
I find it hard to believe that European kids care that much about the CIA or Arizona's immigration laws. Yet many of these alleged LulzSec arrests seem to be in Europe.
[+] xyzzyz|14 years ago|reply
These are only excuses to show off their "skills". Everyone loathes script-kiddies, and they know the only way for them not to be considered script-kiddies (which they are in fact) is make everyone believe that their motivation is different than fame and feeling of power.
[+] schrototo|14 years ago|reply
I think every wannabe-hacker wants to "hack" the CIA and Arizona's racist laws have been covered extensively on comedy programs like The Daily Show which I'd imagine are popular with anti-authoritarian internet-savvy youths worldwide.
[+] nikcub|14 years ago|reply
because they find the vulnerability first with a scanner and then work backwards to find the cause they are fighting for
[+] pnathan|14 years ago|reply
I'm personally a bit curious as to why it's only been European (only UK perhaps?) people.

I'd think the FBI would in on it too.

[+] chippy|14 years ago|reply
I am very curious as to the methods of how they caught him. Anyone care to guess, or know?
[+] dlss|14 years ago|reply
Well, since no one else is wading in here's what look like the usual suspects to me:

- obvious digital connection (forgot to use tor / ipredator / hacked vpn)

- timing attacks (keeping normal waking hours for his home country, using a vpn instead of tor)

- word frequency attacks (since he wrote a lot of press releases, his word choices may have been cross correlated with a personal blog)

- bragging to a friend

- getting flagged after showing up at a political/high-suspicion meet up (which might be enough to allow for a timing attack)

- voice analysis from interviews he did w/o a voice transformer being matched to other audio

- opsec blunders (loose lips when talking to press / on IRC / wherever anon talks)

Anyone else have any guesses?

[+] AndyJPartridge|14 years ago|reply
It is very likely he was informed on. (Grassed / Snitched)

One of the better broadsheet newspapers here in the UK had an article on Lulzsec/Anonymous, and one of the best comments they made was:

"Hackers fear other hackers more than law enforcement."

In this community it seems there is no honour amongst thieves. I very much suspect they grabbed a bunch of people around the world who were less talented at hiding themselves, and one of them knew enough to plea bargain in return for information.

[+] pvarangot|14 years ago|reply
If I were to guess it was the same methods they used to "catch" Manning. From my narrow (but not inexistant) knowledge of hacktivism arrests, it always reduces to someone feeling lonely/overtrusting someone on IRC/Jabber.
[+] koenigdavidmj|14 years ago|reply
Article does not say why they think that he is Topiary.
[+] nikcub|14 years ago|reply
the newspaper hacked his phone
[+] gcb|14 years ago|reply
if he was arrested, somebody probably gave a reason good enough for a judge (keyword is probably...i know nothing of UK law)
[+] sausagefeet|14 years ago|reply
For computer crime do they have to be able to draw a direct line from the act to the person's computer? Also, does a persons computer legally mean they committed the crime? What I'm getting at is, could a group like LulzSec guarantee lighter sentences for themselves if a line could be drawn from the crime to the group but you couldn't determine who actually hit the keyboard?
[+] starwed|14 years ago|reply
In the US, they could be charged with "Conspiracy to commit <crime>".

>One important feature of a conspiracy charge is that it relieves prosecutors of the need to prove the particular roles of conspirators. If two persons plot to kill another (and this can be proven), and the victim is indeed killed as a result of the actions of either conspirator, it is not necessary to prove with specificity which of the conspirators actually pulled the trigger.[1]

I'd assume English law has something equivalent -- it's a really old problem, and involving computers won't change the principles involved.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_%28crime%29#Conspira...

[+] driverdan|14 years ago|reply
I'm curious what led to all the arrests. It's not that hard to hide your identity if you truly want to be anonymous.
[+] knieveltech|14 years ago|reply
Hiding your identity from casual observers: trivial. Hiding your identity from scrutiny by local law enforcement: straightforward. Hiding your identity from scrutiny by federal agents: Tricky. Hiding your identity from scrutiny by an international investigation after having pissed off several high octane intelligence agencies: impossible.
[+] Mizza|14 years ago|reply
Snitching. It really isn't that hard to remain anonymous, as you said. But if you're spending hundreds of hours working on Ops with a small team, you learn to trust them and you slip up and share personal information. When somebody slips up, the cops threaten to drop the hammer unless they give up the rest. A 17 year old kid isn't going to risk his whole life for somebody he's never even met, so he snitches.

LulzSec isn't anything new, this kind of hacking has been going on since the 80s - they've just taken a different approach with the media. And snitching is always how hacker groups fall.

This is essentially how all law enforcement investigations work, actually. Drugs, hacking, graffiti, white collar crime, whatever. Get a good snitch and you'll get the whole organization eventually.

[+] tlear|14 years ago|reply
Taking all the precautions necessary and doing it consistently while not talking/bragging about it to outside people requires a lot of discipline. Most of these guys do no really have it. It takes few rounds of arrests, trials etc for the core group of survivors to get actually paranoid smart enough.
[+] fragsworth|14 years ago|reply
I would imagine it is pretty hard to make no mistakes. He might have accidentally logged into his twitter account (or some other account known to be his) through the wrong browser, which allowed them to see his real IP address.
[+] rajpaul|14 years ago|reply
I don't think it's anything technical, just the same old tactics they use against any other criminal organization.

Catch a weak link, offer them a deal in exchange for information that leads to the conviction of someone higher up in the organization, repeat until you make it to the top.

[+] JacobIrwin|14 years ago|reply
The top minds behind Lulzsec are worth more to federal authorities ALIVE - when (or if) they are caught. By alive, I mean: not in a prison cell.

Frank Abagnale Jr. comes to mind.

[+] tmp43522|14 years ago|reply
No they're not that good, if the arrests are correct then they're actually pretty bad. For the little value that they are worth, they're worth far more as an example to be made for others.
[+] srl|14 years ago|reply
I doubt it.

The people who are worth catching for the sake of their minds ... don't get caught. At least not nearly as easily as this group.

[+] r0s|14 years ago|reply
It always grates on my nerves when someone that young, seventeen, is referred to as a "man".

I suppose teenagers enjoy more freedom in Europe, maybe it's more appropriate there.

[+] adw|14 years ago|reply
Scots law: age of consent (and age you can enlist) is 16, drivers license is 17, drinking and voting is 18. And this is Scotland, so the age of criminal responsibility is 12. (Until recently, it was eight: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7916561.stm).
[+] cwiese95|14 years ago|reply
I found it interesting how he deleted all of his twitter updates with the exception of "You cannot arrest an idea"
[+] chuchurocka|14 years ago|reply
I think that at least a few other people have access to the account. To bad there isn't an api to see when the tweets were deleted.
[+] jared314|14 years ago|reply
They always shoot the messenger.
[+] Volscio|14 years ago|reply
I was surprised there was someone in the Shetland Islands?