The FBI continued its pursuit of members of the hacking group LulzSec on Thursday, arresting a 23 year old Phoenix, Arizona man believed to be part of an online hacking crew that attacked systems belonging to Sony Pictures, the Bureau said in a statement Thursday.
The arrest, conducted by agents from the FBI’s Los Angeles office arrested Cody Kretsinger of Phoenix Arizona on Thursday. Kretsinger was named in a September 2 federal grand jury indictment and charged with conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer for his role in attacks in May and June against computer systems belonging to Sony Pictures Entertainment, according to the statement. Published reports indicate that other arrests took place in Ohio, San Francisco, California, Montana, Minnesota and New Jersey.
Kretsinger, who used the online handle “recursion” is alleged to have carried out SQL injection attacks on Sony’s application servers, connecting through a proxy server to mask his Internet Protocol (IP) address.
After compromising Sony’s networks, Kertsinger is alleged to have distributed information stolen from Sony and to have publicized the attack on LulzSec’s Web site and through its Twitter account.
Sony’s network became a target in April, after Lulzsec targeted the company for its legal pursuit of PS3 hacker George Holtz (aka “GeoHot”). The hackers broke into the company’s online gaming network, PSN Network. The company’s Sony Online Entertainment and Station.com networks were also breached, with data on around 100 million users exposed, all told.
Kretsinger is just the latest in a string of arrests and searches of both high- and low level members of LulzSec and Anonymous. In June, a 19 year old man, Ryan Cleary of Essex, England, was arrested and charged with five counts of violating that country’s Computer Misuse Act and Criminal Law Act. Subsequent raids and arrests of members of LulzSec and Anonymous claim to have targeted high ranking members of both LulzSec and Anonymous, including the member known as “Topiary” (allegedly 18 year old Jake Davis of the remote Shetland Islands in the UK) and, more recently, individuals believed to be linked to the online identity “Kayla,” a key player in many of LulzSec’s most notable hacks.
