The age-old adage that there’s “no honor among thieves” appears to be playing out in the world of hacking, as well, as members of the online hacking group Lulzsec published information identifying two associates they accuse of informing on them to authorities.
The outing followed the arrest on Monday of a 19 year old UK man, identified as Ryan Cleary, who is alleged to be an active member of the anarchic online group LulzSec. The two individuals who were identified by Lulzsec on Tuesday, both U.S. residents, are accused of leaking logs on LulzSec “associates,” according to a message posted online by the group.
The leak is just the latest public release to identify, or “dox” members of Anonymous and the closely related LulzSec. In recent months, a large number of chat logs and other documents that claim to identify the leadership of Anonymous and Lulzsec have been leaked to publicly accessible Web sites like Pastebin.com.
In March, a splinter group known as Backtrace Security published what it claims was a list of full– and partial identities of Anonymous’s leadership. Also in recent days, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) logs claiming to be from a restricted administrative channel used by top Lulzsec members was published online. The chat depicts members discussing hacks against Sony, sharing information on vulnerable Web sites and discussing future actions.
Also on Wednseday, a blog called LulzSec exposed posted personal contact information for an individual it claims is a top IRC administrator in the group who goes by the name Power2All.
While its unclear how much of the information posted is accurate, the apparent collapse of what might be called “unit coherence” within the hacking groups may make the job of law enforcement easier. After largely ignoring groups like Anonymous for years, both the private sector and law enforcement are taking notice, as their exploits have grown more bold. A source with knowledge of the groups says that the FBI is devoting
increased resources to tracking down Anonymous and LulzSec members,
especially after the attacks on federal Web sites, including PBS,
servers belonging to the U.S. Senate, the CIA Web site and a Web site
belonging to a branch of the FBI’s own Infraguard program.
