Lulzsec | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The United States government has filed a superseding indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accusing him of collaborating with computer hackers, including those affiliated with the infamous LulzSec and "Anonymous" hacking groups. The new superseding indictment does not contain any additional charges beyond the prior 18-count indictment filed against Assange in May 2019, but it does "broaden the scope of the conspiracy surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which Assange was previously charged," the DoJ said. In May 2019, Assange was charged with 18 counts under the old U.S. Espionage Act for unlawfully publishing classified military and diplomatic documents on his popular WikiLeaks website in 2010, which he obtained from former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Assange has been alleged to have obtained those classified documents by conspiring with Manning to crack a password hash to a classified U.S. Department of Defense comput...

Since 2011, the collective hacking group, Anonymous and LulzSec were targeting both Government and law-enforcement websites of U.S and UK, by their own DDoS attack tactics which they used to communicate and plan on Chat rooms known as IRCs, but British intelligence agency GCHQ used their own weapon against them. According to the recent Edward Snowden document, a division of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is also very well known as the British counterpart of the NSA, had shut down communications among Anonymous hacktivists by launching a " denial of service " (DDOS) attacks, making the British government the first western government known to have conducted such an attack, NBC news reports . The same DDoS technique the hackers use to take down government, political and industry websites, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA), Sony News International and Westbor...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Sentencing for former LulzSec leader Hector Xavier Monsegur , better known as " Sabu " , has again been delayed. Monsegur pleaded guilty to a dozen criminal counts two years prior and stands to face more a maximum sentence of more than 124 years. Another Lulzsec Hacker Jeremy Hammond has claimed that the FBI used Sabu to coordinate attacks against foreign governments, by  Anonymous hackers and Others. The delays indicate that the FBI is not extracting information from Monsegur and this could mean that the hacker may be helping FBI with other covert operations as Jeremy Hammond claims. Jeremy Hammond, released a statement on Thursday accusing the US government of asking Monsegur to encourage fellow hacktivists to infiltrate foreign government entities. " What many do not know is that Sabu was also used by his handlers to facilitate the hacking of the targets of the government's choosing including numerous websites belonging to foreign governments" ,...

A second member of hacking group LulzSec - Raynaldo Rivera, 21, of Tempe, Arizona, has been sentenced to 1 year in prison, 13 months of house arrest, and 1,000 hours of community service for hacking into the computers of Sony Pictures Entertainment . Raynaldo who went by Internet names " neuron " was member of LulzSec Hacking Team in an attack on Sony Pictures which saw personal data belonging to 138,000 customers leaked. He's also been ordered to pay $605,663 in restitution.  The attackers distributed the stolen data on the Internet, information that included names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for tens of thousands of Sony customers. Raynaldo also pleaded guilty to obtaining confidential information from various companies and posting it publicly. Another member of LulzSec ' Cody Andrew Kretsinger ' was given a one-year jail sentence back in April. Rivera and Kretsinger both studied at the University of Advancing Technology in Tem...

A computer hacker linked to the group known as Anonymous and LulzSec  pleaded guilty on Tuesday to breaking into Stratfor , a global intelligence company.  Hammond, 28, was arrested last March and charged with hacking into the computers of Stratfor. Jeremy Hammond and other members of AntiSec , stole confidential information, defaced websites and temporarily put some victims out of business. Authorities say their crimes affected more than 1 million people. Hammond was charged under the controversial 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the same law used to charge the late Aaron Swartz and other cyber-activists. The plea agreement could carry a sentence of as much as 10 years in prison, as well as millions of dollars in restitution payments, though Hammond's official sentence won't be handed down until September. Beyond Stratfor, Hammond took responsibility for eight other hacks, all of which involved either law enforcement, intelligence firms or defense c...

Four men accused of launching online attacks under the banner of LulzSec appeared in a London courtroom Wednesday for sentencing.  Ryan Ackroyd , Jake Davis , Mustafa al-Bassam and Ryan Cleary have all pleaded guilty to hacking offences. The name Lulzsec is a combination of ' lulz ' or 'lols', " LAUGHING AT YOUR SECURITY " meaning 'laugh out loud' and security, and was a direct descent of notorious hacking group Anonymous. Working from their bedrooms in 2011, caused millions of pounds of damage with attacks on NHS, CIA and US military websites, they stole huge amounts of sensitive personal data including emails, online passwords and credit card details belonging to hundreds of thousands of people, Southwark Crown Court in London heard. They also carried out distributed denial of service ( DDoS ) attacks on many institutions, crashing their websites. Ackroyd, 26, from Mexborough, South Yorkshire, has admitted stealing data from Sony . To do it, t...

A self-proclaimed leader of hacking group Lulzsec has been arrested in Sydney, know by online name " Aush0k ". Australian Federal Police confirmed they arrested the unnamed 24-year-old man from Point Clare yesterday.  The police allege that the man compromised and defaced a government website, triggering an investigation that led to his arrest. The man is reportedly a senior member of staff at a prominent Sydney IT firm, and used his position of trust within the company to get access to sensitive information. His knowledge and skills presented " a significant risk to the clients of the company for which he was employed had he continued his illegal online activities ," police said. He faces a maximum of 12 years in jail. AFP Commander Glen McEwen says " This man is known to international law enforcement and police will allege he was in a position of trust within the company with access to information from clients including government agencies ," It's wo...

Three members of the high profile internet hacktivist group LulzSec have admitted to their parts in a series of cyber attacks against the NHS, Sony and News International. Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis and Mustafa Al-Bassam, pleaded guilty to one charge of carrying out an unauthorized act to impair the operation of a computer, contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977. In July 2011 the Sun's website was hacked and users were briefly re-directed to a spoof page that falsely claiming that Rupert Murdoch had died. Davis, from Shetland, and Bassam, a student from Peckham, south London, admitted conspiring to bring down the websites of law enforcement authorities in Britain and the US, including the CIA and the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA). The group, an offshoot of the Anonymous hacktivists, but Both LulzSec and Anonymous wreaked havoc throughout 2011 and 2012, knocking thousands of websites offline and pilfering data from well-known companies. The men are said to h...

Remember Hector Xavier Monsegur a.k.a Lulzsec hacker  Sabu ?  That  undercover   double agent working for the FBI. Once again Authorities abruptly postponed his sentencing due to his continued cooperation with the feds. All told, he faced a maximum time behind bars of 124 years associated with his guilty plea on ten counts of bank fraud and one count of identity theft. When he was a active member of LulzSec , the group hacked into sites belonging to the CIA, Serious Organised Crime Agency, Sony Pictures Europe and News International. " It's widely believed that Monsegur will receive a reduced sentence for signing a plea agreement and serving as an  informant " cnet said . Monsegur, an unemployed father of two, led the loosely organized group of hackers from his apartment in a public housing project in New York.

Lulzsec Hacker , Jeffrey Hammond faces a potential prison sentence of more than 30 years if found guilty of all charges filed against him. U.S. District Court chief judge Loretta Preska, who presided over a bail hearing for Hammond want last week. Hammond was also charged with using some of the stolen credit card data to help make $700,000 in unauthorized charges, and accused of participating in a hack of the Arizona Department of Public Safety website. " In early May 2012, a federal grand jury handed down a superseding indictment in the case against alleged LulzSec and Anonymous leaders, accusing Hammond of masterminding the LulzSec and Anonymous attacks against the website of Stratfor (a.k.a. Strategic Forecasting), beginning in December 2011. " Informationweek said . " At last week's hearing in a Southern District of New York federal courtroom, Hammond's defense attorney, Elizabeth Fink, suggested that the FBI may have used entrapment to catch her client, ...

A huge hack carried out today ! One of the biggest Peru Domain registrar company (punto.pe) hacked by Lulzsecperu (declared by a tweet ) and Complete database of 207116 websites has been leaked on internet.  Leaked database include Domain panel username, encrypted password, Company descriptions. Hacked domains include all .PU domains ie. Banks , Institutes, computer security companies, corporates, colleges, government, personal websites. " We clarify that we have no malicious purposes, only prove that the security of PERU is bad and should be corrected. Greetings to the computer crimes division of the National Police of Peru from March 2012 is nil activity and fail or be close to where we are now ASBANC for trying. " Hacker said in an statement . He upload the database here :  https://anonfiles.com/file/e14504f5033d2a53457af667b686340f Password for file: lulzsecperu 2-3 Hours after  Lulz...

After last year's big PlayStation Network hack a lot of hacking groups such as Anonymous and LulzSec were intensely publicized. Back in June, a massive hack was conducted on the Sony Pictures Website. The attack led to the theft of details on over 1 million accounts and was linked to the hacker group Lulzsec. At the time, the hacker group claimed to have used a " very simple SQL injection " attack. Samples of the compromised data were later posted online. Purported LulzSec member Raynaldo Rivera, 20, was charged in August with impairing a protected computer and conspiracy charges. In admitting his guilt, he joins Cody Kretsinger, who also pleaded guilty for the Sony Pictures hijack. Kretsinger is scheduled to be sentenced on 25th October. " Rivera used the HideMyAss anonymising proxy service in an attempt to disguise his IP address while he carried out reconnaissance work, probing Sony Pictures' website for security vulnerabilities. HideMyAss turned over his IP...

Anonymous hacker Barrett Brown was arrested by the FBI last night, his apartment raided while he was in the middle of a live TinyChat session. For those that may not be familiar with Brown, he came to some notoriety last year for allegedly mounting an operation against the Zeta drug cartel in Mexico after they had kidnapped a member of Anonymous. Brown claimed to hold the names of 75 Zeta collaborators, which he threatened to release to the press unless the Anon member was set free. Brown is the founder of Project PM and has worked closely with the Anonymous hacker collective on several past operations. This is not the first time that Barrett Brown's home has been raided. Six months ago the FBI came knocking on Brown's door and confiscated his laptop, but no charges were filed against him. That incident followed the arrest of then-LulzSec leader Sabu, or rather Hector Xavier Monsegur, who then turned informant in exchange for leniency, although it's also been suggested that Sabu ...

Julian Assange's mother, Christine Assange has done an excellent job of compiling the facts surrounding the issue of Julian's extradition case. Please, everyone share this, copy it, email it and send it to your elected officials and congressional representatives. The truth is what will set Julian Assange free and he must be freed immediately. Assange Extradition Fact Sheet 1) Julian Assange is not charged with anything in Sweden or any other country. [Source: @wikileaks ] 2) Julian Assange did not flee Sweden to avoid questioning. He was given permission to leave the country on the 15th September 2010, after remaining 5 weeks in Sweden for the purpose of answering the allegations made against him. [Source: Undue delay for Julian Assange's interrogation ] 3)  The case against Julian Assange was initially dropped, and deemed so weak it could not warrant investigation. After the intervention of a Swedish politician close to American diplomats, it was revived by a di...

The hacker group AntiSec released a file of a million and one UDIDs unique device identifiers which it claims to have hacked it off an FBI computer via a Java vulnerability. UDIDs are unique IDs for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. They said they obtained the file in March by hacking into the laptop of a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in the bureau's New York field office. In an unusually lengthy note on Pastebin , a member of AntiSec said the group had culled some personal data such as full names and cell numbers from the published data. Instead, the group said it published enough information such as device type, device ID and Apple Push Notification Service tokens to let users determine whether their devices are on the list. The hackers issued a statement saying: ' During the second week of March 2012, a Dell Vostro notebook, used by Supervisor Special Agent Christopher K. Stangl from FBI Regional Cyber Action Team and New York FBI Office Evidence Response Team was ...

The two students accused of Sony Pictures hack participated in Cyber Defense Competition team exercises at the University of Advanced Technology in Arizona. US authorities have reportedly arrested a second suspected member of hacking group LulzSec on charges of taking part in an extensive computer breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Raynaldo Rivera, 20, of Tempe, Arizona, surrendered to the FBI in Phoenix six days after a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned an indictment charging him with conspiracy and unauthorised impairment of a protected computer. In September 2011 charged Cody Kretsinger, then 23, with being Recursion. This week, meanwhile, the FBI announced the arrest of Raynaldo Rivera, 20, after he was recently indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and the unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. Two men who've been arrested on charges that they hacked into the website of Sony Pictures Entertainment and posted stolen data studi...

Note : This Article Cross posted from our Magazine's 13th Issue - August 2012 called "BOTNET | The Hacker News Magazine", Written by Ann Smith (Executive Editor, The Hacker News Magazine). You can Download full magazine free here . Shame on me.  When someone mentioned Lulzsec I would slightly bristle and turn a mighty heel towards the "real" movement.  You know, the Anons that are taking down corruption and terror, targeting the real enemies of the world.  If you were doing it for the LULZ of it, well, you were playing in the proverbial sand box and I thought you were hindering, instead of helping.  I even wrote an editorial spanking them for releasing the emails of servicemen who had signed up for a porn site.   Then, I read the book, WE ARE ANONYMOUS by Parmy Olson. Every person who considers themselves Anonymous or who  sympathizes and rallies for the cause, must read this book.  You will not only get a good education from this history ...

Today was the day that Hector Xavier Monsegur, a.k.a. Sabu, Xavier DeLeon, and Leon, was supposed to be sentenced for the 12 counts of computer hacking conspiracies and other crimes he pleaded guilty to, including the infamous hacks of HBGary Federal, HBGary, Sony, Fox, and PBS, but he has had his sentencing delayed, perhaps as a reward for assisting the US police with their enquiries and investigations. Monsegur allegedly rooted out the vulnerabilities used in the hacks conducted by LulzSec, which went on a high-profile tear in 2011 that exposed emails, documents, and other information of its victim organizations. Sabu is the hacker nom de plume of 28-year-old New Yorker Hector Monsegur, an unemployed father of two who allegedly commanded a loosely organized, international team of perhaps thousands of hackers from his nerve center in a public housing project on New York's Lower East Side. According to the FBI, he could face a maximum sentence of 124 years and six months for 12 offe...

The tale of LulzSec  two admits targeting websites Two British members of the notorious Lulz Security hacking collective have pleaded guilty to a slew of computer crimes, in the latest blow against online troublemakers whose exploits have grabbed headlines and embarrassed governments around the world. LulzSec members Ryan Cleary , 20, and Jake Davis , 19, pleaded guilty in a London court to launching distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks last year against several targets, including the CIA, the Arizona State Police, PBS, Sony, Nintendo, 20th Century Fox, News International and the U.K.'s Serious Organized Crime Agency and National Health Service Ryan Cleary is from Essex, United Kingdom who was arrested by Metropolitan Police on June 21 2011 and charged with violating the Computer Misuse Act and the Criminal Law Act 1977. He was accused of being a member of LulzSec but was not a member of the said group although he admitted that he did run one of the IRC channels that t...

Anonymous Hackers shut down website of Colombia Justice Ministry Anonymous hackers shut down the websites of Colombia's Justice Ministry website on Friday evening. The website was back online Saturday morning. Also, The website of Cambio Radical, the political party of Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras, was hacked later Friday evening and was still showing a message saying " You have been hacked ". Anonymous said on its facebook page the Ministry's website was shut down to protest "impunity" granted to corrupt politicians by a justice reform that had been approved by Congress but was sent back to the legislative branch by President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday because of its unconstitutionality and inconsistencies that " do not favor justice and transparency ." Last Year, Anonymous and Colombian Hackers were behind the shut down of the websites of Colombia's president , the interior and justice ministry, the intelligence service DAS and the g...