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Four Lulzsec hackers convicted in Britain

David Hinkle — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:45:00 EST

Confirmed Lulzsec members Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis, Mustafa al-Bassam and Ryan Ackroyd have been sentenced for their part in the great hack of 2011, which saw Lulzsec targeting notable companies such as Sony, EA and Nintendo.

The four were initially charged nearly a year ago. Davis, as leader, was sentenced with two years jailtime, while Cleary was sentenced to 32 months for producing malicious software, Ackroyd for 30 months for his role as press secretary of the group and Al Bassam, who posted the stolen data online, was given a 20-month suspended sentence.

"The harm they caused was foreseeable, extensive and intended," Andrew Hadik, lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service told BBC. "Indeed, they boasted of how clever they were with a complete disregard for the impact their actions had on real people's lives. This case should serve as a warning to other cybercriminals that they are not invincible."

Lulzsec carried out many high-profile hacks in 2011, starting with the Sony Pictures hack that eventually led to a lengthy PSN outage. Lulzsec also attacked Nintendo, EVE Online, Minecraft, The Escapist and Battlefield Heroes before calling it quits.

Four Lulzsec hackers convicted in Britain originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 17 May 2013 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lulzsec pair plead guilty to hacking, two more deny charges

David Hinkle — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:30:00 EST

Ryan Cleary and Jake Davis are two individuals who were suspected to be involved with hacking group Lulzsec, an outfit claiming responsibility for several high-profile attacks in the gaming industry in 2011. Lulzsec is perhaps best known for its attack against Sony as retaliation for legal actions against George Hotz, the guy who rooted the PS3.

Cleary, who is 19, and Davis, the younger of the two at 18, both admitted membership in Lulzsec today at Southwark Crown Court, pleading guilty to "conspiracy to do an unauthorised act or acts with intent to impair, or with recklessness as to impairing, the operation of a computer or computers," Eurogamer reports.

The two both denied making available "unlawfully obtained confidential computer data" on the internet. Two other individuals, 25-year-old Ryan Ackroyd and an unnamed 17-year-old, both denied charges they were involved in Lulzsec hacking.

Lulzsec pair plead guilty to hacking, two more deny charges originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How GeoHot went from winning science fairs to instigating the hacker war

Jessica Conditt — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:30:00 EST

Hackers built the Internet. Throughout the 1970s and '80s hackers altered the Internet from a strictly business communications system for the defense department and librarians into a robust online community for anyone with a computer to use as they pleased. The Internet and computer technology is still evolving, perhaps at a a faster, more public rate today, and hackers are still at the forefront of its design. Hackers such as Geohot, the guy who rooted Sony's PS3 early last year.

George Hotz posted the PS3 root key online with a statement reading "I don't condone piracy" in January 2011 and it spread online. Geohot became an unsuspecting martyr in the hacker community when Sony sued him and won an injunction barring him from ever tampering with a Sony product again. Thus began the hacker wars, The New Yorker suggests in a biographical run-down of 2011's events.

Hotz was brilliant in science and technology fields throughout middle and high school, winning $15,000 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007 and appearing in Forbes and on The Today Show for his technological achievements.

He hacked the PS3 master key while he was high on OxyContin and Vicodin. He didn't condone or participate in any of Anonymous' hacks into Sony's servers, and since his online spotlight has faded he's worked for Facebook, quit and run amok in Panama, and met with Sony engineers curious about his methodology. He has reminders to "Call therapist" on his whiteboard. Geohotz is human, The New Yorker makes sure to point out.

The full story is available here, or we figure you can just watch this eerily similar dramatic recreation of an antisocial programmer's rise to fame. They're both human, after all.

How GeoHot went from winning science fairs to instigating the hacker war originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Before disbanding, LulzSec releases Battlefield Heroes data

Ben Gilbert — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:20:00 EST

The sextet of hackers known as "Lulz Security" may be done with their 50-day reign of semi-terror, but that doesn't mean the ramifications of their actions are over. In a final file released alongside yesterday's statement, the group released info from approximately 550,000 Battlefield Heroes beta user accounts (according to Rock, Paper, Shotgun) as well as the info from roughly 50,000 "random gaming forum" users. EA tells Eurogamer that the info was from "an early beta version" of the game, and "no emails, account history, credit card numbers or payment methods" were obtained.

Apparently the breach took down BF Heroes servers over the weekend, though EA also explained that it has recovered the free-to-play FPS to operational status. And though it's possible that some of the group's handiwork has yet to be discovered, we're hopeful that this is the last story of a breach we'll be writing after the hacking group's disbandment.

Before disbanding, LulzSec releases Battlefield Heroes data originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LulzSec doffs its gray hat, your games are safe (for now)

Jordan Mallory — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:09:00 EST

Lulzsec, the anonymous anti-security task force responsible for hacking Sony Pictures, Nintendo, EVE Online, Minecraft, and The Escapist, announced today that its 50-day tour of internet pillaging has come to an end.

In a press release posted on The Pirate Bay, the team of six hackers used confusing metaphors about Hitler and cats (seriously) to justify their attacks, citing the "chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy" as their main motivation. While the group claims that they had always planned to call it quits after 50 days, we think this retreat has more to do with the British arrest of 19-year-old Ryan Cleary.

Lulzsec's six hackers hope that their "movement" can continue without them, writing, "Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve." We don't know about you guys, but we can't remember ever feeling oppressed by Super Mario Bros. Peep the full press release after the jump.

Continue reading LulzSec doffs its gray hat, your games are safe (for now)

LulzSec doffs its gray hat, your games are safe (for now) originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 26 Jun 2011 12:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sega Pass hack exposed 1.3 million accounts, LulzSec denies responsibility

JC Fletcher — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EST

The Sega Pass hack has been upgraded from "temporary loss of some service to which we weren't really paying attention," all the way to "reasonably serious business." In a statement to Reuters, Sega revealed the scope of the data breach: over 1.3 million user accounts, including dates of birth and passwords. The publisher made it clear when it initially announced the breach that payment information wasn't at risk.

"We are deeply sorry for causing trouble to our customers," Sega spokesperson Yoko Nagasawa said in today's statement. "We want to work on strengthening security."

This time, hacker collective LulzSec isn't claiming responsibility, instead sending out a tweet offering to help Sega find the actual culprit. "We love the Dreamcast," they said. "These people are going down."

Sega Pass hack exposed 1.3 million accounts, LulzSec denies responsibility originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: LulzSec hacking group releases thousands of account logins, includes Xbox Live and Facebook [update]

Ben Gilbert — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:15:00 EST

Adding to the list of game-related companies it has attacked, LulzSec yesterday claimed to have stolen and leaked the login and password information for approximately 62,000 "internet accounts," reports the CBC. The stolen info is said to comprise logins/passwords from Facebook, Twitter, "dating sites," PayPal and, notoriously, Xbox Live. It is also claimed that the majority of accounts are from the United states, though several other countries are named in the report.

The account database info is still currently available through the LulzSec website (though we'd suggest not visiting) -- various folks on Twitter responding to the group claim to have done a variety of things with the information, from having a large pack of condoms delivered to an elderly woman, to one person saying they bilked a PayPal account for £250 ($404).

Earlier this week, the group attacked and successfully took down a handful of game industry websites, including EVE Online, Minecraft and The Escapist. All three sites quickly recovered and have been online since. Microsoft has yet to respond to request for comment on yesterday evening's alleged breach.

Update: Microsoft has released a statement, which states that Xbox Live was not compromised to the best of Microsoft's knowledge, and the logins/passwords were released at random, with people encouraged to try said information on services like Xbox Live (among others). "This group appears to have posted a list of thousands of potential email addresses and passwords, and encouraged users to try them across various online sites like Xbox Live in the event one of the users happens to use the same password and email address combination. At this time we do not have any evidence Xbox Live has been compromised. However we take the security of our service seriously and work on an ongoing basis to improve it against evolving threats."

Report: LulzSec hacking group releases thousands of account logins, includes Xbox Live and Facebook [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 17 Jun 2011 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LulzSec attacks Escapist Magazine, EVE Online, and Minecraft

Mike Schramm — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:15:00 EST

Hacker group LulzSec, the same group that's attacked Sony and Nintendo in the past, has tweeted that it's committed three distributed denial of service attacks against gaming companies today, bringing down EVE Online's Tranquility server, Minecraft's multiplayer services, and the Escapist Magazine's website. EVE Online's CCP has confirmed both the outage and the attack, the Escapist is unreachable at the moment, and Minecraft creator Notch says that things were down, but supposedly service has been restored.

LulzSec hasn't shared a reason for the attacks just yet, but we can only guess it's, as they say, "for teh lulz."

Update: The group has gone after Riot Games' League of Legends servers as well. Attempting to log in to the game gives a "server busy" message, though there's no official word from the company yet.

Update: Statement from CCP after the break. EVE Online still seems to be down.

Continue reading LulzSec attacks Escapist Magazine, EVE Online, and Minecraft

LulzSec attacks Escapist Magazine, EVE Online, and Minecraft originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NIntendo servers attacked, no customer info stolen

Alexander Sliwinski — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:00:00 EST

Nintendo admitted Sunday that its US-based servers were attacked several weeks ago by hackers, but that no customer data was taken. "The server contained no consumer information. The protection of our customer information is our utmost priority," Nintendo of America told Reuters.

Lulzsec, the same group that took responsibility for the recent Sony Pictures incursion, said it had hacked Nintendo but took one file and "didn't mean any harm."

NIntendo servers attacked, no customer info stolen originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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