Update: Feds seize equipment from 'Deceptive Duo' suspect
Computerworld - The FBI has seized computer equipment, including hardware, software and other peripherals, from the home of Robert George Lyttle, who is suspected of being a member of the hacking group known as the Deceptive Duo, according to the search warrant executed Monday by the agency's San Francisco office.
The Deceptive Duo has claimed responsibility for hacking and defacing government and public-sector Web sites. According to the warrant, the Deceptive Duo is responsible for defacing at least 52 sites.
In a telephone conversation with Computerworld, Lyttle, 18, said he hasn't been arrested. But he wouldn't comment on the allegations that he is a member of the Deceptive Duo, saying he is under a court order not to talk about the case. He referred questions to his San Francisco-based attorney, who couldn't be reached for comment.
Yesterday, Andrew Black, a spokesman for the FBI's San Francisco office, said agents from his office executed the search warrant May 13 at Lyttle's home in Pleasant Hill, Calif., at the request of the FBI's field office in Washington, which is coordinating the case. A spokesman for the Washington office confirmed yesterday that no arrests have yet been made in the case (see story).
The search warrant, which doesn't mention any other suspects, was released to Computerworld today by the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, which would prosecute Lyttle should he be arrested.
According to the search warrant, the FBI began its investigation on April 26 after learning that someone had hacked into several U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) computers, stolen data and posted snapshots of the data on defaced Web sites owned or controlled by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Office of Health Affairs.
The FBI agent investigating the system intrusions discovered that someone had accessed DOD computers using the Earthlink Inc. dial-up account eln/hooves@earthlink.com, according to the warrant. The computers that were targeted were part of a nonpublic computer system that tracks and records customer service calls to the Battle Creek, Mich.-based Defense Logistics Information Service's (DLIS) call center, according to the warrant.
The agent then learned that individuals calling themselves the Deceptive Duo were hacking into a number of governmental and commercial computer systems.
The agent's investigation also indicated that the person established the connection to the DLIS systems from a particular Internet Protocol address. On May 6, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia subpoenaed the records of Level 3 Communications Inc., an Internet service provider in Broomfield, Colo., which owned the block of IP



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