A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
The FBI has arrested three alleged hackers, saying they're "members" of LulzSec or the Peoples Liberation Front, who broke into or DDoS'ed Sony and Santa Cruz County servers. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers watch the noose tighten.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Why the pointless MOV EDI, EDI instruction?...
Jana Winter breathlessly reports:
Cody Kretsinger...was charged with conspiracy and the unauthorized impairment of a protected computer. ... Christopher Doyon...and Joshua Covelli...were charged with conspiracy to cause [and] causing intentional damage to a protected computer and aiding and abetting.
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Kretsinger, who goes by the online name "recursion," is believed to be a current or former member of LulzSec. ... According to the indictment, he and coconspirators distributed stolen information by posting it on LulzSec's website.
Robert McMillan adds:
Kretsinger allegedly provided data...that included coupon codes along with email addresses and passwords [of] Sony customers. ... Kretsinger allegedly covered his tracks by using the Hidemyass.com proxy service and wiping his computer hard drive. ... He faces 15 years in prison if convicted.
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Separately, the FBI also announced the arrest of two alleged members of the Peoples Liberation Front...[which] claimed credit for a...distributed denial of service attack against Santa Cruz County, California [and] has affiliated itself with the Anonymous hacking movement.
Dan Goodin registers more information:
[T]he People's Liberation Front...allegedly used the High Orbit Ion Cannon to bombard the...County servers with more traffic than they could handle.
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If convicted, Kretsinger...Doyon and Covelli [each] face as much as 15 years.
Molly McHugh adds context:
The news breaks as Anonymous members are...planning a Day of Vengeance for September 24 to protest the corruption of our financial institutions. Since the hacktivist groups rose...the corporate and government world have felt their wrath. But...recently international efforts to find and punish the responsible parties have picked up steam.
Steve Ragan has more on the evidence against Kretsinger:
Sources at the [DoJ said] that depending on the methods used to erase the drive, it was entirely possible that data would be recovered. ... Aside from outright destroying a disk, its hard to wipe a hard drive in a short amount of time. [T]he source suggested that server logs presented by Sony and the anonymity service helped with the investigation.
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According to HideMyAss.com...We will cooperate with law enforcement agencies if it has become evident that your account has been used for illegal activities. ... [T]hey store the connecting IP address, as well as time stamps.
