Over the past week, notorious hacker group Anonymous has launched numerous DDoS attacks that disrupted service to a number of popular websites. The global hacker collective recently took down websites belonging to the Department of Justice, Universal Music, the Record Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America to protest SOPA, PIPA and the takedown of Megaupload. According to a new video posted on Monday, Anonymous now aims to take down Facebook. It in unclear as to why Facebook is the group’s new target; while the video mentions SOPA as part of its reason for the attack, Facebook openly opposed the controversial bill. In the past, Anonymous has listed potential targets as the United Nations, Xbox Live, U.S. Bank, Twitter and YouTube.

[Via BusinessInsider]

HTC continues to be true to the company’s word regarding bootloader unlocking tools. Through HTCDev, the Taiwanese company now offers its bootloader unlocker for the Desire HD, Wildfire, DROID Incredible, Desire Z, T-Mobile G2, Aria, ChaCha and Status. Even if a handset hasn’t received official support, the tool might still work. When the trend of locking bootladers began in 2010, HTC was one of many companies to promise unlocking tools and devices in the future, however, they are one of the few to actually have kept the promise. Unlike HTC, Motorola has continued to release devices with locked and encrypted bootloaders, placing the blame on the carriers and further frustrating a number of customers.

Read

In response to the arrests of LulzSec member Topiary and Anonymous PayPal hackers, members of the AntiSec initiative have infiltrated 50 police departments across the United States and stolen 10GB of data. According to a release put out by the group, which includes members from Anonymous and LulzSec, the data includes “private police emails, training files, snitch info and personal info on retaliation for Anonymous arrests.” It also includes social security numbers, address information, passwords, credit card numbers, training files and more. “We hope that not only will dropping this info demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement using their own words, as well as result in possibly humiliation, firings, and possible charges against several officers, but that it will also disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorize communities,” a recent press release said. The data was stored on a single server and the hackers said it took less than 24 hours to infiltrate and copy the information. In a release posted on PostBin, the AntiSec movement called on other hackers to join in and “make 2011 the year of leaks and revolutions.” The group also told the government to give up and said “you are losing the cyberwar, and the attacks against the governments, militaries, and corporations of the world will continue to escalate.”

[Via Gizmodo]

Read

District Judge Howard Riddle released 18-year old alleged LulzSec hacker Jake Davis on bail Monday morning. Davis hacked under the name “Topiary” online and served as the public face of LulzSec, often publishing press releases and status updates on the group’s Twitter account, before he was arrested on July 27th. The news debunks earlier reports that authorities had been duped into arresting an the wrong man. Authorities in the U.K. said they discovered personal information for more than 750,000 people on Davis’ computers. Davis has been charged with hacking the Sun, Times, Sony and the Serious Organized Crime agency. Davis’ lawyers are highlighting his role as a press secretary for LulzSec and have argued that Davis did not participate in the attacks directly. Davis was released on bail but cannot access the Internet from any device, including from smartphones, The Financial Times said.

Read

Reports surfaced on Thursday that Anonymous’ AnonPlus social network was broken into by other hackers who called themselves AKINCILAR. AKINCILAR, also the name of a town in Turkey, left a message and a picture of a dog head on the social network’s logo, which normally depicts a suited man with a question mark as a head. The social network was created as a safe zone for hackers to congregate anonymously after Google removed Anonymous Operations’ account from Google+. The message from AKINCILAR read:

We Are TURKIYE. We Are AKINCILAR.

This logo suits you more..How dare you rise against to the World..Do you really think that you are Ottoman Empire?
We thought you before that you cannot challenge with the world and we teach you cannot be social
Now all of you go to your doghouse..

Read on for more, including Anonymous’ response.

According to Gizmodo, AKINCILAR may have hacked AnonPlus in retaliation to a number of hacks against Turkish government websites. Anonymous responded to the breach with the following message:

“It seems the hacker group AKINCILAR decided we were offering too much freedom for the average person and needed us stopped. This is the most ignorant thing i have ever seen. I knew having anon anywhere in our social networks name might cause confusion but this recent defacement just shows how OUT OF CONTROL the anon sheep actually are.

At the time of this post the AnonPlus social network was down for unknown reasons.

[Via The Escapist]

Read [AnonPlus] Read [Gizmodo]

Global hacker collective “Anonymous Operations” together with “Lulz Security” on Thursday issued a statement to the FBI and other international authorities. The release is a response to statements made by FBI Director Steve Chabinsky tied to the recent arrest of 14 individuals with suspected ties to the hacker group. ”We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable, Chabinsky told NPR in a recent interview. “[Even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it’s entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts.” Anonymous did not mince words in its response. “These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies,” an unnamed Anonymous representative said in a statement. “We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless tous as you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing – absolutely nothing – you can possibly to do make us stop.” Anonymous’ full statement follows below.

Hello thar FBI and international law authorities,

We recently stumbled across the following article with amazement and a certain amount of amusement:

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/20/138555799/fbi-arrests-alleged-anonymous-hackers

The statements made by deputy assistant FBI director Steve Chabinsky in this article clearly seem to be directed at Anonymous and Lulz Security, and we are happy to provide you with a response.

You state:

“We want to send a message that chaos on the Internet is unacceptable, [even if] hackers can be believed to have social causes, it’s entirely unacceptable to break into websites and commit unlawful acts.”

Now let us be clear here, Mr. Chabinsky, while we understand that you and your colleagues may find breaking into websites unacceptable, let us tell you what WE find unacceptable:

* Governments lying to their citizens and inducing fear and terror to keep them in control by dismantling their freedom piece by piece.

* Corporations aiding and conspiring with said governments while taking advantage at the same time by collecting billions of funds for federal contracts we all know they can’t fulfil.

* Lobby conglomerates who only follow their agenda to push the profits higher, while at the same time being deeply involved in governments around the world with the only goal to infiltrate and corrupt them enough so the status quo will never change.

These governments and corporations are our enemy. And we will continue to fight them, with all methods we have at our disposal, and that certainly includes breaking into their websites and exposing their lies.

We are not scared any more. Your threats to arrest us are meaningless to us as you cannot arrest an idea. Any attempt to do so will make your citizens more angry until they will roar in one gigantic choir. It is our mission to help these people and there is nothing – absolutely nothing – you can possibly to do make us stop.

“The Internet has become so important to so many people that we have to ensure that the World Wide Web does not become the Wild Wild West.”

Let me ask you, good sir, when was the Internet not the Wild Wild West? Do you really believe you were in control of it at any point? You were not.

That does not mean that everyone behaves like an outlaw. You see, most people do not behave like bandits if they have no reason to. We become bandits on the Internet because you have forced our hand. The Anonymous bitchslap rings through your ears like hacktivism movements of the 90s. We’re back – and we’re not going anywhere. Expect us.

Read

The FBI raided the homes of three hackers from the infamous hacking group ‘Anonymous’ in New York, Fox News reported on Tuesday. Reportedly, more than 10 FBI agents stormed the house of Giordani Jordan in Baldwin New York and took “at least one laptop from the premises.” Jordan is suspected to have been behind denial of service (DoS) attacks against a number of firms, including Mastercard and Visa. In addition, agents are also searching homes in Long Island and Brooklyn. The hackers are said to be in their late teens and early 20s. It’s unclear if the hackers were also part of the group LulzSec, which claimed responsibility for hacks against Sony, the U.S. Senate and the CIA.

Read

The small group of hackers known as Lulz Security, or simply “LulzSec,” would never disband without one final round of fun. BGR reported on Monday that the group’s reign of terror was coming to an end after 50 lul-filled days. During that period of time, LulzSec released data stolen in a series of online breaches with targets ranging from Sony to the U.S. Government. In its coup de grâce, LulzSec released a stash of stolen data from a variety of targets, including AT&T, Disney and the U.S. Navy. But data obtained through online breaches wasn’t the only thing LulzSec stuffed into the file; a directory named “BootableUSB” also contained a variety of malware including trojans and worms. While “LulzSec” is no more and its notorious Twitter account now sits dormant, members of the well-known hacktivism group “Anonymous Operations” have confirmed that LulzSec is gone in name only — the six LulzSec members have been absorbed by Anonymous, according to the group’s official Twitter feed.

Read

The now infamous hacking team LulzSec recently announced that it was swabbing the decks of its “Lulz Boat” and closing up shop — for now. The group made its name after attacking a number of high visability targets recently, including Sony, the CIA’s website, and the U.S. Senate. It’s unclear if the group’s decision was made after its leader and chat logs were exposed, but the group makes a convincing argument that a 50-day hack-fest was planned the entire time. In its final press release, LulzSec said “Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind – we hope – inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love.” The letter, at times a bit awkward and out of character for the group, called on hackers to continue the fight against poor security in support of freedom of information. LulzSec — short for “Lulz Security” — confirmed it had a crew of six members and thanks its supporters, but we have a feeling we’ll hear more from the group in the future. Read on for the full release.

1. . /$$                 /$$            /$$$$$$
2. .| $$                | $$           /$$__  $$
3. .| $$       /$$   /$$| $$ /$$$$$$$$| $$  \__/  /$$$$$$   /$$$$$$$
4. .| $$      | $$  | $$| $$|____ /$$/|  $$$$$$  /$$__  $$ /$$_____/
5. .| $$      | $$  | $$| $$   /$$$$/  \____  $$| $$$$$$$$| $$
6. .| $$      | $$  | $$| $$  /$$__/   /$$  \ $$| $$_____/| $$
7. .| $$$$$$$$|  $$$$$$/| $$ /$$$$$$$$|  $$$$$$/|  $$$$$$$|  $$$$$$.$
8. .|________/ \______/ |__/|________/ \______/  \_______/ \_______/
9. //Laughing at your security since 2011!
10. .–    .-”"-.
11. .   ) (     )
12. .  (   )   (
13. .     /     )
14. .    (_    _)                     0_,-.__
15. .      (_  )_                     |_.-._/
16. .       (    )                    |lulz..\
17. .        (__)                     |__–_/
18. .     |”   “\                   |
19. .     | [Lulz] \                  |      /b/
20. .     |         \  ,,,—===?A`\  |  ,==y’
21. .   ___,,,,,—==”"\        |M] \ | ;|\ |>
22. .           _   _   \   ___,|H,,—==”"”"bno,
23. .    o  O  (_) (_)   \ /          _     AWAW/
24. .                     /         _(+)_  dMM/
25. .      \@_,,,,,,—==”   \      \\|//  MW/
26. .–”””                         ===  d/
27. .                                    //   SET SAIL FOR FAIL!
28. .                                    ,’_________________________
29. .   \    \    \     \               ,/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
30. .                         _____    ,’  ~~~   .-”"-.~~~~~~  .-”"-.
31. .      .-”"-.           ///==—   /`-._ ..-’      -.__..-’
32. .            `-.__..-’ =====\\\\\\ V/  .—\.
33. .                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~, _’,–/_.\  .-”"-.
34. .                            .-”"-.___` —  \|         -.__..-
35. Friends around the globe,
36. We are Lulz Security, and this is our final release, as today marks something meaningful to us. 50 days ago, we set sail with our humble ship on an uneasy and brutal ocean: the Internet. The hate machine, the love machine, the machine powered by many machines. We are all part of it, helping it grow, and helping it grow on us.
37. For the past 50 days we’ve been disrupting and exposing corporations, governments, often the general population itself, and quite possibly everything in between, just because we could. All to selflessly entertain others – vanity, fame, recognition, all of these things are shadowed by our desire for that which we all love. The raw, uninterrupted, chaotic thrill of entertainment and anarchy. It’s what we all crave, even the seemingly lifeless politicians and emotionless, middle-aged self-titled failures. You are not failures. You have not blown away. You can get what you want and you are worth having it, believe in yourself.
38. While we are responsible for everything that The Lulz Boat is, we are not tied to this identity permanently. Behind this jolly visage of rainbows and top hats, we are people. People with a preference for music, a preference for food; we have varying taste in clothes and television, we are just like you. Even Hitler and Osama Bin Laden had these unique variations and style, and isn’t that interesting to know? The mediocre painter turned supervillain liked cats more than we did.
39. Again, behind the mask, behind the insanity and mayhem, we truly believe in the AntiSec movement. We believe in it so strongly that we brought it back, much to the dismay of those looking for more anarchic lulz. We hope, wish, even beg, that the movement manifests itself into a revolution that can continue on without us. The support we’ve gathered for it in such a short space of time is truly overwhelming, and not to mention humbling. Please don’t stop. Together, united, we can stomp down our common oppressors and imbue ourselves with the power and freedom we deserve.
40. So with those last thoughts, it’s time to say bon voyage. Our planned 50 day cruise has expired, and we must now sail into the distance, leaving behind – we hope – inspiration, fear, denial, happiness, approval, disapproval, mockery, embarrassment, thoughtfulness, jealousy, hate, even love. If anything, we hope we had a microscopic impact on someone, somewhere. Anywhere.
41. Thank you for sailing with us. The breeze is fresh and the sun is setting, so now we head for the horizon.
42. Let it flow…
43. Lulz Security – our crew of six wishes you a happy 2011, and a shout-out to all of our battlefleet members and supporters across the globe
44. ——————————————————————————————————
45. Our mayhem: http://lulzsecurity.com/releases/
46. Our chaos: http://thepiratebay.org/user/LulzSec/
47. Our final release: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6495523/50_Days_of_Lulz

Please make mirrors of material on the website, because we’re not renewing the hosting. Goodbye. <3

The Guardian has posted the full text of what is reportedly a LulzSec IRC chat room log from May 31st to June 4th. LulzSec — the notorious hacking group responsible for recent attacks on Sony, the CIA’s website, and the U.S. Senate — has fired back claiming that the room’s sole purpose is for recruiting new members. The Guardian reported that LulzSec’s members include hackers “Kayla,” “Topiary” — who runs the group’s Twitter feed and writers the press releases — and “Sabu,” who services as the group’s father figure and mastermind. The chat log, from a room called #pure-elite, is filled with text from other IRC users including “jopie91,” “Neuron,” “Storm,” “trollpoll,” and “voodoo,” but LulzSec’s press release said that those users just “hang out” with the group and aren’t involved with LulzSec. The IRC conversations run the gamut from comedic content to serious warnings. In one instance, the group’s alleged leader Sabu issued a command: “You realise we smacked the FBI today. This means everyone in here must remain extremely secure.” LulzSec affirmed that it’s still operating at full strength and added: “The Lulz Boat sails stronger than ever, nice try though. We are too sexy to be sunk, hacking continues as usual, u mad bros?” Read on for the full press release from LulzSec.

Dear Internets,

Herro! Recently some of you may have seen “LulzSec exposed” logs floating around. We’d like the time to say this: LOL. Those logs are primarily from a channel called #pure-elite, which is /not/ the LulzSec core chatting channel. #pure-elite is where we gather potential backup/subcrew research and development battle fleet members, i.e. we were using that channel only to recruit talent for side-operations.

Note that people such as joepie91/Neuron/Storm/trollpoll/voodoo are not involved with LulzSec, they just hang out with us in that channel. Also, “ev0″, who was allegedly arrested (?) was never a part of LulzSec or in fact the subcrew. We don’t even know who he is.

Despite the fact that we’re laughing heartily right now, we do take care of our subcrew, and as such the person who leaked those logs (m_nerva) has been completely hacked inside and out. We have all his online accounts, all his personal information, all the illegal things he’s done on record. We destroyed him so hard that he sat there apologizing to us all night on IRC for what he did. His mother probably spanked him after we wrecked his home connection. Uh-oh, m_nerva!

Our core chatting channel remains unaffected. Our core LulzSec team is at full strength. The Lulz Boat sails stronger than ever, nice try though.

TL;DR we are too sexy to be sunk, hacking continues as usual, u mad bros?

http://lulzsecurity.com/

twitter.com/LulzSec

Read

Last year hackers made headlines when AT&T announced to a security breach that had allowed hackers to access the personal data from 114,000 iPad 3G users. On Thursday, 26-year old Daniel Spitler from San Francisco pleaded guilty to two crimes: conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and identity theft. Spitler faces up to 10 years in prison — five years for each count, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Computer hackers are exacting an increasing toll on our society, damaging individuals and organizations to gain notoriety for themselves,” said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in New Jersey. “Daniel Spitler’s guilty plea is a timely reminder of the consequences of treating criminal activity as a competitive sport.” Fishman’s statements are clearly also aimed at other hackers; LulzSec and Anonymous, two hacking groups, recently announced that they have joined forces to attack the U.S. government. That’s in addition to recent hacks on Sony — which LulzSec took responsibility for — and Citigroup. Spitler will be sentenced on September 28th.

Read

LulzSec isn’t making any friends in the U.S. government or within any of the numerous companies that own the websites it has hacked, and apparently the group has managed to rub a few other hackers the wrong way as well. A website said to belong to a Dutch member of the hacker group LulzSec has reportedly been hacked by another group known as “TeaMp0isoN.” The site has since been taken down, but not before a 17-year-old TeaMp0isoN member was able to infiltrate it and post a statement. “Stop telling yourself that u are hackers, putting a ip into a irc is NOT hacking nor is using pre-made tools and scripts to grab databases,” the statement read. “You do not represent the anti-sec movement, u are not allowed to greet underground groups like zf0, ab, h0n0, el8 like your member ‘AnonSabu’ was doing, you will never be apart of the underground scene, if anyone thinks you are underground and can actually hack they have no idea about what happens in the underground scene.” The hacker went on to state that he plans to expose pictures, addresses, passwords, IP addresses and phone numbers belonging to members of LulzSec. TeaMp0isoN’s full statement follows below.

UPDATE: The Dutch owner of the aforementioned hacked website, Sven Swootleg, denies any involvement with LulzSec. His full statement now be found below, beneath TeaMp0isoN’s statement.

BREAKING NEWS: TEH LULZBOAT HAS OFFICALY SANK WITH 100S OF ANON MEMBERS ON BOARD!

No matter how many bots you gather, no matter how much people you lie to, no matter how much pre-made tools you use, you will _NEVER_ represent the real hacking scene, we warned you, we told you we do not make empty threats, we gave u 48hrs to secure your ircs yet u failed to do so, instead u posted hashes from public forums and then claimed you doxed us and laughed at the fact that i was 17years old. stop telling yourself that u are hackers, putting a ip into a irc is NOT hacking nor is using pre-made tools and scripts to grab databases… you do not represent the anti-sec movement, u are not allowed to greet underground groups like zf0, ab, h0n0, el8 like your member “AnonSabu” was doing, you will never be apart of the underground scene, if anyone thinks you are underground and can actually hack they have no idea about what happens in the underground scene. oh and TeaMp0isoN Issue 2 is coming out VERY soon exposing lulzsec members (pictures, addresses, passwords, ips, phone numbers etc). . . . not so anonymous anymore are you? lets hope that you can swim because the lulzboat just got titanic’d

Swootleg’s statement:

This website was compromised through exploiting a plugin in an outdated WordPress setup, uploading a shell, and replacing the index page. I am not a member of Lulzsec (a statement I have made several times before in various places), noone “hacked the server” (this has been verified by the hosting company, as this website is on shared hosting) and this was definitely not an “elite hack”. I am not available for further comments to press.

[Via GrindGadget]

Read

There are numerous reports claiming that the leader of the now infamous hacking group LulzSec has been arrested in the United Kingdom. According to London’s Metropolitan Police, the shadowy leader was a 19-year old responsible for hacking “a number of international businesses and intelligence agencies.” The group took responsibility for Sony’s recent massive security breach and has also targeted a number of high-visibility websites, including that of the Central Intelligence Agency, and has waged war on the U.S. government with another group dubbed Anonymous. Despite the reports, however, LulzSec has denied that any of its members have been arrested. Early Tuesday morning the group tweeted: “Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it’s all over now… wait… we’re all still here! Which poor b****** did they take down?”

Read

Call it a meeting of minds or call it an unholy matrimony — in either event, the recent rash of high-profile breaches is about to get an adrenaline shot. Hacktivist group Anonymous and a crew of emerging merry hackers known as are joining forces to target the dissemination of government secrets and the defacement of other websites such as those belonging to banks. “As we’re aware, the government and whitehat security terrorists across the world continue to dominate and control our Internet ocean,” LulzSec said in a statement on Monday. “Sitting pretty on cargo bays full of corrupt booty, they think it’s acceptable to condition and enslave all vessels in sight. Our Lulz Lizard battle fleet is now declaring immediate and unremitting war on the freedom-snatching moderators of 2011.” Operation Anti-Security — or AntiSec, as the group has dubbed the mission on Twitter — encourages fellow hackers to “open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path.” Hit the break for Lulz Security’s full statement.

1.  Salutations Lulz Lizards,
2.
3.  As we’re aware, the government and whitehat security terrorists across the world continue to dominate and control our Internet ocean. Sitting pretty on cargo bays full of corrupt booty, they think it’s acceptable to condition and enslave all vessels in sight. Our Lulz Lizard battle fleet is now declaring immediate and unremitting war on the freedom-snatching moderators of 2011.
4.
5.  Welcome to Operation Anti-Security (#AntiSec) – we encourage any vessel, large or small, to open fire on any government or agency that crosses their path. We fully endorse the flaunting of the word “AntiSec” on any government website defacement or physical graffiti art. We encourage you to spread the word of AntiSec far and wide, for it will be remembered. To increase efforts, we are now teaming up with the Anonymous collective and all affiliated battleships.
6.
7.  Whether you’re sailing with us or against us, whether you hold past grudges or a burning desire to sink our lone ship, we invite you to join the rebellion. Together we can defend ourselves so that our privacy is not overrun by profiteering gluttons. Your hat can be white, gray or black, your skin and race are not important. If you’re aware of the corruption, expose it now, in the name of Anti-Security.
8.
9.  Top priority is to steal and leak any classified government information, including email spools and documentation. Prime targets are banks and other high-ranking establishments. If they try to censor our progress, we will obliterate the censor with cannonfire anointed with lizard blood.
10.
11. It’s now or never. Come aboard, we’re expecting you…
12.
13. History begins today.
14.
15. Lulz Security,
16. http://LulzSecurity.com/
17.
18. Support: http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/manifesto.html
19. Support: http://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia
20. Support: http://wikileaks.ch/
21. Support: http://anonyops.com/

Remember Citigroup’s recent security breach? The firm originally said that 200,000 accounts — 1% of its customers — were compromised, but now Citi is going on record and saying that hackers gained access to a total of “360,083 North America Citi-branded credit cards.” Unfortunately, the company hasn’t provided any details on how the attack occurred, or who was behind it; the infamous hacking group LulzSec, which claimed responsibility for a number of recent high-profile targets including Sony, hasn’t yet mentioned any involvement. If you’re an optimist, the good news is that Citigroup says the number of active accounts affected is actually below the 360,000 figure — because of subsequent account closures — and that the hackers didn’t steal info enough to actually use the credit card numbers. 217,000 customers have already been provided with replacement cards, and California residents were hit the hardest — 80,000 of the numbers stolen were from that state.

Read