Will LulzSec's Hit on Arizona Cops be its Last Hurrah?

 

Whether it's wishful thinking or a sign the net is tightening around LulzSec, the talk in computer security circles is that the hacking group's headline-filled glory days may be numbered. The reportedly tight-knit group of anonymous, renegade hackers has drawn far too much attention to itself and angered too many people with the ability and now the motivation to track them down, say rival hackers and security experts.


At this point, whoever discovers and exposes the identities of what's believed to be as few as six to eight individuals who comprise LulzSec would have cyber-scalps perhaps as valued in their own way as the real one belonging to the recently dispatched Osama bin Laden.

The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back?

Though its two-month-long reign of cyber-shenanigans had already made the group a huge target, LulzSec's latest exploit has assuredly fueled the efforts of law enforcement and self-proclaimed LulzSec hunters like lone wolf hacker "th3j35t3r" (the Jester, translated from "leetspeak") to catch them.

The hacking group on Thursday published more than 700 documents containing confidential information stolen from the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS). The 440MB data dump, which contains emails, bulletins, images and other files that have been pored over by Boing Boing, "could jeopardize the safety of many DPS officers and employees," according to a statement from Arizona police.

In a sense, previous LulzSec endeavors, like the group's posting of a fake story on the PBS.org website, temporary take-downs of sites belonging to the CIA and U.S. Senate, and even its breaches of the Sony Playstation Network, seem almost benign in comparison to exposing the identities and methods of police who contend with dangerous border gangs in Arizona.

Back in Bed with Anonymous

LulzSec's customary press release describing the operation it called "Chinga La Migra," or "f*** the border patrol" in Spanish, was far more restrained in its language than is typical from LulzSec. The statement was also more overtly political in explaining that the group's opposition to Arizona's controversial SB1070 anti-illegal immigrant law was the reason the DPS was targeted.

That's because, as the group later explained, the statement wasn't penned by LulzSec's regular mouthpiece. That master of snarky braggadocio is reportedly a LulzSec member known as "Topiary," as identified in the Guardian's must-read analysis of LulzSec chat logs that are believed to have been leaked by ex-LulzSec associate "m_nerva."

The targeting and hacking of the DPS appears to have also been the work of separate, associated hackers. LulzSec recently stated that in an effort to target police and government entities, it was teaming up with the more established—as odd as that qualifier sounds—AnonOps faction of the "leaderless," strange-bedfellow collective of online griefers and free Internet activists known as Anonymous.

That alliance may give LulzSec more disruptive resources at its disposal, but it could also prove costly. Alleged affiliates of Anonymous have had a habit of getting arrested in recent days.