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.
