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The Dark Arts: Meet the LulzSec Hackers (hackaday.com)

Posted by timothy on from the bachelors-numbers-1-through-4 dept.

szczys writes: Reputations are earned. When a small group of hackers who were part of Anonymous learned they were being targeted for doxing (having their identities exposed) they went after the would-be doxxer's company, hard, taking down two of the company websites, the CEO's Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and even his World of Warcraft accounts. The process was fast, professional, and like nothing ever seen before. This was the foundation of Lulz Security and the birth of a reputation that makes LulzSec an important part of black hat history. Good companion piece and update to some of our earlier posts about the hack; that would-be doxxer was Aaron Barr.

7 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Lulzsec is an elite group? Since when? by hey! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a relative thing. Script kiddies are elite relative to Slashdot editors.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  2. Re:what's this hyping? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Black Hat II - For the Lulz

  3. Professional? by Sowelu · · Score: 2

    Yeah, I don't think I'd characterize anything like this as "professional".

  4. So what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They counter-doxxed and hacked someone. Did that stop them from getting doxxed and arrested? If not, then big fucking deal. They still got owned. Owning him doesn't change that. And since they were the ones who were supposed to be anonymous, then:

    Aaron Barr: owned
    Lulsec: still owned and secret identities exposed to boot.

    In the Grand Battle of the Douchebags:
    Barr: 2 Lulsec: 1

    1. Re:So what? by tnk1 · · Score: 2

      Since an MMO like that keeps moving the goalposts, maintaining his character probably felt more like a job than his job. So losing his account could either mean he contemplated suicide, or alternately he blinked, looked around, and realized that perhaps he should shower, shave, and dust five years worth of Cheetos dust off himself and he lived happily ever after.

      Seriously, when they created Daily Tasks... I mean Daily Quests, it confirmed to me that I was sitting in a hamster wheel where I was logging in to do the same thing every day, so that I could get fake gold so that I could buy a fake item which they would proceed to nerf in the next patch and render completely quaint and obsolete in the next expansion. While you're running through new content and exploring stuff, it's pretty fun. And that lasts about a month and then you're back to farming shit.

      So, odds are even that they actually saved him from madness and suicide.

  5. Re:Where legal systems fail, vigilantism thrives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Kinda.

    I recall when Anonymous attempted a campaign against Mexican druglords, and promptly changed their tune when faced with an organization that had no compulsions with killing to make their point. Anonymous is very selective in the targets they choose, mostly relating to people who either by law or reputation can't respond in kind. That isn't quite a failure of the legal system but more low level attacks puffing themselves to be more relevant that they are.

    LulzSec are at best an irritation with actual criminals having the good sense to operate more covertly.

  6. Wasn't the HBGary attack not a hack? by timrod · · Score: 2

    From what I recall, the attack on HBGary was actually clever social engineering, emailing one of the secretaries for one of the executives pretending to be a high-up who needed his password reset. All they really did was use the stolen login credentials to get the emails and other data off HBGary's servers and then deface their website. The subsequent "hacks" were the result of Barr using a universal password.