LulzSec Leader Sabu Unmasked, Arrested and Caught Collaborating 511
Velcroman1 writes "Law enforcement agents on two continents swooped in on top members of the infamous computer hacking group LulzSec early this morning, and acting largely on evidence gathered by the organization's brazen leader — who sources say has been secretly working for the government for months — arrested three and charged two more with conspiracy. Charges against four of the five were based on a conspiracy case filed in New York federal court, FoxNews.com has exclusively learned. An indictment charging the suspects, who include two men from Great Britain, two from Ireland and an American in Chicago is expected to be unsealed Tuesday morning in the Southern District of New York. 'This is devastating to the organization,' said an FBI official involved with the investigation. 'We're chopping off the head of LulzSec.'"
Stop the presses! (Score:5, Interesting)
Should be interesting to follow... (Score:5, Interesting)
This should be interesting to follow. They may have cut off the head of LulzSec but is this going to be like a hydra?
Certainly there are already other "LulzSec wannabes" out-there following in Sabu's wake.
I have split feelings about this. Lulzsec didn't do anything to directly harm my interests- although, theoretically they could have at any time- yet having rogue groups like LS was a threat to all people in one way or another. On the other hand- a world with no LulzSec would be a threat to us too. When governments can quickly lock down groups like this- government has too much power.
It is probably just and right that Sabu go to jail- but it's also good they couldn't catch him too quickly... if you understand what I mean.
Re:Stop the presses! (Score:0, Interesting)
I find it amazing that /. is full of people that are so quick to bash fox news, but are so quick to believe any liberal media source. I really love the "study" that says fox news viewers are idiots.
It's good stuff.
From Sabu's Twitter account: (Score:5, Interesting)
"They read your mails. Listen to your calls. Break into your wireless routers+sniff your traffic. GPS cars. I'm not talking about terrorists." https://twitter.com/#!/anonymouSabu/status/176683665919721472 [twitter.com]
I guess he really knew what he was talking about.
Re:Sabu is unemployed - what a surprise (Score:4, Interesting)
The world of crime is a lot more amiable to a meritocracy than the corporate one; They don't try to hold onto weird beliefs like thinking how a person dresses is an indicator of potential, for example
And this is why you're a girl in training and not a banker in training.
All sophisticated crimes are confidence tricks. How you dress is a significant indicator of potential.
"Meritocracy" rarely has substantive meaning: it is usually applied when someone without full understanding of a hierarchy fails to appreciate the full set of qualities required of an individual. For example, loyalty in business to an "Old Boys' Club", guaranteeing that personal friends will further each others' interests, is far more important than e.g. who got the highest grade in some stupid aptitude test or who managed to increase profitability most at their previous job.
But it's fortunate that we don't have meritocracy, because it's a euphemism for "might makes right".
Shameful and Orwellian on so many levels (Score:5, Interesting)
This is why any kind of Hacking intent should never be combined with monetary interests.
That is true, but since the source is Fox News (Rupert Mudoch), as another poster pointed out we need to take this with a huge dose of salt.
If, however, this should turn out to be true, I find it disturbing on so many levels. Is anyone reminded of 1984 at all? The government running an underground resistence organization, to attract and arrest "revolutionaries." I'm not a fan of lulzsec at all, but this story, if at all true, is one of the more overtly Orwellian things I've seen, and living in an age of Orwellian behavior, with western democracies perched on the precipice of right-wing fascism, the middle east largely given over to their brand of sectarian fascism, and authoritarianism on the rise in Russia, China, and elsewhere, that is saying a lot.
What is even more telling, is how blase people are about the idea of a countercultural "leader" inciting criminality and then handing those he's managed to influence over to the authorities for "processing." Too many of us don't even seem to know enough to be ashamed, or appalled, by this kind of thing, so few in fact, that the GOP mouthpiece is essentially bragging about using such methods to take down a group they've found so easy to demonize. A process made easier no doubt, if the story is true, by the very behavior their mole incited and coordinated in the first place. Agent provocateur on steriods.
If this turns out to be at all true, and if we were a healthy democracy, the "leader" and his handlers would be facing serious jailtime, while those incited into this behavior would see a blackmark on their record and probation, hopefully scared straight. But those days died out sometime in the early naughties, and things have only gone downhill from there.
Re:Stop the presses! (Score:3, Interesting)
but their news reporting is no less accurate than WaPo.
Yeah... I remember how they accurately reported the space shuttle re-entering the atmosphere at 17 times the speed of light too. Anyway... since you couldn't be bothered to google for some non-editorial examples of Fox News 'facts', here's what I found just punching in "fox news facts" into _google image search_.
http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/images/item/fnc-an-20110725-ss-facts.jpg [mediamatters.org]
http://isviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Fox-News-Chuck-Norris-facts.jpg [isviral.com]
http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/images/item/cowboy3.jpg [mediamatters.org]
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A3BD2524FE99BD4D [youtube.com] ...
I could do this all day, but I hope you get my point. There's plenty of websites out there about how skewed their productions are. Even Colbert had a good laugh at their expense, dedicating not one, but six shows to showing off how shoddy their reporting is. But I mean, hey... if you want to say that they're being unfairly targeted for being 'conservative', hey, that's okay I guess. Everyone's entitled to their opinions. I just draw the line at people passing opinions off as facts, that's all.
Re:it's a mole! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:it's a mole! (Score:3, Interesting)
Their antics were harmless. Show me a victim and then maybe you'll have a point. No victim = no crime.
Re:Stop the presses! (Score:5, Interesting)
Fox News went to court to fight for the right to legally lie [projectcensored.org].
Re:Hey wait a sec (Score:5, Interesting)
I can see things like bitcoin "challenging the status quo." Could you explain how defacing websites, breaking into systems, and releasing private information challenges the status quo?
Re:Hey wait a sec (Score:0, Interesting)
Both are atheists. "Agnostic" was a term coined by a man who admitted that the term "atheist" applied to him but didn't want to be lumped in with other people the term also applied to.
Re:Hey wait a sec (Score:5, Interesting)
It made people realize just how shit the security at most companies is and that perhaps they shouldn't share their private information with them. It exposes a fair bit of criminality and general corporate and political evil. It gave us an insight into the inner workings of our corrupt law enforcement agencies and an idea of their true level of incompetence.
Above all it gave us hope that individuals can still fight back against the corruption and expose it. Manning is a hero but also an opportunist, Lulzsec proved that if needs be people can take the fight to them.
Re:Well duh (Score:2, Interesting)
Except that history has shown us that severity of punishment and restricting the rights of those accused and convicted doesn't really create less crime, but more and tends to concentrate it.