Admin of irc.lulzsec.org Arrested in UK

by muratmutlu on 6/21/2011, 11:29 AM with 41 comments
  • by redthrowaway on 6/21/2011, 1:41 PM

    I'll believe it when LulzSec stops hacking things. Between the spanish police arresting the "leaders" of Anonymous, the FBI meeting with Aaron Barr to learn the identities of the "leaders" of Anonymous, and LEAs the world over generally not understanding this newfangled Internet business, I have precious little faith in their ability to actually get the people responsible. The only people who've been arrested so far were those who used LOIC.

    It wouldn't surprise me if Ryan was hanging out in the LulzSec irc (hundreds did), or even if he was involved in a couple of the attacks. LulzSec has made no secret of the fact that they regularly get other people to do a lot of their attacks, and that they publish information given to them by others.

    It's a lot sexier for the british police and the FBI to say they've captured a ringleader than "some guy loosely affiliated with", but I highly suspect he's the latter, if anything.

  • by FeministHacker on 6/21/2011, 12:14 PM

    19 years old & English - this was kind of obvious, really.

    In my experience, people interested in hacking and infosec over the age of 25 are more likely to know about 2600 and hold it in some regard, unlike those younger than 25. Hence, it was pretty clear that lulzsec was comprised of under 25 year olds.

    They also engaged in some very unlulz-y personal wars with a few people, and didn't quite seem to know limits - very much a young person trying to prove themselves too hard sort of thing.

    Similarly, they hacked a number of British sites, and something about their use of langauge sounded to me, as an former forum moderator, to be rather British. 2600 is also less well known over here.

  • by ErrantX on 6/21/2011, 1:54 PM

    Don't quote me on this; but someone [a professional contact] better placed to speculate on the details than the media (or dare I say; more likely to know the truth) just told me this is not related to LulzSec but an older investigation.

    This rings true with a lot of the details of the arrest FWIW.

  • by dzlobin on 6/21/2011, 2:08 PM

    Actually, it looks like he was only the ircop of their channel, and wasn't actually involved: http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/i568z/19yearold_s...

  • by endijs on 6/21/2011, 1:29 PM

    How about that: Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down? http://twitter.com/#!/LulzSec/status/83164092998758400

    :D

  • by lewispb on 6/21/2011, 12:17 PM

    Unless Wickford is a hot bed of hacking this must be Ryan Cleary: http://www.thehackernews.com/2011/05/anonymous-irc-hacker-ry...

  • by dave1010uk on 6/21/2011, 11:41 AM

    The LulzSec site is down too: http://lulzsec.com/ (though http://lulzsecurity.com/releases/ is still there).

    http://lulzsec.org/ seems to have an FBI take-down notice with the LulzSec logo on it.

    Edit: as DarkShikari mentioned, lulzsec.org has been like this for a while.

    Link to the Met Police post: http://content.met.police.uk/News/eCrime-unit-arrest-man/126...

  • by injekt on 6/21/2011, 1:37 PM

    "Ryan Cleary, an alleged member of the hacking group behind the claim, LulzSec, was arrested in Essex this morning by specialist cyber crime officers from Scotland Yard."

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8589078/Hackers-s...

  • by m4tt on 6/21/2011, 11:53 AM

    It's actually Wickford, Essex. Early reports suggest it is a former Anonymous member, although this cannot be confirmed.

    https://twitter.com/#!/y0ug/statuses/83138188570394624

  • by citricsquid on 6/21/2011, 1:34 PM

    I would say "That's a shame" but it isn't. Well done Ryan, well done indeed!

  • by chrisjsmith on 6/21/2011, 2:06 PM

    Scapegoat. The evidence will appear as and when they need it.

    This whole thing (this and the supposed census leak) stinks of a false flag operation.

  • by shareme on 6/21/2011, 12:08 PM

    Darn I guess he was not Anonymous afterall..

    Like I said before attacking a decentralized system with lots centralized stakeholders at some point in time makes you their bitch..

  • by shareme on 6/21/2011, 2:52 PM

    ahem people..

    1. Chinese and other criminal hackers do not engage in describing activities on irc, web, etc..ever wonder why?

    Its because when un-encrypted data flows through a central IP hub such as AT&T NSA has access to it in real-time.

    Now think real hard, is this the real anonymous or lulzsec?

    I assure you the read bad actors are spurring both anonymous and lulzsecf on in irc to do their dirty work from them than laughing their asses off when they get arrested..

    Look at the irc transcripts that have been posted for yourself..that pattern is there..

    Think for yourselves people do not let media do your thinking for you

  • by unixroot on 6/21/2011, 1:07 PM

    Yeah , Its Ryan , who arrested : UK police arrest Suspected LulzSec 19 years old Mastermind : The Hacker News ~ http://www.thehackernews.com/2011/06/uk-police-arrest-suspec...