A suspected member of hacktivist organisation Lulzsec, 20 year old Ronaldo Rivera, has been arrested by US authorities, charged with being involved with the hacks of Sony Pictures in 2011, where millions of the company’s customers had their account information displayed online.
Fellow Lulzsec member Cody Kresinger was arrested back in April and it’s thought the pair were involved with not only the Sony hack, but the publishing of user information too. Some of the pseudonyms used by Rivera purportedly included: “neuron”, “royal” and “wildicv”. He also made use of proxy servers to mask his IP address, according to the BBC.
Lulzsec, an offshoot of the hacktivist movement Anonymous, also drew major headlines earlier this year, not for its hacking activity, but because its one time leader began outing members. Sabu, as he was known online (real name Xavier Monsegur), worked with the FBI for several months, leading to the arrest of multiple members of the now mostly defunct organisation. Despite his contributions however, he is still set to be sentenced in February 2013, though it’s expected to be somewhat reduced because of his cooperation.
The Lulz Security mascot, enjoying a fine beverage.
Despite Lulzsec being largely disbanded at this point, it hasn’t stopped authorities gunning for past members. While the arrest of Rivera is the latest of the bunch, back in June, UK citizens Ryan cleary and Jake Davis were arrested and ultimately pleaded guilty to their involvement. Others were arrested on the same charges, including Ryan Acrkoyd and a 17 year old that hasn’t been named. Both however pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Anonymous however, is still alive and well, most likely because it is a largely leaderless organisation – though there are some that focus on coordinating the group’s efforts. This hasn’t always been useful though, with fake attacks being called for and even the Anonymous operating system turned out to be a hoax, designed to lure in new members, before filling their systems with malware.
