Interview with key LulzSec hacker

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20649-exclusive-first-interview-with-key-lulzsec-hacker.html?full=true

by __hudson__ • 15 years ago

108 47 15 years ago

newscientist.com

veb2• 15 years ago

He sounds like a politician...

asdkl234890• 15 years ago

Because he wants to curtail everyone's freedoms to save the children?

veb2• 15 years ago

Nope, he said all the right things to say, to get people to follow him, or think he's not such a bad guy after all.

canistr• 15 years ago

The interviewer should have asked what he thought of Stuxnet.

I am very curious to hear what these 'hacktivists' think of white hats in the military and how they will try to weasel their way around an answer that justifies such military action.

Tangaroa• 15 years ago

Sabu has already called private-sector white hats "terrorists" when he launched AntiSec, so military white hats don't have much of a chance of gaining his approval.

He seems to be the empty rebel with an appeal for the rhetoric of early 20th-century anarchists and mid-century Leninists but no coherent ideology to back it up. His political motivation is all about "fighting the power" as the old phrase goes. I doubt he considers the US military as being capable of doing good, since it exists to protect the wealthy and their interests. He would see Stuxnet as an act of oppression against the freedom of the people of Iran. If Iran had developed the same virus to sabotage a US nuke plant used for building weapons, he would be for it.

rpearl3• 15 years ago

According to a variety of sources, including http://th3j35t3r.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/lulzsecs-cloudflar... and http://backtracesecurity.com/page2 Sabu is Hector Monsegur. He lives in New York. He owns the domain prvt.org. This is the whois before he remembered to anonymize it:

http://pastebin.com/Atf3V2u9

rufibarbatus2• 15 years ago

What you just did, in my country, is a rather serious fellony, and I'm struggling to see your point.

(EDIT: though I'm still struggling to see the point of the parent comment, the above was in response to a slightly different phrasing that might've gotten the worst of me. At any rate, I don't wish to persue this dicussion any further.)

rpearl3• 15 years ago

In what country is what I did a felony? I didn't uncover the documentation myself, I just gave you a link.

His anonymity is meaningless. Actions are performed by people; there is no way to hide effectively forever.

He is trying to not be caught when committing crimes. So, my comment was to help publicize the information the criminal doesn't want to be found.

thebooktocome• 15 years ago

There is a non-zero probability that you are wrong, and I don't see anywhere that you have demonstrated a willingness to take responsibility in the case that you are.

atomicdog• 15 years ago

Good idea, let's combat these immature lulzsec hackers by... stooping to their level and dropping dox on them?

AndrewMoffat• 15 years ago

I'm kind of shocked at the lack of over-inflated ego.

Shenglong• 15 years ago

The best line in this entire article: LulzSec's name comes from Lulz, a corruption of LOL, often denoting laughter at the victim of a prank.

jackfoxy2• 15 years ago

This is an interview about politics. I think it is important to publish, but it demeans science journalism to publish it in this particular venue.

jackfoxy2• 15 years ago

I hope all my down-voters understood the venue I referred to was New Scientist, not HN.

Peroni• 15 years ago

New Scientist has a thriving and coherent Tech element. Sabu's motivations may be heavily political but the purpose of the interview is to provide a direct insight into one of the key members of LulSec and help people understand that their motivations aren't exclusively 'for the lulz'.

Regardless of Sabu's motivation, I am confident that a huge percentage of New Scientist readers will find the article fascinating and thought provoking as I certainly did.

I gave a lot more credence to the article having read it on New Scientist as opposed to what my opinion may be if the same interview was published on Cracked or Fox News.

ChuckMcM2• 15 years ago

I was more impressed with Khalid who went to Egypt and faced the bullets. Breaking into web sites, exposing passwords, is like 'pirate radio' in that its relatively low risk for the participants.

I appreciate that you can't believe Sony or someone who says "we'll keep your data safe" but I have to believe there are better ways to get that information out without all the collateral damage. I continue to hope that folks find a way to elevate the discussion without the theatrics.

insickness• 15 years ago

Tank man in Tianamen Square changed the world forever. But it wasn't the action itself that changed things but what he inspired in others.

The biggest threat to our world today isn't any single dictatorship or government. It is the corrupt intertwining of financial and political power. When corruption is revealed it inspires action in others.

This is the new frontier of activism. Physical protest is action on the ground that can only accomplish so much without the air support of information warfare.

yaix3• 15 years ago

How did Tank Man change the world forever?? Here in China, hardly anybody has ever seen the picture or heard of him. Unfortunately, he seems to be just a good campaigning picture in the West.

dasil0032• 15 years ago

Sure it's relatively low risk, but isn't it way higher risk than anything you are doing to support your ideals?

dasil0032• 15 years ago

I don't see why this deserves the drive-by downvotes. I just think it's bullshit for calling people out for not doing "enough" when they are doing far more than the vast majority.

yaix3• 15 years ago

What is impressive of "facing bullets" if there are smarter and more effective ways? In Tunisia they down'd the gov't, that is what matters.

Judging, from the comfort of one's sofa, what is a more "impressive" way to do it, is hardly helpful or "impressive" itself. Getting things done, is.

ChuckMcM2• 15 years ago

Perhaps the difference is subtle. Members of the Air Forces have been known to take abuse for being 'above' the fight. Once they blow up a building its really up to troops on the ground to finish the fight.

Similarly with the Arab spring, while it is undoubtedly helpful to disrupt the Government's use of and interference in , the Internet, it's the people who are willing to stand up and say "Here is the new way to run our country and I am willing to give my life to that ideal." who impress me more.

Just like it is more impressive (or makes more of an impact on me) when someone in the US chooses to actually serve in Government to fix it, or invests their time and energies in revitalizing the institutions that allow it to change to the will of the people.

In the original article Sabu states "When Tunisia filtered off its internet from the world, it was the Tunisians who came online using dial-up and literally allowed us to use their connections to tunnel through to re-deface the prime minister's websites. It was the most impressive thing I've seen: a revolution coinciding both physically and online. It was the first time I had proof that what Anonymous was doing was real and it was working."

I may be too old or too out of touch to appreciate how significant 'defacing the prime minister's website' was to the overall effort. When Khalid went to Egypt and stood in the square and rallied people to support the overthrowing of the corrupt government there I thought, "Here is a guy who is willing to put his life on the line for a cause he believes in." And I felt a great deal of respect for that. When Sabu mentions how great is was that Tunisians created dialup gateways that subverted the government infrastructure and they went in and scribbled on the Prime Minister's website, it just wasn't very impressive to me.

nhangen• 15 years ago

This feels more like a PR piece than an interview.

joelmichael• 15 years ago

What questions would you have asked?

gdcbyers2• 15 years ago

How does breaking into private systems and releasing customers personal information expose abuse and corruption or promote human rights?

Does Sony commit human rights atrocities I am not aware of? The exposed poor security in select system, perhaps. Does that amount to abuse, corruption or human rights violations? Hardly, irresponsibility at worst.

eLobato• 15 years ago

Sorry but where has Sabu confirmed that this was an actual interview?

trb• 15 years ago

I wonder how Antisec or LulzSec are supposed to bring about change. The interviewee talks about educating and changing people to fight corruption and abuse, but I'm not sure that is happening. For example, look at his involvement in the Tunisian revolution. He talked about disrupting the Tunesian government by defacing the prime ministers website. Did that actually help the Tunisians? I'm under the impression that the hard work got done by the protesters on the street, triggered by Mohamed Bouazizi when he burned himself.

I think it's not that different in democratic countries. Change comes about when enough people demand it and put pressure on their representatives. People have to be motivated to work together in large groups, since three letters demanding the same thing won't impress anyone, but a few thousand might. The work of lobbyists has to be countered, corruption has to be documented and brought to court, where hard evidence is a necessity. It takes lot of very demanding, hard work, without any direct gratification for a long time.

LulzSec/Antisec/Anonymous do nothing to help with that work. Instead, I fear that their actions will be used by politicians like Sarkozy to effect a policy of stronger internet regulation. In the end, these hacker groups might even do harm.

JanezStupar2• 15 years ago

It's complicated but I think he's right. What it does is it raises awareness - especially amongst younger crowd that is more interested in vandalism than political activism. In a way this is a gateway into the whole privacy/security/activist culture.

It will bring many young people over to the dark side, where they will slowly start learning about events and people participating and sacrificing for joint causes.

And many of these young, rebellious people are tomorrows leaders. Who may through sheer vandalism and rebellion, gain their first cause.

qF• 15 years ago

Personally I feel that you're being a bit too optimistic. LulzSec was much louder about the fact they did it for the 'lulz' rather than for any noble agenda. Encouraging people to log in to random people's FB account and ruin their relationships serves no purpose. Interestingly enough @Anon_central recently tweeted a qualification about their supporters (which has a great overlap with LulzSec), which to me shows that you're being too optimistic [1]. Especially considering that Anon is supposed to be more ethical compared to LulzSec..

[1] https://twitter.com/#!/Anon_Central/status/87402917006557184

petewailes2• 15 years ago

I strongly suggest you listen to the BBC Reith Lectures on at the moment, with Aung San Suu Kyi. It's a common fallacy that change comes through the mood of the people. It's only true when those in control of the guns (literally) decide to concede and pass power, accepting the will of the people.

We can see the same going on on Libya at the moment, as in Burma before - Libya will only be free once Muammar Gaddafi is gone, as until then he has shown that he can, and will oppose the people using violence. The only reason the campaign is still going on there, is because of an armed insurgency, backed by and working in conjunction with NATO armed forces.

Were it not for this, we'd have seen a similar situation to Burma, with the uprising crushed, and the descent of the protesters having to become non-violent and take decades to come to fruition, if ever.

Links for those interested:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012402s - Aung San Suu Kyi: Liberty http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0126d70 - Aung San Suu Kyi: Dissent

dools• 15 years ago

Where does the abject slaying of Distribute IT fit into this heady idealism?

romland2• 15 years ago

The fact that he claims to be into politics and then goes on to say that the arrest of Julian Assange was absurd speak volumes to me.

Assange was arrested due to rape charges and then refused to show up for preliminary hearings. But maybe Sabu's stuck in a filterbubble.

paradoja• 15 years ago

He has not been arrested due to rape charges, to begin with, because said charges have not been brought up. That said, had he been arrested, he couldn't have refused to show up for any hearings.

I suppose this also speaks volumes to you.

romland2• 15 years ago

My English is perhaps not 100% when it comes to describing legal matters like this, so I'll just quote Wikipedia to clarify what I was trying to say.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange : On 20 August 2010, Swedish police began an investigation into two sexual encounters involving Assange. Assange has said allegations of wrongdoing are "without basis", describing all the sexual encounters as consensual. In December 2010, Assange, then in Britain, learned that the Swedish authorities had issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) to extradite him to Sweden for questioning. Assange appealed the EAW, and a District Judge (Magistrate's Court) in England ruled that Assange should be extradited. Assange has appealed the extradition decision.

There is even more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Judicial_Authority_v_Ju...

Conspiracy theories are fun and all that, but...

mrmadden• 15 years ago

I know this guy's identity 100% To tell or not to tell?

kahawe• 15 years ago

> "Disrupt the government of Tunisia," they said, and we did. We infiltrated the prime minister's site and defaced it externally.

This is about as "disruptive" as smearing "penis" on a Tunisian government building but I love how they sell off their website "hacks" as amazing and courageous acts of human rights.

> I mean, we're talking about the potential of crashing stocks or spreading damaging rumours.

Well, Assange is way ahead of you with the Bank of America shenanigans...

count• 15 years ago

While things like this don't disrupt the functioning of most of the people in the government, it definitely has a fairly significant impact on the mental state of the senior leadership of many organizations.

Having your public website defaced and on the news puts you in the spotlight. It also pushes senior leadership, who generally dont understand what it means, into thinking that actual operational systems could just as easily be destroyed or messed with ("what else could they do").

Don't underestimate the importance and impact of a technical PSYOP against non-technical folks. If nothing else, I bet it provided a 1-2 hour distraction from 'work' for the senior leadership involved.

Interview with key LulzSec hacker

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