Anonymous Hackers Responsible for Sony and Santa Cruz Attacks Arrested

The hackers allegedly responsible for the attacks on Sony and the Santa Cruz County servers were recently arrested by the FBI.

According to a court document provided by Wired, the defendant, Cody Andrew Kretsinger, also known as “recursion,” is responsible for the Sony Pictures information heist that took place earlier this year. He and other unknown hackers are accused of probing the media company's website for vulnerabilities using the services offered by the “hidemyass.com” website which was used to cover their tracks.

After launching an SQL attack on the servers of the organization, they would retrieve sensitive information belonging to Sony's customers.

The indictment names Kretsinger as being a LulzSec member who with the aid of others, stole and made public the data retrieved from the hacked servers.

In order to destroy potential evidence, the “defendant would wipe, that is, permanently erase, the hard drive of the computer with which defendant had conducted the attack against Sony Pictures' computer system.”

Christoper Doyon and Joshua John Covelli were charged the same day for breaching the Santa Cruz County servers causing damage worth at least $5,000 (€ 3500). The suspects are said to be members of the People's Liberation Front, also an Anonymous related group, just as LulzSec.

Cevelli, a 26-year-old from Ohio, was also charged with participating in the DDoS attack launched on PayPal last year. They could both serve up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of the accused crimes.

Graham Cluley informs us that one of the men might be homeless and that's how he managed to evade law enforcement for such a long time. By accessing the internet from different shops and coffee houses, the suspect managed to hide his tracks.

In the end that might have been the thing that led to his arrest as the video camera feeds from public areas could have helped identify him by comparing the time of the attacks to the one from the recordings.

Authorities have made arrests all over the world, alleged Anonymous members being charged for all sorts of anti-state and anti-authority activities for which they might spend many years in prison if not proven innocent.