14 DAY TRIAL // LulzSec, the hacker group that’s been in the news recently because of their attacks against Fox, PBS, Sony and the FBI, has a quarrel with botnet and threat monitoring company Unveillance.
During the group's latest attack against Atlanta InfraGard chapter’s website, it obtained the plain text passwords of 180 individuals, all affiliated with the FBI-sponsored organization.
One of them was Karim Hijazi, CEO of Unveillance, who, according to LulzSec, happened to also use the same password for his email account.
The incident gave LulzSec access to Hijazi’s personal and business emails which contained sensitive details about his company’s dealings with the FBI and the U.S. government.
“[...] We have uncovered an operation orchestrated by Unveillance and others to control and assess Libyan cyberspace through malicious means: the U.S. government is funding the CSFI to attack Libya's cyber infrastructure,” LulzSec wrote in their original announcement.
Mr. Hijazi responded in a press release posted on his company’s website in which he claims that LulzSec members have threatened him for the past two weeks in order to obtain botnet intelligence that would boost their attack capabilities.
The Unveillance CEO says that his repeated refusal led to the attack against his company and himself and that LulzSec tried to extort money from him in exchange for their silence.
“Plain and simple, I refused to comply with their demands. Because of this, they followed through in their threats – and attacked me, my business and my personal reputation,” Hijazi writes.
“I stand firm behind my decision not to comply with the demands of LulzSec. I hope this incident will enlighten others as to the true character and intent of this organization,” he concludes.
Meanwhile, LulzSec has another story to tell. They claim Hijazi tried to pay them to attack his competitors using information he supplied.
Furthermore, LulzSec claims, he asked them to track down botnets and command and control servers for mutual benefits. The group says the extortion part was just a test to see if Hijazi would cave in to hackers.
“While it's normal for him to try and cover up this embarrassment by putting all the focus back on us, we can, again, see past this primitive social engineering. Karim compromised his entire company and the personal lives of his colleagues, then attempted to silence us with promises of financial gain and mutual benefits,” LulzSec writes.