The recent arrests of members of the LulzSec hacker group by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and An Garda Síochána are being rightly trumpeted as a major success. It was something of a surprise that two of the alleged top players in the group were Irish, but nonetheless, the arrests are likely to have a significant impact on the group’s activities and possibly a knock on effect on the wider Anonymous movement.
But, and you could hear that one coming, there are two details that emerged from the case that, to use the common parlance of the youth of today, provoke a face-palm moment of epic proportions.
Firstly, it has emerged that the acute embarrassment of having a confidential phone call between the FBI, UK law enforcement and the Gardaí came as a direct result of the actions of the alleged Irish member of LulzSec, Donncha "Palladium" O’Cearbhaill.
According to the charge sheets reproduced by The Guardian, among others, O’Cearbhaill intercepted communications of one of the investigating Gardaí and thus was able to record the call and post it on the Internet. And how was this achieved? Well, it would appear as if a Garda who was part of the team investigating the hacking group forwarded the details of the confidential call to a personal Gmail account which was then hacked.
So, take a moment to savour that.
An officer of the law, who is investigating a hacking group, forwarded confidential details of a phone call with other investigating agencies to a private e-mail account. If you are given to the use of expletives I believe now would be an appropriate juncture-I know I did.
The other implication worthy of a face-palm is the fact of how the intelligence that allowed the arrests came about. One would have thought that the nature of the case would have had the best IT minds in law enforcement laying a cunning trap, intercepting communications and deciphering coded messages. Or some Carnivore-like system working away in some hidden basement feverishly ploughing through a tide of noise for the golden thread of conspiracy that would reveal the web of nefarious activity.
Alas no-it all came from that oldest of sources, human weakness. The FBI had turned one of the members of LulzSec, Hector Xavier Monsegur AKA "Sabu". Through the same means that have been employed authorities for since time immemorial, a modern hacking group was brought down by pressure on an individual to inform.
To me, this is deeply saddening. For one thing, it shows that the authorities are really no better at fighting this type of activity than they were a few years ago when the term "hacktivist" first emerged. Secondly, some of the romance is also gone around such groups as they now revealed to be no more a bunch of Scarlet Pimpernels than were the Great Train Robbers.
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