arrests
Latest
Three men have been charged with leaking movies for nearly a decade
Law enforcement arrested three men involved with a global film and TV piracy ring.
UK police crack down on people paying for DDoS attacks
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise, affecting individuals, private businesses and government-funded institutions alike. As part of a large warning to cybercriminals, the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) has arrested 12 individuals for using a DDoS-for-hire service called Netspoof. "Operation Vulcanialia" targeted 60 citizens in total, and led to 30 cease and desist notices, and the seizure of equipment from 11 suspects. The NCA says it had two focuses: arresting repeat offenders and educating first-time users about the consequences of cybercrime.
UK police arrest teens for using Lizard Squad's paid DDoS service
Six British teenagers have been arrested for using Lizard Stresser, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) tool developed by the troublesome hacker collective Lizard Squad. According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), these individuals, who have now been released on bail, targeted a national newspaper, a school, gaming companies and various online retailers. They paid in "alternative" currencies such as Bitcoin in order to stay anonymous, however those measures have proven futile. Lizard Squad rose to prominence last year when it took down the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The group quickly claimed responsibility and, as if it were marketing stunt, launched Lizard Stresser -- a takedown-for-hire service that allowed anyone to cripple unsuspecting sites.
Top LulzSec members arrested, group leader reportedly acted as informant
The LulzSec hacking group may have officially called it quits last June, but that doesn't mean it was able to escape the eye of law enforcement. As Fox News reports, today saw three group members arrested and two more charged with conspiracy -- a move that one FBI official described as "chopping off the head of LulzSec." What's more, it's reported that group leader "Sabu," now identified as 28-year-old Hector Xavier Monsegur, was acting as an informant for the FBI since he was first caught and secretly arrested in June of last year (around the time the group disbanded). Court documents unsealed today also show that Monsegur has pleaded guilty to carrying out attacks on companies like MasterCard and PayPal, and that he's been charged with 12 criminal counts of conspiracy. The full indictments against the group's members can be found at the Gizmodo link below, and the FBI's press release can be found after the break.
NYPD makes many arrests in iPhone/iPad sting operation
The New York Police Department ran an undercover sting operation recently on vendors and businesses accused of selling stolen iPads and iPhones, and came up with a whopping 141 arrests. That's a pretty crazy bust -- apparently undercover officers actually went out to businesses with iPhone 4s and iPad 2s that they claim were stolen, and when the business owners agreed to buy them, they swooped in for the arrests. The businesses were previously suspected of selling stolen merchandise, however -- I am not a lawyer, but just sending cops in to try and sell stolen goods seems like entrapment to me. Not all of the arrests were necessarily of the businesses' owners; it's possible that the cops used information given to make other arrests as well. But that's a nice swath of (alleged) criminals to pick up. Apple's devices make for quite a gray and black market around the world, and it's good to see that the NYPD is cracking down on these stolen items.
UK teen arrested for illegal BBM, social media crackdown gains steam
Lending further gravity to the proposed crackdown being bandied about in British parliament, an Essex teen has been arrested for sending a BBM that ran afoul of the Serious Crime Act of 2007. The 18-year old, now free on bail, allegedly used the service to encourage copycat attacks of the violent rioting that's swept London, and is set to appear in court on September 1st. It's the second known case to put RIM's private messaging service -- "popular among urban teenagers" as a cheap texting alternative -- in the UK's legal hotseat. For its part, the Canadian electronics maker has since reached out to police, promising to aid the investigation "in any way [it] can." Although no decision has yet been made to extend law enforcement's powers over social media services, such as Twitter and Facebook, arrests like these seem to indicate a murky free speech future.
Three suspected members of Anonymous arrested in Spain
The long arm of the law may have finally caught up with some of the hackers behind the recent (and seemingly endless) PSN outage. Authorities in Spain say they have arrested three members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous and seized at least one computer used in the attacks on Sony. Those arrested are believed to have been important in coordinating the group's activities in the country and to have distributed the Loic DDoS tool to others. Now, of course, the Spanish government will have to be on high alert -- if we know one thing about Anonymous, it's that it is not trigger shy when it comes to exacting revenge.
Student arrested for making a map of his school
A Chinese student was removed from Clements High School in Fort Bend, Texas after parents complained he had re-created the school grounds in a game and uploaded the map for his friends to play. The boy was placed in the district's alternate education school and later arrested, as the police considered him a "terroristic threat". The Chinese community and the boy's mother have rallied behind him, saying the school has acted too harshly in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. No charges were filed, though the boy won't be allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies.We don't have to point out how ridiculous this is to our Joystiq readers. How many people have created familiar surroundings using in-game editors? We once made a partial re-creation of our college in Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese. Good thing nobody found out, otherwise we'd be blogging from a soft and squishy padded room right now.
Wardriver arrested for snagging coffee shop signal
In yet another blow to freeloaders wardrivers nationwide, one of their most active participants was recently arrested and charged with theft of services after leeching off an unsecured network at Vancouver, WA's Brewed Awakenings coffee house for over three months. According to store employees, 20-year-old Internet enthusiast Alexander Eric Smith (actually the second Smith we've seen nailed for this crime) would regularly park his truck in the customer parking lot and tap into their signal, even though he reportedly had never actually been inside to buy anything -- which was apparently okay for three months, but suddenly turned into something one worker described as "borderline creepy." Hey Alex, it's called wardriving for a reason -- it's one thing to be cheap, but this is what you get for being lazy and not switching it up a bit.[Via The Wireless Report]
