Two Irish hackers caught up in FBI swoop on LulzSec

6 Mar 2012

UPDATE: The FBI infiltrated hacker group LulzSec via its apparent leader Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka, ‘Sabu’ and some of the major arrests include two Irish hackers. They are accused of crimes that have affected more than 1m people and including an attack on Fine Gael’s 2011 election website.

Five men were arrested today, including two Irish alleged hackers: Darren Martyn, aka, ‘Pwnsauce’ and Donncha O’Cearbhail, aka, ‘Palladium’.

They are charged with crimes that have affected over one million people. To read the full indictment click here

The others arrested include Ryan Ackroyd, aka, ‘Kayla’ of London, Jake Davis, aka, ‘Topiary’ of London and Jeremy Hammand, aka, ‘Anarchaos’ of Chicago.

It is understood the FBI infiltrated LulzSec when Monsegur was tracked down at his home in New York last year.

LulzSec, which is affiliated with Anonymous, undertook several high-profile cyber attacks against Sony, Nintendo, Fox.com and the US Senate last year.

After being arrested at his home in New York’s Lower East Side by the FBI, Monsegur began co-operating with the authorities, according to Fox News.

A case against the hackers, including the two from Ireland, is expected to be heard in the Southern District court of New York.

Last September, the FBI arrested 23-year-old Cody Kretsinger. Kretsinger, also known online as “recursion,” was alleged to be part of an attack which used an SQL injection against Sony Pictures’ computer systems. He masked his IP address using a proxy server.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com