LOS ANGELES—A federal grand jury in Los
Angeles returned an indictment Tuesday charging an associate of the hacking
group LulzSec, an offshoot of the larger group Anonymous, with multiple
computer attacks targeting a news organization and private companies, announced
André Birotte, Jr., the United States Attorney in Los Angeles; and Steven
Martinez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
Ryan Cleary, 20, a resident and citizen
of the United Kingdom, is currently incarcerated while facing foreign
prosecution in England related to his hacking activities. The indictment, filed
on June 12, 2012, in United States District Court in Los Angeles, charges
Cleary with one count of conspiracy and two counts of the unauthorized
impairment of protected computers.
Count one of the indictment alleges that
from approximately April 2011 through June 2011, Cleary conspired with LulzSec
members to intentionally cause damage to the computer systems of a news
organization and several businesses, including by hacking into systems to steal
data and by launching distributed denial of service attacks, or DDoS attacks,
using Cleary’s “botnet.” A botnet is a collection of compromised computers,
known as “bots,” that are infected with malicious software and then listen for,
respond to, and execute commands issued remotely by the owner of the botnet. A
botnet can be used to conduct DDoS attacks by directing the numerous bots in
the botnet to flood a victim’s computer system with so many commands that the
system is rendered unable to handle legitimate requests, thus denying legitimate
users the services of the computer resource.
The indictment alleges that Cleary
controlled a large botnet of tens of thousands, and potentially hundreds of
thousands of bots, and that he used his botnet to conduct DDoS attacks against
various entities. The indictment further alleges that Cleary would rent out his
botnet for certain time periods in exchange for money from individuals
interested in conducting DDoS attacks targeting specific victims.
The conspiracy count alleges that Cleary
assisted LulzSec in its hacking activities by identifying and exploiting
security vulnerabilities on victim computers, conducting DDoS attacks, and
providing access to servers and other computer resources for LulzSec members to
use, including to communicate amongst each other and to store and publish
confidential information stolen from victim computers. When an associate of
Cleary’s was questioned by law enforcement regarding LulzSec’s activities,
Cleary allegedly instructed the associate to falsely accuse an innocent party.
LulzSec is known for its affiliation
with the international group of hackers known as Anonymous. Anonymous,
according to the indictment, is a collective of computer hackers and other
individuals located throughout the world who conduct cyber attacks against
individuals and entities they perceive to be hostile to its interests.
LulzSec has been linked to the hacking,
or attempted hacking, of numerous targets, including the computer systems of
government and business entities.
If convicted of the charges in the
United States, Cleary faces a statutory maximum sentence of 25 years in prison.
This investigation was conducted by the
Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) in Los Angeles. The ECTF is comprised of
agents and officers from the FBI, United States Secret Service, Los Angeles
Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, United States
Attorney’s Office, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, and the
California Highway Patrol.
This case is being prosecuted by the
United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
An indictment merely contains
allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed
innocent unless and until proven guilty at trial.
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