In June of 2011 the Guardian attempted to make me look stupid for saying LulzSec could be working with the government. Whoops!
149 2012-03-07 by MRuppert
Here is the article from last year in the Guardian (scroll down to see where he addresses my statement): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/24/inside-lulzsec-chatroom-logs-hackers?cat=technology&type=article
The attempts did pay off, with some bloggers passing comments such as: "I hypothesize that this is a government 'red team' or 'red cell' operation, aimed at building support for government intervention into internet security from both the public and private sectors."
Check out my coverage of today's revelations here (with links to all of the old articles where I run down all of the pertinent information): http://endthelie.com/2012/03/06/head-of-lulzsec-reportedly-worked-with-fbi-for-months-participated-in-disinformation-campaign/
31 comments
21 pork2001 2012-03-07
Not many things are as sweet as finding out you've been right :)
15 [deleted] 2012-03-07
[deleted]
8 Sarah_Connor 2012-03-07
Email the editor.
6 [deleted] 2012-03-07
[deleted]
25 archonemis 2012-03-07
"Fuck yo couch."
4 [deleted] 2012-03-07
"They shoulda never gave you editors money!"
1 skullmonkeys 2012-03-07
Time to eat your words. ;)
1 wave_hello 2012-03-07
Exactly what you wrote on here?
2 pork2001 2012-03-07
I suppose so, but now you have a bit of leverage with them for the future. It never hurts to have a portfolio of obligations whether they are enforceable or not.
2 Darrelc 2012-03-07
Why the hell would they retract what they said? Please point to which part of
Is incorrect.
Seriously, nothing in there is incorrect.
Also, what makes you think he wasn't caught two months ago and has been blabbing since? You just assume that since he's worked with the FBI he was in it from the beginning and this was their ultimate goal. More likely his arse fell out once he got caught and ratted the others out in exchange for less punishment.
Edit: BTW, don't think you know what Red Cell refers to.
2 [deleted] 2012-03-07
That's exactly what happened, but it didn't happen two months ago. It happened in June. From this you can assume that the FBI knew about each LULZSEC operation since and at least chose not to stop it. At the worst, "collaborating" could have been inciting illegal behavior the FBI wanted to occur.
1 harrisonfordcrab 2012-03-07
This. It's cool op turned out to be partially right I suppose but by all accounts Sabu was caught and went belly up for the feds to curb his punishment. His cohorts who are being charged because of his compliance with the feds would certainly lead one to believe lulzsec as a whole wasn't a federal guise.
Besides from what I gather most of the influential hackers from lulzsec and anonymous were smart enough to cut ties with Sabu after his week or so disappearance.
2 Darrelc 2012-03-07
It amazes me how many people are shocked to discover this, a loose knit organisation's member dissipated for a week after a high profile target, and people are surprised he was a mole and ratted people out?
no honor among thieves eh.
15 Necronomiconomics 2012-03-07
Is anyone yet willing to suspend the easy credulity given to Wikileaks also?
Not only is it an obvious honeypot, with easily placed "leaks" filled with misdirection & disinfo; not only is it a siren call for authentic leaks that can thus be filtered & authentic whistleblowers flushed into the open for neutralization.
In fact, Assange himself has the strangest background, with a mother connected to an actual Australian MIND CONTROL CULT tied to the CIA. How strange and curious that this fact is so little known and so little reported:
http://spitfirelist.com/for-the-record/ftr-724-wiki-of-the-damned/
5 [deleted] 2012-03-07
[deleted]
-2 woofoo 2012-03-07
2 illstealurcandy 2012-03-07
You may just be joking, but cui bono is an important principle to remember.
3 aphemix 2012-03-07
yet?
2 Necronomiconomics 2012-03-07
Well done.
2 illiterati 2012-03-07
It's well known and well reported. He mentions the problems he and his mother had and how he had to move a lot to avoid them. He also talks about how he feels the police or someone within a government institution worked with the cult to locate his mother.
He was also in trouble for sedition in Australia, operated one of the first public access chat and internet bbs's called Suburbia, was well known in the hacker circles and was a free speech advocate back when I first met him online some time in the late 80's.
I am not saying he may not have changed, but back then the circles he was moving in were legitimately counter culture and his actions within wikileaks are inline with the personality I had ascribed to him in our brief minglings online.
1 schmrtz 2012-03-07
blog http://web.archive.org/web/20071020051936/http://iq.org/
http://patrickmylund.com/blog/inside-the-mind-of-wikileaks-julian-assange/
In September 1991, Mendax was discovered in the act of h**** into the Melbourne master terminal of Nortel, the Canadian telecommunications company.[2] In response the Australian Federal Police tapped Assanges' phoneline and subsequently raided his Melbourne home in 1991**************** He pleaded guilty to 25 charges of h***** , after six charges were dropped, and was released on bond for good conduct with a fine of A$2,100.[2][54] The judge said "there is just no evidence that there was anything other than sort of intelligent inquisitiveness and the pleasure of being able to—what's the expression—surf through these various computers"[2] and stated that Assange would have gone to jail for up to 10 years if he had not had such a disrupted childhood.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange#Hacking_and_conviction
7 moofdivr 2012-03-07
That's cool and all but aren't we kind of overlooking the fact that you were wrong? Yes you called out that he was working for the government, but he sure as fuck wasn't a "red cell".
For the lazy: red cell
He was an informant pumping out misinformation to keep lulzsec in a false sense of security. He wasn't a government operative used to build "support for government intervention into internet security from both the public and private sectors", he was just a fucking snitch used by the government to catch lulzsec members.
5 PuddleOfCrud 2012-03-07
The Guardian wasn't attempting to make him look stupid either they merely quoted him, talk about persecution complex:
-2 [deleted] 2012-03-07
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5 Rasalom 2012-03-07
1/2 right and not in the way you intended to be right? Okay?
1 [deleted] 2012-03-07
You made speculations when you had no facts. Real journalists start with the facts, throw them out, and make up shit people want to hear.
0 moofdivr 2012-03-07
"Also, you have to recognize the fact that they allowed the attacks to continue"
You mentioned in your own article that when lulzsec would inform him of an attack the FBI would turn around and inform the site.
4 preventDefault 2012-03-07
That's great. I thought they just included your quote, but the fact The Guardian actually linked to your specific post is pretty epic.
1 gsamov2 2012-03-07
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/i1178/lulzsec_an_inside_job/
My post 8 months ago.