News Attacks and Breaches
Teen Hackers Plead Guilty To LulzSec Attacks
Cleary, Davis admit to hacking CIA, Pentagon, and many other sensitive websites as members of hacktivist group
Two teenage hackers today confessed to attacking and compromising a wide range of organizations' systems as participants in the hacktivist group LulzSec.
According to news reports on the LulzSec plea, 19-year-old Ryan Cleary and 18-year-old Jake Davis pleaded guilty in a U.K. court to cracking the websites of the CIA, the Pentagon, and the British Serious Organized Crime Squad.
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The two teens also confessed to targeting the websites of other organizations, including security firms HBGary, HB Gary Federal, and InfraGuard, as well as News International, Sony, Nintendo, Arizona State Police, and 20th Century Fox, primarily to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
The pair also admitted to attacking the websites of Westboro Baptist Church, Bethesda, Eve Online, and PBS Inc. Cleary confessed to four separate charges, including hacking into U.S. Air Force Agency computers at the Pentagon.
Cleary and Davis denied allegations they posted "unlawfully obtained confidential computer data" to public websites, including LulzSec.com, Pirate Bay, and PasteBin.
Alleged co-hackers Ryan Ackroyd, 25, and a 17-year-old student from south London deny their involvement in the DDoS attacks and will stand trial on April 8, 2013.
All the offenses are said to have taken place between February and September 2011.
U.S. prosecutors have told reporters they will not seek to extradite Cleary.
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