FBI arrests suspect over Sony LulzSec hacking

A 23 year old man was arrested in connection with the cyber attacks on Sony's databases earlier this year. Picture: LulzSec Source: Supplied

THE FBI has arrested a member of the LulzSec hacking group suspected over a cyberattack earlier this year on Japanese giant Sony, officials say.

FBI agents arrested the suspect, named as Cody Kretsinger, 23, of Phoenix, Arizona, "without incident," said US Attorney in Los Angeles Andre Birotte Jr and Steven Martinez, head of the FBI's Los Angeles office.

Kretsinger was due in court in Arizona during the day, when authorities will request that he be transferred to Los Angeles to face prosecution over the attack on Sony Pictures, said a joint statement.

He has been charged with conspiracy and the unauthorised impairment of a protected computer, and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, they said.

The indictment alleges that Kretsinger and others obtained confidential information in May and June from Sony Pictures' computer systems using a "SQL injection" attack, a technique commonly used by hackers to steal information.

Kretsinger was believed to be a current or former member of LulzSec or Lulz Security, and used the moniker "recursion" as part of the attack between May 27-June 2 this year.

The indictment alleges that "Kretsinger and his co-conspirators distributed the stolen information, including by posting the information on LulzSec's website, and then announced the attack via its Twitter account," they said.

"The indictment further alleges that, in order to avoid detection by law enforcement, Kretsinger permanently erased the hard drive of the computer he used to conduct the attack on Sony Pictures," added the statement.

In an earlier attack, Sony's PlayStation Network, Qriocity music streaming service and Sony Online Entertainment were targeted by hackers beginning in April.

In that attack, more than 100 million accounts were affected and Sony said it could not rule out that millions of credit card numbers may have been compromised.

It has since restored its online services.

The cyberattacks threatened to cause deep damage to Sony's brand image and the company's efforts to link its gadgets to an online network of games, movies and music.

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Alleged LulzSec member arrested in Sony breach

The FBI arrested a 23-year-old Arizona man today on charges of stealing data from Sony Pictures Entertainment earlier this year.

Cody Andrew Kretsinger of Phoenix was indicted September 2 by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, the FBI said in a statement. Kretsinger could not be reached for comment.

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Meanwhile, Fox News reported that a hacker who is believed to be homeless was arrested in San Francisco on charges of participating in attacks allegedly carried out by activist group Anonymous on Santa Cruz County government Web sites, and that search warrants were being executed in New Jersey, Minnesota, and Montana. An FBI spokesman told CNET that the agency does not typically comment on search warrants. FBI officials in San Francisco did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Kretsinger is accused of using proxy services via the hidemyass.com site, designed to offer anonymous Internet access, to probe Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer systems in May, according to the indictment, which was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles today.

He and others co-conspirators looked for vulnerabilities and exploited them by means of a SQL injection attack between May 27 and June 2, the indictment says. They then allegedly compromised the Sony system, making "tens of thousands of requests for confidential data," and released the information from Sony on a public Web site and on Twitter.

Kretsinger permanently erased the hard drive of the computer he used to conduct the attack, the indictment alleges. He is due to make an initial appearance in federal court in Phoenix today. The U.S. government will request that he be transferred to Los Angeles to face prosecution. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

He is alleged to have used the hacker handle "recursion" and is believed to be a member of the LulzSec hacker group.

The LulzSec group, believed to be a spin-off of the Anonymous group of online activists, had bragged about breaking into Sony Pictures' system, posting a statement on the Pastebin on June 2 and proof of their attack. "We recently broke into SonyPictures.com and compromised over 1,000,000 users' personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and all Sony opt-in data associated with their accounts," the statement said. "Among other things, we also compromised all admin details of Sony Pictures (including passwords) along with 75,000 'music codes' and 3.5 million 'music coupons.'"

A week later, Sony said that actually personally identifable information of 37,500 customers had been exposed in the breach. The breach was one of a series of attacks targeting Sony and its affiliate sites globally that started in May following a legal spat Sony had with a hacker who had modified his Sony PlayStation 3.

Arrests of people accused of being part of Anonymous or LulzSec have taken place globally, including 16 in the U.S. in July, as well as in the United Kingdom and Spain.

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