UPDATED 12:27 EDT / DECEMBER 11 2012

NEWS

Former Anonymous Spokesperson Barrett Brown Indicted for Stealing Information

Barrett Brown, a former spokesperson of the Anonymous hacktivist collective has been indicted for trafficking stolen authentication features, access device fraud, and forced identity theft. Even before then, Brown has been under detention.

Out of 12 accusations of identity theft, 10 are concerned with a hack that hit Straftor. The accusation rests upon an event where Brown transferred a hyperlink from the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel called ‘#Anonops’ to an IRC channel under Brown’s control, called ‘#ProjectPM.’ This hyperlink happened included over 5,000 credit card numbers, associating Ids, and Card Verification Values (CVVs) from the Stratfor Global Intelligence database.

Though Brown left Anonymous back in May 2011, he again came into news in September this year after he posted a YouTube video called “Why I’m Going to Destroy FBI Agent Robert Smith,” following which he was arrested. In the same month, Barrett Brown was raided by the FBI. This time the event happened “on camera” and a portion of it was recorded during a live video chat where he was holding a discussion with others.

If the current indication is proved against him, he may face maximum sentences of 15 years for the trafficking charge, 10 years for the device fraud charge, and a 2 year sentence for each of the identity theft counts.

Looks like it’s bad time running for some cybercriminals. Back in November, we also heard about LulzSec hacker Jeremy Hammond, who is accused in the Stratfor attacks could be sentenced to life in prison. The hearing was carried out in a Manhatton courtroom, where Judge Loretta Preska told Hammond that he could be sentenced to serve anywhere from 360 months-to-life, if convicted on all charges relating to last year’s Stratfor hacking. What Hammond did was that he illegally obtained credit card information stolen from Stratfor and uploaded it to a server that was unbeknownst to him maintained by the federal government.


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