Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

LulzSec leaks 62,000 emails and passwords, also targets CIA

By | June 16, 2011, 7:24am PDT

Summary: Another day, another LulzSec leak. This time, they’ve targeted the CIA and leaked a list of 62,000+ email addresses and passwords. Check to see if your name is on the list!

The infamous rogue hacker group, Lulz Security, is back again with claims of packet-flooding the CIA’s Web site and leaking another lengthy list of email addresses and passwords.

CIA

Following their recent exploits with the U.S. Senate website, LulzSec has now made the CIA their target via a packet-flooding attack. While it’s highly unlikely that the CIA’s Website has any sensitive data residing on it, the notion of such a high profile target being attacked is bad enough. To be fair, packet-flooding simply means they crashed the CIA’s server, but it can be a rather problematic issue to network health if certain precautions aren’t taken. The key takeaway here is the target of the attack. Per LulzSec’s Twitter feed:

LulzSec Targets CIA

LulzSec Targets CIA

LulzSec says they packet-flooded the CIA

LulzSec says they packet-flooded the CIA

In the second tweet, their proclamation of their most severe exploit at this point is the release of internal information from Bethesda Software. The release included server admin configurations, admin staff and blog user hashes, server logs, and mappings of Arkane, Bethblog, Brink codes, Brink signups, IDSoftware, Rage, and more.

While far more data was released with the Bethesda attack, the reason the CIA attack is considered their biggest is because of who it is, thus the potential repercussions.

Emails and Passwords

The last LulzSec-released list of email addresses and passwords totaled 26,000, and they were all obtained via hacked pornographic sites. This time, they’re keeping quiet about the sources of this latest list of culminated addresses. Regardless of the sources, here are 62,000+ email addresses and passwords just released. From their Twitter feed:

LulzSec releases 62,000 emails/passwords

LulzSec releases 62,000 emails/passwords

Many users have taken to Twitter to let LulzSec know either how they have been attacked due to the leaked list, or how they have benefited by exploiting the leaked information. Make no mistake, LulzSec is essentially releasing this information into the hands of people with malicious intentions.

As with before, it is highly advised that you download the list and check for your email address so as to change your password. You can obtain the leaked list here (visit the link to download the file). Use the “find/search” functionality of your browser/text viewer to search for your email address once you download the 2.25 MB text file. Update: The file has been removed. As such, you can go here to a tool created by Gizmodo and type in your email address to see if you’re on the list.

While neither of these latest activities were posted to LulzSec’s blog as official releases, it’s clear that they intend on utilizing any and every avenue they can to show off their exploits.

Lastly, while the image of a small group of individuals comes to mind in regards to the make-up of LulzSec, there is increasing speculation that the group — along with the equally-notorious rogue hacker group, Anonymous — is actually comprised of many people; possibly thousands. If true, this makes the efforts of these groups much more difficult to stop. However, as entities like the CIA and the U.S. Senate are targets of these groups, we may all soon find out just what the make of these groups really is.

How do you feel about LulzSec’s latest actions? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

-Stephen Chapman
SEO Whistleblower

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Stephen is a freelance writer based in Charlotte, NC.

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Stephen Chapman

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Biography

Stephen Chapman

Stephen is a freelance writer based in Charlotte, NC.
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RE: LulzSec leaks 62,000 emails and passwords, also targets CIA
upinson 11th Oct
@Aerowind Pulauweb Web Hosting Murah Indonesia
Blogger Nusantara Blogpreneur Indonesia
In my opinion, if they want to continue doing what they're doing, they need to wait and let the heat die down. If they keep hacking server after server as quickly as they are, sooner or later they're going to get caught.
@Aerowind

True that.
@josh92: ... bad. If it was, they would be selling all of these electronic mail addresses and passwords, et cetera, to the interested parties silently -- no one would ever know about it -- until people would found out be victims of misuse of their account information.

But now these groups expose poor security of the sites they attack (and with releasing certain amounts of information they prove the holes exist), so security improves much faster now than it would without these public offensive hacks.
@DeRSSS That's like me "improving" my town's security and SWAT team skills by going out each night and shooting a citizen.
@josh92 Would you find it so cool if your password and e-mail address was in the list. If someone uses it to hack your accounts? If you had to go through the hassle of trying to clean up your identity after theft you probably might think of all the implications a little more. This is not done for the "Public Good" just to wave their I'm cool flag and inconvenience people
Ideologs don't need to sell what they steal. They want to hurt and bring down what they attack. Nor does enabling higher security bring any joy. What we need to know is a lot less than what has to be protected for the country. Higher security means a lot less regular access for people and more chance of scandals being hidden. How important is your password. Have you been hacked, your credit card number stolen, how about your identity. Spare us the romantic childish notion of a happy trusting world. You are too naive for your opinion. Read some history books.
@Aerowind

it looks like its going to be later...I'm pretty sure they're aware of what they're doing...especially when they tweet everything that they do...

Its not as easily trackable as murdering someone (DNA, finger prints etc), theres a million and one ways to cover your tracks
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That is sum risky lulz
Tommy S. 16th Jun
@Aerowind I would also drop all the known twitter accounts and release channels that they have. Go dark for a while and blame ebaumsworld for everything.
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@Aerowind
How about "Thanks for typing your email into gizmondo, we'll add you to the next release!"
@Aerowind Pulauweb Web Hosting Murah Indonesia
Blogger Nusantara Blogpreneur Indonesia
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Are the bad guys united?
netwarriorwy 16th Jun
anonymous and lulz are different groups but I wonder how much time will pass before these hacking groups collide with each onther
@netwarriorwy they are very close friends.....
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Message has been deleted.
Tommy S. Updated - 20th Jun
@Tommy S. - "honest mobsters" - thanks for the humor
@Tommy S.

Thanks for the homophobic nonsense.
Jackass.
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Not that hard to track
Joe_Raby 16th Jun
lulzsecurity.com is using cloudflare.com as a DNS host - a company running out of San Francisco. It would only take a simple warrant to make records from cloudflare available, and then it's a matter of tracking the account to the billing address of whoever is the webmaster for lulzsec.
@Joe_Raby

If it were really this simple I'm pretty sure they would have been caught already.
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Just follow the money....
Joe_Raby 16th Jun
@josh92

....cuz someone has to pay the bills. A search warrant will easily allow access to those records too.
@Joe_Raby what about the patriot act? I dont think they even need a warrant. All they have to do is call them terrorists, and blam!
@josh92

You're right, it's not that easy. I have worked with ISP's to register DNS zone names. Some of them only require a credit card and information to be filled out on a webpage. Getting a valid credit card under a fake name/alias is very easy and the requestor can enter the same phony information on the web page - making it virtually untraceable.
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@josh92
Being that it IS that simple, how much is your "pretty sure" worth?

Not much.
@smtp4me
Valid credit cards come with valid billing addresses.
@Joe_Raby they are to good to have that happen.. tracks are easily covered.. if it was that easy they would of been caught long ago. CIA hates to be made to look like fools. Their credibility means everything in what they do.
@jallen.ca The CIA has no jurisdiction in this matter.
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They aren't that sophisticated
Joe_Raby 16th Jun
@jallen.ca

They talk about using very simple SQL injection exploits, which every script kiddy can get their hands on. Also, they talk up putting down members of 4chan. These aren't elite hackers at all.
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@jgm
Joe_Raby 16th Jun
Doesn't it depend on whether or not the threat is homegrown in the US, or abroad? Looking at some evidence leads me to believe that at least some of it is homegrown, which would involve the FBI. If it involved an outside threat to national security and infrastructure, it's the CIA that gets involved, and the Secret Service serves the office of the president.
@jgm
News flash. The CIA was attacked. That gives them jurisdiction.
@Joe_Raby

pretty sure they'd be gone already, especially if you found out where they are hahaha
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To all
Joe_Raby 16th Jun
LulzSec's site is still operational - and DNS hasn't been changed in the last 48 hours. Someone is still paying the bills for that site too, so there has to be a billing address and likely a credit card attached to it. It's not that hard to track someone down.
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Contributr
Short-sighted perspective.
StephenChapman Updated - 16th Jun
@Joe_Raby That doesn't mean they will be easy to find or that the person tied to the billing address has any revealing information about the location of any, one, or all of these people. What if they're paying someone in bitcoins who supports their cause and purchases the server space for them? The most that person paying could be blamed for is paying for server space and supporting their cause; neither of which includes being involved with the actual illegal actions themselves being committed to obtain the information linked to in the release notes of the site.

-Stephen
@Joe_Raby ...

I also doubt the person paying the bills even knows s/he is paying the bills.
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Stolen credit card details?
nmgitdept 16th Jun
With all the hacking going on I'm guessing some credit card info would be in there somewhere.
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@StephenChapman

you are directly involved and also considered a criminal. If someone were to finance a criminal act, don't you think they would take a settlement if they gave up the information about the real criminals that they're funding, rather than face prison time? This is what happens when large organizations finance terrorists.

It's just like the mob. Do you think a mob boss actually goes around killing people? No. They pay other people to do it for them.
don't do business with this guy:

http://www.venrock.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=people.personDetail&ID=10586

He is the lead venture capitol funding source for cloudflare, which hosts DNS entries for lulzsec.

I wonder if he knows that he's funding an organization with ties to a criminal group that has claimed to have hacked the CIA.

Why don't we send him some emails and find out....
I think LulzSec's adventures are hilarious but I also think that publicizing them and embarrassing the US government is extreeeeeemely foolhardy. LulzSec better be a small group of people who never make even a single mistake because if they are moderately sized or if they make even a single mistake they will probably be caught.

And considering how many times they have broken the law, they could probably be put in prison for the rest of their lives, or at least for a few decades. They are going to do a very long (perhaps terminal) stint in prison if they are caught.

To LulzSec: "Say goodbye to the 'beauty of the baud' gentlemen".
@josh92
The sad thing is, though they've technically broken the law, the companies and places they hacked are, by law, bound to secure users' information, due to terms of service and in-general data protection laws. If these people are not holding up their end of the bargain and Lulzsec goes down, then the companies affected must go down in some way as well. They can't have user's data all willy nilly. I mean come on, Sony had it in a .txt file. A freaking text file. Not encrypted at all. It was just lying there titled "user data" or something.

I know it reallllllly sucks that they release the information they stole and that makes it hard for a lot of people, but think about it, it could be a LOT worse a group that did the hacking, and the people looking after our data should know better. I'm just waiting for them to hit Microsoft.

But, of course, the truly sad thing is that all of the blame is going on LulzSec, and none of it on the companies who should have had better security. I think all of those companies should be fined to pay compensation to ALL users of their services if they can't look after any information at all.
@D2 Ultima

I totally agree...Obviously this information (which is very private) is of no importance to these mega-corps...they should be putting your information (the customer) up front in terms of priority... its almost rediculous.. I for one am happy that Lulzsec is doing this, imagine if it was someone with really malicious intent? who actually will cause damage? financially or otherwise?

Lulzsec is simply showing you how easy it is for someone to poke holes...

I think the companies should be held accountable...
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@D2 Ultima Yeah... If they break in to your system and steal your identity it is your fault. If they break in to a bank and steal your keepsakes out of your lock box, it is the bank's fault. It they mug your mom and steal her rings, of course... It's HER fault for flaunting them and not carrying a gun, having a body guard, etc... Idiot.
@ 5FingerDiscount

"I for one am happy that Lulzsec is doing this, imagine if it was someone with really malicious intent? who actually will cause damage? financially or otherwise? "

And Lulz chose to GIVE these very criminals the information, free. This is different how?
@josh92 You're assuming that they are US citizens and subject to American laws, they could be from any country. I think it would be more likely for a non-US citizen to target the CIA website than an American.
@Nickkuk
The mere fact that they targeted the CIA means the CIA will now get involved. I think they feel they can't be caught! Well bin Laden felt that way too. And all you guy's and gal's that think it's cool....just who do you think they're giving away the email and passwords to...Santa Clause?

Get a clue....
The one where the gremlin is banging on a blockbuster bomb with a sledge hammer. Bugs, seeing the gremlin is having no luck, kindly takes the hammer from him and rears back, about to slam the bomb with his entire strength.

Then, with an absolutely horrified look on his face he drops the hammer and says

"WHAT AM I DOING?!?!?!?!?!!"

As I recall he never did catch the gremlin.

Question is, is LulzSec the gremlin or just a stupid rabbit? You'd think they'd know better than to attack a website belonging to people who view torture and assassination as *standard operating procedure*...
I'm pretty sure I already have seen this story, I think they used it in Live Free or Die Hard, John Mcclain will save the day. I bet the hackers are on 18 wheelers constantly moving so the government can't track their locations lol! Seriously bad television is the explanation for this. (just like in boondock saints)
@shettinger
More like Big Wheels.
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Remember what Rahm Emanuel said.
PepperdotNet Updated - 16th Jun
The current administration is known for the attitude of "Never let a crisis go to waste" when unconstitutionally exercising their power. Something like this is just what they need to put in place censoring, filtering, monitoring, or just the complete shutdown of the Internet at a whim.

Remember the "Patriot" act was recently renewed guaranteeing several more years of ignoring the 4th Amendement, it's not that hard to get politicians to take the next step.
@Pepper.dot.Net

Such as?
I can't believe how many people in that list have "password" as their password! I stopped after finding a dozen and I was only a 10th down the list.
interesting list; I see a lot of e-mail address from Brazil (ie: .br) in that list...
Anonymous is not, and NEVER has been a "group", but only a group identity symbol of the Anonymous Man borrowed from The Beatles symbology and the movie "V - for Vendetta" (aka Guy Fawkes). If you think you have found such a group, they are posseurs and not all that anonymous. Anonymous is, quite simply, made up of anyone and everyone on the internet who remembers their history and does something about egregious and lulzworthy behaviour by "Authorities" and "Users" alike. I might remind you of the incidents ongoing for several years involving the cult of $cientology and Anonymous.

Remember, if you have found such a group, they're posseurs. If you think you have found a member, they're just User Joe. Are they real? Maybe. They do not forget.
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Contributr
@RyuDarragh Which is why their Twitter alias is @GroupAnon, right? lol.

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