A Phoenix man was arrested this morning for allegedly being a member -- or former member -- of the computer hacking group LulzSec, which claimed responsibility for the security breach of the Arizona Department of Public Safety's computer system earlier this year.
Cody Kretsinger, 23, was arrested after a grand jury returned an
indictment charging him with conspiracy and the unauthorized impairment
of a protected computer.
Federal authorities in Los Angeles say Kretsinger, who was living in Tempe at the time, is responsible for hacking into the Sony Pictures Entertainment website and stealing confidential information from the company from May 27 through June 2.
According to the indictment, Kretsinger, who goes by the Internet handle
of "recursion," used a proxy server to attempt to hide his Internet
Protocol (IP) address as he stole confidential information from Sony and
passed it along to other members of LulzSec.
Other members of the hacking group then posted the information on its
website after announcing the cyber-attack on the group's Twitter page.
LulzSec is the same group that took responsibility for hacking into the
Arizona Department of Public Safety's computer system earlier this year.
In late June, the hackers announced they'd breached the DPS' computer
system in protest of SB 1070, Arizona's controversial immigration law,
and "the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona."
Read more about the DPS hacking here.
The indictment is only for the hacking of the Sony website and does not include the breach of the DPS' computer system.
The investigation is ongoing, and indictments for other members of the group are expected.
If convicted, Kretsinger faces up to 15 years in prison.
