:00:03. > :00:13.Those are the headlines. It is now time for Our World. We have an
:00:13. > :00:15.
:00:15. > :00:20.exclusive insight into the life of Greeting citizens of the world, we
:00:20. > :00:25.are Anonymous. The summer of 2011 and the world is getting to grips
:00:25. > :00:30.with a new form of protest. revolution has begun. We are legion.
:00:30. > :00:36.We do not forgive, we do not forget. A revolution conducted online by
:00:36. > :00:41.hackers, people who carry out attacks in cyberspace. It is not a
:00:41. > :00:51.game. This is a crime. It is purely using technology to commit that
:00:51. > :00:54.crime on a global scale. I don't feel like a criminal. I do like a
:00:54. > :01:01.kid who put his career did to it -- creativity into the wrong place at
:01:01. > :01:06.the wrong time. This revolution involved attacks on computers and
:01:06. > :01:16.websites. Carried out by so-called hacktivists, leaderless but grouped
:01:16. > :01:18.
:01:18. > :01:24.under the name of the Anonymous. Then, LulzSec appears. A jokey
:01:24. > :01:31.splinter group, more chaotic than Anonymous. Was it acted like a rock
:01:31. > :01:35.band. The members were like rock stars. They were entertainers.
:01:35. > :01:42.Anonymous, they said they wanted information on the internet are to
:01:42. > :01:47.be free, but LulzSec also wanted to have a laugh. So was LulzSec just a
:01:47. > :01:51.bunch of cyber jokers or a threat that had to be taken seriously? In
:01:51. > :01:56.an exclusive interview, we speak to one of the group's key members
:01:56. > :02:06.before he was imprisoned. A rare glimpse into the secretive world of
:02:06. > :02:35.
:02:35. > :02:43.The LulzSec hacking group held the online world and role as they
:02:43. > :02:48.wanted went on at -- went on a hacking spree. The name derives
:02:48. > :02:53.from the internet would for laughs. They caused chaos, hacking media
:02:53. > :02:58.companies, security firms, police, the CIA and the FBI. There were
:02:58. > :03:04.many associates, but half a dozen or so central characters. Each had
:03:04. > :03:08.their own role and online name. In the real world, the members of
:03:08. > :03:11.LulzSec never met. They lived continents apart. This small group
:03:11. > :03:17.of individuals, most of whom have now been arrested, lived out their
:03:17. > :03:23.lives online. They adopted colourful characters as they
:03:23. > :03:28.crashed Web sites and published the data they act. The oldest of the
:03:28. > :03:33.group was Hector Montsegur, known as Sabu. He was New York-based and
:03:33. > :03:40.the closest the group had to a leader. Worcester Fire I'll buy
:03:40. > :03:48.some was the youngest. Based in the UK and known as T Flo -- Tflow.
:03:48. > :03:54.Ryan agreed was also based in the UK. His name was Kayla. AVUnit, the
:03:54. > :03:59.identity of them remains unknown to this day. And finally the group's
:04:00. > :04:04.head of communications and unlikely PR man. Jake Davis, also known as
:04:04. > :04:10.Topiary. This is the first time he has agreed to a television
:04:10. > :04:16.interview. Aspects of myself went into it. It was an exaggerated
:04:16. > :04:26.version of the things I couldn't be. I think Topiary is a lot more
:04:26. > :04:35.
:04:35. > :04:40.confident than I am. I'm speaking At the time, Jake was 17 and living
:04:40. > :04:45.on the remote Shetland Islands off the north coast of Scotland. His
:04:45. > :04:51.parents split up when he was very young and then when Jake was just
:04:51. > :04:57.13 his stepfather died in a car school, he became a near recluse.
:04:57. > :05:01.His mother and brother moved to England and Jake was alone. He
:05:01. > :05:06.rejected the real world for internet chat rooms. I literally
:05:06. > :05:13.just made friends of mine. The computer screen was like a God's
:05:13. > :05:20.eye view of the world to me. Utter isolation day and night, so that
:05:20. > :05:29.sleeping patterns were all over the place. When your friend based its
:05:29. > :05:35.existent only through the internet, time-zones 11 become kind of
:05:35. > :05:38.irrelevant. I would sleep during the day and feel no responsibility.
:05:38. > :05:46.It was a very limited world. It is a world that you can see and hear,
:05:46. > :05:52.but that's it. You cannot feel it ought touch it or censored. It is a
:05:52. > :05:57.world devoid of empathy. It is a very cynical world and I became
:05:57. > :06:01.very cynical inside it. Parmy Olson is a journalist who wrote about
:06:01. > :06:06.many of LulzSec's attacks. She has since spoken to the key players
:06:06. > :06:11.about the time they spent planning and discussing hacks online in chat
:06:11. > :06:16.rooms. Like-minded communities were conversations are fast moving,
:06:16. > :06:21.often intense and introspective. They can be very lively 1 minute
:06:21. > :06:27.but also very negative the next. There can be a lot of backbiting
:06:27. > :06:31.and bitchiness as well. It is very up and down. If you imagine the
:06:31. > :06:36.kind of office politics that you experience in a normal office,
:06:37. > :06:40.multiply that by three and that is what you get. These guys get
:06:41. > :06:44.distressed and very emotional, even though they are just sitting there.
:06:44. > :06:54.The thing they are connected to is an incredibly dramatic world. It is
:06:54. > :06:57.
:06:57. > :07:02.The attacks took two forms. The first of faded an organisation's
:07:02. > :07:12.security to infiltrate, then extract data. Sometimes come today
:07:12. > :07:12.
:07:12. > :07:19.told. They then published that for the world to see. The second, known
:07:19. > :07:24.as a DDoS, used thousands of commuters to fund a website until
:07:24. > :07:28.it crashed. The group used -- discussed these attacks on hidden
:07:28. > :07:33.parts of the internet but most of us are not aware of it. In London
:07:33. > :07:37.they might beat areas which you know have more crime. You do not go
:07:37. > :07:42.there unless you have a reason. The same thing applies to the internet.
:07:42. > :07:47.There are shady areas of the internet. Areas completely outside
:07:47. > :07:51.of the normal weather. Services and systems were you need special
:07:51. > :07:55.clients to even see the discussions going on. It means normal people
:07:55. > :07:59.have no idea about the dark side of the internet existing, but it
:07:59. > :08:04.certainly does. The internet is just a reflection of the real world,
:08:04. > :08:09.so it probably will always exist. LulzSec's targets were an eclectic
:08:10. > :08:13.mix, only loosely political, often prankish in nature. Members of the
:08:13. > :08:16.group had been indicted in the US for allegedly stealing and
:08:16. > :08:21.publishing a database containing details of 70,000 potential
:08:21. > :08:24.contestants for the X Factor. In the UK, some have pleaded guilty to
:08:24. > :08:29.hacking the website of the Sun and replacing its front page with a
:08:29. > :08:33.false story that Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden. The
:08:33. > :08:37.name is also linked to a tax on Sony, when the games company was or
:08:37. > :08:46.under fire from hackers across the internet, angry about what they saw
:08:46. > :08:51.as the company's blase approach to keeping people status secured. --
:08:51. > :08:55.people's data. The way the group spoke to the world to find the
:08:55. > :08:59.personality of it. There was an element of spin as well. There were
:08:59. > :09:03.a lot of other splinter groups like LulzSec that were around at the
:09:03. > :09:07.time that have come out since then that didn't get anywhere near the
:09:07. > :09:11.kind of notoriety that they did. It is not just because LulzSec was
:09:11. > :09:16.great and communicating and was witty and funny on Twitter and put
:09:16. > :09:22.at prolific press releases. The Chatterjee journalists and whatever
:09:22. > :09:27.else. -- they chatted to. It was because they had one or two very
:09:27. > :09:33.skilled hackers within the group. It was a convoy once of the
:09:33. > :09:37.circumstances. This meeting of minds and a small group of people
:09:37. > :09:42.who were getting closer and closer until what they made -- made what
:09:42. > :09:49.they thought was an elite team to inspire Anonymous. Definitely the
:09:49. > :09:56.issue of communicating and PR was so important in creating this
:09:56. > :10:00.mirage of a dangerous organisation and a threatening group. LulzSec
:10:00. > :10:04.had grabbed the attention of the world's media with the taunting,
:10:04. > :10:09.light-hearted tone of the publicity around their attacks. Taking a shot
:10:09. > :10:15.at big companies was one thing, but in among their targets were several
:10:15. > :10:20.law enforcement agencies. On that we their feet, LulzSec boasted
:10:20. > :10:23.about bringing down the website linked to the FBI. They crashed the
:10:23. > :10:31.CIA's home side and sought to embarrass those whose job it is to
:10:31. > :10:34.investigate insider crime, the UK's serious crime -- Serious Organised
:10:34. > :10:37.Crime Agency, by forcing the website of line. Attacking the
:10:37. > :10:45.police was a step too far, according to Mikko Hirvonen, who
:10:45. > :10:50.spent the last 20 use tracking viruses and looking for the people
:10:50. > :10:55.who create them. It is clear that law-enforcement LulzSec personally,
:10:55. > :11:00.for a reason. It was very brazenly going after more enforcement
:11:00. > :11:08.targets. They were attacking law- enforcement starts in the US,
:11:08. > :11:13.recording their conference calls between Europe and the USA. A low.
:11:13. > :11:18.It is Bruce. This is what he is talking about. A packed conference
:11:18. > :11:23.call between Scotland Yard and the FBI, recorded and published in the
:11:24. > :11:28.name of Anonymous. We set back the further arrests of Kayla and Tflow.
:11:28. > :11:32.The fact that the world could tune in and listen to the cyber crime
:11:32. > :11:38.teams as they discussed pursuit of LulzSec was acutely embarrassing
:11:38. > :11:44.for law enforcement. I just saw the information about the big cyber
:11:44. > :11:49.conference in Sheffield. I'm going to be able to come? I think so, yes.
:11:49. > :11:59.I have never been to Sheffield. you have missed nothing. Really?
:11:59. > :12:07.I'm afraid so. It is not really a Jo Hall in England's crown.
:12:07. > :12:09.jewel. The police in that call did meet up in Sheffield, where local
:12:09. > :12:15.academics keen to encourage young enthusiasts to take an interest in
:12:15. > :12:19.computer coding by deliver -- developing their own computer games.
:12:19. > :12:29.What we need to do is we need to go into here and we need to pull an
:12:29. > :12:32.
:12:32. > :12:36.Here at Sheffield Hallam University's against Britannia
:12:36. > :12:46.event, schoolchildren are being taught how to use standard games
:12:46. > :12:51.
:12:51. > :12:55.One of the academics at the same university briefed the police on
:12:55. > :12:59.cyber security and was then asked to get involved in the LulzSec case.
:12:59. > :13:04.This is a visual interpretation of the data which allows us to know
:13:04. > :13:11.where the attacks are coming from. This is basically the hackers who
:13:11. > :13:15.have breached the system using an overflow attack. Dr David Day was
:13:15. > :13:19.unpicking evidence on the computer hard drive or Tflow, one of the
:13:19. > :13:26.most technically competent of the loss of hackers. How good a hacker
:13:26. > :13:31.was he? He was very good. He was using the appropriate tools for
:13:31. > :13:37.performing this kind of activity. He was well versed in their use. He
:13:37. > :13:43.knew how to write code and right malicious scripts to a level which
:13:43. > :13:50.far exceeds somebody of his age. surprised many did eventually find
:13:50. > :13:52.out how young he was? I was very surprised. Well wouldn't have
:13:52. > :13:57.imagine somebody of that age would have had the time to accumulate
:13:57. > :14:02.that level of knowledge and expertise. Did you yourself find
:14:02. > :14:07.you are becoming immersed in this world? Totally absorbed. For
:14:07. > :14:13.probably about two weeks. I didn't do an awful lot else. I spent a lot
:14:13. > :14:18.of my time hold up working long hours. On occasions where I found
:14:18. > :14:22.something but I thought was exciting, I got animated and baby
:14:22. > :14:25.stayed up till the early hours of the morning or sometimes in the
:14:25. > :14:31.night I would wake up with an idea and have no option other to get up
:14:31. > :14:40.and test my hypothesis. I totally understand how hacking can be
:14:40. > :14:50.thrilling. I can identify with the thrill of the challenge of it and
:14:50. > :14:53.
:14:53. > :14:57.the sort of emotional reward but The challenge is to convince young
:14:57. > :15:04.people that being on the right side of the internet can be as rewarding
:15:04. > :15:12.as being on the dark side of the Internet. Jake pleaded guilty to an
:15:12. > :15:16.agency that he says is based on an exchange and a chat room. That page
:15:16. > :15:26.was the first thing that was presented to me in terms of giving
:15:26. > :15:28.
:15:28. > :15:36.evidence. Conspiracy to commit computer abuse in two lines of text
:15:36. > :15:43.on a computer screen. I tight thousands of lines of text per day.
:15:43. > :15:48.And these two lines stick with you. They are a separate charge that is
:15:48. > :15:58.punishable by up to ten years in prison. I guess it does not matter
:15:58. > :15:59.
:15:59. > :16:04.about how long it is, it is what it says. I completely agree.Do you
:16:04. > :16:11.regret getting involved? I regret 95% of the things I have ever typed
:16:11. > :16:20.on the internet. Especially those lines of going after this people,
:16:20. > :16:25.why not? It obviously did hurt. still come across individuals who
:16:26. > :16:31.do not appreciate that committing an attack on the internet is
:16:31. > :16:36.exactly the same as committing a physical type of attack. It has
:16:36. > :16:43.real world impact at the end of the day. Whether that his financial
:16:43. > :16:49.loss, reputation no harm or emotional harm. It is using
:16:49. > :16:59.technology to commit that crime. It actually makes the attacks easier
:16:59. > :17:03.
:17:04. > :17:08.to commit on a larger scale, on a global scale. At the time of the
:17:08. > :17:14.attack, the identities of the crew were still unknown. But it is
:17:14. > :17:17.possible that Chick had already let down his defences. His voice was
:17:18. > :17:23.recognisable in a life had performed on the West radio show
:17:23. > :17:32.against the Westborough Baptist Church, an outspoken fundamentalist
:17:32. > :17:40.group with anti-gay views. This was really 2011. Just as they were
:17:40. > :17:45.getting started. It appears to be from Anonymous. You are being quite
:17:45. > :17:55.carefree. What is the worst thing that can happen? The worst thing
:17:55. > :17:57.
:17:57. > :18:05.that happens, it gets 500,000 be used in 12 hours. -- be used. I had
:18:05. > :18:12.a cold sweat after that. Tonight, inside the almost impenetrable
:18:12. > :18:20.world of hacking. On 24th June, 2011, on Newsnight, we spoke to
:18:20. > :18:28.Topiary. He came across as is usual on Mansell. In reality, he was in
:18:28. > :18:34.turmoil. That is because earlier in the US, members had attacked the
:18:34. > :18:37.Arizona state police. In protest against new laws on immigration.
:18:37. > :18:45.They released private intelligence material common names, addresses
:18:45. > :18:51.and phone numbers of officers. was the big turning point for
:18:51. > :18:59.myself and others. There was no point to this. It is harming police
:18:59. > :19:09.officers. It does not entertain or help anyone. I am not this person,
:19:09. > :19:19.I decided. I am just some kid in a bedroom. I decided to leave it. I
:19:19. > :19:21.
:19:21. > :19:28.shut down my laptop. I decided to live a simple, normal teenage life.
:19:28. > :19:34.I found it hard to get this across to other hackers. The group was
:19:34. > :19:41.falling apart. America's Federal Bureau of Investigation had a new
:19:41. > :19:48.weapon. Just prior to the abyss and hack, one of the founders and the
:19:48. > :19:53.closest the group had to a leader had been arrested. He was living in
:19:53. > :19:59.New York at the time. He was responsible for his nieces. He was
:19:59. > :20:06.fearful of what Huck might happen to them if he was imprisoned. He
:20:06. > :20:11.turned into an informer for the F B I. I had my suspicions after he
:20:11. > :20:21.disappeared from the internet for 24 hours. He came back to the
:20:21. > :20:28.internet and was beginning to act a little bit different. You are not
:20:28. > :20:33.come to be able to uphold the same personality. There were a few that
:20:33. > :20:38.suspected immediately, within the first ten minutes. Why are we
:20:38. > :20:48.speaking to this person, why are we allowing him to goad us? There must
:20:48. > :20:56.
:20:56. > :21:06.be something. But some people thought, who cares if he is? Jake
:21:06. > :21:08.
:21:08. > :21:14.was arrested in the UK on 27th July, 2011. He said: you are obviously a
:21:14. > :21:19.bright person. You told us you were isolated. You must have been able
:21:19. > :21:24.to think that there were consequences. At the time and in
:21:24. > :21:31.the context I was 17. Quite mentally unstable and in a bad
:21:31. > :21:37.place. At times I could see through the internet. Hauser pressed
:21:37. > :21:45.everything else was. I thought there was consequences, but who
:21:45. > :21:50.cares? I was just enjoying the attention. Experts have little
:21:50. > :21:55.doubt that Lulzsec will be remembered. They achieved notoriety
:21:55. > :22:02.online and in the real world in the brief time they existed. But the
:22:02. > :22:09.outcome has not been a happy one for any of the Lulzsec crew. Sadhu
:22:09. > :22:16.is awaiting trial in the US, charged with crimes that include
:22:16. > :22:22.not just hacking, but bank fraud. He could face 124 years behind bars.
:22:22. > :22:28.Another man was given a 120 month suspended sentence. He will serve
:22:28. > :22:33.no time, but will have to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work. Bryan
:22:33. > :22:42.Ackroyd was jailed for 30 months and is expected to serve half of
:22:42. > :22:50.that. A unit remains unidentified. Anyone committing a crime, whether
:22:50. > :22:55.it is a physical crime or a crime on the internet, potentially using
:22:55. > :23:01.Global Associates or infrastructure abroad, using proxies to hide their
:23:01. > :23:05.identity, that will be investigated. They will be investigated and they
:23:05. > :23:09.will be prosecuted. That is the message that needs to go out there.
:23:09. > :23:19.We will work with global partners and Industry to bring these
:23:19. > :23:23.individuals to justice. When you have these groups like Anonymous or
:23:23. > :23:27.Lulzsec, yesterday broke the law, yes they should be punished, but I
:23:27. > :23:32.am more worried about organised criminal gangs from Russia, from
:23:32. > :23:40.the Ukraine, from new mania, from China, gangs that are stealing
:23:40. > :23:45.money. -- Romania. Gangs that are making millions. I have spoken to
:23:45. > :23:49.hackers who have been caught. Many feel they could have been useful in
:23:49. > :23:53.securing systems. But for one reason or another, they went on the
:23:53. > :23:58.wrong path would did not have the opportunities for made some
:23:58. > :24:06.mistakes. They keep telling me the same thing over and over. If they
:24:06. > :24:10.could change what happens, they would rather be on the other side.
:24:10. > :24:13.So should we be trying harder to steer young people away from the
:24:13. > :24:21.seemingly glamourous world of hacking and harnessing their
:24:21. > :24:30.skills? The irony is that we need the people who have the skill sets
:24:30. > :24:34.and the kind of personalities that enjoy hacking to come over and join
:24:34. > :24:38.us on the forensic side. We need people with the skills, abilities
:24:38. > :24:42.and the desire for a puzzle solving to be put on the other side of the
:24:42. > :24:48.fence. Do you have a message for people to look at what you have
:24:48. > :24:54.done and in some way copy that? hope it would not result in
:24:54. > :25:01.copycats. If you have the passion to do something and have nothing
:25:01. > :25:05.else to do, try and find something beyond the front door. If you get
:25:05. > :25:11.sucked into the computer world, you get dependent on it. It is very
:25:11. > :25:17.hard to say no to some things that you will later come to regret.
:25:17. > :25:23.Davies was given a 24 months' sentence. He had been given police
:25:23. > :25:29.restrictions that counted against this time. Some Lulzsec members in
:25:29. > :25:34.the UK have been indicted in the US. But so far there has been no
:25:34. > :25:37.request for extradition. Lulzsec may have thought of themselves as
:25:37. > :25:44.latter-day pirates, whose online antics highlighted the inadequacies
:25:44. > :25:49.of internet security professionals. Prosecutors saw them as a cowardly