Protest Warrior Hacker Caught

In January 2005, Jeremy Hammond and the hacker group collectively known as the "Internet Liberation Front" gained illegal access to the ProtestWarrior server. Thousands of customer credit card numbers were then stolen for the purpose of making millions of dollars in donations to various leftwing organizations. In early February, ProtestWarrior discovered the illegal breach and the identity of the criminals responsible.

Using the hacker recruiting ground www.hackthissite.org, Jeremy Hammond put together and led a team of politically motivated "hacktivists" to probe the ProtestWarrior server for months until an exploit was found. When an obscure vulnerability was discovered in the PW server's newsletter subscription code, they managed to upload malicious files that gave them the ability to execute commands on the server.

Upon discovering the hack, we immediately began collecting information on the breach and managed to penetrate Jeremy's inner circle. We then collected evidence that more than 5,000 credit card numbers had been stolen by Jeremy and the "Internet Liberation Front" and that they were planning on doing the following:

*charge hundreds of dollars per stolen credit card number as donations to various left-wing organizations by using an automated donation submission script

*send the entire ProtestWarrior HQ database (complete with usernames, passwords, and operation details) to left-wing groups hostile to ProtestWarrior (including the entire contents of our mail server)

*upload all credit card numbers and other sensitive customer information to hundreds of anarchist and left-wing sites (specifically Indymedia) as a downloadable zip file

*anonymously send press releases and material to thousands of media contacts to boast of the malicious hack and the millions of dollars defrauded, and to publish any and all sensitive information regarding the ProtestWarrior organization

Upon discovering their plans, we contacted the FBI and the Secret Service, who immediately began investigating the case. We were able to provide them with a tremendous amount of evidence regarding the breach, the criminals responsible, and their plans to commit massive credit card fraud. We also reported the incident to all credit card companies involved to make sure that ProtestWarrior's customers were protected. With our help, the FBI was able to thwart Jeremy and his army of "hacktivists".

After contacting the FBI, we immediately hired a security consultant and removed all sensitive information from the server. We eventually moved the server to a new box, where we blocked off the system and data files from the web server and changed the online store software to a super- secure system that stores zero sensitive customer information. In addition, we hired an internet security firm to run a series of vigorous vulnerability tests on our server, which our server all passed.

The reason we haven't made this announcement earlier is that our customers were already protected and we didn't want to jeopardize the ongoing FBI investigation of Jeremy and his "hacktivist" army.

The reason we're posting this now is that Jeremy, in a desperate move, is publicly appealing to the internet community regarding his pending FBI investigation. Using his site www.freejeremy. com, he is trying to solicit donations for his defense fund and generate public sympathy while spreading slanderous disinformation regarding ProtestWarrior and the events leading up to the FBI investigation.

We will soon be releasing much more information and details regarding the incident and the ongoing FBI investigation. Rest assured, justice will be served.

[CIMC-work] FBI Search: Jeremy Hammond's Apartment
ChrisGeovanis at aol.com ChrisGeovanis at aol.com
Thu Mar 17 10:05:49 PST 2005

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What is the status of this story, and why has it been deleted from our
newswire?

christine

In a message dated 3/17/2005 11:30:33 AM Central Standard Time,
msszczep at uchicago.edu writes:
A peculiarly timed raid...

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/54314/index.php

----
Mitchell Szczepanczyk | _ Z | Download Chicago's first weekly podcast:
http://www.szcz.org | / | http://www.szcz.org/tmot-podcast.php

Thurs. March 17th, 2005 6 AM

9 FBI Agents entered the home of Jeremy Hammond and roomates with a search
warrant; taking _all_ computers, equipments, and everything related.
Thursday 6 AM March 17, 2005

There was a loud knock on the front door. I woke up and came downstairs. A
bald man flashed an FBI badge by the window and I recognized that it was
the same gentleman that had spoken to Jeremy Hammond. I opened the door
and a few of them stepped in. His name is Brian Brusokas. He said,
"Remember me? We met at the coffee shop"

Brian Brusokas and another FBI agent took out a notepad and asked if I
will give any statements because he claims that I have "minimal
involvement." I said that I will not give a statement until I am with a
lawyer. They did the same thing to our roommate, Christopher. I was not
present at the time of his questioning.

Earlier this summer two FBI agents had contacted Jeremy enquiring about
the speech that he gave at Defcon on electronic civil disobedience. And
for a few months after that, they would contact Jeremy and chat in the
coffee shop, the nature of the conversation was never disclosed to me. The
contact ended a few months prior to this search warrant.

They said they were looking for all electronic equipment that could have
been related to hacking. They started taking pictures with a digital
camera in every room, explaining that they will be doing the same thing
after they conducted the search. They teamed off and began searching
through the shelves, examining all pieces of evidence and taking notebooks
and scraps of papers.

They took our apartment lease, bank statements, notebooks and binders.
They took our computers (1 HP ?e vectra, Mac Tower, Back Mac Tower,
Packard Bell Force CPU, X-Box, and a E-book) PDA?s, hard drive, all four
CD cases, and memory cards. There is a receipt of what was taken and was
given to us along with the search warrants. They took a picture of that as
well, claiming that it is their evidence that they left the documents with
us.

They went upstairs and rummaged through my closet, bedroom, bathroom, and
backpack. They went through my back pack and took a picture of my English
paper on Computer Hackers in addition to our phone books.

They left around 9 am and I called Jeremy as his father?s place. They were
already there.

I believe this a scare tactic prior to March 19th Anniversary of US
invasion in Iraq. This happened to other activists before the Republican
National Convention as well.

Please be aware that all your conversations on the phone, AIM, and any
mobile devices can be tapped without notice.
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