The Hacker Who Knew Too Much, starring Anonymous
‘Hacktivist groups’ Anonymous and Lulz Security have grabbed headlines lately for bold and sophisticated hacks into websites controlled by the US Senate, CIA and MasterCard. Governments around the world have responded. Spanish authorities arrested three alleged members of Anonymous on June 10. Three days later, Turkish authorities picked up thirty two alleged members of the same group.
Little is known for sure about Anonymous or Lulz, but what is clear is the immense technical and creative skill the groups possess. In this sense, Anonymous and Lulz Security are in good company. From as early on as the June 2010 attack on Google, cyber security experts like Dmitri Alperovitch of McAfee have warned of the increasing sophistication of attempted hacks. Lou Hughes, the CEO of InZero Security, told The Economist last year that hacking capabilities are approaching a point that hacking poses an “existential threat” to corporations and governments. Private security firms and corporations, as well as government cybersecurity divisions, are struggling to keep up.
Why the seemingly sudden acceleration of hacker skills vis-à-vis security firm and government skills? Perhaps it has something to do with the rise in government-sponsored cybercrime. It’s a well known secret that the Chinese, American, French, Israeli and Russian governments hire gifted hackers to hack competitor nations and corporations for valuable intelligence and information. These ‘hired guns’ would, in the process of learning how to attack other government systems and defend their own government’s systems, garner a lot of valuable information about government cyber-vulnerabilities. Call it the “Man Who Knew Too Much” of the internet age—the hacker who knew too much.
Alperovitch of McAfee predicts the worldwide police crackdown will undercut the ability of Anonymous to execute the threats in their ominous, a bit-too-culturally-allusive video. However, if we are really living with the “Hacker Who Knew Too Much,” there’s a good chance the experienced hackers have already passed on their on-the-job wisdom. The cat might be out of the bag.