Intentional Privacy

I saw the Blackhat movie yesterday, and in my opinion, it was not that great. Realistic? Yes, but formulaic and even predictable, with a little hacking thrown in to make it seem original. The script—while well-researched—felt as if it had been churned out of a script-writing program like Final Draft. I was hoping for a movie like Sneakers, which is realistic, but not at all formulaic and it’s very funny besides.

And speaking of blackhats, some purported members of Lizard Squad have recently been arrested for the Christmas attacks on Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation networks during a joint investigation by the FBI and the British police. The Daily Mail reported that Jordan Lee-Bevan was arrested in Southport, Merseyside on January 16, 2015. In Finland, seventeen-year-old Julius “Ryan/Zeekill” Kivimäki was questioned last month, while Vincent Omari, Twickenham, south-west London, was arrested and released on bail shortly after they gave interviews to Sky News on December 27, 2014, about the alleged role of Lizard Squad in the Christmas gaming attacks.

Ironically, according to KrebsOnSecurity, Lizard Squad’s website, LizardStresser[dot]su, which they used to “coordinate attacks and sell subscriptions to its attacks-for-hire service” was hacked by another hacker group, Finest Squad. Brian Krebs acquired a copy of their user account information database—unfortunately stored unencrypted! Apparently the same information was also sent to the FBI. You can read more about the battles between Lizard Squad and Finest Squad on Business Insider’s article.