"Deceptive Duo" suspects hit in FBI raid

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-914848.html?tag=fd_top

By Robert Lemos 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 15, 2002, 6:10 PM PT

update - The FBI has issued search warrants against two former online 
vandals it believes to be the members of a "patriot" hacking group 
called the Deceptive Duo. 

As first reported by CNET News.com, agents raided the homes of two
teenagers earlier this week. The FBI on Sunday seized equipment in
Florida from The-Rev, a former member of the hacking group Sm0ked
Crew, according to a friend of the Deceptive Duo hackers.

Separately, the Contra Costa county district attorney's office
confirmed that agents acting on a warrant issued in the Deceptive Duo
case confiscated computer equipment from Robert Lyttle, the previously
convicted pro-Napster defacer, in California on Monday.

The California raid prompted a Wednesday juvenile parole hearing for
Lyttle, who is now 18. Lyttle has been confined to his home as a
result of the criminal hearing.

"He has been placed on a higher level of supervision," said a source
familiar with the proceedings, who asked not to be identified. "He has
to wear an ankle bracelet, which tells them where he is. If he walks
away from the house, it sends a signal to the probation department."

The Deceptive Duo has defaced dozens of U.S. government and military
sites with pro-American messages lambasting the poor security of the
nation's critical systems. The hacked sites have included those of the
Defense Department and the Sandia National Laboratories, which is
associated with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear
Security Administration.

No charges have yet been filed against either suspect, said Chris
Murray, a spokesman for the FBI's Washington Metropolitan Bureau.  
However, the search warrants and affidavit used in the case have been
sealed and are not available for public viewing, he said. Because the
Deceptive Duo hit government and military sites, the case is being
administered from the Washington D.C. Metropolitan office of the FBI.

An FBI representative in San Francisco confirmed that the bureau had
issued a search warrant on Monday. A spokesperson for the FBI office
in Miami Beach, Florida, could not be reached.

Dodie Katague, deputy district attorney for California's Contra Costa
county, confirmed that Lyttle had appeared in a probation hearing
Wednesday to discuss how his probation status would be affected by the
new charges.

"Now that he is an adult--he is 18--we are letting the Feds handle
it," said Katague. "And he is going to be in a lot more trouble than
before." Lyttle was convicted of defacing dozens, and perhaps
hundreds, of Web sites with a pro-Napster message. He is on probation.

Kelly Hallissey, a Las Vegas resident who bills herself as an "online
mom" to several hackers including the two suspects, said she argued
with The-Rev and Pimpshiz--Lyttle's online monicker--to stop defacing,
but they wouldn't.

"They knew that they were going to get caught," she said. Hallissey
worried that the teenagers would be made an example under new laws
passed as part of the U.S.A. Patriot Act and maintains that they truly
thought they were helping the security cause.

"This is their part in helping after 9-11," Hallissey said. "A lot of
kids they knew went into the service after 9-11. Their skills lie in
hacking, however. It sounds corny, but they mean it and they believe
it."

The Deceptive Duo's defacements mimicked a secret agent file. In the
first hack in late April, the Duo wrote: "We are two U.S. Citizens
that understand how sad our country's cybersecurity really is. The
Deceptive Duo's continuous mission is to define the weaknesses that
lie upon us. Our lives revolve around the use of electronic
communication, we must protect our formation of controlling technology
one way or another."

Many security experts have been critical of the tactics employed by
the duo in the name of helping computer security.

"There are probably better ways to tell people that their security
sucks," said Dragos Ruiu, an independent security consultant. "In one
way, it's an excuse to play around, because they probably would have
done it anyway."

Yet in a previous e-mail interview with CNET News.com, the Deceptive
Duo said they believed they had already helped the cause of U.S.  
security.

"There is quite an improvement in security," they wrote. "Because the
systems we were once able to breach are no longer susceptible to
attack...Not only are our targets more secure, but we strongly believe
that witnesses to this entire ordeal will see that everything is a bit
more realistic. This will force them to act on their own system
security if so inclined."

Lyttle's attorney, San Francisco-based Omar Figaeroa, believed that
the 18-year-old hacker will be released in the end.

"When all the facts are in, Robert will be exonerated, because he had
no criminal intent," he said. "He was acting in good faith."



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