EXCLUSIVE: FBI Arrests Suspected LulzSec and Anonymous Hackers

By Jana Winter
Published September 22, 2011
FoxNews.com

The FBI arrested two alleged members of the hacking collectives LulzSec and Anonymous on Thursday morning in San Francisco and Phoenix, FoxNews.com has learned.

Search warrants were also being executed in New Jersey, Minnesota and Montana, an FBI official told FoxNews.com.

One individual was described as part of the LulzSec group, the other part of the group that calls itself Anonymous, the official said.

Cody Kretsinger, a 23-year-old from Phoenix, Ariz., was charged with conspiracy and the unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, according to the federal indictment unsealed Thursday morning.

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Kretsinger, who goes by the online name "recursion," is believed to be a current or former member of LulzSec and is accused of being involved in the hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Kretsinger and other coconspirators are accused of using a hacking technique called a SQL injection to obtain confidential information from Sony's computer systems.

According to the indictment, he and coconspirators distributed stolen information by posting it on LulzSec's website before announcing the attack on Twitter.

In order to evade law-enforcement detection, Kretsinger erased the hard drives used to carry out the Sony attack, the indictment said.

He is expected to appear in a Phoenix federal court Thursday afternoon.

Members of the Los Angeles FBI field office also arrested an alleged member of Anonymous in San Francisco. The suspected hacker is homeless and alleged to have been involved in cyberattacks on Santa Cruz County government websites, an FBI official said.

LulzSec is a splinter group from the “hacktivistâ€