Australian Federal Police arrest LulzSec hacker found in Sydney

UPDATE: The identity of the LulzSec hacker has been revealed as 24-year-old Matthew Flannery. Sources have revealed that he enjoys karaoke and 1960s musicals.

UPDATE: It has been less than 12 hours since the AFP announced they had arrested an unnamed 24-year-old alleged ringleader of the hacking group LulzSec and now he has been identified.

The 24-year-old hacker - whose online handle is "Aush0k" - has been identified by sources as Matthew Flannery.

Flannery on his linked in page lists that he works for IT security company Tenable, however the company has denied he has ever been an employee, telling news.com.au that "Matthew Flannery does not and has never been an employee of Tenable."

"Network Security holds a zero tolerance policy for employees and partners with regards to malicious digital activity," a Tenable spokesperson said.

"It is our mission to defend cyberspace from the activities of hackers, thieves and spies and we remain committed to bringing such criminals to justice."

Flannery’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a "network operations and support analyst in Telecommunications N.O.C. environments that has recently conditioned interests in exploitation and penetration testing into the field of Security".

In a nutshell this means it was his job to test the security of various computer networks to reveal flaws that could be exploited by cybercriminals or hackers.

On his Facebook page Flannery also lists himself as working for the FBI as a "Special agent - cybercrime & security intelligence."

When contacted by news.com.au Australian Federal Police would not confirm the name of the person they arrested in relation to the LulzSec attacks. However it also said the company of the arrested man had no involvement in his alleged criminal activities.

Chat logs on document sharing website pastebin dating back to 2010 show people discussing the real identity of "Aush0k" as Matthew Trevor Flannery. The documents show he was born in 1989.

"Aush0k" also posted a video to video sharing website Vimeo in 2009 announcing his "return" to the internet, referring to himself as the "final boss of the internet".

Watch the video below.

Aush0k's return to the internet 2009 from AnonymousWillRAEPy0u on Vimeo.

The last time Flannery used his Twitter account was December, where he tweeted about the British comedy awards.

He also enjoys karaoke. Gizmodo found a video of him crooning to songs from ‘60s musical, Grease.

Watch the video above

At a press conference this morning, the AFP announced that the LulzSec hacker arrested in Sydney today was an IT professional employed by a prominent technology company,

"He operated from a position of trust, and had access to sensitive information from clients, including government agencies," said Commander Glen McEwan, the manager of cyber crime operations for the AFP.

"In this particular case, he had the ability to interrupt online trading, online transactions and for government this can have serious consequences in the long term."

The man appeared to have acted alone, he said.

They said the 24-year-old Point Clare man - who was known by the online handle "OzShock" - worked for a local offshoot of an international company which had no knowledge of his activities.

"I want to make it clear employers company had no involvement or knowledge of the alleged activity of this man and that it has fully cooperate with police in their investigation."

The hacker -has been charged with unauthorised access and causing data impairment to a government agency website during this month.

The AFP would not say which government website it accessed but said it was not a federal government site.

The hacker allegedly attacked the website and created a "back door", which allowed him remote access to the site from a laptop which he had personal access to.

The AFP would not say whether the laptop was a work or personal device.

"The AFP has zero tolerance for this type of behaviour," said Commander McEwan.

"We believe this man's skill sets and access to sensitive information presented a considerable risk to Australian society".

Though the man has apparently "admitted" and taken credit for the attacks, the motive for his actions remains unclear, the AFP said.

"Those thinking of engaging of those actions should be warned that hacking or propogating malaicious viruses or distributed denial of service attacks are not harmless fun and are considered severe," Commander McEwan said.

"The punishments range from a criminal conviction to terms of imprisonment."

LulzSec is an offshoot of the hacktivist group Anonymous and is responsible for hacking the websites of 20th Century Fox, the NHS, Nintendo, the Arizona State Police and News International, falsely reporting the death of Rupert Murdoch.

"OzShock" is allegedly the self-styled leader of the hacking collective Lulz Security, also known as LulzSec, which has operated since 2011.

However, Anonymous have already wiped their hands of him, claiming on Twitter that he was not the leader of LulzSec and that he only participated in various Denial of Service attacks from time to time.

This absolute bullshit great work feds u busted a ddos fag >> Self-proclaimed LulzSec hacking leader arrested in NSW abc.net.au/news/2013-04-2…

— Anonymous Australia (@AuAnon) April 23, 2013

The man is the first person to be arrested by the AFP.

The arrest comes a year after one of the alleged leaders of the group, Hector Monsegur was reportedly found to be an informant for the FBI. Four people were arrested in New York and Chicago in March. At the time the FBI said it was "chopping off the head of LulzSec."

 But it turns out that the group's alleged ringleader wasn't even on the same continent.

A British teenager was also arrested in 2011 in relation to the hackings.
 
Anyone with information pertaining to LulzSec please email: [e-mail].