Federal agents have arrested another member of the Cabin Cr3w hacking group, an offshoot of the Anonymous hacktivist network, for breaching two Utah police websites.
John Anthony Borell III of Toledo, Ohio, has been charged with two counts of computer intrusion, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday (April 16) in a federal court in Utah. The indictment states that on two separate occasions in January, Borell hacked into the servers of the Utah chiefs of police and the Salt Lake City Police Department and leaked classified documents.
Borell, 21, pleaded not guilty to the charges, the Associated Press reported. He faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
The same day Borell was arrested, (March 20), alleged CabinCr3w member Higinio Ochoa, 30, was arrested by Texas police and charged in the hacking of websites of the Alabama and Texas departments of public safety.
Authorities say they were able to hone in on Borell's hacks by tracing his Twitter activity: Borell retweeted a message from @YourAnonNews (an Anonymous-affiliated account) one day last June; the following day, he responded to a tweet from the Twitter account of the hacking group LulzSec, and four days later, Borell tweeted "Sort of Tempted" in response to an article about a hacker publishing Microsoft vulnerabilities.
According to the FBI, Borell, if not anticipating his eventual arrest, was at the very least prepared.
Agents found a Pastebin post Borell had created Jan. 29. Using his hacker handle, "Kahuna," Borell wrote: "I talked to my lawyer, the benefit of having a father as an attorney is I have connections. He will be representing me." Borell's father is an attorney in Toledo, Ohio. "He said when the FBI shows up don't tell them anything and give them his card and tell them if they need to talk they should go through him. And I won't be speaking till they contact the district attorney's office and get a full grant of immunity."
He added, "I told him I won't be giving up anyone even if they try to charge me."
According to the FBI, Borell had stolen and posted a five-gigabyte document of leaked Brazilian files as part of the hacking campaign, called Operation Satiagraha, to protest government control of that country's Internet and to expose what the group said was the corruption of the CIA and the Brazilian telecommunications industry.
Borell's statement of defiance follows the recent revelation that Hector Xavier Monsegur, also known as the LulzSec leader Sabu, had been an FBI informant for eight months.
Cabin Cr3w responded to Borell's arrest by disbanding the group. In a "Final Message" posted on anonnews.org today (April 17), the group wrote that it is "time to pack up and head back to civilization and rejoin the fold."
"We've brought many injustices into the light for all to see and our work is not finished yet. It is time now to meld back into the larger collective to do even more work in the furtherance of justice and transparency on a larger scale."
"Think of this not as a goodbye ... but instead as a new beginning," the hackers wrote. "You will see us again, and even if you do not recognize us ... you should always expect us and know: We are Anonymous, we do not forgive, we do not forget, expect us."