Raynaldo Rivera, a 20-year-old computer science student from Tempe, Ariz., and purported LulzSec hacker known as “wildicv,” “neuron,” and “royal,” surrendered to FBI custody Tuesday in Phoenix.
As reported in Reuters, one week ago a grand jury in Los Angeles handed down a sealed indictment which was made public only yesterday, at which time Rivera turned himself in.
He’s facing a possible maximum of 15 years in prison for his alleged role in the Sony Pictures Entertainment SQL hack, which cost the corporation (a generously estimated) $600,000. SQL injections are more sophisticated than the DDoS attacks favored by low-level hackers and Anonymous: They involve injecting custom code into Web forms and getting, if you’re lucky and talented and the Web designer is not, the entire contents of the database you’re after. In this case, LulzSec published the names, passwords, email addresses, phone numbers, and ages of people who’d entered Sony contests. Disturbing, but not really the stuff of which nightmares are made.
Cody Kretsinger, a fellow alleged LulzSec member (“recursion”), has already made a deal and pled guilty to two minor counts, indicating that perhaps the feds are not out for blood, but for cooperation. That was certainly the case when they came to an agreement with the infamous “Sabu,” Hector Monsegur. The arrangement allowed him to stay out of prison as long as he worked to keep them informed of various LulzSec and other hacker activities. He was supposed to be sentenced for his part in the Sony hack last week, but was allowed to postpone it for six months, a favor not generally granted to those facing federal charges.
According to his Facebook page, whose custom URL was also his LulzSec handle, “wildicv,” Rivera has been studying and working at the University of Advancing Technology. Its Facebook page says UAT places a “specific emphasis on how its specialized mission integrates technology into its general education requirements.” Rivera is, according to his Facebook profile, an advanced student.
No kidding.
He evidences typical geek interests, with a Sourceforge profile Gravatar supplying the only currently available photo; his gaming avatar is not such a good likeness. His GitHub profile lists a handful of minor exploits. His Sourceforge site contains only the letters “asdf,” and on his Facebook profile he lists his favorite quote as:
“Programming is a way of life” – TechMonkey
“When banks compete, you win. When ISPs compete, you win. When electronics retailers compete, you win. When governments compete…you get drafted.” – Rooly
Looks like he just got drafted.
Photo via Raynaldo Rivera/Facebook
