Is This The Hacker Wreaking Havoc With Journalists Everywhere?
Security writer Brian Krebs has stumbled across new information that links the recent hack of his own website with attacks on Ars Technica and Gizmodo alumnus Mat Honan’s iCloud breach. Krebs explains that he believes Phobia is part of a four-person Xbox Live gamer team, called Team Hype, which has a taste for hijacking Xbox Live Gamertags.
Following his own lead — that he was the target of a team of hackers annoyed by an article he wrote about a black market website that trades social security numbers — Krebs discovered that the attacks on his website were conducted by a hacker known as Phobia. Krebs managed to find a Twitter account linked to the attacker Phobia, and he even dug out personal information about him — including his real name (Ryan Stevenson), address and phone number. Bad job, Phobia. Bad. Job. Anyway, Krebs then gave the guy a call, and the transcript makes for fascinating reading.