The FBI has arrested a second suspected member of LulzSec over the infamous hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Raynaldo Rivera, 20, from Arizona in the US, surrendered to authorities shortly after being indicted by a jury in Los Angeles, charging him with conspiracy and unauthorised impairment of a protected computer. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted.
According to the FBI Rivera took part in the hack in May and June 2011 using an SQL injection attack. He hid his IP address using a proxy server, the FBI said. He then posted the stolen information on LulzSec’s website and announced the attack on the hacktivism group’s Twitter feed.
The information posted online included the names, addresses birth dates, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords of thousands of people who had entered competitions run by Sony.
"From a single injection we accessed EVERYTHING," the hackers said on Twitter at the time. "Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?"
The FBI said that another alleged LulzSec member, Cody Kretsinger, worked with Rivera on the Sony hit. Kretsinger pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the Sony hack in April this year.
Recently it was revealed that Hector Xavier Monsegur, LulzSec’s leader and better known as Sabu, had been given a six-month reprieve on his prison sentence for his continued cooperation with authorities investigating the hacking group, which was an offshoot of Anonymous.
Content from our partners
Monsegur was arrested in the summer of 2011 but turned informant in exchange for his freedom.
It is not known if this latest arrest is connected to information Monsegur provided. A number of alleged LulzSec members have been arrested since Monsegur became an informant. UK citizens Jake Davis, better known as Topiary, and Ryan Cleary, were both arrested and are awaiting trial.
Sony suffered a series of embarrassing data breaches at the hands of hackers. The biggest of these was an attack on its Sony PlayStation Network, which exposed the details of 77 million members. Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Sony Qriocity were also hit.
