Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/12/02/wikileaks_hacker_arrest_confusion/

Wikileaks DDoSser 'Jester' in phantom cop raid tomfoolery

Spartacus tweet fake twat row

By John Leyden

Posted in Security, 2nd December 2010 11:22 GMT

Updated The hacker suspected of involvement in the first denial of service attacks against Wikileaks has disowned blog posts that reported a raid on him by local police as the work of an imposter.

A patriot-hacker called The Jester, who previously used an XerXeS application layer attack tool he developed to assault jihadist sites, claimed to have done for Wikileaks in the run-up to its controversial publication of US diplomatic cables on Sunday. Jester claimed responsibility for the attack via an update to his @th3j35t3r account.

The use of a low bandwidth application layer attacks is consistent with data from DDoS mitigation firm Arbor Network, which reported a relatively modest attack of 2-4 Gbps. By contrast, a second assault launched on Tuesday reached 10 Gbps and bore the hallmarks of a botnet-powered packet flood, a more conventional attack strategy.

Around the same time, a blog post by @th3j3st3r (note the difference in spelling) reported on a supposed raid by local police and the confiscation of equipment. The blog itself appeared convincing enough in its appearance but the claims of a raid always looked dubious. The original Jester, who has been active since at least the start of the year, confirmed that @th3j3st3r is an imposter.

The whole "I am Sparticus" Jester, no I am, meme has quickly descended into Monty Python-like confusion.

Some of the relevant blog entries and Twitter updates have been deleted. However the sequence of events as they unfolded is clear from Twitter updates from F-Secure's Mikko H Hypponen (@mikkohypponen) here.

Veteran hacker, Oxblood Ruffin, of Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) neatly relayed* that whoever Jester (th3j35t3r) might be " ...anyone who spells their nick with numbers in an effort to look 'leet' deserves to have their computer confiscated", a sentiment it's hard to disagree with. ®

Update

Oxblood has been in touch to say he wasn't the originator of this quote.