Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2014/07/17/lulzsec_leaderthatwasnt_pleads_guilty_to_hacking_hubris/
Supposed 'leader' of LulzSec pleads guilty to hacking, hubris
Australian Federal Police say 'Aush0k' not international mastermind, just a naughty boy
Posted in Legal, 17th July 2014 02:45 GMT
Matthew Flannery, once paraded by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) as the “leader” of international hacking collective LulzSec, has pleaded guilty to the five remaining charges against him, in Gosford Local Court.
Flannery has waited since April 2013 to have the case settled. He is to be sentenced at a later date.
At the time of the arrest, the AFP was keen to boost the dangers Flannery posed to computers and the Australian Way of LifeTM, saying Flannery was “his activities posed a danger to Australia” and calling him “self-proclaimed leader of the group ‘Lulz Security’ (Lulzsec), a computer hacking group”.
Now that the case is over, however, the AFP has told ABC radio news that he was not a leader of anything.
When the trial date was set, it was expected to last two days, something that's been foreshortened by Flannery's guilty plea.
The only victim of his work identified in public was the Narrabri Shire Council in the Australian State of New South Wales. The Shire is home to 14,000 people and Flannery was accused of defacing its web page
The former minor staffer for Content Security will be sentenced at a later date. ®