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The FBI Raids Anonymous Hacker Who Exposed Steubenville Rape Case

The FBI Raids Anonymous Hacker Who Exposed Steubenville Rape Case
Tue, 6/11/2013 - by Katie Rucke
This article originally appeared on Mint Press News

Another Anonymous hacktivist has been identified and charged with hacking-related crimes.

Deric Lostutter, a 26-year-old corporate cyber-security consultant, says his home in Winchester, Ky., was raided by the FBI after he publicized information about the Steubenville rape case under the name KYAnonymous.

The Steubenville rape case is centered around the rape of a 16-year-old girl by two members of the Steubenville High football team. Lostutter posted tweets and Instagram photos that showed other students had belittled the victim and made light of the incident. He says he got the tweets and photos from Michelle McKee, an Ohio blogger who had written about the case.

Anonymous subgroup KnightSec launched a campaign to collect, analyze and distribute information about the rape case, hoping to draw attention to the assault case. Until Anonymous got involved in publicizing the case, much of the local media’s coverage of the case focused on how the rapists’ football careers were likely ruined because of the seriousness of the charges.

Talking to Mother Jones, Lostutter said he publicized the case because he “was always raised to stick up for people who are getting bullied.”

Lostutter joined the online hacktivist network Anonymous last year after watching the documentary “We Are Legion.” He says that as he learned more about the group’s commitment to government accountability and transparency, he felt compelled to join the group.

“It was everything that I’d ever preached, and now there’s this group of people getting off the couch and doing something about it. I wanted to be part of the movement,” he said.

Though Lostutter says that he only publicized photos and tweets regarding the case, the government believed he was responsible for hacking the Steubenville football team’s booster club site at RollRedRoll.com. Another hacker, Batcat, has publicly taken responsibility for hacking that page, but Lostutter says the FBI continued to surveil him.

Trying to maintain a low profile, Lostutter stopped tweeting for a few months. Two days after he tweeted again, the FBI was at his home.

Thinking that the person knocking at his door was FedEx, Lostutter says he was surprised when he opened the door and about 12 FBI SWAT team agents jumped out of the truck and told him to “Get the fuck down!” while holding M-16 assault rifles and dressed in full riot gear.

“I was handcuffed and detained outside while they cleared my house. My brother soon emerged later with his new girlfriend, both bewildered that the FBI was at my house seeing as I have no prior criminal history, both of them in handcuffs as well,” he wrote. “The SWAT team left my belongings in the floor, my dogs shocked, my family nervous, my garage door battered open with a ram though I stated I had a key and the RV camper window broken for entry though I stated to pull hard on the door."

“They said, ‘Who are you?’ I responded, ‘KYAnonymous,’” he wrote.

According to Mother Jones, the FBI’s search warrant specified that agents were looking for evidence that Lostutter was involved in the hacking of RollRedRoll.com.

In an email to Gawker, Todd Lindgren, spokesman for the FBI’s Cincinnati office, said he was “unable to confirm or deny the existence of any potential investigation into this matter.”

But Lostutter says he thinks the FBI came after him at the encouragement of officials in Steubenville.

“They want to make an example of me, saying, ‘You don’t fucking come after us. Don’t question us,” he told Mother Jones.

Though Lostutter faces up to 10 years in prison if he is found guilty of hacking-related crimes — much more than the one- and two-year sentences given to the teens convicted of raping the 16-year-old girl in Steubenville — he says he would do it again.

Lostutter is being represented in court on a pro bono basis by Jason Flores-Williams of the Whistleblower’s Defense League, a group of lawyers who specialize in defending hacktivists and freedom-of-information campaigners.

“We certainly hope the United States comes to its senses and decides not to indict, and if they do we will aggressively litigate the incident,” Flores-Williams said. “What’s unique here to me is that it’s not a national security issue. This isn’t at the forefront at the NSA or the CIA. This comes out of the heartland of the country, and this is a person who is just trying to do what is right for the heartland.”

The timing of Lostutter’s case comes as several other online whistleblowers have been put on trial for hacking into computer systems and publicizing information, including Jeremy Hammond and Bradley Manning.

Originally published by MintPress News
 

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