Th3J35t3r – Lonewolf Hacker
The Jester Dynamic: A Lesson in Asymmetric Unmanaged Cyber Warfare – [sans.org]
2. Background
On December 30, 2010, a patriot hacker posted a message to an Internet Chat Relay (IRC) Server. Quoting Steve Jobs, the hacker typed: “A small team of A players can run circles round a giant team of B and C players” (Th3j35t3r, 2010). Known as Th3j35ter, the hacker claimed to have just successfully compromised members of a powerful hacker group known as Anonymous. By back-dooring the Anonymous group’s Low Orbit Ion Canon toolkit, the hacker had removed the anonymous functionality from
a toolkit of the members of the rival hacker group and planned to expose them. Most in the intelligence and cyber-security communities would consider this feat alone a cyber-war grand slam. However, this attack happened halfway into a two-year campaign of over two hundred successful attacks, with targets ranging from militant jihadists, ministers of hate, WikiLeaks to rival hacker groups. Before we discuss the tools, campaign, and effectiveness of this hacker, let us begin with some general background information about the patriot lone-wolf hacker known as The Jester.
The Jester – [wikipedia.org]
The Jester (also known by the leetspeak handle th3j35t3r[1]) is a computer vigilante[2] who describes himself as grey hat[3] “hacktivist.”[4] He or she claims to be responsible for attacks[4] on WikiLeaks,[5] 4chan,[6] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,[5] and Islamist websites.[7] He claims to be acting out of American patriotism.[8] The Jester developed and uses the denial-of-service (DoS) tool known as “XerXeS”.[5] One of The Jester’s habits is to tweet “TANGO DOWN” on Twitter whenever he successfully takes down a website.[6]
