Topiary | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jake Leslie Davis (1992-10-27)27 October 1992 (age 33) |
| Occupation(s) | Hacktivist, security researcher |
| Known for | Lulzsec |
Jake Leslie Davis (born 27 October 1992),[1] known professionally asTopiary, is a Britishhacktivist. He has worked withAnonymous,LulzSec, and other similar groups.[2] He was an associate of the Internet groupAnonymous,[3] which has publicly claimed various online attacks, including hackingHBGary,[4]Westboro Baptist Church, andGawker.[5] They have also claimed responsibility for the defacing of government websites in countries such asZimbabwe,[6]Syria,[7]Tunisia,[8]Ireland,[9] andEgypt.[10]
After serving his time and staying off theInternet for two years, Jake Davis is now a security researcher, disclosing bugs to corporations as a part of theirbounty programs.
Davis was a member of hacker collectiveAnonymous,[3] where he was involved in the attack onHBGary in response to Aaron Barr, then CEO of the organization, claiming to have unmasked various members of Anonymous.[4] The stolen HBGary emails were published and the small team who had been responsible splintered from Anonymous calling itself LulzSec.
On 24 February 2011, Topiary gained attention after he appeared onThe David Pakman Show. He informed the host that Anonymous had replaced a Westboro Baptist Church webpage with a message from Anonymous during an on-air confrontation withShirley Phelps-Roper.[11] A recording of this event was placed onYouTube,[12] where it reached over one million views in five days.
Topiary was a member ofLulzSec, and ran theirTwitter account.[13][14]The Guardian made a claim in a report that Topiary's name was Daniel.[15]
On 14 July 2011,The Guardian published an exclusive interview with Topiary,[16] in which he spoke extensively about his motivations. Describing himself as "an internet denizen with a passion for change" he said he feared being tracked by the authorities: "I can only hope that they haven't pinned any of us, especially my friends from LulzSec." Later, a full transcript of the lengthy interview surfaced on the website of freelanceGuardian journalist Ryan Gallagher.[17]
An 18-year-old man suspected of being Topiary was arrested in theShetland islands of Scotland on 27 July 2011.[18] On 31 July 2011, the man was charged with five offences including unauthorised computer access and conspiracy to carry out adistributed denial of service attack on theSerious Organised Crime Agency's website.[19]Scotland Yard later identified the man arrested as Jake Davis, a resident of the island ofYell.[20] He was charged with unauthorised access of a computer under theComputer Misuse Act 1990, encouraging or assisting criminal activity under theSerious Crime Act 2007, conspiracy to launch a denial-of-service attack against the Serious Organised Crime Unit contrary to theCriminal Law Act 1977, andcriminal conspiracy also under the Criminal Law Act 1977.[21]
Police confiscated aDell laptop and a 100-gigabyte hard drive that had 16 differentvirtual machines. The hard drive also contained details relating to an attack on Sony and hundreds of thousands of email addresses and passwords.[22] A London court released Davis on bail under the conditions that he live under curfew with his mother and have no access to the Internet. His lawyer Gideon Cammerman stated that, while his client did help publicise LulzSec and Anonymous attacks, he lacked the technical skills to have been anything but a sympathiser.[22]
After his arrest, Anonymous launched a 'Free Topiary' campaign,[23] which included adding a "Free Topiary" banner to their Twitter avatars, similar to theFree Bradley banner.
Davis pleaded guilty on 25 June 2012 to DDoS attacks on several websites, but pleaded not guilty to two counts of encouraging others to commit computer offenses and fraud. Davis was due to be tried along with Ryan Cleary (Ryan),Ryan Ackroyd (Kayla),Mustafa Al-Bassam (tflow), beginning 8 April 2013. The court was informed it would take 3,000 hours to view the material against Ackroyd alone. They were released on bail, except for Cleary.[24][25]
Davis was not tried for a number of other crimes perpetrated by LulzSec.
On 8 April 2013, Davis again appeared in court with fellow hackers, Ryan Ackroyd, Ryan Cleary and Mustafa Al-Bassam. All four pleaded guilty to computer crimes and were sentenced on 14 May 2013. Davis faced a maximum of 10 years in prison but got 24 months in ayoung offenders institute. He served 38 days because he had beenelectronically tagged for 21 months and this counted against his sentence.[26]