May
11
2012

Interview With Echelon of TeamGhostShell

An article by connection Comments

1 Comment

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Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Echelon of TeamGhostShell. Read the interview after the fold.

connection   So Echelon I’ll admit I hadn’t heard much about you or TeamGhostShell for that matter until the recent acm.hdu.edu.cn leak. How long has TeamGhostShell been active?
Echelon   Not many have. We only just started, our first official release was May 6th.
Echelon   That was the Forex leak.
connection   Ah alright so still a pretty new group
Echelon   Yeah. We are former members of another active group, but recently decided to go off in another direction.
connection   Gotcha
connection   So I’ve only noticed two names in the releases, you and DeadMellox
connection   Are you the only two members?
Echelon   There is one more member that we have yet to announce. But expect some more info soon
Echelon   And like I said, we’re a new group so we’re expecting some more soon
connection   Ah great. So #ProjectGhostShell has been the “driving force” so to speak, for the releases and it looks like it’s just getting started. Are you currently looking to recruit any new members to help out with #ProjectGhostShell?
Echelon   Not officially, but.. we’re always open to anything that can help #ProjectGhostShell and our team, and if that involves more members then great.
connection   For anyone interested in helping out with #ProjectGhostShell is there any way they can reach you and/or DeadMellox (outside of twitter) to show their support/help with current targets?
Echelon   Not right now. If we decide to create an open IRC room for people who want to support/join us then we will announce it on our twitters. Since we just started, nothing is really decided yet.
connection   That makes sense.
connection   So speaking about #ProjectGhostShell, can you talk more about it? What are the motives behind it, potential targets, etc.
Echelon   #ProjectGhostShell is a project, or operation, that we launched as a reaction to the latest arrests of hackers around the world. We’ve seen LulzSec been taken down of course, but more recently we’ve seen members of TeaMp0ison and CabinCrew also falling into the claws of the FBI and other agencies.
Echelon   The targets involve those connected to these agencies, as well as targets that can damage them if leaked or attacked.
connection   Yea the arrest of _MLT_ is the most recent arrest of a hacker that has been really publicized, I take it attacks like this are to show government agencies that there will be retaliation for arresting any hackers. Now with the most recent public leak of the acm.hdu.edu.cn domain, what was the motivation behind that?
connection   I ask that simply because not many Anon or hackers are really getting arrested from China and the university really has nothing to gain from arresting hackers.
Echelon   The attack on HDU was not directly a part of #ProjectGhostShell. It was more related to what AnonymousChina is doing, which is trying to get people to look at the situation in China, especially on the Internet. Another reason was the reason that was published with the leak. The simple irony of that University getting attacked by the same tool it teaches.
Echelon   A kind of.. remark, on their poor security.
connection   That makes perfect sense.
connection   To be honest, I’ve been cracking quite a bit of the hashes released and I’ve cracked a ton pretty easily so I can totally understand the motivation there
connection   What was most surprising was that a “security” university was hashing their passwords as md5; not to mention the fact that they were unsalted md5.
Echelon   It was a piece of cake.
Echelon   It’s really weird, isn’t it? You’d think that these guys check their security once a day, considering the stuff they learn.
connection   Yea it was very shocking but when you think of sites like Gawker that had all their passwords in plain-text I guess some sort of hashing is better than nothing
Echelon   Indeed
connection   So if you could tell the hacktalk.net readers anything or give anyone shout-outs, what would it be?
Echelon   Oh and btw before we go on, I made a mistake earlier
connection    ah
connection   what’s that
Echelon   We (before I joined) did a hack on the University of Arkansas computer store on April 16th
Echelon   http://news.softpedia.com/news/Team-GhostShell-Hacks-University-of-Arkansas-Computer-Store-264675.shtml
connection   Ah cool, I’ll check that out for sure
Echelon   There was a large break after that, which is why I said we just started. And also I haven’t slept for a long time, so you’ll have to excuse the mistak
Echelon   And to your question..
Echelon   If you’re thinking about getting into these things, always stay safe and hidden. Always stay Anonymous. They are always watching
connection   So something I’ve been pretty much dying to ask, what’s next? What can we expect to see within the next few weeks to a month form TeamGhostShell. If you can’t speak about targets that’s completely understandable
connection   So feel free to be vague
Echelon   Next up is some military targets and possibly government targets as well
Echelon   Can’t give you any names
connection   Well I’d like to thank you for taking some time out to do this interview today. Do you have any last words?
Echelon   Thank you. Yes… be sure to expect us.