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Second LulzSec suspect charged over Sony Pictures hack

Arizona man hands himself in

US police have arrested a second suspect in the June 2011 hacktivist attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment, an assault that resulted in a breach of passwords and personal data involving 38,000 accounts.

Raynaldo Rivera, 20, of Tempe, Arizona, surrendered to authorities on Tuesday after he was named in a federal grand jury indictment charging him hacking and conspiracy offences over the attack, which has been linked to the infamous LulzSec hacktivist crew, Threatpost reports. He gave himself up to authorities after he was the only suspect named in the recently unsealed indictment.

The arrest follows four months after another suspect – Cody Kretsinger, 24, also of Tempe – pleaded guilty to hacking offences related to the breach, according to the FBI. Kretsinger faces a sentencing hearing on 25 October.

At the time of the hack LulzSec boasted that it had lifted passwords and other details related to one million profiles using a SQL injection-style attack. Sony Pictures maintained that only 38,000 accounts were actually compromised.

LulzSec leaked the names, birth dates, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords of thousands of Sony Pictures competition entrants. The incident ultimately cost the entertainment giant $600,000 in security consultant fees and other charges, Reuters reports.

Charges against Rivera come a week after it emerged that alleged LulzSec kingpin Hector "Sabu" Monsegur had been granted a six-month delay in his sentencing as a reward for his continuing "assistance" to authorities. ®

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