Jake Davis, an 18-year-old from Shetland, a small archipelago off the northern coast of Scotland and one of the most remote parts of Britain, is arguably the unlikeliest suspect named in the US filings. But according to the indictment, Mr. Davis is better known online as "Topiary," one of LulzSec's founding members and, as keeper of the LulzSec twitter account, its de facto public relations manager.
Shortly after LulzSec declared an end to operations last June after a hectic 50-day campaign, Topiary did an interview with the Guardian in which he described himself as a teenager and "an internet denizen with a passion for change." And much like Hammond, Topiary argued that Anonymous and LulzSec are organizations for revolutionary change. "My main goal with Anonymous was to spread the word of revolution to those who might be seeking something new."
"Revolution is kicking the Tunisian government in the teeth by rendering their malicious Javascript embedments inert, allowing Tunisian citizens to surf Facebook without fear of password sniffing," he said. "Revolution is a horde of activists holding up Anonymous masks and thanking us for assisting their hard work by obliterating their government's ministry, stock and finance websites, replacing them with inspiring words. Revolution, to me, is bringing down the big guy while not forgetting to stand up for the little guy."
But just two weeks after the interview with Topiary was published, Scotland Yard announced the arrest of Davis on hacking charges. The Metropolitan police identified Davis as Topiary, as the LulzSec Twitter account that Topiary managed fell silent online.
Despite the Met's confidence that they had their man -- Davis was the first hacker they immediately identified with a specific persona upon arrest -- rumors persisted that the British police had been duped. The fullest argument was put forward by Jason Mick at DailyTech.com, who said that the hacker Topiary was actually a 23-year-old Swede named Sandberg, and that Sandberg had stolen the Topiary identity from Davis as cover for Sandberg's LulzSec activities. Davis, the argument goes, was nothing more than a famous Internet "troll" with no role in LulzSec at all.
But with the additional American charges against Davis, which presumably are backed by testimony from LulzSec leader-turned-snitch Sabu, those rumors lose their credence.
