Accused Lulzsec hacker pleads not guilty to attack on Sony

AN ALLEGED MEMBER of Lulzsec has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and unauthorised computer impairment relating to an attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment film studio in Europe.

The Guardian reports that 23 year old Cody Kretsinger entered his not guilty pleas during a brief hearing in US District Court in Los Angeles. A trial date has been set for 13 December, according to the report.

Kretsinger stayed quiet during the court hearing, choosing to only answer the judge's questions with brief replies. If he is found guilty on all of the charges he could face as long as 15 years in prison.

The hacker, who goes by the name Recursion, is charged with using a SQL injection attack on Sony's computer systems, which the Guardian called a common method used by hackers looking to steal information.

In an indictment prosecutors say that he hacked into systems and helped others to collate and post the booty to the Lulzec web site.

The hack was admitted by Lulzsec at the time, including the method that they used, and saw thousands of people who had entered Sony competitions exposed on the internet. This was around the time that Lulzsec was at the peak of its hacking sprees and was firmly in the midst of the evisceration of Sony's security that took several of its online services offline for weeks. µ