In a shocking turn of events, the hacktivist known as th3j35t3r has been identified as Robert "Lance" Miller from Pittsboro, North Carolina. Mr. Miller is now in police custody after the multi-agency operation took place in the early hours of the morning on April 1st, 2012.
According to authorities, Miller was barricaded in his basement with a stash of weapons, threatening to take down the participating agencies' respective websites if they attempted to enter the premises. In the hours leading up to Miller's eventual surrender, several law enforcement websites had no reported pageviews whatsoever.
"th3j35t3r" is well-known for attacking pro-jihad and Taliban websites with his Denial of Service (DoS) tool known as "XerXeS". As to why US authorities were interested in prosecuting Mr. Miller for his supposed crimes, authorities who wish to be unnamed stated "He's smarter than us, damn it... we cant have this guy running around doing stuff without our support".
th3j35t3r was introduced to mass media on the website Infosec Island, where Miller is the co-founder. This comes as no surprise to business partners Mike Menefee and Anthony M. Freed, according to their recent statements.
According to Menefee, "We knew something was up with Lance when he just wouldn't let this 'Jester' story go. We also noticed similarities in writing styles between he and th3j35t3r early on, and that's when we initially alerted law enforcement. They advised that we should just bait him a little further, gather evidence and let them do their jobs. It sure took them long enough... I was getting tired of listing to Lance try and tell me who he thought th3j35t3r was on this day or that… I'm glad this is finally over"
Freed stated "Lance was apparently an expert at misdirection… He went to crazy lengths to distance himself from his alter-ego, even going as far as accusing me of being th3j35t3r . He was constantly spinning intricate stories about who he alleged the Jester persona to be. I'm glad this jackass is behind bars."
As evidenced in the photo below of Miller and Freed taken last summer at "Hacker Halted" in Miami FL, a striking resemblance can be seen between Miller and th3j35t3r's trademark online persona.
Scot Terban, a regular contributor at Infosec Island (and whom Miller launched an extensive campaign against, also accusing him as being th3j35t3r ) said this: "I find it inconceivable that Lance has been hiding under my very nose all of this time, but the evidence is incontrovertible! Though, some of the psychotic and erratic behaviour on the part of th3j35t3r makes sense now knowing Lance".
The apprehension of th3j35t3r comes conveniently following the announcement that "Sabu", the self-proclaimed leader of the "Anonymous" online faction had been working for the US federal authorities since August of 2011, which resulted in numerous arrests.
"Sabu" - though known to be extremely limited in his intellectual capacity - nonetheless was able to gather a great deal of information on the movement's so-called "leadership".
Authorities will have little in the way of problems prosecuting the script-kiddies and their minions given the ridiculously slip-shod and juvenile nature of the anonymous movement,
We here at Infosec Island will keep you posted on the developments in this story, but there is a likely outcome from this: Lance will probably never forgive us for this betrayal.
