Hip Brooklyn Loft-Dwellers Targeted in International Hacking Crackdown
We've always wondered what would happen if a cybercrime dragnet collided with artsy Brooklynites. Earlier this week, denizens of one Williamsburg loft complex found out as the feds raided their weed-laced bohemian paradise.
More than a dozen residences were raided across the U.S. early Tuesday morning, as the FBI rounded up suspected members of the hacking collective Anonymous. One of those was East Williamsburg's McKibbon Lofts, which is basically a post-grad dorm room for kids looking for a place to chill while they work on their numerous musical/experimental theater projects.
The feds busted into one unit belonging to 21-year-old Meaghan Ralph, but quickly realized she wasn't a hacking mastermind. "They cracked jokes about how the whole building smelled like weed and they were going to get a contact high," Ralph told The Brooklyn Paper. Apparently they were looking for a previous resident.
They also raided an abandoned apartment that belonged to the band "Broken Glow," whose MySpace page describes as "an original Rock band hailing from Brooklyn, NY… fusing a variety of styles including Classic, 90's, and Grunge Rock mingled with Blues, Alternative and Jazz..."
The New York Post makes sure to describe the band in the most suspicious way possible, because if there's anything hackers are known for, it's forming jazz fusion ensembles:
a superintendent named José said he walked FBI agents up to search apartment 510, a now-vacant unit that a month ago was abruptly vacated by two men and two women. Several of those former residents belonged to a rock band called "Broken Glow."
Abruptly vacated! Because they were hackers!
But horrified guitarist for Broken Glow later told the Post that the band members had left their wifi unencrypted, so their "neighbors could have piggybacked on it." Hmm… the guy knows a suspicious amount about computers for a rhythm guitarist. He's definitely the guy who took down the CIA.
