LulzSec Leader Was Snitch Who Helped Snag Fellow Hackers

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/lulzsec-snitch/

By Kim Zetter
Threat Level
Wired.com
March 6, 2012

A top LulzSec leader turned informant last year after he was secretly 
arrested, providing information to law enforcement that led to the 
arrests Tuesday of other top members of the hacking group, including one 
alleged to be deeply involved in December’s Stratfor hack, federal 
authorities said Tuesday.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, a 28-year-old New Yorker who used the online 
name “Sabu,” has been working undercover for the feds since the FBI 
arrested him without fanfare last June. Monsegur provided agents with 
information that helped them arrest several suspects on Tuesday, 
including two men from Great Britain, two from Ireland and an American 
in Chicago.

The charges against them would complete any hacker’s resume. They are 
accused of breaking into computer systems, deleting data, stealing 
confidential information “including encrypted and unencrypted sensitive 
personal information for thousands of victims,” according to court 
documents (.pdf).

Monsegur, an unemployed father of two, led the loosely organized group 
of hackers from his apartment in a public housing project in New York. 
He pleaded guilty Tuesday to various hacking-related charges. Documents 
(.pdf) in his case were unsealed in New York federal court on Tuesday. 
The government did not say what type of plea deal was made with 
Monsegur, who theoretically faces a maximum 124-year sentence.

[...]

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