* Leading hacker “Sabu” turned FBI mole after 2011 arrest
* Pleaded guilty to 12 charges, led to 5 more arrests
* Sabu may have helped FBI investigate suspected Indian
hacker
(Adds story in link box)
NEW YORK (Frankfurt: A0DKRK – news) , March 8 (Reuters) – One late-night visit by
the FBI was all it took for the notorious hacker known as “Sabu”
to switch sides and become a valued snitch.
Hector Xavier Monsegur cooperated immediately in June,
helping investigators close a net around five other leaders of
the international hacking group Anonymous, according to court
documents made public on Thursday.
Monsegur sometimes stayed up all night, talking with
co-conspirators to help the government build its case, Assistant
U.S. Attorney James Pastore told a Manhattan (Xetra: A0X9G1 – news) federal court judge
at a secret hearing days before Monsegur’s Aug. 15 guilty plea,
the court papers showed.
Monsegur, 28, was arrested at his small apartment in a
Manhattan housing complex on June 7, U.S. authorities said on
Tuesday in announcing charges against him and five others. The
precise time, 10:15 p.m., was revealed in Thursday’s court
papers.
“Since literally the day he was arrested, the defendant has
been cooperating with the government proactively,” Pastore told
Judge Loretta Preska.
Monsegur was freed on $50,000 bond the day after his arrest.
He later pleaded guilty to each of the 12 computer crimes he
was charged with in cases brought in four different states. The
cases were later consolidated in New York.
Federal (SES: E1:F20.SI – news) prosecutors said Monsegur had confessed in court
after signing a cooperation agreement with the government.
Details of the deal and any reduction in prison time that he
hopes to receive will not be known until the court makes the
information public.
Monsegur and the five others were senior members of Lulz
Security (LulzSec), an offshoot of Anonymous that took credit
for hacking attacks on government and private sector websites,
U.S. authorities said on Tuesday. Targets included the CIA (Milan: CIA.MI – news) ,
Britain’s Serious Organised Crime Agency, Japan (EUREX: FMJP.EX – news) ‘s Sony Corp
and others including in Ireland (Xetra: A0Q8L3 – news) and Mexico.
Among those publicly charged this week was Jeremy Hammond,
known as “Anarchaos,” who was arrested in Chicago on Monday on
suspicion of hacking into Strategic Forecasting Inc, or
“Stratfor,” a global intelligence and research firm, in December
2011.
Federal prosecutors also brought U.S. cases against Donncha
O’Cearrbhail, 19, and Darren Martyn, 25, of Ireland as well as
Jake Davis, 19, and Ryan Ackroyd, 23, of Britain.
Anonymous and its offshoots such as LulzSec and AntiSec were
initially focused on fighting attempts at Internet regulation
and blocking free illegal downloads, but have since taken on
other targets including Scientology and the global banking
system.
Anonymous – and LulzSec in particular – became notorious in
late 2010 when they launched what they called the “first cyber
war” in retaliation for attempts to shut down the Wikileaks
website.
They attacked websites such as MasterCard (NYSE: MA – news) .com that tried to
block payments to Wikileaks after apparent pressure from the
U.S. government following the release of thousands of diplomatic
cables.
LIVING ON $400 A MONTH
As a LulzSec leader, Monsegur took responsibility for
attacks on the websites of eBay Inc’s PayPal,
MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc between December 2010
and June 2011, according to court papers.
Despite the severity of the charges against Monsegur – the
prison term could total up to 122 years – federal prosecutors
argued that he should remain free on bail under the supervision
of the FBI. It is highly unlikely that Monsegur would receive
consecutive prison sentences.
Born in New York, Monsegur attended college and worked at
technology jobs, displaying a rare combination of hacking
talent, working-class sensibility and political conviction. He
said he first hacked for a cause more than a decade ago when he
interfered with communications during controversial U.S. Navy
bombing exercises in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
At the time of his arrest in June, Monsegur was unmarried
and collecting a $400 unemployment check every month, a court
document showed. He had been living in a small apartment on the
sixth floor of a 14-story brick housing project on Manhattan’s
Lower East Side, overlooking a busy highway.
The document, which detailed his bail conditions and was
made publicly available on Thursday, also showed that Monsegur
was paid $6,000 a month at his last job, which he said he held
until April 2010. Monsegur also stated that he had parental
custody over his two nieces, aged 4 and 5.
The case is U.S. v. Hector Monsegur, U.S. District Court,
Southern District of New York, no. 11-666.
(Reporting By Basil Katz; Additional Reporting by Grant McCool
in New York and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Editing by Richard
Chang)
Article source: http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/1-hacker-sabu-worked-full-014303588.html
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