Lulzsec leader turned snitch after being arrested

Federal authorities said yesterday that a Lulzsec leader provided information on his colleagues after being arrested last year. The information helped authorities to arrest other top members of the hacking organisation.

Hacker ‘Sabu', real name Hector Xavier Monsegur, 28 years old from New York has been working with the FBI undercover since he was arrested last June. The agents he worked with then arrested several suspects including two men from Ireland, two from Great Britain and an American from Chicago.

They are accused of breaking into computer systems, stealing confidential information, deleting data ‘including encrypted and unencrypted sensitive personal information for thousands of victims.' The court documents can be seen over here.

Hector is an unemployed father of two and according to reports, he was the ring leader of the hacking group from his base in a public housing project in New York. He has pleaded guilty to various hacking charges and could face up to 124 years in prison, although he is likely to already have received a plea deal on some level.

Wired add “The record unsealed Tuesday generally references him as CW-1. Federal authorities declined comment on whether Monsegur was the informant. But in court records, Stephanie Christensen, an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said (.pdf) Monsegur “is actively cooperating with the government and has indicated an intent to continue working proactively with the government. Defendant has provided the government with detailed information concerning the activities of certain individuals who are suspected of being involved in the unauthorized computer intrusions or ‘hacks’ into various computer networks of several well-known corporations.”

Those arrested include Ryan Ackroyd, aka “Kayla” of Doncaster, United Kingdom; Jake Davis, aka “Topiary” of London; Darren Martyn, aka “pwnsauce” of Ireland; Donncha O’Cearrbhail, aka “palladium” of Ireland; and Jeremy Hammond, aka “Anarchaos”of Chicago.

Hammond, a member of Anonymous — a group loosely affiliated with LulzSec — is believed to be the main actor behind the hack of U.S. private intelligence company Stratfor in December, which resulted in the seizure of more than 5 million company e-mails, customer credit card numbers and other confidential information. The government said in a court filing that Hammond “used some of the stolen credit card data to make at least $700,000 worth of unauthorized charges.” The Stratfor hackers publicly said they were using the cards to make donations to charity, and provided screenshots.”

Kitguru says: His friends in the organisation face serious charges.

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