There have been many parties interested in exposing LulzSec, but on Tuesday it was apparent that one of their own had turned against them and was working for US law enforcement. This has led to the arrest of some of the hacker organization’s top members.
It became public knowledge once the arrests were made that the infamous international hacker known online as “Sabu,” was in fact a New Yorker named Hector Xavier Monsegur. The twenty-eight year old was affiliated with the LulzSec group and was secretly arrested by the FBI last June.
He had been charged with conspiracy to engage in computer hacking according to [recently] unsealed court papers filed in Manhattan. Then Sabu turned informant and cooperated with the US government by giving up the names and information of fellow members of the LulzSec group.
According to the court papers, Monsegur formed LulzSec last May acting as a "rooter" who identified vulnerabilities in victim's computer systems . . . [and] he is alleged to have attacked the US Senate, the cyber security firm Unveillance, and the American media group the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
There was a flurry of tweets this morning from Anonymous warning others away from Sabu online.
Sabu’s renown is in direct contrast to the methodology of the hacker organization known as Anonymous whose "members" can act on its behalf without making identifiable individual claims. This could explain why he was targeted, along with LulzSec, since exposing members of Anonymous would be much more difficult.
One of the more prominent figures seized by US law enforcement officials was Jeremy “Anarchaos” Hammond, who is known to be a member of Anonymous and a top agent of Monsegur’s at LulzSec. The Chicago native is believed to have perpetrated the hack of the US security company Stratfor, resulting in the leak of more than five million company e-mails, customer credit card numbers, and other confidential information in December.
Others arrested on Tuesday included Ryan “Kayla” Ackroyd & Jake “Topiary” Davis, from London, Darren “pwnsauce” Martyn & Donncha “palladium” O’Cearrbhail from Ireland.
Last month Anonymous published a recording of a private telephone conversation between FBI agents and London detectives talking about LulzSec suspects. Despite the secrecy of Monsegur’s arrest, it seems that International hackers have delved deep enough into the government law enforcement agencies on multiple continents to stay aware of anyone wishing to expose them.
Although there have not been any significant security breaches announced under the "LulzSec" flag since June of last year, it is likely that many of the members had continued to cause chaos and attributing it to Anonymous. These arrests have essentially destroyed the inert group of LulzSec, as various government agencies from multiple countries continue their crackdowns on hackers.
