Monitored in real time by the FBI, 28-year-old New Yorker Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka Sabu, has been "secretly working for the government for months."
Not only as an informant, but LulzSec mouthpiece Sabu also protected the "CIA among other government and financial institutions from hacks." If being flipped into a snitch isn't bad enough, his tweets and supposed "interviews" were full of misinformation. Monsegur's handler told Fox News, "About 90 percent of what you see online is bulls---."
Yesterday snitch Sabu tweeted, "The federal government is run by a bunch of f**king cowards. Don't give in to these people. Fight back. Stay strong."
Just the same, thanks to Monsegur, law enforcement arrested other top LulzSec members today. Three were arrested and two more were charged with conspiracy, reported FoxNews. The Tuesday arrests included Ryan Ackroyd, aka "Kayla," Jake Davis, aka "Topiary," from London; Darren Martyn, aka "pwnsauce," and Donncha O'Cearrbhail, aka "palladium," from Ireland; and Jeremy Hammond, aka "Anarchaos," from Chicago who is one of the alleged leaders of the Stratfor hack.
"This is devastating to the organization," an FBI official involved with the investigation told FoxNews. "We're chopping off the head of LulzSec."
Hindsight can be 20/20, so whether it is more misinformation or his "buddies" were about to be busted, Sabu touched on informants yesterday in his tweets.
On Aug. 15, 2011, Monsegur pleaded guilty to more than ten charges relating to his hacking activity. In the following few weeks, he worked almost daily out of FBI offices, helping the feds identify and ultimately take down the other high-level members of LulzSec and Anonymous, sources said. In time, his handlers allowed him to work from the home from which he previously wrought destruction, using a PC laptop provided by the FBI. His old battered laptop with its missing left Shift, L and 7 keys was turned over to the FBI, along with the encryption keys government sleuths needed to access his records and take them into evidence.
"He didn't go easy," a law enforcement official involved in flipping Sabu told FoxNews.com. "It was because of his kids. He didn't want to go away to prison and leave them. That's how we got him."
Last June, a hacker who goes by Virus told Gizmodo about Sabu:
6:15:39 PM virus: he disappeared for a week, I don't recall what day6:15:52 PM virus: but when he returned he said his grand mother died and that's why he was MIA
6:16:01 PM virus: after that he started offering me money to own people6:16:14 PM Sam Biddle: anyone important?
6:16:55 PM virus: backtrace security and laurelai6:17:22 PM virus: he gave me IPs, asked me to access their accounts with their IP and asked me to access their emails
6:17:25 PM virus: told me he would pay me6:17:42 PM Sam Biddle: did you?
6:17:53 PM virus: no, I found that to be suspicious and declined6:19:19 PM virus: another reason why I believe he was converted after he disappeared and returned is everybody else started getting arrested one by one starting with ryan clearly, who was their ddos b*tch
Also in June, the Guardian and several other news sites reported that one in four hackers is an FBI mole. This makes the timing about right to also apply to LulzSec's Sabu. Yesterday Sabu tweeted:
Wow, he's probably about to find out.
Update: The FBI announced, "Five computer hackers in the United States and abroad were charged today, and a sixth pled guilty, for computer hacking and other crimes. The six hackers identified themselves as aligned with the group Anonymous, which is a loose confederation of computer hackers and others, and/or offshoot groups related to Anonymous, including 'Internet Feds,' 'LulzSec,' and 'AntiSec'." The press release also states, "Monsegur faces a maximum sentence of 124 years and six months in prison."