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**don** · March 06, 2012, 07:24 PM

Re: MSM Coverage: Lutzsec a Case in Point

Guardian coverage - expect the NYTimes to "update" their "journalism" tomorrow . . .

LulzSec leader Sabu was working for us, says FBI

Hacker – real name Hector Xavier Monsegur – helped US authorities bring charges against five others

The world's most notorious computer hacker has been working as an informer for the FBI for at least the last six months, it emerged on Tuesday, providing information that has helped contribute to the charging of five others, including two Britons, for computer hacking offences.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, an unemployed 28-year-old Puerto Rican living in New York, was unmasked as "Sabu", the leader of the LulzSec hacking group that has been behind a wave of cyber raids against American corporations including Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the intelligence consultancy Stratfor, British and American law enforcement bodies, and the Irish political party Fine Gael.

It was revealed that he had been charged with 12 criminal counts of conspiracy to engage in computer hacking and other crimes last summer, crimes which carry a maximum sentence of 124 years and six months in prison. According to indictments filed in a Manhattan federal court, he secretly pleaded guilty on 15 August last year.

Despite that, Sabu carried on with his aggressive online persona as the LulzSec "leader", with the father of two going so far as to deny online – the day after his secret guilty plea – that he had "snitched" on his friends.

His online "hacker" activity continued until very recently, with a tweet sent by him in the last 24 hours saying: "The feds at this moment are scouring our lives without warrants. Without judges approval. This needs to change. Asap."

In a US court document, the FBI's informant – there described as CW – "acting under the direction of the FBI" helped facilitate the publication of what was thought to be an embarrassing leak of conference call between the FBI and the UK's Serious and Organised Crime Agency in February.

Officers from both sides of the Atlantic were heard discussing the progress of various hacking investigations in the call.

A second document shows that Monsegur – styled this time as CW-1 – provided an FBI-owned computer to facilitate the release of 5m emails taken from US security consultancy Stratfor and which are now being published by WikiLeaks. That suggests the FBI may have had an inside track on discussions between Julian Assange of WikiLeaks, and Anonymous, another hacking group, about the leaking of thousands of confidential emails and documents.

The indictments mark the most significant strike by law enforcement officials against the amateur hacker groups that have sprung out of Anonymous. These groups, which include LulzSec, have cost businesses millions of pounds and exposed the credit card details and passwords of nearly 1 million people.

An FBI official told Fox News, which broke the story: "This is devastating to the organisation … we're chopping off the head of LulzSec."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...ing-for-us-fbi

**Thailandnotes** · March 06, 2012, 08:28 PM

Re: MSM Coverage: Lutzsec a Case in Point

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. charged six alleged members of Anonymous, LulzSec and other hacking groups with trying to break into computers used by News Corp.'s Fox Broadcasting and security firm HBGary Inc. and by governments including Yemen.

Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis, Darren Martyn and Donncha O'Cearrbhail were charged in an indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court, the Office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. Jeremy Hammond was arrested in Chicago and accused of crimes related to the hack of Strategic Forecasting Inc., or Stratfor.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, an "influential member" of Anonymous, Internet Feds and LulzSec, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to engage in computer hacking, prosecutors said. Monsegur, known as "Sabu," was accused of attacking the websites of the governments of Algeria, Yemen and Zimbabwe. He also helped try to hack Tribune Co. and Fox, prosecutors said.

The hackers arrested are among the de facto leadership of Anonymous, the self-professed hacker-activist group, and LulzSec, or Lulz Security, an affiliated group, according to Barrett Brown, an informal Anonymous spokesman, whose apartment in Dallas was raided this morning. Monsegur continued to work with Anonymous until last week, Brown said. Monsegur's plea was only made public today.

CIA Website

LulzSec took responsibility for compromising user accounts from Sony Pictures in 2011 and for taking the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency website offline, as well as hacking the website of the Atlanta branch of InfraGard, an FBI affiliate.

O'Cearrbhail, 19, of Birr, Ireland, is charged with the illegal hacking of a Jan. 17 conference call between federal agents in the U.S. and agents with the National Police Service of Ireland. U.S. authorities said that the intrusion was essentially the equivalent of an illegal wiretap by a computer hacker.

Monsegur agreed to cooperate with the U.S. investigation, according to a transcript of his August plea hearing. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska told Monsegur that he could face a sentence of 122 1/2 years in prison, according to the transcript.

'Absolute Traitor'

"If that's true, he's an absolute traitor," said Brown. "God knows what's compromised."

Brown said Monsegur had access to confidential dealings among the top leadership of both LulzSec and Anonymous. He said it's unclear to members of the group what information Monsegur may have passed to the FBI as he continued to work on operations, including the hack of Stratfor.

"They managed to get people who are very important, the de facto leadership," Brown said. "That's something they haven't been able to do up to now."

FBI agents raided Brown's Dallas apartment at 6:30 a.m. and later showed up at his mother's house in Dallas, where he had been staying. He said some agents remained outside.

Brown said there had been rumors over the past several weeks that Monsegur was working with authorities.

"I wrote it off as mistakes or a false-flag operation by the FBI," he said.

Hammond, who identified himself as a member of AntiSec, was charged with the December 2011 hack of Austin, Texas-based intelligence firm Stratfor, which the U.S. says might have affected 860,000 victims. Hammond appeared today in federal court in Chicago and agreed to be transferred in custody to New York to face the charges against him, Randall Samborn, a spokesman for Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, said in an e-mail.

Controversial Hack

Brown said Monsegur was responsible for the release of personal information of law enforcement and military personnel obtained following the Stratfor hack, which he described as controversial within Anonymous.

"The release of the credit cards on the Stratfor hack, that was Sabu," Brown said. "In terms of incriminating other people, who knows what he may have done?"

Monsegur was allowed to remain free on $50,000 bond and remains under the supervision of the FBI "with respect to travel and reporting," court records show.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz1oOFrGnE9

**Thailandnotes** · March 06, 2012, 08:34 PM

Re: MSM Coverage: Lutzsec a Case in Point

Barrett Brown four days ago

If something happened to a water or power plant and was attributed to Anonymous, the "group will be branded a terrorist organization quicker than you can blink an eye," Terban said.

Brown said U.S. officials are already edging close to conflating Anonymous with terrorist groups such as al-Qaida, which could push Anonymous in the direction of wanting to become more accountable in order to credibly deflect false flags.

But the rapidly changing make-up of the group makes it hard even for people within Anonymous to keep current, Brown said. It also makes it harder to coordinate a unified voice for the group.

"It's really a lot of work to keep up with what's going on, even if you're in Anonymous. I wouldn't want to be in law enforcement right now. It's a difficult job," he said.

WHOOPS

**Thailandnotes** · March 06, 2012, 08:43 PM

Re: MSM Coverage: Lutzsec a Case in Point

From the not so MSM...

LulzSec and Anonymous attacks have provided the government with an excuse to push their cyber security agenda and propaganda campaign, including the proposal for a “kill switch” that would have allowed Obama to shut down the internet (due to public outrage, the proposal was dropped from a House bill in February).

Government and corporate groups cited LulzSec and Anonymous lawlessness last June to push the so-called Protect IP Act (known as PIPA). The introduction of a House version of the bill, dubbed SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act), was met with public outrage and widespread activism that forced Congress to reconsider the legislation.

In October, Mother Jones revealed that the FBI is notorious for creating supposed terrorist groups from scratch and then framing patsies in order to claim the government is protecting the United States from terrorists and also breathe life into an otherwise moribund war on mostly nonexistent terrorism.

Sabu’s role as an FBI provocateur working inside LulzSec reveals the government is attempting to do the same in order to push its so-called cybersecurity agenda. The establishment is eager to pass a raft of legislation to closely regulate the internet, strip the medium of its anonymity, and close it down as an activism and alternative media tool.

http://www.infowars.com/bust-reveals...-groups/print/

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