Hacker-Turned-Informant Worked Tirelessly To Rat Out Fellow "Hacktivists"

The hacker who was the leader of the LulzSec group worked "around the clock" to help the FBI build a case against his hacker associates, according to court documents released yesterday. The Times has the most interesting and in-depth look at the life of Hector Xavier Monsegur, a "party boy of the projects" who was arrested by the FBI last year. Mosegur, a 28-year-old who is the caretaker of his incarcerated aunt's children, pleaded guilty to a dozen criminal counts, most involving conspiracy to hack computers. He faces over 100 years in prison but in exchange for a recommendation of leniency, Monsegur agreed to cooperate with investigators. And cooperate he did!

"Since literally the day he was arrested, the defendant has been cooperating with the government proactively." According to the Wall Street Journal, Monsegur, who used the hacker name Sabu (a wrestler), would "stay up all night engaging in conversations with co-conspirators to help the government build cases against them." The FBI says they were able to thwart more than 300 attacks that other hackers were planning because of the information Monsegur was able to provide.

Monsegur was considered the most skilled of the LulzSec group (an offshoot of Anonymous), and carried out online attacks against companies and governments, including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Sony. He also participated in hacker attacks on the governments of Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria and Zimbabwe, as well as those of the United States Senate. But to his neighbors at the Jacob Riis Houses, he was just a deadbeat party animal who stayed up all night smoking weed. "He partied all night,” one neighbor told the Times. “I always made complaints to the police. Nothing was done."

Monsegur's whereabouts are currently being kept private by authorities, who say they move him into the Witness Protection Program. Days before his identity was revealed, he asked another Twitter user, "So you’re telling me if you get locked up, and your nosy neighbor who dropped the dime on you runs free — you would simply ignore?"