Anonymous Unmasked: Meet Christopher Doyon aka Commander X

[varelse]

The members of the hacker group Anonymous have become less than anonymous as they’ve been implicated in crimes from hacking PayPal to taking down the websites of entire cities. Suddenly we haves name and biographies for some of the people behind the Guy Fawkes masks; the face of the new institutional left. As shown in the Stephen K. Bannon film Occupy Unmasked, Anonymous acted as online enforcers for Occupy Wall Street, protected Wikileaks, hacked into the Department of Justice and even declared war on Israel.

Anonymous Unmasked: Meet Christopher Doyon aka Commander X

 

[waltky]

Putting hacker talents to work for good...

Prosecutors: Hacker helped thwart 300 cyberattacks
-- A prolific computer hacker who infiltrated the servers of major corporations later switched sides and helped the government disrupt hundreds of cyberattacks on Congress, NASA and other sensitive targets, according to federal prosecutors.

New York prosecutors detailed the cooperation of Hector Xavier Monsegur for the first time in court papers while asking a judge to reward him with leniency at his sentencing Tuesday. They credited Monsegur with helping them cripple Anonymous, the notorious crew of hacktivists who stole confidential information, defaced websites and temporarily put some victims out of business. Working around the clock with FBI agents at his side, Monsegur "provided, in real time, information about then-ongoing computer hacks and vulnerabilities in significant computer systems," prosecutors wrote. The FBI estimates he helped detect at least 300 separate hacks, preventing millions of dollars in losses, they added.

After his arrest and guilty plea in 2011, Monsegur faced more than two decades behind bars. But because of his cooperation, the sentence could be two years or less. Court papers say Monsegur first began hacking in a Manhattan apartment in the early 2000s. His aim then was to steal credit card information, then sell it or use it to pay his own bills. In a 2011 interview with an online magazine, Monsegur said he decided to join forces with Anonymous because he was upset over the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "I'm just doing what I know how to do, and that is counter abuse," he said.

Starting in early 2011 and using the alias Sabu, Monsegur led an Anonymous splinter group called Lulz Security, or LulzSec, which hacked computer systems of Fox television, Nintendo, PayPal and other businesses, stole private information and then bragged about it online. The group was loosely affiliated with Jeremy Hammond, the FBI's most wanted cybercriminal whose stated objective was to cause mayhem with the attacks, prosecutors said. When FBI agents showed up at his home in the summer of 2011, Monsegur immediately agreed to cooperate, giving the FBI a tutorial on the inner-workings and participants of LulzSec and Anonymous, prosecutors said. Under their direction, he "convinced LulzSec members to provide him digital evidence of the hacking activities" and "asked seemingly innocuous questions that ... could be used to pinpoint their exact locations and identities," court papers said.

Monsegur also engaged Hammond in online chats while Hammond was in Chicago, the papers said. As a result, "physical surveillance teams deployed in Chicago, and an electronic surveillance unit in Washington," they said. Hammond was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison. Reports that Monsegur was cooperating made him a pariah in the Anonymous movement, prosecutors said. Hackers began posting personal information about him, and he was even approached on the street and threatened, they said. The harassment "became severe enough that the FBI relocated Monsegur and certain of his family members," they said. Monsegur's current whereabouts aren't publicly known. One of his attorneys declined to comment Monday.

AP Newswire | Stars and Stripes

 

[waltky]

'Sabu' credited with time served...

LulzSec hacker 'Sabu' released after 'extraordinary' FBI cooperation
Tuesday 27 May 2014 ~ Authorities credit Hector Xavier Monsegur with helping them cripple Anonymous in lenient sentence of time served

Hector Xavier Monsegur, who by the US government’s calculations participated in computer hacker attacks on more than 250 public and private entities at a cost of up to $50m in damages, was released from a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday after the judge saluted his “extraordinary cooperation” with the FBI. Monsegur, or “Sabu” as the celebrated hacker was known, was sentenced to time served – equivalent to the seven months he spent in prison last year – plus a year’s supervised release, in reward for having spent much of the past three years working as a federal informant. He had been facing a maximum sentence according to official guidelines of more than 26 years.

His lenient sentence seals his reputation as one of the hacker world’s most hated figures, a skilled technician who turned from having been a leading figure of the Anonymous and LulzSec collectives into what was in effect an undercover FBI agent. Dressed in grey trousers and a loose black shirt, Monsegur told the court: “I’m not the same person I was three years ago. I’ve come a long way. I’ve had to do a lot of thinking and soul-searching.” As she announced her decision, Loretta Preska, the chief judge of the federal district court for the southern district of New York, repeatedly praised what she called his “truly extraordinary cooperation”. She said he had provided “sophisticated and complex assistance to the government allowing them to pierce the secrecy surrounding LulzSec and successfully prosecute its members”.

Hector Xaviar Monsegur, the notorious hacker known as Sabu, arrives for sentencing on Tuesday.

Preska added that his work as an informant was all the more exceptional because it was carried out at considerable personal risk, federal officials having revealed that Monsegur was working for them early on in the operation. “There is no question that Mr Monsegur and his family were subject to threats and assaults,” she said. But condemnation from those who Monsegur had betrayed was swift and strong. A spokesperson for Anonymous told the Guardian that “Monsegur is, first and foremost, a criminal; the FBI’s cyber crime task force are his co-conspirators. While operating under their supervision, Monsegur committed numerous felonies which should in no way be excused due to his protected informant status.”

Anonymous added: “The FBI continues to use captured informants, who commit egregious crimes in pursuit of reduced sentences, for the sole purpose of creating ‘examples’ to frighten the public. They do this with the hope of pacifying online dissent and snuffing out journalistic investigations into the US government’s misconduct.” In a sentencing memorandum released by Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, on Friday the government revealed that Monsegur had directly helped to identify and convict eight of his peers in the Anonymous and LulzSec hacker collectives. Most notably, he was seminal in nailing Jeremy Hammond, who at the time was the FBI’s number one most wanted cybercriminal in the world, for his role in hacking into the private intelligence firm Stratfor.

MORE