Top members of hacking group Anonymous arrested after LEADER 'betrays them and works with FBI for six months'
Leader of computer hacking group LulzSec identified as unemployed dad-of-two Hector Xavier Monsegur
Secretly arrested last June and pleaded guilty to hacking charges in August
Has reportedly been working with FBI to bring down top hackers ever since
Court papers released Tuesday portray him as ringleader of hacking groups
Five members from UK, Ireland and US face charges
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 7:38 PM on 6th March 2012
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Top members of computer hacking groups Anonymous and LulzSec have been arrested across two continents after their leader - one of the world's most wanted computer vandals - turned them in.
In a startling show of betrayal towards his fellow hackers, 28-year-old Hector Xavier Monsegur led authorities to the five people who have now been charged in court papers in New York.
Dad-of-two Monsegur, who has pleaded guilty to a dozen hacking-related charges, is portrayed in court papers as the ringleader of LulzSec, and an 'influential member' of Anonymous.
Ever since his arrest last June, he has reportedly been working with authorities to bring down the groups' top hackers.

Betrayal: The leader of hacking group LulzSec has been identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur. Since his arrest last June, he has reportedly been working with the FBI to identify other members
The suspects reportedly include four LulzSec members - two men from Great Britain and two from Ireland - and one member of Anonymous - an American named Jeremy Hammond from Chicago.
Three were arrested and two were charged with conspiracy, Fox News reported. Hammond was arrested and appeared before a federal judge in Chicago before he was transferred to New York.
'This is devastating to the organization,' an FBI official told the channel. 'Were chopping off the head of LulzSec.'

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The hackers have claimed to be responsible for a number of attacks on large companies, law enforcement and government agencies, including the CIA, FBI and Sony.
They are believed to have caused billions of dollars in damages to corporations, banks and agencies.
Members attained notoriety last May by attacking the PBS website and posting a story claiming rapper Tupac Shakur was alive and living in New Zealand.

Caught: The information he provided reportedly led to charges for five top members across two continents. Four worked for LulzSec and one for Anonymous, whose supporters wear Guy Fawkes masks, as pictured
The group was allegedly led by Monsegur, who works under the alias of Sabu. The unemployed father of two was living in New York's Lower East Side when he was seized by authorities.
They found his address after logging into a chatroom without masking his IP - the address which shows a user's whereabouts.
Authorities launched surveillance and watched him for weeks - but were forced to move when a rival hacker revealed Monsegur's identity online.
LULZSEC AND ANONYMOUS
Anonymous is the umbrella term used to represent an internet subculture a collection of online individuals, or 'hacktivists', who share common ideas of anti-censorship and freedom of speech on the internet.
They have carried out cyber attacks on Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Amazon, and have threatened to take down Facebook and Twitter servers.
Although it is not formerly affiliated with it, the group has connections with the lesser-known hacking group LulzSec.
LulzSec, short for Lulz Security, is an offshoot of Anonymous and some members have been parts of both collectives .
LulzSec is an elite computer hacker group that has claimed responsibility for several high-profile, debilitating cyber attacks.
Their big hits include the compromising of user account data from Sony Pictures and taking the CIA website offline.
They also attacked Fox.com, leaking the names of more than 7,000 X Factor contestants, and the PBS Newshour website, where they posted a story claiming that slain killer Tupac was still living and in New Zealand.
The group aims to cause mayhem as well as manipulate flaws in security and passwords systems.
Fearing he would destroy his hard drives - and thus evidence needed to prove his guilt - they arrested him in June last year. He pleaded guilty to 12 counts of hacking charges on August 15.
His records were unsealed today, charging him with conspiracy to engage in computer hacking, among other charges.
The court papers describe him as an 'influential member of three hacking organizations Anonymous, Internet Feds and Lulz Security that were responsible for multiple cyber attacks on the computer systems of various businesses and governments in the United States and throughout the world'.
They claim he acted as a 'rooter', a computer hacker who identified vulnerabilities in computer systems.
As part of Anonymous, court papers claim he took part cyber attacks from December 2010 until last June, including attacks on Visa, MasterCard and PayPaul, and further attacks on government computers in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemeni and Zimbabwe.
As part of Internet Feds, he is alleged to have participated in attacks against businesses including HBGary Inc., a private security firm and Fox Broadcasting Co.
And he is accused of forming LulzSec last May with other hackers, who then attacked Sony, PBS and the United States Senate, among others.
Monsegur was free on $50,000 bail.
Also charged in court papers with conspiracy to commit computer hacking were Ryan Ackroyd and Jake Davis from Great Britain, and Darren Martyn and Donncha OCearrbhail of Ireland.
Two of the men, who are all suspected members of LulzSec, were arrested on Tuesday, while Davis and Martyn have already been arrested.
Fox claims Monsegur has been feeding authorities information about LulzSec ever since his arrest, bringing them down from the inside.


Questions: Jerermy Hammond from Chicgo, Illinois (left in 2009) and Donncha OCearrbhail of Ireland (right)


Charges: Sources named Jake Davis (left), from the United Kingdom, as one of the hackers facing charges. English teenager Ryan Cleary, (right) already faces hacking charges, allegedly as part of LulzSec
Yet he has continued to be a public face for the movement, tweeting to his followers on Monday: 'The federal government is run by a bunch of f****** cowards. Don't give in to these people. Fight back. Stay strong.'
In August, 2011, it came to light that Anonymous had hacked into 70 law enforcement websites, mostly local sheriffs websites in Missouri.
The hacks had occurred four weeks before the discovered. Using information passed on by Monsegur, the FBI was able to work with the server company to mitigate the damage, Fox claims.

'He was an admired Anon. He's been a leader. People came to him with information. God knows what else he told them'

The FBI then alerted 300 government, financial and corporate entities around the world to potential vulnerabilities in their computer systems.
Stories have also emerged about Sabu's far-reaching power. When the CIA found itself under siege from LulzSec hackers, Sabu, working for the government, told them to stop, and they did.
'He's a rockstar,' a New York-based hacker told Fox. 'All the girls, you buy them a drink, but all they want to talk about is Sabu, Sabu, Sabu.'
Barrett Brown, a former journalist who became closely associated with Anonymous, said Sabu's betrayal would have a serious effect on the group.

Mass damage: The hacking group Anonymous, whose logo is pictured, is believed to have caused billions of dollars in damages to corporations, banks and government agencies
'He was an admired Anon,' he told AP. 'He's been a leader. People came to him with information. God knows what else he told them.'
The arrested member of Anonymous, Jeremy Hammond from Chicago, was arrested on charges of hacking and device access fraud.
He reportedly caused the hacking of Stratfor Security Intelligence, which led to the leak of 200GB worth of emails then published on Wikileaks.
Fox sources said Hammond will be charged in a separate indictment, and they described him as a member of Anonymous.
Some of the alleged associates of the group are already facing charges elsewhere.
In July, reputed LulzSec spokesman, 18-year-old Jake Davis, was arrested in Scotland. Sources named him as one of those facing charges in New York.
Another English teenager Ryan Cleary, was arrested by British law enforcement in June and charged with being linked to the group.


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Sorry for long copy and paste. Credit to Daily Mail

Sorry I didnt see this post before mine.

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