Pierluigi Paganini
May 26, 2014
The time of sentencing the former LulzSec hacker is arrived, next week the turned-FBI informant Hector “Sabu” Monsegur will be judged for the numerous cyber attacks he organized when he was a member of Anonymous group.
But exactly before final judgement of the hacktivist, a new court documents has made public, it confirms that Sabu has collaborated with US authorities to foil more that 300 cyber attacks against US targets, including the US military, NASA, Congress, and private companies.
“A prominent hacker set to be sentenced in federal court this week for breaking into numerous computer systems worldwide has provided a trove of information to the authorities, allowing them to disrupt at least 300 cyberattacks on targets that included the United States military, Congress, the federal courts, NASA and private companies, according to a newly filed government court document.” reports the New York Times.
The court document praises the importance of the work done by Sabu and noted that thanks to it, the government has avoided damage in the millions of dollars.
“The amount of loss prevented by Monsegur’s actions is difficult to fully quantify, but even a conservative estimate would yield a loss prevention figure in the millions of dollars,” the document stated.
Sabu was one of the leaders of the group known as LulzSec which breached many high profile targets during the last years, like Sony Pictures in 2011. The group also claimed responsibility for taking down many other notorious targets such as AT&T, Viacom, Disney, EMI, and NBC Universal, The Sun, The Times and the CIA.
Thanks Sabu information the FBI arrested the Jeremy Hammond, the hacker responsible of Stratfor hack and supported feds in its investigation of Wikileaks.
The purpose of the document filed by prosecutors is clear, they are demanding Judge Loretta A. Preska for leniency for Sabu’s cooperation.
“The court document was prepared by prosecutors who are asking a judge, Loretta A. Preska, for leniency for Mr. Monsegur because of his “extraordinary cooperation.” He is set to be sentenced on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan on hacking conspiracy and other charges that could result in a long prison term.” continues NYT.
Sentencing in Monsegur’s case is currently scheduled for Tuesday in a Federal District Court in Manhattan, but it is hard to believe that will face with penalties similar to Hammond’s one (10-year sentence).
According documents disclosed on the case Sabu also coordinated cyber attacks on foreign government websites in 2012, the US intelligence was accused to have infiltrated popular collectives of hacktivists to coordinate attacks on foreign governments including Iran, Syria, Pakistan and Brazil.
According declarations of participant to the attacks, the group of hackers exploited a vulnerability in a popular web hosting software to steal sensitive information from the government servers. All the information collected during the offensives were uploadedon a server monitored by the FBI according to court statements.
“The details of the 2012 episode have, until now, been kept largely a secret in closed sessions of a federal court in New York and heavily redacted documents. While the documents do not indicate whether the F.B.I. directlyordered the attacks, they suggest that the government may have used hackers to gather intelligence overseas even as investigators were trying to dismantle hacking groups like Anonymous and send computer activists away for lengthy prison terms.” reported the New Youk Times.
Let’s wait for the sentence.
UPDATED May 27th, 2014
After aiding the infiltration of numerous corporate networks and then switching sides to help the FBI thwart the hacktivist group Anonymous, Hector Xavier Monsegur has been sentenced to time served followed by one year of supervised release.
According to Yahoo News, prosecutors in New York on Tuesday officially recounted Monsuegur’s cooperation with the federal government, explaining that the hacker should be “rewarded with leniency” for working with the FBI to stop cyberattacks by Anonymous and its offshoot LulzSec. (source RT.com Anonymous hacker-turned FBI informant Sabu avoids jail time)
(Security Affairs – Sabu, hacktivism)
