Well this is, ugh, INTERESTING…
Law enforcement agents on two continents swooped in on top members of the infamous computer hacking group LulzSec early this morning, and acting largely on evidence gathered by the organization’s brazen leader — who sources say has been secretly working for the government for months — arrested three and charged two more with conspiracy.
Charges against four of the five were based on a conspiracy case filed in New York federal court, FoxNews.com has learned. An indictment charging the suspects, who include two men from Great Britain, two from Ireland and an American in Chicago, is expected to be unsealed Tuesday morning in the Southern District of New York.
“This is devastating to the organization,” said an FBI official involved with the investigation. “We’re chopping off the head of LulzSec.”
According to Fox News, which broke an actual news story for once, 28 year-old New Yorker Hector Xavier Monsegur is “Sabu,” the head of LulzSec, and he’s been working with the FBI to round up his hacker buddies for months now.
On August 15, 2011 Monsegur pleaded guilty to more than ten charges relating to his hacking activity. In the following few weeks, he worked almost daily out of FBI offices, helping the feds identify and ultimately take down the other high-level members of LulzSec and Anonymous, sources said.
As Gizmodo notes, “that’s right — the man who helped the internet celebrate #FuckFBIFridays was doing so from an FBI desk.” Just yesterday Sabu tweeted the following…
It’s also interesting to note that story of the arrests was broken by Fox News, whose parent company, News Corp, was the victim of a LulzSec attack last year.
The irony, it is thick here.
(Image via Shutterstock)