How FBI Informant Sabu Helped Anonymous Hack Brazil

Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes 'A year after leaked files exposed the National Security Agency's efforts to spy on citizens and companies in Brazil, previously unpublished chat logs obtained by Motherboard reveal that while under the FBI's supervision, Hector Xavier Monsegur, widely known by his online persona, "Sabu," facilitated attacks that affected Brazilian websites.The operation raises questions about how the FBI uses global Internet vulnerabilities during cybercrime investigations, how it works with informants, and how it shares information with other police and intelligence agencies.

After his arrest in mid-2011, Monsegur continued to organize cyber attacks while working for the FBI. According to documents and interviews, Monsegur passed targets and exploits to hackers to disrupt government and corporate servers in Brazil and several other countries. Details about his work as a federal informant have been kept mostly secret, aired only in closed-door hearings and in redacted documents that include chat logs between Monsegur and other hackers. The chat logs remain under seal due to a protective order upheld in court, but in April, they and other court documents were obtained by journalists at Motherboard and the Daily Dot.'

Comments

So Anonymous were useful idiots for the FBI?

[Anonymous Coward]

Using Anonymous as a by-proxy hacking tool. Brilliant! I'm surprised the NSA hasn't...

oh crap

That's how they did it!

[dave562]

Recently there was an article about how the FBI was having problems recruiting competent IT talent due to their zero tolerance policy with marijuana.

Apparently that problem has been solved. All they really need to do is arrest the people who have the skills that they need, and then coerce them into doing the work that needs to be done.

We all know that the prison system is often tapped as a source of unskilled and low skilled labor. Obviously this is just taking that model to a new level. What's next? Mass incarceration of bitTorrent users who will then be forced into the life of skript kiddies in exchange for money on the books at the Club Fed commissary?

Re:That's how they did it!

[TubeSteak]

From here, the sequence of events is relatively undisputed. With Hammond equipped and as FBI agents reportedly watched on, AntiSec began plundering Stratforâ(TM)s financial information and personal records. Monsegur convinced Hammond and others to unknowingly transfer âoemultiple gigabytes of confidential dataâ to one of the FBIâ(TM)s servers. That included the roughly 60,000 credit card numbers and records for Stratfor customers that Hammond was ultimately charged with stealing.

This is going to piss off a lot of very powerful people who were on that customer & credit card list.

Re:That's how they did it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently that problem has been solved. All they really need to do is arrest the people who have the skills that they need, and then coerce them into doing the work that needs to be done.

It's worse than that.

In the name of counterterrorism, the FBI scouts around for a radicalized lone-wolf guy, giving him a fake bomb plot, a fake partner, and a fake bomb, and arresting him when he pulls the trigger on the fake bomb.

And you know, sometimes that strikes me as unconscionable; I mean, he's got the motive, but would the guy have ever tried to harm someone (even with a fake bomb) if he hadn't been given the means and opportunity by the FBI? But I can understand the practice. It's not entrapment, and it's a legitimate part of what we call "good old-fashioned policework."

But this isn't the cybersecurity equivalent of giving flight training and bombmaking lessons to wannabe terrorists and arresting them before the fake plot gets anywhere near the point of harming them. This is the cybersecurity of giving flight training and bombmaking lessons to real terrorists and then letting them execute the plan with real airplanes, real bombs, and real victims before making the arrest.

It is utterly unconscionable, and it makes the FBI responsible for the damage their hired/duped criminals do. That the harm is financial, and that it is inflicted upon the innocent by means of a keyboard rather than a bomb, makes the FBI's actions here no less unconscionable.

I am embarassed for this country, and feel pity for its citizens.

Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance???

[aod7br]

Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance??? WTF is an internal north american police agency doing messing with brazilian goverment sites?? Omg, long time I dont care to login in slashdot to post something, but here it is:
VA SE FUDER US goverment
Fucking with my country supporting a military coup and keeping those murderers in power for 30 years wasnt enough? You are trying AGAIN to undermine a democratic goverment just because we have a non automatic alignment policy with the US on foreign affairs? Just because we supported democraticaly ELECTED Chaves and others in south america? All american authorities should be considered persona non grata in Brazil, and ALL US goverment agents related to FBI and NSA should be imediately ARRESTED in brazillian soil. I am tired of american goverment double face with friendly nations

Up next: H&HS take over prison executions

[pla]

Seriously, WTF, US government agencies? Did I miss the announcement of "opposite decade"?

We have the DoJ obstructing justice by intentionally destroying evidence;
we have the BATF running guns to Mexican cartels;
we have ICE taking captured illegals out of local police custody and setting them loose on the streets;
we have the NSA spying on the single target off limits to them, with a true patriot under asylum in fucking Russia for pointing that out...

And now we have the FBI coordinating cyberattacks on the government of another country?

Can we just stop pretending, and admit the government has absolutely no interest whatsoever in obeying the will of We The People?

Re:Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance?

[rtb61]

I will add a minor correction for you, It is always important to recognise the reality of what is going on. Simply blaming the government of the US, is not really accurate, that aligns too much of the fault to the bulk of the citizens of US (although they are most definitely partially to blame). You need to call it the Corporate States of America. Basically the US government and it's Agencies corruptly taken over to further the interests of psychopathic US corporate executives not just US corporations but Multi-National Corporations (so not even just Americans).

Your war is not really with the US government at all, just with the Corporations that run it and those psychopathic corporate executives and the major investors who run those corporations. So cut of the head of the snake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... and the problem will go away. Don't blame or fight the puppet, the US government and it's agencies, get rid of the puppet masters examples like the Koch(head) Boys, and the problem will go away as the bulk of US citizens regain control of their own government. Help them, save you, from themselves.

Re:Attacking GOVERMENT servers under FBI guidance?

[s.petry]

I agree with your points, but will add that there were a few other motives. One I believe is a bigger target than Brazil.

1. Anonymous was a pain in the ass to corrupt US corporations and Government agencies. If you remember, US sites were being hacked and defaced for the same exact reasons claimed for defacing Brazilian sites. Anonymous was leaking classified documents implicating US agencies of war crimes and corruption, civil rights violations against OWS and other activist groups. In other words, a primary motive was attacking anonymous members to slow down their campaign in the US. IMHO "Sabu" is full of shit in his exit statement from the courts. Anonymous was the primary target because they are a threat to the corrupt insiders in the US.

2. Fuck with non-US aligned countries. Brazil was a target, but so was Syria, Pakistan, Iran, and Nigeria. Turkey and Pakistan are mentioned, but I'm guessing those were real targets of anonymous because they are corrupt and not a traditionally vocal allies of the US. Interestingly "US" is omitted from this information but was the reason they arrested Sabu to begin with. That they could fuck with so many countries was a huge side effect of number 1, but not the primary motive. Notice after all of these arrests, Anonymous greatly reduces the attacks against US companies and Government agencies. Notice too that the vocal allies of the US are omitted from these attacks (UK, Germany, France, Spain, etc...).

3. As someone else mentioned, including Sabu in his exit statement, this a case of the FBI trying to make themselves look good. I come to that conclusion because there are exactly 2 very brief mentions in TFA about the legality of the FBIs actions and neither are direct.