Feds announce Anonymous, LulzSec arrests

Federal authorities on Tuesday said they charged six members of Anonymous and its offshoot hacking groups in reference to multiple attacks on corporations and government agencies.

The hacking victims include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Company, PBS, HBGary and security intelligence firm Stratfor.

Hector Xavier Monsegur, 28, of recent York pleaded guilty last August to computer hacking conspiracies and other crimes; his guilty plea was unsealed Tuesday. Consistent with FOX News, Monsegur â€" referred to as “Sabu” â€" was the suspected ringleader of LulzSec, an Anonymous offshoot, and have become a mole for law enforcement after his arrest.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Ny, Monsegur and other members of Anonymous took responsibility for several cyberattacks between December 2010 and June 2011, including DoS attacks against Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, in retaliation for the companies' refusal to process donations to WikiLeaks.

During roughly that very same period of time, Monsegur and 4 other suspects who identified themselves as members of the web Feds hacking group broke into the computers of HBGary and its affiliate HBGary Federal, Fox Broadcasting, and FineGael, a political party in Ireland, consistent with officials. At Fox, the crowd allegedly stole personal information relating to greater than 70,000 potential contestants at the “X-Factor” TV show.

In May 2011, Monsegur and 3 others formed LulzSec and hacked into PBS, Sony, and game company Bethesda Softworks, authorities said. The gang allegedly stole confidential information of 100,000 users of Sony's website and of 200,000 users of Bethesda's site.

In December 2011, authorities say Jeremy Hammond, 27, of Chicago, conspired to hack into Strafor's computers and stole confidential information. He allegedly identified himself as a member of the AntiSec hacking group.

The four others charged Tuesday are Ryan Ackroyd, 23, of Doncaster, UK, Jake Davis, 29, of Lerwick, Shetland Islands, UK, Darren Martyn, 25, of Galway, Ireland, and Donncha O'Cearrbhail, 19, of Birr, Ireland.

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